Waxing Gibbous

Revealing (A)

Rosalie smiled slightly before her face took on a serious expression. "I lived in a different world than you, My human world was a much simpler place. It was nineteen thirty-three. I was eighteen, and I was beautiful. My life was perfect."

She stared out the window, I gently squeezed her hand and held back from telling her she was still beautiful, she knew it, but I was worried it might have something to do with the story.

"My parents were thoroughly middle class. My father had a stable job in a bank, something I realize now that he was smug about — he saw his prosperity as a reward for talent and hard work, rather than acknowledging the luck involved. I took it all for granted then; in my home, it was as if the Great Depression was only a troublesome rumor. Of course, I saw the poor people, the ones who weren't as lucky. My father left me with the impression that they'd brought their troubles on themselves. It was my mother's job to keep our house — and myself and my two younger brothers — in spotless order. It was clear that I was both her first priority and her favorite. I didn't fully understand at the time, but I was always vaguely aware that my parents weren't satisfied with what they had, even if it was so much more than most. They wanted more. They had social aspirations — social climbers, I suppose you could call them. My beauty was like a gift to them. They saw so much more potential in it than I did."

I held back a growl, how could someone use their daughter like that... that's the way it was before my people didn't feel that way, they were far more matriarchal probably why they didn't fit with the human society.

"They weren't satisfied, but I was. I was thrilled to be me, to be Rosalie Hale. Pleased that men's eyes watched me everywhere I went, from the year I turned twelve. Delighted that my girlfriends sighed with envy when they touched my hair. Happy that my mother was proud of me and that my father liked to buy me pretty dresses. I knew what I wanted out of life, and there didn't seem to be any way that I wouldn't get exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be loved, to be adored. I wanted to have a huge, flowery wedding, where everyone in town would watch me walk down the aisle on my father's arm and think I was the most beautiful thing they'd ever seen. Admiration was like air to me. I was silly and shallow, but I was content." She smiled, amused at her own evaluation.

Little did she know I planned to give her everything she wanted, to be loved, adored and a beautiful wedding even if I have to go to the ends of the earth to find someone willing to marry us.

"My parents' influence had been such that I also wanted the material things of life. I wanted a big house with elegant furnishings that someone else would clean and a modern kitchen that someone else would cook in. As I said, shallow. Young and very shallow. And I didn't see any reason why I wouldn't get these things. There were a few things I wanted that were more meaningful. One thing in particular. My very close friend was a girl named Vera. She married young, just seventeen. She married a man my parents would never have considered for me — a carpenter. A year later she had a son, a beautiful little boy with dimples and curly black hair. It was the first time I'd ever felt truly jealous of anyone else in my entire life"

She looked at me with unfathomable eyes.

"It was a different time. I was the same age..." she paused before shaking her head a small smile on her lips "I was older than you, but I was ready for it all. I yearned for my own little baby. I wanted my own house and a husband who would kiss me when he got home from work — just like Vera. Only I had a very different kind of house in mind..."

I didn't have a hard time imagining the world she lived in, I was a lot like her. Wealthy family, I always had everything I could want, obviously it wasn't about my looks or clothes but when it came to what I enjoyed I always had open access to them. I wondered how difficult it must have been for her to see the world change so drastically but not her.