Until now, she'd never thought of herself as pretty.

Sure, there were lots of positive adjectives she would have included in a description of herself. Clever, athletic, determined, sensitive, ambitious, caring, discerning, admirable.

Ok, maybe "admirable" was stretching things a bit.

But pretty? That was a word for the popular girl in high school, with the childish voice and the two-expression face: desirous and desirable; I want THAT and you want ME!

Pretty was the compliment of an unimaginative father, the manipulative tool of a mother living vicariously.

It wasn't something she had ever felt the need to apply to herself.

Then he said it. About her.

And it felt good.

Comments

Want to comment? Login or Join

Login Sign up

TimSevenhuysen (joined about 13 years ago)
Visit Website

I write 50-word stories at www.FiftyWordStories.com. I post a story every weekday, with guest submissions featured on Mondays.

I enjoy writing all kinds of microfiction, and I love seeing what other people come up with.

No favorites

Story information

License

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

genres

drama relationships

tags

love girl beautiful pretty compliment

Prompt

Until now, she'd never thought of herself as pretty.
Prompt suggested by TimSevenhuysen

Contact


We like you. Say "Hi."