Fairytales and Nightmares

I stared at myself in the mirror and tried to glare my reflection to death. That evil Triyx had brutally shoved me into an uncomfortably tight light blue tank top and a pair of dark blue jeans. Quite a change from the baggy clothes I usually wore. As much as I regretted to say this, I actually looked kind of nice. If only I didn’t look like a slut at the same time. Oh, I’m going to beat the living hell out of Triyx the next time I get my hands on her. Lucky for her, she bolted to a job she has at a daycare before I had time to exact my revenge. Well, at least she didn’t put on makeup this time…

I sighed, and headed out. In another situation, I would have changed into my normal clothes, but Triyx somehow found the time to hide my entire closet. Ugh, I bet she was planning to do this the whole time. Hands shoved in my jean pockets, I walked in the general direction of the Central Park, regretting that I had said yes to that idiot.

It took me a lot less time to get there than I had planned, meaning that I had way too much time to kill. I leaned against a tree, looking at a couple sitting romantically together on a bench. They were the only inhabitants here so early in the day apart from myself. Granted, that’s not saying much as the entire population of the town barely skims 6,000. Sad thing is, with the crime rate here, the population is going nowhere but down.

I quickly looked away as the couple started to get more intimate, and instead put all my focus on a worm that was making slow progress towards the swings.

“Is the worm that interesting?” someone whispered into my ear. Without thinking, I slammed my fist into the body that said that and was about to pin the person down when I remembered that I was in a human-inhabited public area. Luckily though, it seemed like my fist didn’t connect with any bodies. Turning around with my eyes narrowed, I faced Nate who looked quite caught off-guard. I’m going to take a stab at it and say he looked like that because when surprised, social requirements dictate the girl screams and jumps, not try to punch the other person’s weak parts.

“Eh...sorry...natural instinct...” I apologized, smiling weakly. I was already internally beating myself up. How could I have not sensed him until he talked? What part of him always makes me ruin my cover like this?

My poorly-administered excuse seemed to have been acceptable though. Nate switched topics. To my great dismay, it was on my outfit.

“Save it,” I said, cutting him off. “It wasn’t my idea; my friend forced me into this too-tight-and-too-small piece of fabric.”

Nate glanced at me with a strange expression. “You look really pretty though. If I…”

“And you look as ugly as ever,” I said automatically, cutting him off again.

To my dismay, he chuckled. “You don’t respond well to compliments, do you?”

“I have learnt that compliments mean ‘I want something from you and you’re not going to like it’. Plus, compliments on appearances are pointless. Appearances are deceiving; what matters is the stuff on the inside. And most of the time, the stuff on the inside aren’t worth complimenting.”

“Aren’t you a ball of sunshine today?”

“I’m just saying appearances are misleading. Take you, for example. Sure you got a handsome face, but the stuff inside are rotten and bacteria-infected with parasites chomping on everything.”

Nate smiled, once again pissing me off more. “You said I’m handsome.”

I froze, realizing I may have handed him a compliment. Oh gods, what was wrong with me?

“I give up,” I declared, throwing my hands in the air and turning around to leave the park.

“Well, I guess you’re fine with embarrassing yourself in front of not only the entire tech crew but the entire school too,” Nate called out.

I paused, turned on my heels and walked back to Nate who was grinning like the big fat idiot he was. I stopped right in front of him, looked him in the eyes, and punched him right in the face.

To his credit, he didn’t so much as flinch. Nate looked me straight in the eyes, and with dead sincerity, he apologized for what he did during the auditions.

I blinked, completely bewildered. Did the Nate just apologize to me? When I finally managed to regain my head, I murmured, “It’s even now. Let’s get started before you do something else that pisses me off and makes me want to punch you in the face again.”