She sat on her bed, the closet door open and facing her, and
her sad image reflected from the mirror, hanging coldly on
the door.
"Well?" she asked herself.
"Well?" the mirrored image responded.
She looked at the reflecting image with hatred. She got up,
walked slowly around the room, beside the mirror, and in
cat-like speed grabbed a fabric and attached it to the
mirror.
"Ha!" She smiled to herself, and sat back down on the bed.
With an open book in her lap, she blinked and raised her
head. The covered mirror stayed in place. She smiled to
herself and lowered her head once more. The TV whispered
quietly. She read for a few moments, and her leg started
moving, slowly, up and down, dancing in place. She looked at
her leg and then at the mirror.
"Stop it."
The leg kept moving.
"I know what you're trying to do, but it's not working, so
you might as well stop. I'm not kidding, it has no effect on
me. Stop."
The leg kept dancing. The mirror didn't move. She looked at
the mirror with hatred, and returned to her book. The leg
kept its solemn dance.
Minutes went by. A child laughed outside. Someone dropped a
glass in the house. A far away radio reported the hour. The
leg danced.
"I don't know what you think you'll accomplish, but I can
tell you right now, it's not going to work. No. I'm not
going to talk about it and that's that, so you might as well
quit it." The leg danced.
"Fine, if you're going to be childish about it, then the
only thing for me to do is wait till you regain your
senses." The head lowered again. The leg danced. She flipped
through a page in the book. Her eyes skimmed through the
words, not managing to catch anything, not stopping to rest.
The leg danced in place.
"You're not going to shake me. I'm calm as can be." Another
page flipped. Seconds passed like minutes.
"Fine!" she jumped off the bed and tore off the fabric that
stood between her and the mirror, and quickly sat back on
the bed.
The mirrored image sat in place.
"Fine, you want to talk, go ahead."
The mirrored image sat silently.
"Look, you wanted to talk."
Silence.
"I'm waiting! Fine, I'll go first. Yeah, so it happened
again. So what? Look, everyone has a dirty little habit,
this is mine. Some people smoke, others drink, I... do what
I do."
"... do what I do."
"Hey, don't imitate me!" she snapped.
The mirrored image stared at her.
'Look at her' her mind softly spoke. 'Look at that bitch,
staring back at you, making fun of you. You just know she
thinks she's prettier, she's smarter, god, what a bitch.'
'Are you kidding? It's not really hard to be prettier then
me. Look at her hair, my hair is never that straight. And
look at the way that blouse looks on her, I wish I could
look so thin. She knows she's all that, you can tell, the
girls that think they're all that, they've got this prissy
smug attitude like they fell from heaven or something. I
hate girls like that. Fine, so she's prettier, and thinner,
and she's probably smarter. I wont let that get to me, I'm
fine with myself just the way I am.'
She sat staring at her mirrored image, staring back at
herself.
'Who are you kidding? Happy with yourself? Yeah, right,
sure... look at yourself, I've seen thinner rhinos. And the
hair? Yeah, nice job, BOZO. Look at her, she probably has
every guy in the world just drooling all over her. Who do
you think you are? A person as ugly as yourself shouldn't
even look at anyone like that; your ugliness could be
contagious. It's bad enough that you're as ugly as you are,
don't go infecting others.'
Softly, with tears in her eyes, she spoke:
"Look, I don't need this right now, I have enough trouble,
I've got a lot of things on my mind right now, I don't need
a fight. Let's just call it a cease-fire, ok?"
The mirrored image repeated her words.
"Stop making fun of me!"
"Stop it! God, I hate this fucking world. Fine, you want me
gone, that's just fine." The girl grabbed a knife that sat
on the night table and with a quick slash, slit her wrists.

"Are you happy now? You go live your fucking perfect life,
go find my prince charming and marry him, and be perfectly
happy, bitch, just leave me the fuck alone. I get the point,
ok, just leave, bitch, go live your perfect life already, I
get the fucking message!"
Hours later, the girl and the mirrored image lay one facing
the other, both in bed, eyes shut, skin as white as can be.
Suddenly, the mirrored image rises, and stretches out her
arms and tilts her head back, looking like a swan. She
stands up gently, stands by the mirror, looking at the girl,
lying in bed, a dull red surrounding her. The reflected
image smiles.
"Bitch"
and walks away...