Tragically Beautiful

Chapter 1: One Of Those Mistakes

*Characters on tb_theofficialhally Instagram account*

"Ally dear, Look outside your window!" my mother shouts excitedly next to me. I groggily rub my eyes and look up as she carefully maneuvers the car into a parking space much too small for our boxy Jeep.

The campus courtyard is already swarmed, students checking in at the tables set up in front of huge oak doors, kids running around in circles with suitcases tumbling out of their arms and hands. Trash and papers litter the sidewalk as if there's already been some kind of frat party or wild outdoor mixer. Mothers are crying and hugging (I'd call it suffocating) their sons and daughters, and of course the fathers are giving the boys who are staring at their daughter's ass the ultimate Death Glare.

I already see the look of concern etched across my mother's face as she steps out of the car, her scrunity forming a small frown on her lips that tells me she's already conjuring up a plan to convince me to transfer once I'm through with the first semester. I silently laugh to myself as she teeters around on her 5-inch wedge sandals looking for a staff member to check me in. She's wearing a bright yellow sundress that hugs her thin figure a little too tightly for being surrounded by hormonal teenage boys. Her dark hair falls neatly around her face, hazel eyes narrowed as she struts around, hand over her eyes to block the sun's harsh rays. I never really thought that my mother and I looked alike, but if there was one thing that we did have in common, it was the long, unruly and hardly tamable brown hair that she had so generously passed onto me. At family gatherings or picnics, my family much too often had mistaken her for me or vice versa, and it nearly swayed me to cut it all off because I wanted to be nothing like her.

And watching her now only reminds me of the horrifying reality that I will look exactly like her in twenty-some years.

"That's your future right there," my sister Carson remarks with a mocking smirk as she points to our mother embarrassing herself in front of a group of older guys eyeing her up. I scoff at her as I step out of the crowded Jeep and take in my surroundings. I immediately zero in on a girl holding a giant teddy bear. She is wearing a blue button-down shirt and a long, pleated skirt with Mary Janes. The teddy bear is obviously from her equally-as-goody-good-perfect boyfriend who is adorning a cardigan with khakis and loafers. A wide smile stretches across her face as she throws her arms around her boyfriend, and I suddenly find myself smiling at them. And then, the sickening churling begins its torment in the pit of my stomach.

"Over here Al!" My mother grabs my hand and practically drags me over to the tables, distracting me from my pitiful thoughts. I look to Carson for help but she's already chatting up a tall blonde with bright blue eyes.

"Allyson Kingsley," my mother says proudly to the girl, and I cringe at the use of my full name. The girl checking me in looks no older than me, maybe about twenty or twenty-one. She furrows her brow as her pen glides down the list of names, her face suddenly lighting up as she finds my name.

"Belk Hall, Room 313! " she says enthusiastically with a wide and dazzling smile. I give her a fake smile as I take the room key from her hand. "Thanks," I mutter while grabbing Carson by the hair and dragging her away from her gorgeous blue-eyed boy. She glares at me once I let go.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Stop flirting your ass off and come help me," I sneer. She rolls her eyes at me and, not to my surprise, picks up the smallest bag I brought.

After hauling my bags halfway across the campus and through a maze of hallways, we finally reach my dorm room. I don't even knock as I walk in to find a girl already unpacked, lying across her bed. There's music blasting from her headphones and she's wearing black studded combat boots. She catches my lingering shadow in the doorway and slides her headphones off her ears.