Wish Upon a Star [a short story]

I DID say I was going to dedicate this to the first person to comment, so it's dedicated to RavenDayHaul! Check out her stories!

*RECENTLY EDITED*

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“Do you think this is okay?” Joey held a purple dress to her chest, staring at it with sadness clear in her eyes. How she wanted to have the courage to wear it. Her dark eyes glanced up at her best friend, Pauly. She heaved a sigh of regret and longing. "You know what? I’m not wearing it. I’m just going to school anyway, and it’s not like anyone would notice a nobody like me." Her small voice broke as she considered another outfit to wear for the next day. Yet, Pauly did not respond.

He never did.

Joey angrily flung the dress across the room. It floated lightly like a feather and landed gracefully on her bed.

"I wish he would notice me. That anyone would notice me." she murmured whilst rubbing her eyes with the palms of her hands. Feelings of sadness and regret rushed through her. She had always passed by him unnoticed. She wished every night that one day when she passed Frankie -a freshman like her that she has had a crush on since the eighth grade, in the hallway- he would spare her a glance, or at least notice her staring at him in English Literature. Surely he could feel her gaze boring into the back of his head. But she was simply invisible to him, and to everyone, for that matter. Joey hated how easily she blended in with the crowd. She always had the urge to stand out, be different. But something within her always squished those wishes and left her helpless.

The fifteen-year-old girl walked across the small room and plopped herself on her single bed. The mattress was so soft that Joey’s body dipped into it a good two inches. She liked it that way. She remained on the narrow bed for a while with her hair splayed all around her head in a frizzy black halo. In confusion, her face contorted, her eyebrows pulling together while her nose crinkled; she could not understand how life worked. What she didn't know was that nobody knew how it worked.

Pauly remained silent, not a whisper leaving his mouth. He leant on a set of fuzzy blue and green pillows,  staring with those beady eyes Joey. His expression was always vacant.

Joey turned her head towards Pauly, her eyes once again longing. They glimmered like two polished onyxes. “I just wish you could talk, Pauly. That way I can have someone to talk to that actually has the ability to say something back.” A humorless laugh bubbled out of her lips, as sudden as a volcano erupting. “I think I’m going crazy.” she announced and shook her head, her narrow nose twitching as well as her plump pink lips. “I’m actually talking to a stuffed animal!”

Yes, Pauly was indeed a stuffed animal. A teddy bear, to be more exact, that Joey loved more than life itself and would never replace for anything in the world. Pauly had been a gift Joey received from her grandmother at the tender age of six. Love at first sight was what it was. She took Pauly everywhere - even school, although no one knew that. That would be the end of her social life. If she actually had one, that is.

To Joey, Pauly was her everything: Her family, her haven. Her only friend. Pauly was the last thing she received from her grandma before she passed away. Her grandma was the closest family member to her heart and Pauly was the only thing she had to remember her by. And, besides, her grandma told her to take care of it and to never throw it away no matter what. Though the request was odd at the time and a bit demanding, she accepted the teddy bear wholeheartedly.

Joey had never gotten along well with her parents. Her mother and father had gotten a divorce when she was little, and since then a little hole had formed in her fragile heart that had proceeded to increase in size over the years. Her father earned custody of her, while her mother earned custody of Jordan, her big brother. Years had passed in a slow monotonous slur, while Joey remained the same - closed off.