The Mirror

She's all dressed up for glamour and rock and roll… Bam! Bam! Bam! She’s rocks! She rules! She’s the show-starter and the show-stopper! ‘Cause it’s HER time! And no one can take it away from her. Woops… It’s him calling! Again…! It’s like the 550^th time Brad has called her in the past 6 months. Doesn’t he ever get the message that she DOESN’T want to talk to him?? Duh! Hmm… He is oh-so-much in love with her! Well, irresistible is what Serena is.

Saturday afternoon. She is, as usual, LATE! What on earth can ever teach her to be punctual? The show was about to start and Nick had been waiting for her, in front of the box-office, for the past one hour, with the tickets in his hands. I must say, this guy has got some patience. But then, when it’s about Serena, who wouldn’t?! Duh! She was dressed in a white cotton sleeveless top and a black crinkled chiffon short skirt with a pair of black stilettos… one of her favourite combos. Although she knew she looks good in anything and everything she wears, she was quite particular about her appearance. She has been, for quite sometime… which is why when a whorl of her black straight hair illicitly trespassed upon her face, she removed it with perfect grace. Perfect enough to catch the attention of this immensely handsome gentleman sitting few tables away across the food-court. He was staring right into her eyes with a penetrating expression. He was a wheatish fellow with a well-defined face-cut, like chiseled out of solid rock. His hair and eyebrows most appropriately jibed with each other. He was wearing an auburn and white striped shirt that went perfectly well with his eyes, sleeves rolled up to reveal his sincere hard work at some gym, black trousers and shiny formal shoes. His smile was enchanting enough to sweep a bevy of girls off her feet. He was like the incarnation of one of those mills n boons’ typical and ideal tall, dark and handsome hero. He almost seemed unreal. It was when she was noticing all this, that Serena saw a black messy head turning towards her and then two eyes glaring at her through a pair of spectacles. It was then that she realized that her tall, dark and handsome hero wasn’t sitting alone at the table. He was accompanied by, most probably, his girlfriend who felt deeply offended by the distraction caused by the stranger-girl. Although Serena was highly disappointed by her handsome guy’s not-so-handsome choice of girls and totally felt that a guy like that deserved a girl like herself, she chose to exit the scene. But what she didn’t miss was the admiration in that guy’s eyes and of course, the jealousy in his girlfriend’s. Oh! She enjoys stuffs like this to the fullest! Kind of a regular thing with her. And just before she left, she saw the jealous miss clenching her teeth only to reveal her braces. OMG! Hilarious! That was cherry on the pie! Poor guy! Anyways, finally she reached her day’s destination, i.e. Nick, who was by then, totally consumed by the inhuman wait. They enjoyed the movie together but the thought of that weird couple kept on creeping into her mind over and over again. The familiarity of that girlfriend’s face, with someone she couldn’t recall, kind of bothered her.

It was Saturday again, same place, same time but different movie. And also this time it was Aron waiting for her. Hmm… Serena never does the same guy for two consecutive weeks; one of her principles. Okay wait! I thought we were over with the list of similarities… then what was that handsome hunk, from the last week, doing there with his ugly girl… AGAIN!!! Oh wait… the same table! Too much! Okay… they were again exchanging looks. This time some real sparks seemed to be flying between Serena and the mystery guy… If only Ugly Betty did not disrupt! She seemed to upset about something and was constantly trying to bring her boyfriend’s attention back to her, by forcefully feeding him pasta with a spoon. She was so annoying! Nevertheless, handsome boy and Serena had their way through eye-talks. Romantic is it? Well, for Serena, affairs of heart are jus games to be played! And she is a champion. Not to mention, “Ugly Betty”s are no competition to her. However, Serena still couldn’t recall what made her face so familiar?!

A week later, Serena found herself, yet again, hurrying for the show with her new date. No marks for guessing, the weird couple was sitting right in front of her at the same table. Only, Ugly Betty, for some god-forsake reason, seemed to be near to tears today. She looked really hapless. And the sense of resemblance dashed through Serena’s head ones again! Aww… poor girl! She needed a shoulder, somebody to cheer her up! What on earth was her boyfriend doing?? Oh wait… of course he was busy eyeing Serena with a sheepish smile on his face. And just when she shifted her gaze to his eyes, Ugly Betty’s plight went all the way back to the corner of her mind to make way for the Mystery guy and his enormous influence on her. She was convinced that he totally deserved a more jocund girlfriend like herself and not a crying-doll who would torture him to boredom to an extent that he needs to steal looks from other girls. So… “Poor guy!” is a more befitting exclamation.

This routine went on for quite sometime. Each day, the mutual eyeing thing became a little less stealing and a little more captivating, just as much as the girlfriend grew more perturbed day by day… Not to mention, also uglier! If one isn’t naturally beautiful, wrinkles of vexation certainly doesn’t help you to look any better. Who is going to teach her that?! Duh!

Serena had put on her best dress today and was all set to beguile her Mystery Man ones again! Today, strangely she was on time. Maybe, because she just couldn’t wait to see him again. Just as she reached the mall’s door, she bumped into a guy who was exiting and felt a chit of paper being slipped into her hands. As she gained her composure to check who it was, she realised that she just made the first physical contact with the guy of her recent dreams. Yes it was that handsome guy from the food-court table! He shortly waved at her with a mischievous smile and was out of sight the next moment. Wow! That felt really good! As she stepped on the escalator, Serena opened her fist to see a paper with something alphanumeric scribbled on it. It was his name and number. So Bryan it is. Finally, she knows the name; not to mention, his contact number too!!! Super cool! She was overflowing with joy! Just couldn’t stop smiling! She felt like she was at the top of the world! Now she can finally put an end to all the wild guesses and apprehensions regarding this guy. As she ascended up the escalator, her eyes automatically, as a habit, turned towards the table where she had first seen him… and her smile faded. There she saw her… alone… completely shattered. Tears were streaming down her cheeks like a cascade. Her spectacles were all smoky, her hair was disheveled and a strange thing that she did with her trembling hands made Serena discover a lump in her throat. She was holding a spoon of pasta in a gesture of feeding someone who wasn’t even there beside her. The chair was empty, but she seemed to be lost in her world. Serena stood there, petrified and stupefied. Ugly Betty suddenly seemed not-so-ugly to her. No, this wasn’t new. She has certainly witnessed this before. Realisation rang through her mind. She ran to the table and took the empty chair. Just when the girl looked up to protest this sudden intrusion and realised it was Serena, she couldn’t spill a word. Instead she just burst into tears… tears that pierced into every cell in Serena’s body. She embraced the poor girl in a tight hug… something she hasn’t done with anyone for a very long time! She softly told her name and asked the girl hers, to which she replied “Jenny”. And then next thing that she said took Serena on a flashback ride. And it wasn’t pleasant.

She jolted the door of her apartment open, ran to her bedroom and dived into her bed burying her face into the cushion that soon got soaked in saline drips. After a while, she rose up, wiped her face, washed her hands, sat in front of the mirror, took off her contact-lenses and carefully placed them in the case. Then she opened her drawer and took out her spectacles… black thick ones. She hadn’t touched them for months! Putting them on as she looked into the mirror, she realised why Jenny, a.k.a “Ugly Betty” seemed so familiar to her. It was HERSELF Jenny bore a resemblance with. Serena had never thought she would have to face this again, would have to feel this way again… would have to see the mirror again; and that too, in somebody else eyes. Yes, she knew how it felt to be a part of the ignored section of the society only because she wasn’t “Strikingly Attractive”… she knew how it felt to be “The Ugly Betty”… she knew how it felt to be constantly belittled by the “Serena”s of the world. Only, “Serena” meant an altogether different thing 6 months ago. Life is an irony. She couldn’t help but explode into long-suppressed tears… tears that she thought she would never have to let out. Jenny’s last sentence at the mall kept on ringing in her mind over and over again… “If I were as beautiful as you, Bryan would still have been with me.”

She took out her cell, opened the phone book, typed B…R… and then pressed the green button. Before Serena could even hear a ring, her ears echoed with a “Hello”, like as if he was sitting beside the phone expecting a call. They talked for hours like innocent children... like as if nothing had happened. He never even asked for a sorry. Brad has always loved Serena, even when she was an “Ugly Betty”. Only, he never found Serena ugly. To him she was the most beautiful person on earth even with her braces and spectacles. And he knew someday Serena would realise it. Glad she did!