HIS TRUE BEAUTY

She flinged the pillow and sat up, crying loudly again.

“I hate my existence, I hate everything about me”.

She screamed out bitterly.

“If… only .. I was as beautiful as everyone else..”.

Minutes lapse

It’s past 8pm, 4 hours after her mother had ceaselessly called her to have her dinner but she ignored her.

A knock sounded on the door again and her mother opened the door slowly.

“Honey, you are going to starve to death, you are still young to worry about him, you will still have a lot of men interests in the future”she said softly.

“Why? Why am I fat and ugly! I have been bullied from my junior high till date”.

“Beauty..”.

Her mother sadly called for her daughter.

“Mom, you are ageless, a visual bomb and a nice body shape, why am I not like you?”

Beauty’s mom was an ex beauty queen, people said she was the fat version of her mother.

“Sweetie, having your father’s body isn’t a curse, you are beautiful the way you are, look at those flesh most of them bullies envy them, you don’t even have belly fat, you’re thick.. and chubby but definitely not fat, you have a healthy body mass index, who cares what people think, they are just jealous”.

Beauty knew she was only trying to cheer her up, no one will ever envy a fat lady, Men want the slender and tiny waists.

Beauty just went mute , her lips shivering holding back from crying in her presence.

“You know, I am gonna tell you a secret”.

Her mother said, trying to change the topic.

Beauty gazes at her with interest .

“What secret?”

She asked curiously , wiping her face with my palm.

“Promise you won’t tell your dad”.

Beauty hesitated then nodded impatiently.

“Okay, yes, I promise”. Her mother started.

“Well I….”

She pressed her lips together like she was about to say something really heavy.

“I.. kissed my cousin”.

“What…eww”.

Beauty snapped.

“Fresh kiss, we made out!”

This time her jaw dropped.

“Mom! You did what?”

“Don’t act so innocent to me,”her mother laughed.

Beauty never imagined her mom to be that type, incest? That’s so gross!

She covered my ear.

“I don’t want to hear about it”.

“We got all smoochy smoochy…and almost had sex,”

“What the…, he is your cousin mom! That’s rough, and so grossing me out now”.

She chuckled at irritated Beauty and continued.

“I was a wild teenager and got drunk at my sixteen birthday, you know my couz Edward?”

“The one with a weird mustache?”

Beauty replied.

She nodded with a satisfactory smile.

“Yep, that was him”.

“How could you!”

Beauty snapped loudly with a triggered anger.

“Calm down, like I said, we didn’t actually get into it completely, I was drunk and asked him to kiss me, we both tight and you know , we kissed and ended up in the bedroom, don’t taste alcohol, I got a little and went crazy, not sure you can keep up with it too”.

“Ewww! Mom!”

Beauty yelled.

“I remembered he was a bad kisser and his baby mustache was there, remembering it now, it disgusts me”.

Beauty slapped my forehead.

“Mom you are really …”.

“Oh did I mention before we get all naked and stuff your dad found us?”

Beauty’s eyes rose up almost reaching to her forehead.

“Whaaaaaat! You knew dad then?”

“He was my first and only love”.

She said it like a voice actor in one of those fairy tale movies.

“Dad’s gonna kill him”

“No he was like..”what  the heck is going on here, Vanessa you fuckin your couz?”

I was dead drunk to even get those words right”.

Mrs Vanessa laughed.

“Wait, he did not kill Edward?”

“Of course not, I mean he is still alive right, he wouldn’t be living now , if your dad had killed him years ago.

Nevertheless he landed in the hospital, almost a week , they are yet to discharge him from the hospital, your dad visited him at the hospital out of pity, he said but  only to dislocate more bones the nurses saved him, poor Edward”.

Beauty cracked up and laughed out loud.

“Just look at the mirror reflection and tell me how could anyone who isn’t bitter call this angel ugly”.

Her mother’s voice came calmly.

Beauty’s smile faded slowly, her face clouded, as she stared at her reflection, eyes slowly getting wet with tears.

“I hope one day you will realize how beautiful and precious you are and flaunt your charms without giving a f**k what they say”.

Her mother whispered.

“Mom…”

“Yes sweet”.

She replied and detangled her daughter’s hair with her fingers.

“Can you let me be alone for now, Mom?”

Mrs Vanessa sighed out loudly.

“Alright , take care, okay, please don’t take anything harmful. You may not be so lucky like last time, and please know that I and your dad love you more than anything in our existence, please, see yourself the way I see you”.

As soon as Vanessa shut the door, Beauty cried loudly and vowed to herself to save money for surgery, that the only way to fit into the world beauty standard, and escape from their hatred, bullying, shaming and judgemental nature.

3 YEARS LATER

Location:

Famous & Fabulous fashion company, New York City.

**BEAUTY’S POV**

My friend Jessi showed me a pic on her phone.

“Whad’ya think?”

“Wow jessie this is perfect, you’re so perfect”.

I exclaimed, admiring everything in the picture, she’s a runaway queen for sure.

“Oh please , it’s just the editing”Jessie chuckled blushing.

“You are a natural jessie”.

I continued.

“Stop it already!”

She got all red and laughed.

“Let me see the second one”I requested, she swiped and showed me the pictures.

“Isn’t this from our summer collection from last year?”

I asked curiously.

“Yup, I kept them and recycled them because they look so good on me”.

I shook my head smiling.

Our company’s indeed lucky to have her as their model. She was the first friend I made in the company, actually more like my only friend.

I smiled at her as she went through the pics, showing me each of her favorite pieces asking about what I think of it.

After a while she got busy with chats

I faced my designs and at a point confused in making a choice.

I got her to help me out.

“Which do you think will be nice Jessie, the purple or red?”

I showed Jessi my latest designs.

“I will go for the purple, it’s elegant but red romantic and suits the theme”.

We got a call to the meet with the CEO, last meeting, the CEO Mr hathaway announced his son Bruno as the m

CEO of his company.

“I’m sorry father, but I don’t deserve to be the CEO, I appreciate the offer as your child but I will love to work my way to the top, please let Ferd be the manager, he got more experience than me, for the good of our company, when I am qualified for it, I can take your place”.

Bruno replied.

Talk about a terribly good looking person, even the ladies are jealous of his good looks, he hardly communicates with anyone, we all guessed he was a proud snub at first but when I got to know him more from his body language , I realized he is just not a social person.

“Bruno , I think you are being silly”

His father snapped.

“Silly?”

I muttered to myself, he made a lot of sense, Bruno’s the only child of  but he is so humble and sometimes surprisingly very humble for a young billionaire, who is also very good looking with a good body proportion, if I am that beautiful, half of my problems will be solved.

Mr Hathaway doesn’t seem to welcome the idea of Bruno not taking over the company today, but he had no choice but to dance to his tone.

I stole a quick gaze at Bruno, even his side profile could make every fluid in your body dry and leave you thirsty for him.

I gulped hard and looked away.

Sadly it’s been 3 years since I had a secret crush on Mr Bruno.

Who wouldn’t, what a joke!

He will never notice me, I am literally the ugliest in the company.

I don’t even have that body that most girls have. I was known as the visual hole of the company. Sometimes customers write reports for me to be removed from the front desk as I am not pretty enough to represent a Beauty company as big as F&F.

Suddenly my friend Jessi cuts into my mind.

“When are you going to tell him you’ve been crushing for 3 years! Girl you can’t keep giving him that dirty stare as if you would eat him alive. He will never notice you that way, it’s not your fault though, he is every lady’s dream man , rich , calm, humble, caring, and overall handsome. Gush! He is so handsome for this world, I gave up a year ago though….”

“Jessi.. we are in the conference room.”

I snapped in a whisper.

I tried not to make it obvious, but she wouldn’t stop.

“I don’t know if he’s gay, he can’t be seduced. I tried and failed, try your luck though”.

Jessie whispered into ears again.

“Jessie!”

I snapped out loud, it attracted others’ attention and heads were turned towards us.

Mr Hathaway paused and gave me a dead stare, I know what follows after that, I didn’t mean to say Jessi’s name out loud.

“I am sorry sir”.

I quickly apologized with my head bowed.

Mr Hathaway is completely the opposite of his quiet son.

“I allowed you into this company because of your talents and skills. We all know you don’t belong here, I risked the image of this company keeping a bag of beans like you here, so don’t ever interrupt me when I am talking about something again”.

I felt that deep in my bones, I knew this or something close to this was gonna happen after all, so I should endure it.

After that statement of his, I heard some silent chuckles , most from the ladies side.

“I’m sorry sir, it wasn’t intentional”.

My hands were shaking nervously and I couldn’t look up.

I felt a wet drop on my feet, it’s from my eyes, I had to rub it off my eyes with a thumb.

“Sorry for yourself”.

Mr Hathaway bluntly replies then he turns around and continues, “As I was saying… .

Bruno interrupted.

“I think those words are harsh , very harsh actually”.

There was a moment of silence after that statement.

Everyone was shocked and I was beyond shocked. Bruno never questioned his father’s choice of words or anything at all which doesn’t relate to him, even if he disagrees with it, he never cared to say it out loud.

He only answers questions and that’s only if it’s directed to him.

“What did you just say?”

Mr Hathaway’s voice raged.

The room turned to a quiet graveyard.