his and her circumstances: fractured fairytale [original fiction]
(Image credit: zemotion on Flickr)
She thinks he thinks she’s perfect, but he doesn’t.
He knows her flaws just as well as she does (maybe even more because he relates to her more than she’ll ever know).
She’s narcissistic and petty, intense and terrifying, and obsessed with promoting her image. She measures her self-worth in academic excellence, in the sweet praises from peers and professors, in the number of solos she receives during their winter concert.
This ambitious drive in her startles him sometimes, mostly because so many things comes easily to him. Sports, academics, music– he forgets that she has to study hours to maintain her perfect GPA, that her nails are perfectly manicured but also heavily calloused from practicing the cello, that she’d sulk for days if he gets a better score on the biology exam than she did.
She already has this set plan in her head– she’ll go to law school, she’ll land this-and-that internship, she’ll end up making x amount of money.
He’s still figuring out his options– because, to be frank, he doesn’t know what he wants to do– just because he’s good at everything doesn’t necessarily mean everything (or anything, really) piques his interest.
He remembers stroking her hair one day, when her head was tucked neatly in his lap.
“It’s not fair,” she had said, her forehead furrowed from hours studying at the library.
“Hmm?”
“It’s not fair,” she had repeated, her voice muffled. “It’s not fair that you’re so good at everything. That you have connections, that you won the genetic lottery. It’s so easy for you.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
Her complaint had sounded more like a sigh and less of a whine. A statement of facts. “I’ve seen girls look at you whenever we’re out on dates and you know, I don’t blame them. And it’s not like I don’t know that I’m not exactly hideous myself but–” her forehead had creased, again, “It makes me more aware of how you’ve lived a pretty charm life. I’m jealous. And I know all our friends think that our relationship is fairytale perfect– it’s hard to live up to that.”
His only response had been to kiss her forehead and wonder if she knew that of the two of them, she had everything he wanted.
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