Writing A Story – Her Story
By Braceface2015
It’s Friday night and all of my roommates have dates. They’re all in their rooms getting ready to go out, and I’m sitting in the lounge area of the dorm trying not to feel sorry for myself. I thought college would be a good place for my life to change, but so far, it is just more of the same. High school was a nightmare for me and it’s looking as if college is going to be the same.
I’ve never managed to be one of the popular girls, not even one of the average girls. I grew up in a working-class family and my parents didn’t believe in using contraceptives for religious reasons, with the inevitable result happening. Money was always something we had just enough of to keep us fed and in department store clothes, which didn’t help me when the rest of the girls were wearing clothes from the boutique shops. It also meant things like braces were farther down the list than clothes, glasses and medication. Much farther down.
It didn’t help that I inherited some of the worst physical characteristics of my European ancestors. I’ve always been shorter than my classmates, thinner than the rest of the girls and a late bloomer, and I’ve heard all the variations of beanpole and flat-as-a-board. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ugly, just the girl that you see standing in the corner at all the school dances hoping that someone will ask her to dance at least once.
While it bothered me that the boys never looked at me, I didn’t let it get me down too much. I still had a good brain and used it the best way I knew how, I studied and consistently had the best grades in my classes. My teachers all thought I was really smart, but it was just that I didn’t have the distractions my classmates did chasing each other around. I spent much of my time in the library reading and studying, which didn’t help my social situation either.
I’d get asked out by one of the other outcasts occasionally, but we never got past the first date when they got a good look at me up close. I did my best to dress nice and I experimented with makeup, with no success. My biggest problem has always been my teeth. As soon as my dates saw my teeth, they lost interest in anything more than finding some way to end the date early.
That's why I'm sitting in the lounge by myself, writing another story to fill the time on a Friday night. I prefer to use Google Docs because I can use my tablet to write anywhere and all my work automatically transfers to my computer and cellphone as I am working.
I’m a little surprised when one of the guys arrives a little early to pick up his date who is not ready yet. I’ve seen him every Friday night and we’ve said ‘Hi’ each time, but that is as far as our conversations have gone. Usually he plays on his phone until she is ready to leave, but this time he sits down at the other end of the couch and asks what I am writing.
I hesitantly smile, keeping my lips over my messed-up teeth as much as possible as I answer. Surprisingly, he doesn’t turn away and asks for a bit more information without pushing too hard. As I start to explain what my story is about, his gaze focuses on more than the area between my nose and my eyes, and he’s still talking to me.
I try and explain what my story is about, but I can’t figure out how to describe it without telling him about the rest of the stories in the series I am writing. The more I tell him about the story, the more interested he seems to become. He asks questions about some of the details in the story and I do my best to answer them.
The more we talk, the more relaxed I become and I begin to smile a bit more, and I become slightly less careful about hiding the metal attached to my messed-up teeth. He’s the first person who has taken an interest in what I am writing in a long time and it is kind of nice. Then he does something I am not prepared for, he asks if he can read what I am writing.
I post my stories online to a variety of websites, but to have someone actually ask for one of my stories in person is a new experience. I tell him it is still unfinished and still needs more work before it is ready for people to read, but he says he doesn’t mind. That gets him a bigger smile from me and I feel my lips sliding over the heavy metal brackets on my teeth. I hastily cover them up again, but not before he gets a pretty good look at the mess they are.
I expect him to run away, but he holds up his phone and asks if I can send it to him to read. He’s been polite so far and he hasn’t run away yet, and I figure it can’t hurt to let him have a look at my story, so I send him a link to the Google Doc I am working on. He’s a bit surprised when he opens the link and finds it isn’t just an incomplete file, but the actual file I am working on. He thanks me and begins to read the story.
I’m too nervous to sit and watch him read, so I excuse myself and go to get something to nibble on. I’ve only written a few pages so far and it is one of my more risque stories, definitely meant for a more mature audience. The current story has a ‘could it really happen’ feel to it and is written from a female point of view.
I don't like to eat where other people can see me chewing, so I find places where I can be alone. It's also expensive to eat out all the time, so I have become a good cook. I managed to get into a dorm that has rooms with a basic kitchen so I can cook most of my meals. The internet is a good place to find recipes and I have a binder full of things I like to cook. While my supper is in the pots cooking, I work on my story some more. It's fun to put myself into my stories and sometimes I put things that have happened to me into my stories as well.
Talking to the good-looking guy this evening has given me a few ideas and I use the conversation as part of the story, spicing it up a bit by having my character flirt with the guy she is talking to. At the end of the chapter, I have the guy saying he will give her a call sometime to see if she wants to go on a date.
I have an appointment a few weeks later to have my braces adjusted, and springs are added to the archwires to create some space for a few of my teeth to move into. My character in the story has been going through some of the things I have and she is still waiting to hear from the guy she was talking to. Like me, she has just had braces put on and is dealing with the insecurity of being a female with braces, though hers are more for cosmetic reasons and are ceramic. One thing she really worries about is how the guy will react to her new braces if he does call her.
I go into detail about how she tries to use clothes to draw attention away from her mouth and the shopping trip she goes on to buy them. I have lots of experience to draw on with shopping for a body like mine and use it in my story. My grandmother taught me a lot about how to dress well on a budget and that it is best to start from my skin out. She was honest with me about my probably never needing to wear a bra and she took me shopping for my first one when I wanted one. The first store she took me to was a lingerie store and she answered all my questions about what they were selling. I learnt the difference between lingerie and underwear and how to wear it properly. Then she took me to a department store and I found out the difference well-made lingerie could make.
My grandmother is the main reason I made it through high school at all. She encouraged me to get an education and took me clothes shopping when I got good grades. Even though it was usually to discount and second-hand stores, I still had nice outfits to wear despite the styles being slightly out of date. Some things never go out of fashion even if they are not the current trend.
I get an email from the guy I talked to about my story and am happy when he says how much he is enjoying it. I try to write him a reply, and keep deleting it each time. To try and get my mind off the difficulty I am having, I write a chapter about my character experiencing the same thing and how she tries to deal with her feelings.
I’m still trying to write a reply when he sends me another email. Even though it’s brief, it still makes my day. One thing catches my attention, at the end of the email he comments on how she is dealing with having braces. I take a chance and reply to his email by saying I have some experience to draw on when writing my stories, without actually mentioning my braces in my reply.
His next email arrives and he mentions a little cafe he goes to where he likes to read the additions to the story I am working on. Every time he sends me an email, my day brightens up. The way his email is worded makes me feel as if he is asking me to join him at the cafe. It’s not as if he is asking me to go on a date with him, and it is up to me if I want to show up.
My lips slide over my braces as I smile. For the first time in longer than I can remember, a guy is taking an interest in me, even if it is only because of a story. I look around to see if anyone is looking my way and has gotten a glimpse of my braces, but everyone is busy doing other things.
I’m pretty sure he has seen my braces and I know he has seen my messed-up teeth. It’s pretty hard to miss them from the other end of a couch. Even after seeing them, he still seems to be interested in getting to know me, and I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.
I take a good look at myself in the mirror, trying out a variety of smiles to see if any of them look halfway natural and still hide my braces. It doesn’t take me long to decide that it is impossible to hide them.
Even though I haven’t decided if I am willing to show up at the cafe, I look through my closet to see if I have anything I might want to wear to go. My grandmother's influence shows in what is in my closet and it doesn’t take me long to put together a couple of rather appealing outfits, even if they do look a bit out of date. Each outfit needs a different set of lingerie to go with it and my grandmother has taught me just how to pick out the right items to go with each outfit.
The complete outfits hang on the hooks in my bedroom for nearly a week before I decide I have nothing to lose by going to the cafe. I can’t hide in my room until my braces come off and staring at my walls is starting to get to me.
It’s a bit scary watching myself in the mirror as I change my clothes. I’m not sure if I’ve picked out the right clothes to wear, and even though they fit me properly, I think they would look better if I had a few curves. The braces don’t help either. Unless I keep my mouth closed, some of the metal is visible.
Before I can change my mind, I leave the dorm and walk in the direction of the cafe. It feels as if everyone is staring at me, yet when I check the reflections in the windows, nobody is looking in my direction. I’m still not sure about meeting him at the cafe as I turn the knob to open the door and walk in.
He’s sitting near the back where he can see the door and looks up as I walk in. I hesitate until he stands up and smiles at me, then gestures for me to join him. Before I can sit down, he asks what I would like to drink, then indicates I should take a seat while he gets it for me.
It takes him a while to return, and I'm beginning to think he has decided to run away rather than face my messed-up teeth. I can't see him from where I am sitting, and then he comes around the corner holding a tray with a teapot and cup. I thank him for buying it for me and watch as he drinks his coffee. Before the silence gets uncomfortable, he begins telling me about the parts of my story he has enjoyed the most. At first I respond with brief answers so he doesn't feel as if I am not interested, and I gradually relax as I become more comfortable with him. He seems to enjoy talking with me, and even though he seems to spend time looking at my teeth when I am talking, it's not all that he is looking at and they don't seem to be bothering him.
Some of the things he talks about make me smile and I have a hard time keeping my braces hidden, and eventually I stop trying. That all changes when he mentions how my character feels about her braces. I hastily cover my braces with my lips.
His next comment stuns me. ”If your character looks half as good as you do with yours, she has nothing to worry about at all.”
END
