CONTEST ENTRY #3

“She”

She’ll tell him today.
He’ll be happy…surprised, but happy.
Maybe not that surprised.
He must have sensed it, he has to know.
Yeah, they’ve always been friends.
But things have changed.
She’s changed.
They’re in high school after all.
It’ll be great.

He arrives, cap on backwards, jeans slung low.
Woefully underdressed for a quincenera.
She’s in a dress, a rarity.
Her makeup is perfect, her hair stylish.
It’s not her, but it’s what he wants.
It’s what they all want.
Her parents, her friends, boys, men, this is how they want her.
This is what she has to be.

She opens her mouth to speak.
He stops her by blurting out the unexpected.
He wants her…she knew it!
He continues…to help him get with Jacqueline.
Jacqueline, her best friend.

She stares at him, wind knocked out of her.
She recovers quickly with a smile.
The same smile she used when he told her about Lisa.
The same smile she used when he told her about Tanya.
The same smile she used for all the others.

The “others.”
Jacqueline is like the “others.”
Beautiful, feminine, sassy, graceful, popular.
Everything she is not.
Everything everyone wants her to be.
Everything she will never be.
She’ll never be an “other.”

She pushes away the pain.
Like she always does.
She keeps herself from crying by making a joke.
Like she always does.
She agrees to help him.
Like she always does.
She continues to pretend.
Like she always does.

OK, this time will be different.
It’s been a year since Jacqueline.
He’s totally over her.
She’ll tell him tonight.
It’ll be great.

She doesn’t understand.
How did it all go so wrong?
One moment she was about to tell him.
The next he was on a date with Anne.
Her other best friend.
Anne is just like the “others.”
She’s not like the “others.”
She will never be like the “others.”
She hates the “others.”

She’s graduated!
She’s leaving, getting away from him.
Getting away from the “others.”
Getting away from the stupid kids.
Stupid kids with their cars and their nice clothes.
Stupid kids with their nice straight hair and cool tans.
Stupid kids with their perfect bodies and beautiful smiles.
Stupid kids who don’t have to pay their way through college.
Stupid kids with their “others.”

She’s going where she won’t have to put up with the “others.”
Where she won’t be compared to the “others.”
Where she won’t be told she has to be an “other” to be wanted.

She’s going where he won’t be.
Where he can’t reach her.
Where what could have been with him won’t haunt her.
She won’t have to hear about anymore of his “others.”

She’s going where she won’t have to pretend anymore.
Where she is good enough as she is.