Miss Perfect Not So Perfect Anymore

A Story by Lovers Writers

"My Life is absolutely perfect! I have the perfect friends, perfect body, and perfect boyfriend!" Or so I thought.

It was our senior year at Ash Wood High. All the seniors were chatting up a storm in each of their little groups. I walked into the building in a flowy high low baby blue dress, off the shoulder with my low strapped heels. I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I was the most popular girl, and most attractive looking person in school. Back in high school, I was that one popular girl who was always dating the most popular boy. Lucky for me, the most popular boy had always been the most popular boy. Zander. We had gotten together freshman year and have never broken up. I guess I got lucky.

“Hey girl! About time you got here! These homecoming banners aren’t going to hang themselves,” Adriana Amenst said. Adriana was my best friend in high school and all of middle school. She wasn’t popular when she first moved here, but I changed that. “Alright, Alright! I’m on it!” I say with enthusiasm. I gave her a bright smile and got to work. “Uh oh! Mr.Hottie is in the room!” someone yelled. I look behind me and I see Zander in dress pants and a button up shirt. Everything seemed like it was in slow motion. He was holding flowers and a huge poster with a super cheesy saying. I was honestly shocked because he was telling me he was going to bring his best friend. His best friend had never been asked to Homecoming and he felt bad l. I smiled brightly and hugged him. “Yes! Of course!” I responded. Everyone was cheering besides Zanders best friend, Elizabeth. I didn’t know why, at the time. I just ignored it though.

After that, everyone started to head to class. Zander and I didn’t share any classes in the morning besides the first period. “Did you see the way Elizabeth was looking at you?” Adriana asked in a whisper tone. “Yeah, It was super cold,”I responded in a whisper tone. “She was glaring at you as if you stole Zander from her,” Adriana pointed out. “If you noticed that too, then everyone who saw her must have noticed the same thing. That's not good,” I say, giving Adriana a worried look. “It’s probably nothing. She's honestly probably worried you're going to break his heart. You have nothing to worry about girl,” Adriana reassures me. I thought about it for another minute but then decided Adriana was right.

After school, I headed straight to cheer practice. After doing some jumps and some tumbles, I saw Zander waving to me. Zander does football and if it's warm enough, we practice outside. “Hey Zander!” I say cheerfully. Then out of nowhere, Elizabeth pops out behind him, grabbing his arm. “Hey Lucinda!” Elizabeth said a little too cheerfully while giving me a fake smile. “Hey Elizabeth! Interested in joining cheer-leading?” I asked. I knew from the moment I saw Elizabeth, that she was one of those typical girls who hate cheer and cheerleaders. “Ew, of course not! Cheer isn’t even a sport!” she argues. I look at Zander for help but he just stands there looking at his phone. “Zander! Are you just going to let her say that?” I was a bit hurt. Zander looks up from his phone and looks at Elizabeth and me. “What? What happened?” he asked, confused. “She completely dissed my sport! She even said ‘Ew’!” I complain. Zander gets out of Elizabeth's grip and comes over next to me. “Elizabeth , really? I expect that from an elementary student. Not a Varsity volleyball player,” Zander says in a disappointed tone. “And honestly, Volleyball only became a sport because girls needed a different sport to do other than cheer,” he tells Elizabeth as he wraps his hand around my side and walks me back to the other cheerleaders. I couldn’t help but feel triumph after that. Elizabeth finally got told off by Zander.

I don't understand how he's even friends with her. Honestly, the fact she's always up his a*s, she may have a thing for him.

“Thanks for sticking up for me,” I thank him. Zander just simply smiles and replies by saying that he cares about me more than her.

I look behind me and see Elizabeth glaring at us but then she just flips her long brunette hair and walks away. Does she like him? If so, why? He only likes her as a friend. At least that I know of. But if he does, wouldn’t he have told me? Wouldn’t he have broken up with me? Whatever,I just need to focus on what I have with him.

After cheer and football practice I decided to have a chat about Elizabeth. “So Zander, what's your history with Elizabeth?” I ask. Zander purses his lips together and his face gets serious. “You really wanna know?” he asked me. Panic rises inside of me but I just nod. Zander sighs and looks me right in the eyes. “Elizabeth used to be, still is, my best friend. We would hang out every time we could. But then, we started catching feelings for each other.” Zander takes a long pause and stares down at his feet. “We never got together. Though she wanted to, I just wasn’t ready for a relationship at the time,” Zander tells me. Did he like her a long time ago, or was it recently? “So you don’t like her anymore?” I ask, still feeling uneasy about them being friends. Zander shakes his head no and continues to walk without me. Something isn’t right. Zander would normally be alright talking to me about his old crushes. Maybe I’m overthinking it.

The night of homecoming, I was pacing around the living room, eager to hear the doorbell ring. Then just on cue, the doorbell rings. He’s here! Finally! I rush to the door and I open it only to see the one person I didn’t want to see. Elizabeth. “Hey bestie!” Elizabeth said in an annoying voice. Purposely. “I was wondering if you would let me go to the dance with you and Zander?” Elizabeth asked. I looked this girl up and down giving her a disgusted look. “In your dreams, Elizabeth,” I say, slamming the door in her face. Again, I hear another knock on the door. “I told you to leave!” I say as I open the door. I expected to see Elizabeth, but instead I saw Zander. “Zander! I’m so sorry! I thought you were Elizabeth. I’m so sorry,” I say, a bit guilty. Zander just gives me an authentic, small, smile. “No worries Lucy, I understand that it must be hard with her always hanging out with me,” he says. Lucy is a nickname I only allowed Zander to call me. I slightly smile as I walk out to his car with him.

When we got to the school, everything was lit up and bright. Some kids even bothered to toilet paper the school. “Looks like this is going to be interesting,” Zander says, with a weird smirk on his face. I was about to ask him why he was smiling, but he grabbed me by the hand and led me inside.

The inside of the school was filled with multicolored lights. There were freshman and sophomores dancing, juniors and seniors trying to smuggle in alcohol. “This seems more like a small town highschool party than a normal homecoming,” I mumble to myself. “That's because you watch movies too much. This is nothing compared to the parties I throw,” Zander says to me, with a hint of pride. Of course, I already knew that. I have never missed a party in my high school life. “Zander!” I hear a girl's voice squeal. Though, of course, I knew that high pitch squeal anywhere. It was, no doubt, Elizabeth. “You look amazing, Zander! How come you never told me you like to dress up now?” Elizabeth asks. Before Zander could even answer her I interrupted him with a question. “How come I didn’t know you didn’t like to dress up?” I asked, kind of irritated that he never told me this. Elizabeth grabs a hold of Zanders arm and looks at me innocently. “Look, Lucy, I didn’t-,” before he could continue, he got interrupted, again, by Elizabeth this time. “You don’t have anything to explain. She just doesn’t understand you. Not like I understand you. Zander, I love you, she doesn’t love you!” Zander stares at Elizabeth in shock with a hint of blush to his cheeks. “Elizabeth! You b***h!” I shout, causing the whole room to look our way. Tears start to slowly leak out of my eyes as she presses her lips against his. The worst part is, he doesn’t fight back, but kisses back. “We’re through Zander!” I shout. I then stormed out of the school, mascara running down my face, mixed with my tears.

When the cold fall breeze hit my face I immediately started to shiver. Once I made it to my car I hit the steering wheel repeatedly until my hand started to ache. Suddenly my phone starts buzzing. I picked it up to see who it was, and it was Zander. I canceled the call. I then turned the keys to turn on Zanders car and I sped out of the school parking lot.

At the time I wasn’t sure where I was driving to, but my mind did. I drove straight to an old abandoned library at the end of town. It’s illegal to enter, but I entered anyway. Once I was in the library, in the fiction section, I plop down on the ground, my back up against the bookshelf, and start crying again. “Why did this have to happen to me?!” I sobbed. “Why did I have to be the girl everyones jealous of?” “What did I do to deserve this?” I ask myself, through a few sobbs.

As the night went on, I ended up falling asleep in the old library and canceling all my plans.

My parents are on a business trip. They are hardly ever home, so I wont get in trouble for staying out.

As the sun slowly peaks out from the horizon, through the window, onto my face, I laid up against the bookshelf, fast asleep. Then, out of nowhere, my phone starts ringing obnoxiously, startling me awake. “Ah! Jesus Christ!” I checked to see who was calling, and to my surprise it was Adrianna. I answered the phone. “Where the hell are you girl?! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Adriannas voice pierced through my ears. “Whoa whoa whoa! Lower your voice! It’s too early for this,” I say in a groggy voice. “Girl, what are you on?! It’s 12:30 p.m!” she shouts through the phone. I pull my phone away from my ear and when I see the time my eyes ‘bout bulge out my head. “Now tell me where you're at girl! I’m worried!” “There’s no need. I will go to you,” I say getting up. “Nu uh girl. You had a rough night last night. I’m coming to you,” Adrianna insists. Before I could reject the idea, Adrianna hung up the phone.

As soon as she hung up the phone, my phone went to my lock screen and my notifications were filled with missed calls from Zander. My eyes start to water again, but I wipe them away and turn off my phone. I get up and look at myself through the reflection of a window. My eyes widen in horror. What I saw wasn't myself. What I saw was a zombie homecoming queen. Well, supposed to be the homecoming queen.

My mascara was obviously running down my face that night, and had dried on my face. Not to mention my messy hair. I have to get it! Adrianna could get there any minute! I grab my purse, slip off my heels and rush to my car.

As soon as I pulled into my driveway, I saw not only Adrianna’s car there, I also saw my parents car. They came home a week early. I slowly crept out of my car, and dragged my feet to the front door. I opened the door, and as soon as the door closed my dad exploded with anger, his voice echoing in the house. “Lucinda, Lynn, Bern

Where the hell have you been?!” I slump my shoulders, lower my head, and drag my feet to the kitchen to face my parents. When I lifted my head up, I noticed my mother wasn’t with him. “Where’s mom?” I ask. “Don’t change the subject! Where were you?!” My fathers asks again. I look to the right and I see Adrianna looking at me with a curious expression with a hint of sadness. “The library,” I mumble. My dad's face reddens in anger as if steam was about to start coming out of his ears. “You know it’s illegal to trespass through there!” my dad shouts. “Whatever,” I mumble. “What did you say?!” my dad asks, walking up to me. “Since when did you care? You're never home,” I mumble. My dad gives me a hurt expression, and walks back to where he was before. “Now, where's mom?” I asked. My dad doesn’t answer. “What did you do..?” I ask, nervous that they fought again. “We had a small fight, that's all,” my dad says.

I look over to Adrianna who is fidgeting with her shirt. “Leave please,” I say more as a harsh command than a plead. When Adrianna leaves, I glare at my father. “If it was a small fight, then why isn’t mom here with you?” I asked, a bit annoyed that he's lying to me. “She had some other business to deal with that was outside my work,” my dad said, lowering his head in shame. “You hit her didn’t you?” I asked, my voice slowly rising in anger. My dad answers by nodding his head. That's when I exploded. We started arguing, giving each other snarky comments left and right. We got so loud that our neighbors knocked on the door. We assured them that everything was alright, and when they left I went straight to my room.

When I got to my room I slammed the door shut. I went into my closet, and started crying. I took my phone out of my purse and tried to call my mom. She didn’t answer. I tried again, but again, it brought me straight to voicemail. My eyes started to slowly leak my tears that I’ve been building up as I pull my knees to my chest, hugging them.

Four days have passed and I’m now going back to school. Luckily, everyone thinks I got sick. “Lucinda! Your back!” a girl off to the side said. “Are you feeling better? I hope you stay healthy!” Another person said. When I met up with Adrianna, she looked at me as if I was a hot wreck. “Not now Adrianna,” I say, lowering my head towards the ground. I tried to walk around her, but she grabbed my wrist and dragged me to the nearest bathroom.

“Hey! Let go!” I say, ripping my wrist from her grip. “What the actual f**k?” Adrianna just stares at me in pity, which sets me off. “Why do you keep looking at me like that?!” I ask in anger. There was a few seconds before she responded. “I never knew how hard your life was. I always thought of you as miss perfect. I’m sorry.” She tries to wrap me in a hug but I shove her off. I shove her a little too hard, causing her to fall over. “I don’t need your pity! This is why I never told anyone!” I shout. I then stormed out of the bathroom with a huff.

As soon as I exited the bathroom, I plastered on a fake smile so realistic that people started asking me why I was so happy. “ I honestly don’t know why I’m happy. I just feel happy,” I say. “How do you do it? How do you always see the best in things?” Someone not important to me asks. I turn my gaze to the voice and my fake, bright, smile softens. “It was just how I was raised,” I tell them.

That's because you raised yourself. I shook the thought out of my head and started to head to class.

The first thing my eyes saw was a flirtatious Zander hitting on all the other girls. Has he already moved on? What about Elizabeth? I dragged my glance to the back of the room and saw Elizabeth on her phone. I walk over to her in confusion. “Aren’t you worried that Zander, your new boyfriend, is flirting with other girls?” I asked. The girl never even bothered to look up from her phone. “I don’t care what he's doing right. As long as he's with me and not you, I could care less.” This took me by surprise. I was also a bit hurt.

You should have known about this, Lucinda. You’ve known this girl since you started dating Zander. I mean, how ignorant are you going to act? I shake my thoughts away and head to my seat.

After all my morning classes, I went to lunch only to find something horrifying. Elizabeth was in my spot. All of my friends were laughing and smiling at whatever she was saying. I decided to walk up to her. “Elizabeth. I believe you're in my spot. Why don’t you go back to your little nerd table, hm?” Elizabeth just looks at me then to my friends. All of my friends look at me and glare. This surprised me. They were supposed to be my friends. Not hers. “Lucy. Ever since you got dumped, well, you’ve been kicked from the table,” one of my friends said. “Not to mention that Eliza is way more fun, and cooler. She actually drinks and smokes,``another one of my friends said. I looked to Adriana for help. But even my best friend had turned on me. Suddenly everything started spinning. I rushed out of the lunch room.

Once I made it out of the lunch room, I guided myself to the nearest bathroom. The moment I got into the bathroom, I fell on the floor and tears started running down my face. Why did this have to happen to me out of everyone? Why did my life have to start falling apart? The moment I heard someone coming into the bathroom, I rushed to the nearest stall. I sit on the toilet, looking through the crack to see who's there. To my surprise it was Emery. Someone was with her though.

Emery isn’t a popular kid. In fact, she is considered “the weird kid”. Emery has short black hair down to her shoulders, she's a bit fuller with a bit of thickness to her thighs. Obviously a theater kid and a choir kid.

“I just don’t know how to tell them,” Emery says. “Just tell them to leave you alone! Then just tell them to f**k off!” their best friend, I assume, tells her. “I can’t do that!” Emery replies. “That's because you’re too nice. I will do it if you don’t,” the other person says. “Don’t you dare!”

Just then, my toilet automatically flush from me standing up in frustration. I squeeze my eyes shut wishing that it didn’t actually happen. I peek one eye open. Nope. It most definitely happened. I did my best to act casual when I came out of the stall. When I look over at Emery, her eyes widen in fear. “L- Lucinda?! Oh my gosh! Lucinda please don’t tell anyone about this conversation!” she pleases. I’m instantly hit with major guilt. “Don’t worry. No one will know. I don’t have anyone to tell anymore,” I say as I wash my hands. Both Emery and her friend look at me confused. “Wait, do you guys not know?” I ask. “We haven’t seen you all day,” Emery replies. “Oh, well it's nothing. Nothing you guys would care for,” I say as I dry my hands. “We actually do wanna know. We actually care about people. Unlike your little friend group. I mean how could you like those girls? They’re so toxic,” Emery's friend says. “Why though? I was literally so mean to you guys in the past year?” I ask. “We could tell you didn’t mean what you said. You were just trying to fit in,” Emery says, giving me a warm smile. “Thanks, but I have to go to lunch. Hopefully there's still a seat left,” I say. I push open the door, and walk out of the bathroom.

I don’t dare to show my face in the cafeteria again. Even though I told Emery and her friend I was going back. Instead, I hid in the school's library. As I hid myself in the corner of fiction romance novels, I read almost every single book in the section. I skipped all my classes and I couldn’t care less. As of that moment, all I could care about was the characters in the romance novels.

Hours have passed, and I lay half awake and half asleep, hugging my favorite romance novel. Suddenly, while I was asleep, someone came into the library. They made their way over to the science section, which was right before the fiction section. They then saw me and made their way over to me. They pick me up in a bridal style carry and take me somewhere. While they were carrying me, I fell completely asleep from the comfort of the person.

My eyes slowly open as the sun peeks through the blinds of the window. I slowly sit up and rub my eyes. Once my eyes adjusted to the lights, I realized I wasn’t in my own house. I jump out of the bed tripping over something beneath my feet. I looked to see what it was, and to my surprise it was a boy about my age with short shaggy brown hair. The boy groaned in pain as he slowly got up from the floor. By the time the guy got onto his feet and his vision cleared, I was holding a ukulele like I was getting ready to swing at a baseball. The boy's eyes widen as he says “Whoa! Whoa! Put the ukulele down! I don’t want you to break it!” This confused me. He cares more about the ukulele than me? What kind of kidnapper is he? The boy tries to come closer, but I take a step back. “Don’t make me hit you!” I shout. The boy shushes me as he points to the otherside of the room. When I looked over that way, I saw another boy with short red hair about the same age as the other one. When I look back at the boy, he is barely 2 feet away from me. He leans in close. My heart starts to race and I can feel my cheeks redden. Suddenly he grabs the ukulele out of my hand and pushes me into a chair. “You-!” Before I could continue he interrupted me. “You really shouldn’t let your defense fall so quickly. Anyways, besides the point, I’m Josiah. Most people call me Joey for short.” I just stare at him blankly. “Why did you kidnap me?” I am still confused. “Kidnap you?” the boy repeats. His eyes widen and he slaps his forehead. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t think It would come off that way! I just saw you passed out in the library and I thought you were hurt so I took you to my dorm!” Josiah explains. “You’re a college student?!” I shout. Josiah, again, shushed me. “Are you not a college student?” he asks. “No! You literally picked me up from a high school library!” I shout. “I’m leaving,” I say as I open the door. “Let me drive you,” Josiah insists. I look back at him and glare. “No thank you. I don’t need some stranger driving me anywhere” I say.

As I walked out of the building, Josiah never left my side. He kept insisting that he should drive me home. “ Fine! Just stop annoying me!” I say, giving in. Josiah gives me a soft smile and leads me to his car. Josiah opens the door for me. “What are you doing?” I ask, in a disgusted tone. “I’m being a gentleman?” he asked, completely confused. I stare at him, searching his face to see if he's hiding anything but there was nothing. I bite my tongue to restrain myself from insulting him. “Just take me to the school,” I say, as I get into the car.

As we drive back to the school, I stare emotionless out the window deep in my thoughts. “So, do you have any friends here?” Josiah asked. I ignored him. He asks again, but I ignore him. We make awkward eye contact in his rear view mirror. We hold our stare for a few seconds until the red light turns green. What was that? Why do I feel weird? Whatever. It's probably nothing.

I continue to sit awkwardly in silence. Josiah though, he keeps asking me about my school life. “Come on, you have to have at least a favorite teacher,” he says, in a bit of a disappointed voice. I don’t answer him. “How about your family?” When he asks this, I feel as if I’ve been stabbed in the chest. Instead of ignoring him, I choke on my words as tears try to make their way out of my eyes. I quickly cover my face. No, no, no, no ,no, no! This can not be happening! I can’t be seen crying in front of a stranger? That's like rule number one! “Whoa! Are you okay? I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you cry!” Josiah quickly apologies. “Pull the car over,” I manage to say in a whisper tone. “What?” he asks. “Pull this goddamn car over!” I yell. Josiah immediately obeys my request and pulls into an indoor shopping mall parking lot. I quickly open the car door and then slam it shut as I get out of the car.