Smack, smack, smack... My feet pounded softly against the floor as I made my way, slouching, down the corridor. Although it was midnight and I was completely alone, I still tried fruitlessly to get my short blond bob to cover my tearstreaked face. How had I let this happen again? I should know better by now not to think too hard about home. I had been so confident before that I wouldn't get homesick, and I had been pretty good until last week. Now I cried almost every night for my mom and dad. Pathetic.
Still, I cried. I couldn't let the other girls know, though, so I snuck out of the common room and wandered the hall where I could cry a little louder. I still lived with the fear, though, that I would wake up with the blotchy redness that always came when I bawled. I could only imagine the humiliation.
I decided to try and distract myself. I turned down a hall that I hadn't been down before. It was drafty and cool, but that was a good thing because it refreshed my swollen face. I slowed down, savoring it. I started to hiccup. Trying to hiccup quietly I continued.
The end. I almost walked into the wall, so shrouded it was in shadow. I turned, feeling my way ahead, and countered a door. Turning the knob I found it open, so I walked in.
It was extroadinarilyl dusty inside. My uneven "hic...hic hic..." was interrupted by a sneeze and three coughs, and then a gasp. My mind had not immediately registered the mirror in it's hugeness, but now that it had processed the elaborate golden frame I could barely believe my eyes. I approached it cautiously, half worried something would jump out of it.
Now that I stood in front of it, I could think of no other cautions. I was wholly absorbed in what I saw; myself, crying softly, but cleanly. There was no redness, no swollen lids, no spotty nose, no bright pink streaks. The only thing that might give away that I had been crying were the very few streaks of the makeup I apparently missed when I had washed my face. I reached up and wiped them away, as well as the rest of my tears. You couldn't even tell I'd been crying. Although I could feel myself still hiccupping, my chest heaving, I was breathing steadily in my reflection.
I stood there staring for another while, until I realized that I had stopped crying, and that the room was getting lighter. A panicked glance at my watch told me hat classes would start in an hour and a half and that I should be in the common room getting ready. I sprinted out of the old room, unaware that I had been followed by the invisible gaze of two friendly, sympathetic, bright blue eyes.
Gender:
Points: 367
Reviews: 165