Thorns and roses

1. "You are unique." ~Diner Girl

"Who is she?" Ashley asked her best friend, Ryan. She motioned towards the girl who had just been elected as prom queen at this years dance. Ashley didn't really know a lot of people but she knew who the popular people were by name and she couldn't understand for some strange reason how some diner  girl who nobody knew had existed till now, could win the "glorious" title of prom queen which was cast by votes.

"I think she's the diner girl," Ryan responded. Ashley turned to Ryan and gave him the look. She knew it was one of the diner girls but which one she didn't know. There were lots of diner girls and they all had similar tragic pasts that all led them to getting a job at a diner and they all got bullied because of said job. Ashley didn't bully them but she didn't try to be besties with them either. She tried once but it didn't end well.

"Which one?" She snapped.

"The one that gets picked on." Again she gave Ryan the look. He knows about the whole history of diner girls and the troubles they go through. Ashley had already filled him in on it the first year he had come to come to this school and he had witnessed it for himself. When he first heard about them he felt sorry for them and tried to help one of the girls but like Ashley it didn't go well and so also like Ashley he gave up hope.

"You're useless," she told him. He just rolled his eyes at her and then continued to watch as diner girl went up to the stage looking totally amazed at what had happened and then started to deliver a speech. A stupid emotional speech that only applied to her and other diner girls.

"For those of you that don't know I'm Emily and..." so continued the rest of her speech which neither Ashley nor Ryan decided to listen to.

"Sounds like the beginning of an AA meeting," Ryan said.

"I know right, somebody needs to get these people a speech writer," Ashley and Ryan started to laugh at their own joke, they were soon told to shush by he people in front of them and then had to spend the remainder of the time listening to Emily's cliche speech about how they didn't need to label themselves and that they were all their own person. Ashley and Ryan didn't bother to clap at the end. They had heard it all before, whether it be from parents, teachers or other classmates, the message was the same throughout: you are unique.

Ashley used to take those things to the heart but as she grew up she realized that that rule only applied to extraordinary people, people who had tragic pasts and had to work in diners. People who got noticed by the most popular guy in the school just because they got bullied, people who got awarded prom queen even though no one knew their name, people like Emily. Not people like Ryan and Ashley.

"But you know what saying that now I realize I don't need this silly crown or this stupid label," Emily continued. She had this sort of triumphant look on her face which usually came from delivering a long self motivated speech.

"Is she still talking?" Ashley asked. She thought the speech would be over by now clearly she had under estimated how talkative people are.

"We're terrible people," Ryan said while shaking his head and sighing. His smile had now faded to a frown and his forward was furrowed in deep thought.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because we should be happy for her, I mean it's not everyday you see some diner girl rise up and take what she deserves."

"Yes Ryan it is every day that we see diner girls rise up and realize that they are worth whatever it is they're worth. I know it's always been like this and it'll continue to be like this."

Ashley crossed her arms and her previous light hearted attitude seemed to transform into a bitter one. She was sick and tired of seeing everyone else get their happy ending while she was stuck being average. Every single year since the beginning of high school there would always be a diner girl, a Cinderella and maybe even a Snow White and every year they would rise up and realize that they weren't actually ugly or stupid despite what their marks and all the guys that were fawning over them would say and every year Ashley would lose a little more hope. She was so sick of it, she wanted her happily ever after too, her Prince Charming, her knight in shining armor, her brilliant grades and she wanted her crush to like her back but fate seemed to other plans for her. A plan that didn't involve her becoming anything more than average.

"You don't have to hate them," Ryan said quietly. He knew the reason why Ashley didn't like the diner girls, he didn't blame her in fact he could relate to her on a certain level.

"I don't hate them, I just...I...They irritate me that's all." She finally spat out. Ashley hated talking about stuff life this it made her feel vulnerable like her emotions were laid out before her like a deck of cards.

If she had the choice Ashley wouldn't bother coming to these dances but her mother was part of the catering committee and she didn't believe in leaving children at home unsupervised so Ashley was forced to come along. The only reason she didn't go with her dad was because he wanted to have boys' night with her brother and since she didn't want to be alone at the dance, Ashley brought Ryan with her. Ashley didn't really bother with dressing up because this years theme for the dance was a fairytale. You could dress as any character from any fairytale. Of course no one thought to be the girl from the princess and the frog except diner girl. Maybe that was one of the reasons why she was elected as prom queen.

Ashley clenched her fists and let out a frustrated sigh. Her blood was beginning to boil and she felt that if she didn't get out of the dance hall soon then she would explode from pure bitter rage.

"I need a breather, watching other people be happy is making me nauseous," Ashley said and before Ryan could even protest she was already running out of the venue onto the field of their school which had been kind enough to set up a gazebo so some happy couple could have some smexy alone time. She snorted in disgust.

"I'm such a pig," she said to herself and in that moment she really did feel like one. She knew that diner girls went through pretty hard times that they had lost a lot but they had also gained a lot and for that Ashley was jealous of them.

She was jealous of the fact that they had better grades than her, that they were prettier and skinnier. She was jealous that they didn't even have to try to be beautiful even though she had to work day night to just try and get rid of the baby fat that seemed to stick her like gum does to a shoe. She was so jealous that sometimes she felt as she was going to be crushed from her own envy. She felt as if green vines were wrapping around her, squeezing out the happiness, day by day, minute by minute, second by second and the faster the days passed the tighter the vines grew till she could practically fell her rationality being squeezed out of her, she felt like she was being deprived of air, unable to breathe, to think-

"Breathe Ashley, breathe," she told herself. When she got like this, she usually just brushed it away as best as she could and if she couldn't do that she would fine a distraction. She'd drown her petty jealousy in cat videos and romance movies. Sometimes it would work other times it wouldn't. Like right now, all she could do was try her best to move past the moment and let go. Breathe past the hatred and ease into the happiness.

"Just ease into the happy," she whispered to herself. She knew that if anyone were to hear her they'd think she was insane but she was beyond the point of caring.

"Alright, let's blow this joint," Ashley could see some couples heading towards the gazebo, she wanted to avoid the inevitable awkwardness of meeting people so she decided to leave now so she wouldn't have that problem but you know fate intervened.

She had just wanted to make a quick getaway but instead the opposite had happened she had bumped into the very thing that she had been trying to avoid, a person.