Envy

I look at her gorgeous blonde waves before looking back into the mirror at my mousy brown hair, not quite sure if it wants to be straight or curls. She uses her hand to flip her hair to the side, the fingers gliding across the strands. She then looks down into a small bag and carefully selects her tools of choice. Some powder and a dark red lipstick. I sigh, I wish I was as glamorous. She is the glamorous Marilyn Monroe, the gorgeous Grace Kelly to my Ugly Betty.

Natalie Cummins. I say to myself, not quite able to voice out her name. She is brilliant, everyone says that she is going to some Ivy League, she is the one that beat me out for valedictorian. She has everything from the brains, to the beauty, to the nice disposition, I swear the girl is nice to everyone, to the guy. Alexander Michaels.

Natalie and Alexander have been dating for about four years, since the beginning of high school. This is about the time that I started to have a crush/ unrequited love on Alexander. They met while participating in a scrimage to raise money for Alzheimer's research. They are constantly out volunteering. Sometimes I wonder if this is all a joke. To make my biggest competition in this school so perfect, there was no way I was going to win. No matter how hard I try, there is no way I would get the perfect grades, the perfect guy, the athletic body, and the time to be able to do that. I look over at her applying the lipstick and for a second, maybe I can just read the name of it. I lean forward a bit and the counter shakes a little. The lipstick moves over off her lip a few centimeters and Natalie stops applying it.

"I'm so sorry," I say to her and she smiles.

"No worries," she says before taking a slightly wet towel and carefully removing the line of lipstick before drying her mouth and beginning to reapply. Afterwords she leaves and I feel myself smile a little. Feeling better that maybe she doesn't look so perfect right now. I stop smiling as soon as I look in the mirror and realize that it doesn't matter if there is a small smudge in her makeup, she will still look stunning all the time. She will still always have the boyfriend and the brains. I sigh and begin to pack up my stuff to go to class when the bell rings. Maybe another day she will understand what it means to not look so perfect.