The Story Corner

She screwed up her nose as she leaned in closer to stare at herself in the mirror. She looked at the wrinkles that formed around her eyes and on the bridge of her nose and considered that perhaps it was an improvement. She sighed and relaxed her face, maintaining her hunched up posture as she continued to examine her features. She felt herself cringe internally as she pinpointed the parts of her appearance that she wished she could change on the spot. Her mouth was wonky. Her bottom lip was slightly further to the left than the top, so when she had her mouth closed, it just all looked slightly off balance. She attempted a small smile but stopped almost immediately. She didn’t like the way it made her fatty, rosy cheeks puff up so much. Not to mention her awful teeth with their weird shapes. She’d recently noticed that she possessed a slight under bite, and now she couldn’t stop noticing it.

As she remembers how she had gazed into his eyes, his beautiful, blueish-green eyes, she feels her heart fill with a painful sadness. It comes to her like a violent kick in the guts: the realisation that there is very little chance of such a perfect moment being relived - and the same goes for the countless other perfect moments she'd shared with him. Her mind is a blur of memories, constantly skipping from one to the other, so quickly that it's almost impossible for her to focus. The butterflies in her stomach as his hand randomly grabbed hold of hers while they wandered an empty street late at night. The sound of his giggle when he caught her in his arms after she'd stumbled goofily over a low wall. The teasing tone in his voice as he mocked her silly choice of phrases. The feel of his lips against hers when he kissed her for the first time... She feels her stomach somersault sharply, and curls herself up even tighter, her arms wrapping around her legs.