The Bitter One

He smiled but it didn't seem to touch his eyes...

The reflection in the mirror shows the broken soul of a young man growing up in world where the color of your skin defined who you are. The reflection looks back at him and whispers, “I guess you know from the smiles and the look in their eyes everyone’s got a theory about the bitter one.”Chris has been here in this position before with himself, talking to himself and even answering himself. He knew even as a kid that something was wrong with him; I mean no one wanted him. “I know what they are saying…” he throws water onto his face to hide the tears forming behind his brown eyes. He hates looking into the mirror because his reflection always shows the truth. That is probably why he got rid of all the mirrors in his apartment, all but one. 

“They’re saying, your mother never loved you much and your father was never around to give a damn,” His reflection quirked its lips in anticipation of Chris’ reacting in a negative way. But not this time, this time the young man just walked away from the mirror in the bathroom and made his way into the living room where he stopped to look out the window to the street below where kids were playing basketball. He envied all the kids in his neighborhood growing up, only because they seemed happy and he was not.

At least their smiles touched their eyes...