Rise to the top

Just a normal day

The beeping of the alarm woke Ava up, dragging her from the wonderful dream she was having. She groans and tries to go back to sleep, as it isn't very often she gets to enjoy good dreams, usually she wakes up sobbing and covered in a cold sweat from the real life nightmare she had to live through 2 years ago.

With that thought now in her head she kicks the covers off and climbs out of bed, no desire to go back to sleep now.

As she goes into the bathroom to get ready for school she can't keep the small smile from slipping onto her lips. She can't help remembering her dream, she was backstage at the Aiden Masters concert, she and Aiden where laughing and then he was leaning in closer, his eyes lowering to glance at her lips, it was as their lips were about to touch that the alarm very rudely snapped her from the promise of a wonderful dream.

Ava took a few moments to study her appearance in the bathroom mirror, she had her mothers dark brown/black shiny locks, but whereas her mother wore her hair just brushing her shoulders Ava's hair was at her waist. She had been growing it for years and even now when her beautiful long curls constantly got in the way, she still couldn't bring herself to get her hair cut, it just seemed like such a wast to chop it all off after it had taken years to grow.

Next she came to her eyes, Ava both loved and hated her eyes, she got her eyes from her father, the only thing apart from her natural golden tan and an old tattered picture that she had from him. Which was why she hated her eyes, every time she looked in the mirror they were a constant reminder of her dad and how much he hurt her but most of all how much he hurt her mom.

They were such an unusual shade of blue, so light that they stood out with her dark hair and tanned complexion but also so deep you could get lost in them, they were almost hypnotising. Her lips were perfectly formed for her face, a rosy red in colour and they had the perfect curve whenever she smiled.

Ava was always self conscious of her appearance, she never believes her mom and Sarah when they constantly tell her she is gorgeous, she didn't take compliments well.

Ava didn't think people would be able to see past her scars, they were hideous to her.

Thinking of her scars she slowly turned around and lifted her tank top up so she could see her back in the mirror, she cringed and closed her eyes as she caught sight of her scarred back. She fought against the oncoming panic she felt and slowly counted to 10 and calmed her breathing down, as she slowly opened her eyes again she couldn't help thinking that the tattoo she got to cover up the worst of the scars did a good job of disguising them.

Ava's mom allowed her to get the tattoo just over a year ago, actually it was her idea, she could tell that the scars embarrassed Ava and brought up terrible memories, plus a tattoo was much cheaper than a skin graft, much less painful too.

Her mom took her to the tattoo studio, helped choose a design, signed the permission slip and paid the tattoo artist, she was the best mom in the world.

The tattoo was there to cover up a horrible memory not to show off to the world, so even though it was a beautiful pice of art and Ava loved the design she still kept it covered as much as she could.

It started very low on her back, below her underwear line and like ivy growing up the side of a house it wound round her back and sides covering any scars along its path, it continued its journey over her shoulder blades to the top of her back and finished by resting at the nape of her neck.

The tattoo artist had put some beautiful leaves and small budding flowers on the intricate vine design, I insisted it be done in black and grey though, I didn't want any bright, happy colours to cover up the memory, it seemed wrong somehow, and I didn't want to smile whenever I caught a glance in the mirror or if someone else saw it I didn't want to have to give them a closer look.