PurpuraPapilio wrote:
Jill ♀ --------------------------------
Kai ♂The girl who thought she'd never amount to anything
And the man who wanted nothing more than to prove her wrong
"Sorry dear, you're not qualified enough to work here"
"Your grades don't make the cut squirt, come back when you've got better results"
"You failed your exams again? Oh well...There's always next time"
Since she was a young pup, that's all she heard. You're not good enough. It cut deep, deeper than any other insult, to know that her best wasn't enough.
She had struggled in every class at school with no help from other students or teachers, she had no friends in or out of school to confide her fears and worries to, and she knew she was a bitter disappointment to her entire family. She kept herself to herself, thinking that her only true achievement she had accomplished so far was to be ignored, since everyone did just that. It was a miracle she was accepted into college, and still she struggled.
She wanted to give up. She was tired of biting back tears because she saw disappointment in everyone's eyes, tired of feeling like a humiliated failure every day and tired of the lonely existence she was living. On the inside, where no-one else could hear, Jill wanted to kill herself. Nineteen long years of loneliness had destroyed any pride or confidence in herself, and she had no more motivation to keep going. But she couldn't go through with the act of suicide. Yet another thing she failed at; because she was a coward.
It was a dreary grey Tuesday morning; a full day at college, and Jill pulled on her blue jeans and sandy-coloured tank top on auto-pilot after grabbing for her steel-rimmed glasses on her bedside table. She brushed her fur out, brushed her teeth, pulled on her trainers and long jacket. She tried not looking in the mirror every morning, knowing what would be looking back at her, but her blue eyes were drawn to her reflection. She hated what she saw; her white fur lay thin and lifeless on her body, her heavy-bagged baby blue eyes were bloodshot and she was too thin, even for her short stature. Jill violently turned her back to her offending image, as if it had uttered an insult, picked up her satchel bag and left her home without a word.
I'm fine, she thought as she chose a quickened pace, I'm fine; I'm just stressed from my exams coming up, that's all.
Jill quickly stuffed headphones into both ears and turned the volume up so the traffic noise passing her on the main road disappeared. Her journey was quiet without the cawing seagulls, the mindlessly chattering people and the thundering traffic that ruffled her fur as they rushed past. She found a peaceful sort of solace in the musical retreat, and the fingers stuffed inside her jacket pockets began to gently tap each note against the sides of her thighs. For the half an hour it took to get to college, she felt at peace. There was a road bridge she had to cross before she entered the college grounds, and she braced herself for the cold wind that was always carried with the river by pulling her shoulders up and chin down under the rim of her jacket.
She squeezed her eyes tight against the sting of the strong yet predicted icy wind, the pain not made any more bearable because of her insomnia, and opened them. She avoided the gazes of the growing number of students that past her going to and from college; some she recognised and some she didn’t.
This time, she looked back up too soon. Jill suddenly felt eyes on her, and she looked to the source. There was a man dressed in a dark overcoat walking past her on her right hand side, looking at her with the most startling plum purple eyes, and he was staring at her in a way no-one had ever done so before. She was about to open her mouth and ask what his problem was, until a tiny smile curled his lip. Jill’s defensive words didn’t come out of sheer surprise, which was so unlike her, and the man just strode past her, unscathed. Still she kept her feet walking toward the college, not even stopping to wonder what that was all about, but her eyes glanced over her shoulder after him.
What?...Who was he?