Rejection

Too Blind

What you see, they can't. What they can, you will never be able to. 

  No one liked Emily. She didn’t know why because no one would tell her. Day after day in school, everyone would avoid her as if she was some kind of plague. The girls wouldn’t want to play with her, and the boys wouldn’t want to talk to her. Emily wished she had a friend, just like any other girl her age would. Of course, that didn’t happen. There was nothing Emily could do, could she? She had tried everything already.

  You don’t believe her? Well, she did try being just like them. She would wear her hair in two pigtails, like the girls in her class did, and wear pink frilly dresses. That didn’t work. So, she changed her tactic. She tried to be like the boys and wear pants, sports shoes, and she even cut her blond hair short, but that didn’t work either. They just didn’t like her, and Emily couldn’t understand why. Why couldn’t they see that all she wanted from them was their friendship? Why couldn’t they see her pain, or the rejection she felt? Were they just too blind?

Emily was lonely. So, she turned to her storybooks for comfort. Emily had always loved reading since she was a child, and she read so much that she had thick glasses at the tender age of six, and her Mama declared her impossible. The books were the reason why she had no friends, her Mama would complain to her Papa at night. Emily would overhear, and she would bury her face in her pillows so they couldn’t hear her sobbing.

What her Mama didn’t know was that Emily wouldn’t have read so much, if she had friends in the first place. Emily never liked her glasses, and she actually told herself that if she stopped reading, maybe she wouldn’t need to wear those irritating spectacles forever and ever. However, she never did have any friends, so the books were all she had to take away the loneliness. While the other girls were busy playing dress up and making tiaras out of flowers, she sat by the old oak tree and read. While the boys were scuffling in the dirt, she sat by the edge of the pavement and read. While her Mama and Papa were drinking their coffee and reading their morning paper, she would sit at the breakfast table and read.

Emily always dreamed that she could go into her books. She wished she could turn into a pirate and sail the seven seas. She would have her own crew that would love her, and talk to her everyday as friends. She wished she could be a mermaid princess, and live underwater with the merfolk as her friends. She wished she could be Sleeping Beauty, because she had fairies who blessed her. She wished she could be Cinderella, for even Cinderella had mice friends who loved her, and helped her.

Every time she opened her book, Emily wished. She wished so hard, that sometimes, it would hurt so badly. Of course, her wishes would never come true. How could they, when they were all fairytales?

One day, Emily was sitting underneath the shade of a tree, reading a book when she heard some of the girls talking by the side. Curious to hear their conversation, she closed her book, inching a little closer to hear them.

“You are going to get glasses?” Melody, one of the girls, asked Tina.

“Yes. My Mama said I can’t see properly, and those glasses would help me,” Tina sounded scared.

“Oh.” Emily could hear some whispering.

“Well, Tina, since you’re getting glasses, I don’t think I can friend you anymore,” Melody said.

“B-but why?” Tina started to cry.

“You have glasses, so you look ugly. So, we’re not friends.”

Emily felt shocked. They are not going to friend Tina just because she started wearing glasses? Then, what about her? Oh. So that’s why they never liked her. They never liked her because she wore glasses. Emily felt her chest constricting as she felt the tears come up. So, all she needed to do was to stop reading, so she would some day not wear glasses? Was that possible? Emily took out her glasses and rubbed her eyes.

Yes, it will be possible. She was only eight years old. If she stopped reading now, she will probably get her eyesight back, right? In fact, she thought, I’m going to start now. She placed her glasses on the ground beside her book and stood up unsteadily.

Emily couldn’t see anything. It was all a blur. She took a few unsteady steps forward, feeling the slightly happy that she was still on her feet. She could definitely make it across the road to her Mama without falling. She would then tell her how she would never wear glasses again!

 Of course, that would never happen.

Emily made her way to the traffic light, feeling pleased with her progress. She would have her friends in no time now.. She squinted at the lights. It should be green. She stepped out onto the road smiling, until she heard the loud horn blare of a truck. She screamed.

The traffic light had showed red.