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SEVEN DOOMSDAY
( APRIL 'O4 )
IT WAS A RUNNING joke in the Fuller family: Try to deny Mallory anything and it'll become her hearts desire. Growing up, prime examples had been molded from the usual fancies of a little girl who usually never denied a thing. Her silhouette was carved out from a girl who wanted to put on glitter rain boots every day, who wished to eat nothing but homemade fries for weeks, who belted the Little Mermaid songs as she pirouetted around her house and forced her brothers to lift her up as if it was choreographed as such. Nowadays, the things denied to Mallory are not so fairytale and less within reach. She can still ache to wear rain boots everyday except now they're a scuffed brown, glitter-free, all to match with the variants of white/green/navy blouses she loves. The long skirts and variants of denim she likes to cling to her body are just a closet away. Sometimes, she still catches herself humming Part of Your World under her breath. Other times she's singing Vanessa's Trick and those are the days that she feels the most atypical.
Gone is the denial of childish things.
Now, Mallory takes what she can.
She'll take little things, temporary things that make her happy now over something larger that will cement the feeling in the long run. Things that make her feel like she still has at least one hand on the wheel of her life. She can't wait for the relief of knowing what she's being kept from — she'll take the little things, even if she knows it's bad, even if it's a member of a family that her grandfather blames for all the change around them.
Even if it goes against what her bones tell her.
Still, Mallory chooses her little victories. Her glimpses of happiness bloom in times like this — with Edward Cullen, as they are parked behind the school, in his shiny black Volvo. He picked her up at the end of her street earlier, Mallory waiting for him at the stop sign feeling prickles all over her body. They were still in the car, the radio playing some soft song while they waited for the rain to die down. She knew her breathing was quickening. When was the last time she felt like this? It wasn't with Mike.
