"Timeless" - Narnian Autumn Writing Challenge - Oneshot Collection

"Love Somebody"

Word count: 1461

Prompt: Books

Notes:

Maximillian Miller and Gus Booker are OC's created by StorySnippets SaharaCastine and myself

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Was she truly just looking for attention?

Lucy knew that sometimes her friend Katelyn wasn't trying to be rude and she just said things without thinking, but when she had told Lucy "You're always just looking for attention" it made her feel awful.

When Lucy said she didn't feel beautiful in comparison to Susan, Maureen, or even Rita- she didn't say it to make everyone say she was pretty too; she said it almost like she was thinking it. She didn't expect anyone would hear her, or say anything in return.

And when she'd told Katelyn how she'd felt, she hadn't meant to sound like she was straining to obtain attention. She just, was explaining her feelings to someone she thought was a good friend. Wasn't that what friends did? Listened to your hurt?

Katelyn needn't have had said anything in return, she could've simply nodded.

Sometimes, Lucy only needed to spill whatever was bothering her to somebody, have them hear her words, and hug her or say they understood.

Was she misunderstanding what friendship truly was?

She misunderstood things a lot. A lot.

Beneath her boots, rainwater squelched and flew up into the sky with each step, spraying her face. Eustace and Edmund would simply die over the dirt that would get on their faces and shriek because they didn't know where it came from.

Rounding another bend, her heart hurt with worry- what if everyone hated her because they always thought she was trying to show everyone up?

What if she truly was trying to do that and she didn't know?

Finally, across the road, she spotted the golden glow of the library windows and she scurried over.
She stepped inside the building, her toes getting their feeling returned and her body warming up.

Almost blindly, she made her way over to the fiction section and she plopped down, sending dust spiraling everywhere, causing her to sniff.

She picked a book off from the library shelf, and glanced at the title, "My love, so sweet."

The woman depicted on the cover was beautiful. Dark hair, plump rosy lips, and a perfectly shaped face. Like Susan.

Her chest heaved. Why couldn't she look like Susan? Or the woman on the book cover? Pretty.

Pretty enough to be noticed.

Insecurely, she tugged at one of her braids and flung it behind her, feeling it smack across her shoulders. She shouldn't be here, but she came every week, to stare at the covers, read the stories told inside, and wish for any other girl's face but hers.

Was she doing it again? Begging for anyone's attention? By wishing for another face, was she being ungrateful?

But the men from the books were constantly falling in love with the women enfolded in the stories for their beauty, or their wealth. How would it feel to have a handsome man vying for her hand?

She could never attract any men, let alone the one she had liked most. Not with Susan being her sister, not with the face Lucy had. Plus, she wasn't very rich.