The Big Book of Urban Legends (Not so big yet)

The Perfect Girl

A new girl moved into the house next door. She lived with her mother, as her father had abandoned them years ago. We came to be good friends. I even grew to have a crush on her. But she obviously wouldn't like me. She liked popular boys. She liked confident boys. I wasn't one of those boys. 

But I waited. 

She didn't have any other friends in elementary school, so she talked to me. Told me about all of her problems in life. How her mother treated her, how mean people at school were to her, and how a boy she liked was way out of her league. 

I listened.

She stopped coming to school as much. As it turns out, she was being bullied. The popular girl at school found out that she had a crush on her boyfriend. The popular girl and her friends threatened her with everything under the sun. 

I listened. 

Once she got into middle school she started to change. She became a night owl and started drinking and smoking. Even indulging in a few drugs. She was once arrested by the police. She started arguing with her mother more. She told me about how someone even spraypainted her house.  People were calling her names, and how someone had even killed her cat and stuffed it in her mailbox. 

I listened.

She dropped out of high school. She locked herself in her bedroom for days on end, refusing to come out unless she had to use the bathroom late at night. She didn't even come out to eat very often. Her skin was wan and her eyes had lost their color. 

I came over to see her for the first time in a while. Her mother gave me a bowl of soup to give to her, in hopes that she'd eat if I was the one handing it to her. 

I began to see her every day. She began to open up again. She talked about how she was always arguing with her mother, and how she'd been forgotten by everyone else. How she started to drink, do drugs, steal, and more. She had a criminal record. Her mother had tried to help her out at first but when she wouldn't listen to her advice she beat her. She admitted that she'd tried to commit suicide a few times. 

I listened. 

She began to smile again over time. She was finally positive again. Her mother was extremely grateful and thanked me over and over. 

But one day, she jumped off of the roof. 

Her intention was death, but her fall had been broken by bushes. She was sent to the hospital and they revealed that she'd broken her spinal cord. She was paralyzed from the neck down and would be for the rest of her life. 

I visited her once she was released from the hospital. Tears streamed down her cheeks, like the floodgates of her mind had finally given way. She apologized for being such a burden and wished she'd simply died from the fall. 

I comforted her as best I could. 

And I asked her to marry me. 

She stared at me in disbelief. "Why would you ever want to marry me?" She asked. I admitted that I had always loved her. 

Even when she never noticed how I felt about her.

Even when she became a criminal. 

Even when I had to listen to her annoying problems.

Even when she hid away in her room. 

Even when I told the popular girl that she liked her boyfriend.

Even when I spread horrid rumors about her to her classmates.

Even when I spraypainted her house.

Even when I killed her cat and stuck in the mailbox.

Even now that she's vulnerable and weak.

She's perfect.