Scars To Your Beautiful : A Modern Beauty and the Beast retelling ✔

37. A different side of you

After giggling about Viola's strange views on 'sweat pants and the degradation of a woman's fashion choice', Callie was surprisingly enjoying her 'rich girl opinions' about things that would have easily pissed off any other working class citizen.

Distracting her for a moment, Viola's phone buzzed in her hand and Callie snuck a look at the caller. Damien Pierce.

Resisting herself from rolling her eyes at Pierce's sudden interruption, Callie watched how quickly Viola's mood had changed.

With a stiffened back, Viola whispered to her. "Excuse me, I need to take this."

She didn't walk far away and her voice was loud enough for Callie to hear. "Hey, Damien. When are you coming?" There was a brief pause and Callie could make out the testy tone in her voice. "What do you mean by that? Can't you just skip it?" Another pause. Viola's sigh dragged out. "Fine. Whatever. No need to apologize. I get how busy you are." The lingering silence dragged on, before Viola gave a curt response. "Okay. Bye."

Her dainty footsteps drew closer and the tick in Viola's jaw didn't go unnoticed. Callie asked softly. "Is everything okay?"

Viola blew out a frustrated gust of air.  "Damien's a fucking idiot. Nothing new."

"Well, I'm glad we're no longer at each other's throat. Girls don't have to fight other girls because of a guy. There's no need to be stereotypes."

Viola said bluntly. "Easy for you to say, white girl."

Callie reeled back. What the hell was that? "My dad's Cuban. That makes me Latina, so I don't know what you mean by that."

Her elegant eyebrows drew together that it looked like they'd touch. "It means you're not as self aware as you think you are."

Pressing her lips in a line, Callie's eyes blazed. "What the hell, Viola? We just started making progress, why would you go back to being an ass?"

Staring down at her, Viola's voice remained cool and collected. "I'm leaving now. Enjoy the party."

Viola's attempt at walking away was halted by Callie's firm grip on her right hand. "Screw that. I'm not letting you go until we completely deal with whatever bullshit you're pulling."

Her icy look chilled Callie down to her bones, then it shifted to Callie's hand still holding onto hers. "You can start by letting go of me."

Callie's fingers slipped off her arm and faced her squarely, trying not to be intimidated by Viola's taller height and terrifying gaze. "What's your problem with me? I'd love to hear why you can't stand me, even though I've never done shit to you."

"You want to know what the problem is? Fine. I'll tell you." Viola looked at her, one side of her jaw ticked. "You're the epitome of a beautiful white girl persona. Paler than white skin. Perfect hair. Glowing smile. It's hard for anyone to ignore ho—"

Callie cut in, dryly. "Again, I'm Latina and I have an olive skin. So I don't know what you're talking about."

"Whatever. When you look like I do, you'd know how hard it is to get the right attention from people."

Callie blinked. "Are you kidding me? You're probably the hottest girl in school. I'd kill to have your body. I can't even grow boobs beyond my tiny A-cup and no matter how much workouts I'd do, I'll never look half as good as you." Viola's lips curled up slowly, as Callie continued to say. "Aside from your looks, you're really smart. Your grades make me envious. If anything, you have the amazing life. The money. The clothes. Why would you think otherwise?"

In a solemn voice, Viola said. "That's nice of you to say, but it's different for a dark skinned girl. I'm always self conscious about everything around me. When people see my white mom, they act different. A little withdrawn. My skin and hair makes people ask a lot of insensitive questions. Questions like 'Why did you dye your hair red? Red color looks better on lighter skinned girls'. Or 'you should add a little color to your skin'. The worst question was when they asked me why my afro looks so full. Someone once dared to ask me what country I came from. Like that fucking matters."