She thought her beauty could get her anything. After all, it meant nothing to her but it meant so much to others. That was until she met him. Surprise!
*
You sit down on a stool at the end of the bar and look around. Your eyes rest on me as I take a drink from my glass. I smile inwardly, and enter into a silent conversation with you as if you're actually sitting here beside me. It's a conversation I've had many times and probably will again. I just wish you were someone else, someone I would rather be talking to. But you're here and he's not. In fact, he won't be here tonight or any night. As usual, that thought causes a flash of pain but it seems to be less each time I feel it. After all, it's been two years.
But, as I said, you're here tonight, so my imaginary conversation goes something like this.
Hi. You're probably asking yourself right now,
"Who the hell is she? I know I've seen her around but I just can't place the name with the face."
You would be right: you would recognize me if I was the face behind that glass screen, surrounded by that black plastic frame and the studio backdrop was behind me. Right! My name is Megan Reilly and I'm an anchor on Channel 9, a channel you get right here in your little city.
The problem you're having is that we're sitting in a bar on seventh street in downtown Podunk City, USA, not my TV studio. You keep looking back at me as you sit at the bar, trying to convince yourself that it would be worth it to come over and try to hit on me. But then I see the hesitation in your eyes. Hell, I've seen it so many times before, and it was always the same reason. Just look at me! Have you ever seen anyone sitting in a bar alone that looked like me? Of course not! Beautiful women, especially ones that look like me with my long, wavy, platinum-blonde hair; high cheekbones under clear, translucent skin; eyes so blue most people thought they had to be contacts; a body that made men drool; those women never sit alone in a bar in Podunk City. And I
am
sitting here alone. Why, was a story in itself and I am going to tell you all about it.
First you have to know who I really am. Not the public face and body that everyone sees. Not the voice of the network writers who tell me what to say. Not the story that holds your attention for the three days we allow it to dominate the airwaves. No, the real person behind all of that crap is the one who you have to understand to understand my story.
Next, know that regardless of how much you love to look at me and how much you think you admire me, I loved to look at myself and I admired myself even more! Sound narcissistic? It is! Massively so! I am a narcissistic bitch! I have been since my early childhood when everyone told me how beautiful I was. I was a beautiful baby who grew into a beautiful child and later into a beautiful young woman. All through growing up, I remember people telling me how beautiful I was. I was almost ten when I suddenly realized that when men told me I was beautiful, it sounded different than when women would tell me the same thing.
That's when I realized that my looks and my body were things that men valued far more than women. My men teachers in grade school were far easier on me and gave me better grades than the women teachers. The same carried over into high school. I did nothing at that time to earn those marks but I did understand that my looks were the key. I learned to smile mysteriously at the men teachers and the young men who surrounded me all through school, and as I graduated grade school, then high school and went on to college, I began to perfect those gifts that God gave me.
You also have to understand how I grew up. My parents were strict evangelicals and I was forbidden to date or to go out with even a group of girls during high school. I went all the way through high school as a virgin, and not only that, I had never been seriously kissed by a boy. I was almost eighteen before I went out with a boy for the first time and that was prom night. I was allowed to go because my dad was in the hospital with a massive stroke and mom was with him so I was staying with my aunt who said I could go.
As a date, it was a bust! He was nervous at being with me, the most beautiful girl in school, and I was nervous being with him, the team quarterback, the most popular boy in school. I was afraid that my ignorance would turn him off, and he was afraid that his imagined lack of experience with beautiful women would make me think less of him. Together, we were hopeless. The night ended before midnight and while many girls lost their virginity that night, I went to sleep, my virginity intact and my mind confused.
Shortly after that, my dad died and my mom kept me home under a tight reign. That disastrous date was my first and only date with a boy until I graduated and went out on my own. I graduated high school, still chaste and still unsure of what I could accomplish. I was about to go out on my own with a full scholarship to college and while I was anxious to be on my own, I was also afraid of what I didn't know.