THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR.
Powder slammed her bedroom door shut behind her as she stormed into her bedroom, the various models, robots, and the cases holding her treasured fossils, crystals, and shells on the nearby shelf rattled from the force.
The noise of her siblings and āfriendsā downstairs stilled as they heard the slam echo throughout the house, but nobody made a move to investigate the sound.
āThey would have to actually give a shit about you to do that,ā the voice, in her head, sneered nastily at Powder.
The girl brushed it off this time as she went over to her computer to boot it up. As she logged in, breathing deeply to slow down the breakdown that she could feel building up, she could hear the sound of the front door banging shut. Powder stood up from her computer and went over to her window looking out over the street.
Outside she watched as her stepbrothers and sister piled into their cars with their respective girlfriends. With Ekko and Zeri entering Viās stupid, four-door, red pickup. All on their way to their couples-only day out at Piltoverās newly opened theme park.
The very one she had been begging her siblings to go to with her for the past three weeks, the one they had all been full of excuses about on how they might not be able to go, the one that Caitlyn āBitchfaceā Kirraman had got everyone tickets for. Everyone but her.
Vi had explained how they had just got so worked up in their excitement at the idea of a day-long double-double date at a theme park, that they didn't think that Powder would even want to go.
āYeah, because when someone doesnāt want to go somewhere they tend to beg to go for three weeks,ā and even though the voice was nothing but a figment of Powderās imagination, she could almost see it roll its eyes at the audacity from her sister.
āWe thought you might be uncomfortable,ā Vi had lamely stated, whilst rubbing the back of her neck, something she tends to do when sheās struggling to come up with a plausible lie. Powder knew her sister well enough to know that she was just making excuses, so that her picture perfect girlfriend wouldnāt look bad.
Staring down at the street, she watched as the cars pulled out of the driveway, for a split second she thought Ekko might have been looking up at her from the car, with something she wished could be regret on his behalf, but scoffed at the thought.
āWhy would he feel regret? Itās not like heās cheating on you,ā the voice sneered, but she could swear she also heard a note of melancholy in its disembodied tone āhe only ignored and avoided you, so that he could get his rocks off with Tits McGee.ā
Powder took a deep, shaky breath through her nose, her fists clenching at the unbidden reminder.
Ekko, and Zeri in retrospect, have used any excuse they could to avoid spending time with her as of late, too busy with homework, too busy with the community centre they volunteer at with their families, too busy with their other friends who find Powder too weird to be around because she like sharks, and robots, and- āblah blah blah.. Insert reason here. Does anyone really need a reason to hate you?ā
She feels stupid now for agonising over why for the past month, and making excuses on their behalf when the truth was there in her face this whole time.
They had abandoned her, just like everyone else seems to be doing lately.
They had gotten bored of constantly reassuring her that they liked being around her, had gotten sick of listening to her woes, and got tired of her being too āchildishā as Zeri had been claiming more and more lately. Powder had chalked those comments from her ābestieā as her just playing around. But that, clearly, was not the case.
She had developed a massive crush on Ekko recently and had tried to stuff down the feelings as best she could. Ultimately she couldnāt deny it anymore, she had hoped to tell him at some point, once she had worked up the courage.
She had told nobody.
Nobody, but Zeri.
āBackstabber,ā the voice bitterly and crudely spat.
She hadnāt even told Vi, but considering how more and more consistently hot and cold her sister had become towards her as of late that was, sadly, unsurprising
When Ekko had started pulling back from her, she had feared that Zeri had let something slip but the green haired girl had promised up and down that she hadnāt breathed a word to him, and Powder had trusted her because Zeri had always been reliable and honest.
When Zeri had insisted that she was working on a community services project with Ekko because her parents and Benzo had volunteered their time, and would use the opportunity to gauge whether there was a chance he would return Powderās sentiments, the blue haired teen had trusted her friend.
When she saw all the hugs, and touches, and easygoing smiles between the two, she had swallowed that ugly, ugly, jealousy clawing its way up her throat from the very depths, back down and cursed herself for being such a horrible person to think badly of her friend.
And when Vi had announced they were going on a couples day out and had invited HER friends, POWDERāS FRIENDS!, she wanted to believe that Vi had simply misinterpreted things between the two.
But the guilty looks on Zeri and Ekkoās faces coupled with the looks Mylo and Claggor had exchanged like they were waiting for her to Jinx Out, a term Mylo had been proud to coin whenever Powder would have a breakdown or tantrum.
āI like to think of it as not taking anyone's shit,ā muttered the voice, petulantly.
Powder had to face the truth, once and for all. No matter how crippling lonely it was.
Ekko didnāt return her sentiments, Zeri couldnāt be trusted, and everyone just didnāt want her around, and none of them had any problem with ripping her heart out and stomping all over it.
āAnd Caitlynās a bitch. Knew she had it out for you,ā Powder hated when the voice was smug.
She had wanted to rage right there and then in that entryway, in front of her siblings girlfriends, she wanted to slap the smirk off that bitches face that she was trying to poorly hide by pursing her lips and looking at the floor to hell how it would make her sister feel, she wanted to rip out Zeriās hair and call her a traitor, and she had even wanted to kick Milo in his shin despite the fact he hadnāt done anything wrongā¦ This time.
The voice, only she could hear, was screaming what Powder wished she had the guts to scream, she wanted to call every single one of them out and curse them to kingdom come. But, ultimately, Powder had just felt numb to it all.
Why bother? Theyāll just brush it off as another temper tantrum, and, really, do they even care if they hurt her anymore? If they ever did.
Rather than losing her shit, rather than crying in front of them all, rather than exposing her fragile heart anymore than they had already been trusted to and still chose to tapdance all over.
Powder had simply chosen to turn around and go back upstairs, ignoring Viās pathetic attempts to āapologiseā with her classic āIāll make it up to you later Pow Pow, I promiseā that she never truly ever bothers to keep.
āSheāll come back later all puppy eyed, promising that she never meant to hurt you and she feels soooooooooooooo sad for making you sad. And try to make it up to you with a promise to watch all those shark documentaries that you've watched thousands of times while you spew out any and all shark, and fish facts you know, and because youāre just happy to have any kind of company, youāll forgive her and then after a few days of undivided attention towards you sheāll go right back to ignoring you for Princess Pretty Pilty and the cycle will begin again,ā The voice angrily huffed, Powder could almost hear the sound of it tapping its foot against her hardwood floor in utter frustration.
Powder grabs two fistfuls of her shoulder length hair, pulling until it hurts, hoping the pain will stave off the incoming migraine she could feel scratching at the tippy top of her skull.
Releasing her hair, distantly acknowledging the stands of azure strands clinging to her fingers, she tudges back over to her computer and sits down in her desk chair, idly moving the mouse to wake the screen from its slumber, but only stared at the screen in front of her as she tried to remember why she bothered turning the damn thing on to begin with.
āProbably because this is the procedure whenever you get fucked over. You boot up the computer, beg Little Man to play a few hours of Minecraft with you whilst you sob about how unfair everything is, then feel all warm and fuzzy when he listens and tells you you're amazing and heās lucky to have you in his life. And then you can forget your worries because even if the others shun you at least youāll always have Ekko,ā The voice recounts for her, the bitterness and borderline disdain that has been present up till then absent, as something dangerously close to being sympathetic bleeds through its tone.
She could almost feel its presence standing beside her, barely touching her bare shoulder, as if to subconsciously comfort her.
And just how pathetic do you have to be when your imaginary frenemy even feels bad for you?
Thatās when a sound mixed between a wet sob and incredulous laugh rips its way out Powderās throat, the action opening the floodgates, and the sixteen year old finds herself sliding from her chair and curled up in the floor, her arms wrapped around her midsection in a desperate attempt to hold in all her sorrows at the unfairness of it all, and wailed into the floor.
It just wasnāt fair.
āIf only you werenāt starved for their love,ā the voice unhelpfully supplied.
Suddenly, Powder stopped crying, breathing deeply. Her forehead touching the wooden floor.
āPowderā
Slowly the girl pushed herself to her feet, her eyes staring blankly at the floor.
āPoooooowderā
She sits down in the chair, her arms draped limply over the armrest. Lazily she pushes her chair around, until she is facing the large mirror leaning against the corner by her bedroom window.
āPOWDER!ā
āIām tiredā
āWhat?ā
But Powder doesnāt answer. She closes her eyes and when they open again it isnāt her.
Jinx looks over at the mirror across from her, contemplating the image of the girl lying on the floor, facing away from her where a reflection should be.
Jinx stands up from the chair and takes the few short steps over to the mirror. So that sheās standing in front of it.
Jinx stares down at Powder as she mopes on the other side of the reflection. She scrunches her nose and lifts a finger up to the surface of the looking glass, daintily tapping the tip of her pointer against the smooth surface.
Tap tap tapā¦
But Powder doesnāt stir.
āSeriously?ā Speaking felt really, really, really weird.
Powder still doesnāt stir.
Jinx blinks and Powder is gone. Staring back at her was Powderās visage.
Short, and skinny, with shoulder length blue hair, with freckles sprinkled across a slightly crooked nose. Courtesy of Vi and her bitch mittens.
She wore a pair of pink overalls over a sleeveless, purple tank top.
Jinx looked exactly like sweet, vulnerable Powder.
However instead of brilliant blue, innocent eyes.
Bright, magenta ones stared back at her.
Jinx huffed out a small laugh.
Well thatās gonna take some explaining.
