Homecoming Dress

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My dress was the rich green of the pine trees

With vines and leaves adorned with sequences

that shimmered when the light hit.


I stared at my reflection,

Becoming acquainted with this new girl.

She smiles at me.

We're beautiful she whispers,

Hope swelling in my chest

With this newfound feeling of beauty.


I walk out of my room with my chin high

And a skip in my step.

My parents turn as they hear

The clacking of my heels against the hardwood.


I smile at them.

They don't smile back,

Instead, their eyebrows crease with worry

And their mouths sink into a frown.


It's awfully short, my mother says.

It's not very appropriate, my father echoes.

Their voices blend in

a cacophony of disagreements

Yet I can't hear that one desired phrase.


I turn and return to the mirror

Where the girl has now wilted,

All her beauty was drained by

Their words now jabbed into her heart.


I just wanted them to say I was beautiful

She says, voice barely above a whisper.

That's all I wanted, to be told I'm beautiful.

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