Of course, while the other girls at my school drove Porches and bought Coach bags, I was working at Nandos with minumum wage.
It was summer and I was honestly pissed. I was 16, got good grades and not to be cocky, but I wasn't bad looking. But still, my parents decided that I would drive to the Nandos in Mullingar Square every day at 8:00 in the morning and drive back myself at 7:00 at night. Are you freaking kidding me?! Did they want me to have no social like whatsoever? I tried to vent to my friends, but none of them understood because they were too busy having fun. So much for friends always being there for you. I sighed and climbed in my cute little Mazda, which was the only thing my parents bought me that I was happy with. I had carried all my makeup into the car and took a deep breath. I pulled down the mirror and put a little concealor on the bags under my eyes. I then rolled on some eye de-puffer and mascara. I dusted some blush on and shut the mirror. Lately, I had been so stressed that I hadn't gotten any sleep.
Remembering back to my younger days, I craddled my head in my hands and let the tears leak from my eyes. I had a lot of breakdowns, but please not before work! There was a hot guy who worked at Nandos and he was the only good part of my job!
When I was 14, I was bullied becasue people called me fat. When I walked down the hall, everyone would laugh at my face. Every night, I would go home and stand in front of the mirror for hours and stare at my reflection. I felt every bit as ugly as they told me I was. Flat nose. Big thighs. Weird butt. Awkward boobs. Big cheeks. I cried myself to sleep and told my mom that nothing was wrong. But, slowly, I realized that there was a way to so-called, "solve", my problem. I made myself throw up in the toilet after every meal. So, by the time I was 15, I was bulhimic. I got skinnier even skinnier. Suddenly, I began throwing up too much. I lost my little ounce of self-esteem and from there on, I went downhill. I missed school a bunch and felt guilty drinking even a sip of milk. Then, I finally hit rock-bottom one day in the spring. I collapsed on the sidewalk and was taken to the hospital. I had starved myself for too long and was now malnutritious. My hair was beginning to fall out little by little and my face was sunken in. I spent my days in the hospital crying. The nurses forced food down my throat and I finally began to get better. When I turned 16, my life began to adjust to normal. My hair gained shape as did my body. Boys started looking at me differently and it was actually quite confidence-boosting. I began to have friends and became a tiny bit popular. I was the happiest I had been in forever. From then on, my life had stayed like that up until now.
But, the week before this, my parents had decided to get a divorce. They always fought and I knew it was leading there. That's why I was stressed out now. Well, it was a long story, but I think the depression was coming back. I was back with the psychiatrist and was slowly getting better. I put a fake smile on my face and heard "U Smile" by Justin Beiber. Awww, I wasn't a Belieber but I had to admit, his songs were the sweetest. I thought about the hot guy who worked at Nandos named 'Drew' and suddenly a real smile lit up on my face.
This was going to be a good day.
That's what I thought until my car broke down. Really?! Gahhhh, I had finally gathered my wits and now I could smell gas coming from the hood. I screamed, "AHHHHHH!" and pushed the door open. My flowly, white top stuck to my skin in the heat and my short shorts were beginning to feel sweaty. I opened the hood and stared at the parts of the car. I saw people looking at me as they walked by and pretended to know what I was doing but I had no idea. Why didn't they just replace Math class with How-To-Fix-Your-Car-Class. That was way more beneficial anyways.... I remembered my best friend, Tori's phrase for everything, "When something doesn't go your way just kick it." Thus, I began to litteraly kick the car. Screw this thing! I began to see a small dent forming and started panicking. Omigosh! I just kicked a dent into my new car!
I turned around to look for some help and instead got distracted by a cute, blond guy walking with his friends and laughing. He sniffed the air and smelled oil burning and it lead to my car. He looked to meet my eyes and smiled. He seemed to size me up then grinned wider. He stopped walking with his friends and told them he'd be back and would catch up with them. Yup, leave it up to me to get distracted by a guy when I was already 10 minutes late for work... One girl with carmel colored hair and green eyes who was part of his little posse reachced out to grab his hand but he shook it off and began walking towards me. She shot me an I-will-kill-you glare and made a thought pop to my head: Green eyes and envy. She was actually really pretty. She had no chest, but nice hair, cute clothes, and a really beautiful face. She was wearing a short, blue dress and green sandals. Aw, and me, the ugly cow, was standing here drooling. I congratulated myself on being a total dork and got back to my car. No way was this hot guy walking to talk to me. I inspected the car a little more and gave up. I began to walk back to the door and a new song came on.
"My angel, how'd you get to be so fly
how'd you get to shine so bright,
How'd you get to look like that?
Heaven don't you call her back"
Awww, it was that new song by Cody Simpson! I rolled my shoulders back and took a deep breath. Everything will be okay, I thought. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to find that blond guy standing right in front of me.
I blushed a deep shade of red and must have looked like a tomato.
"Hey," I put my hand up in an awkward wave and smiled my best first impression smile.
He was completely cool and grinned back.
God, I love it when boys do that! He had really nice sea-blue eyes and toussled blond hair. He was super fit and looked around my age. Award for most beautiful human being ever? Goes to this guy who's name I didn't even know.
"Ya alright?" he slurred in his sexy accent.
Even though I was also from Mullingar, his was different, I don't know why.
"Erm, I'm fine, I guess, but my car..." I trailed off.
He laughed a cute laugh and put his hand on my shoulder, "It's okay. I work part time fixing cars so maybe I can fix this."
Inside I was rejoicing, but on the outside, I was chill.
"Yeah.....man.... that's....swag?" I recited from the words the boys used at my school.
Leave it up to me to make a fool of myself in front of the hottest guy ever!
"Alright, sorry, those are words guys at my school use. My name's Kylee, yours?" I tried.
He nodded and mumbled something incoherent.
"Sorry? What did you say your name was?" I asked.
"Niall," he responded, louder this time.
He fixed my car and I got on my way to work. I was one hour late but, it was worth it. I had exchanged numbers with Niall and we planned to meet up again sometime.
I thought about him every second of the day and we planned to meet up the next day.
It occurred to me that he had a really nice name.
A name that might change my life.
