Her Lovely Scar

Prologue

I sat by the pool at my cousin’s, Nichole’s house on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Our moms were somewhere inside making small talk. Nichole and I just lay by the pool; while Nichole kept whining about how prettier I was compared to her. I kept myself from rolling my eyes at her, because I didn’t want to be rude. But she just kept going and going.

She pointed out that I had prettier hair, with my dark colored long hair, compared to her red fierce locks. It wasn’t true, her hair was beautiful. She had beautiful blue eyes, but she wanted my green so called “emerald” colored eyes. She hated how she couldn’t get a tan, while my skin practically glowed in its sun kissed way.

She never seems to realize that she’s beautiful in her own way. I got my hair color from my mom and my eyes from my dad. Nichole’s hair color was from her dad, and her eyes from her mom. I’m only tan because I spend most of my days out in the sun, while she spends most of her time in doors.

I find it totally stupid to talk about how much you want to change your appearance. Especially when you’re only 14 years old. Well, Nichole’s 14, I’m 13. She always holds that one year above my head like a fish line.

As I look at Nichole as she talks, I get that usual pain in my stomach. I think some might call it guilt. I’ve been keeping a really big secret from her, and it hurts to keep it. I know it would hurt her, and completely change her life, so that’s why I don’t say anything.

My mother had once told me about how she fell in love with the wrong man. It was her sister’s ex-boyfriend. My Aunt Clare once dated a guy, got pregnant with his child, but never married him. She named their baby Nichole. A year later, my mom fell in love with the same man, and she too got pregnant by him. She named the baby Raven. That’s me. So my cousin and I are really half-sisters. So now you realize how much of a secret I keep.

I’ve wanted to tell Nichole, but I knew it would hurt her. Aunt Clare never told Nichole about our dad. She had married a wealthy man, with lots of money to support them. Nichole believes the man she calls “Daddy” now, is her actual father. Who am I to take that away from her?

My mom never got married, and only told me because she believes I had the right to know who my father is. She knew I could keep this secret, and had told me that it was the same man who fathered Nichole. Because of this man, my mother never finished high school, so we live on “The bad side of town”. Aunt Clare has offered some loans to us, but my mom is too stubborn and thick headed to take anyone’s money unless she’s earned it.

“Raven are you listening?” Nichole called. I blinked a few times to regain my thoughts.

“Sorry. What?” I asked. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“I’m going to go get some lemonade.” She said. I simply nodded. She got up and skipped back inside the house. I got up and walked over to the edge of the pool.

“Excuse me.” I looked up to find Ethan, the pool boy looking at me. Ethan was tall, around 16 years old, with brown cropped hair and a nice tan with toned muscles. He looked pretty cute, but Nichole had a huge crush on him, so I had to keep my hands off.

“Hi Ethan.” I greeted him. He looked around as if searching for something. Or someone. “She went back inside.” I said. His face turned a little pink. It was so obvious that he liked Nichole. It was practically written across his forehead.

“Who?” he asked, trying to play it cool.

“You know who.” I teased. His face turned a bit pinker. I giggled at him as he began to walk away. I felt really bad and followed him to apologize.

“I’m sorry, that was mean of me.” I said, following him into the shed. He turned to look at me, a little grin on his face.

“How did you know?” he asked. I smiled back and shrugged.

“Lucky guess.” I replied. He chuckled at me. A sudden idea popped into my mind. “You know, her birthday is coming up.” I said. He nodded, already knowing. “Would you like to go?” I asked. He turned to me shocked.

“She didn’t invite me though. I don’t even think she knows I exist.” He said. I laughed and shook my head. Boy was he ever wrong.

“But I know her, and she would love it if you came.” I said. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head. “I’ll even put in a good word for you.” I added. He smiled widely at me. “Maybe you guy could even,” before I even finished my sentence he hugged me tightly. Stunned at first, I just laughed.

“Thank you. So much.” He said, and kissed my cheek. I giggled as he pulled back. We stared at each other for a few seconds, but then it got awkward. Thank God his cell phone went off. He answered it quickly, said a few yes’s and nodded, then hung up.

“I have to go, but you’ll still talk to her?” he asked. I nodded, and watched as he left. I laughed and shook my head, and began to walk out of the shed when someone walked in front of me. I sighed in relief when I realized it was Nichole.

“Hey, I was just coming to find you.” I said. She glared at me though, which confused me.

“Why? So you could gloat in my face about how you stole the guy I like?” she asked. I arched an eye brow in confusion.

“Say what?”

“I saw Ethan kiss you!” She shouted. Then it hit me. Oh crap.

“No! No. No. No. He didn’t kiss me; I mean he did, but only on the cheek.” I tried to explain, but failed.

“How could you do that to me?” she asked, sounding really hurt.

“Nichole it’s not like that.” I said. She picked up something off the shelf, looking really hurt and angry. “Believe me, it’s not what you think.”

“Liar!” she shouted, and threw it at me. I realized it was a jug full of pool cleaning chemical. It splashed on me as I tried to back up, but some of it hit my face.

As soon as it hit me I felt burning pain on the entire left side of my face. I screamed out in pain and dropped to the floor, clutching my face. I could practically hear the skin sizzle off my face. It hurt so badly, that I couldn’t help but scream. It felt like my face was burning itself off.

I screamed again, and felt the familiar embrace of my mom’s arms. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital. The doctors told me that I would have a major and severe scar. I didn’t think it would be that bad, but when I looked in the mirror, I knew it was. The whole left side of my face was red, raw, bumpy, and fleshy. I looked like a monster.