youth.

cant trust yourself

Brown hair, brown eyes, rounded nose, pretty lips. 

These features were ones that Uras Shephard had never paid much attention to. Her face had never really caught anyone's attention, and it had never caught hers either. 

But here she was, two months into seventh grade and gazing into a mirror, eyes glazing over every imperfection, every minuscule flaw. 

She suddenly hated the small patch of acne lining the space between her eyebrows, how her cheeks were maybe too chubby, how her nose was too big of a feature on her face. All the things that people loved about her, she didn't. 

Uras knew that she had been infected by a deadly plague. It would consume every young boy and girl from the inside-out, tear them apart and put them back together. Already were symptoms starting to show. She had thought the worst was over after she fell in love, dated, and broke up, but now she was close to her 13th birthday.

From the minute she had woken up this morning, she had known something was off. Her stomach felt a little emptier than usual, her mind a little more awake, and when she looked in the mirror to brush her hair, she suddenly wanted to hide. 

She loathed herself.

 Her face seemed so ugly, body too fat. 

She tugged on her clothes, trying to arrange them in a way that would make her look better. It didn't seem to work. Uras reached into a pouch she thought she would only use for special occasions, and pulled out her makeup. Leaning over the counter, she tried to accent her eyes with eyeliner and added lipstick.

After deciding it was enough of a change to make her look pretty, she swung the bathroom door open, tugged on her shoes, and headed off to school.