The Mirror | Teen Ink

The Mirror

May 27, 2018
By RoyalAntivist BRONZE, Moncks Corner, South Carolina
RoyalAntivist BRONZE, Moncks Corner, South Carolina
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

She wakes up, feeling refreshed after a long night sleep. Of course, she awakes and gets right out of bed ready to start her day as usual. Happily, she makes her way towards to the bathroom and does the daily ritual of brushing her teeth. Spitting out the toothpaste, the ulta mint taste of the toothpaste takes over her taste buds, leaving her breath feeling minty fresh. After spitting out the paste, she looks at herself in a mirror. She admires her radiant looking skin. You can truly tell that it is healthy and glowing. She admired her perfect skin. A sudden rain of goosebumps take over her body and she crosses her arms trying to calm the goosebumps down, but maybe it was the sudden burst of coldness coming from the vents in the bathroom. Ignoring the cold, she uncrosses her arms and smiles at herself in the mirror to shows off her pearly white teeth to her reflection. Satisfied, she exits the now cold bathroom.
The smell of breakfast comes from the kitchen, entrancing her to walk in the direction of the pleasant scent. The smell of freshly made bacon, coffee, and pancakes take over her nostrils, making her feel hungry. There stood her wonderful mother in the kitchen by the stove, flipping more bacon as everyone wakes up from their night of slumbering.
“Good Morning, honey. How did you sleep?” Her dear mother asks as she removes the crispy bacon from the pan to the plate along with all the other pieces. The grease remains on the strips as the sit there piled together and the bacon scent is still pungent in the air.
“Like I was on a bunch of clouds. I think that was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time!” she said, sneaking a single strip of bacon while her mother’s back was turned. She munched on the crunchy yet greasy strip as she leaned on the counter.
“That sounds wonderful,. I’m glad you rested well.” She simply smiles at her and heads to the fridge and pulls out a carton of orange juice. She began to set the table as her mother was juggling all the breakfast food.
The food sat next to the perfectly set silverware and plates. Her mother sat down at the breakfast table, ready to eat. She patiently waited there for her loving husband to come out and eat with them.
Out came the father, a very tall yet respectable man. He greeted his wife with a single kiss and said good morning like the perfect husband he is. They all gathered around the table and sat in their respectable seats. They looked perfect, perfect like her shiny white teeth and perfect skin she admired so much in the mirror that morning. The father went to the kitchen and poured himself something different to drink, a different type of juice. The mother sat there, not questioning his choice of drink, and quietly enjoyed her meal she had prepared. Everything seemed perfect.
Once they had all finished, the dirty dishes were now placed delicately in the sink to be washed later. The girl went back to her room and enjoyed her seemingly perfect Saturday. The clock was beginning to get closer to noon which meant that her mother was off to work and her father would remain home. Typically, he stayed downstairs on his spot on the couch and enjoyed a day of television. She sat at her desk and started to write an entry into her journal:

“May 6. This morning was perfect. Just like how I want everything to be. My life is falling into all of the right places. I don’t want anything to go wrong and ruin it all. Everything is perfect.”

Of course, she was satisfied with everything going on in her life. She took the time to sit back and reflect on what exactly she kept so dear to her heart for it being so right. She noted down into her journal that her parents are happy together, she loves her appearance, her family spends time together, she’s happy that just about everything was at its best spot in life. What a perfect world to live in.
“Can you come down here?” Her father calls for her from the living room.
“Okay” She responds as she closes her journal and puts it back onto the shelf where it lived. She rushed downstairs to see why her dad had called her so suddenly to the living room. She skips steps as she goes down the long staircase and hurries into the living room. There sat her father in his seat laying down as he watches the cooking channel. He loves to watch cooking shows but doesn’t really do the cooking around here.
“Yes?” She asks with a smile on her face as she looks at her father.
“Can you hand be another cup of juice?” He asks her.
“Sure, I can do that” She says no questions asked as she went towards to refrigerator to retrieve the juice for her father. She doesn’t even need to search through the fridge to find it as it has its own spot that the family keeps reserved for her father’s juice. It amazes her how much one man can drink juice in a day. She wonders if he ever even drinks water that’s how much he is addicted to that juice of his. She grabs the juice and takes it to her father on the couch and hands it to her.
“Special delivery,” She says handing it to him with a straight face.
He responds with a single word, “Thanks” as he continues to watch the show. She walks eagerly to her room as she walks back up the stairs.
Later in the night, she decides that she needs to go freshen up in a hot shower. She heads towards the bathroom with her clean clothes and places them on the counter to change into. She turns on the shower head and it is turned to the hot setting, creating an ominous steam cloud in the bathroom. She begins to stare at herself in the mirror making no expressions at all. She suddenly smiles at herself as she looks at her face. Before she starts to undress to hop into the steaming shower, she notices a streak on the now foggy mirror. The sudden cold feeling comes back, which was nearly impossible due to the heat of the water. She leans closer to the mirror and sees more streaks appear as if it were trying to spell something out. Taking a closer look, it is now apparent that the streaks are getting bigger forming words.
“Perfect World Is No More”
“Go back to where you belong”
She ran over to the shower and turned it off, then returning to the mirror she looked at it one last time, shocked and in a state of horror. She quickly rubs off the steam from the mirror and runs out of the bathroom. She goes back to her room and goes towards her large mirror in the corner of the room. She stares into the body mirror, trapped in its reflection. She stood still yet her reflection started moving and placing its hand on the mirror as if it were trying to leave.
“You’re living a lie, you know. This isn’t your world. Return at once or pay the consequences,” She screamed at her. The girl in the mirror was not her at all. But neither was the reflection. The reflection reached through the mirror, grabbing ahold of the girl and pulled her into the mirror, then it shattered. Each shard went flying from the frame into small pieces all over the floor. The girl was now in an alternate world but still remained in her house. Everything felt so much different. Now a heavyweight and sorrow took over her entire body. She thought about that morning as if it were replaying like a movie inside of her head. Her mother was cooking breakfast but it burnt, causing her father to become angry and he started to drink alcohol heavily. Everything she once thought she knew was a lie. She put on a character and became someone she was not. She overcame her denial as a perfect girl in a perfect world and faced her true reality. She wanted so bad for everything to be perfect when it truly wasn’t. Not only was she in denial about her life, she was in denial about herself. She remained hidden from her identity. Her persona didn’t even have a name. She had become a nameless face in the world as she lived a fake life. Things began to feel more real and raw as she dealt with her new reality.  Making her way towards the mirror, she stared at herself. Hot tears started to fall from her face as she placed her delicate hands onto them to wipe them away. She sat in front of the mirror once more. The girl in the mirror came back again, but with a different message.
“Don’t be upset, face your reality and do not pretend to be someone or have a life that you do not have. Take care, Blair,” she said sweetly, waving goodbye.
And she disappeared, leaving Blair by herself as she stared at the mirror in silence.


The author's comments:

A girl living in a perfect world, or so she thinks.


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.