Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
VIOLA AND BEN WALK hand in hand down the dimly lit streets of their middle-class neighbourhood. The wind whistles lightly and dances through the leaves of the trees, causing the branches to sway from side to side and side to side. The couple sports equal sized grins, showing off their pearly white teeth and stretching their pink parted lips like a small child in a candy store. Their eyes are bright and sparkling with an amplitude of happiness, enhancing the natural colour with a familiar flare of emotions.
"You know," Viola speaks out quietly. "I've spent so much time thinking I wasn't enough for people who were never important to me. But I think I've realised that's such a waste of breath and I know that I'm important to the people in my life."
Ben pulls at her hand in order to bring their walk to a halt, cupping her face lightly. "You've always been enough, Viola. You're a thousand times enough."
"I know." She whispers and it was no word of a lie. She understands that now and she can't for a second think why she believed she wasn't ever, but learning to love someone else gave her the life-long lesson of realising that if she believes someone else is worth it, she herself, is worth the same.
Viola feels another pull on her hand and she escapes her reverie, looking up at the cluster of stars that paint the night sky and she continues to follow Ben, falling back into step with him. The two walk another block or two until they reach the cottage style home of her family, the front porch lights glowing against the deep navy of the weatherboard and illuminating along the stark white banister that divides it from the garden. They walk up the few wooden steps it takes to reach the porch and Viola fumbles with the house keys, digging around deep within the pockets of her cardigan.
Once the door is finally unlocked, Viola pushes it open slightly, placing one foot on the wooden plank that separates the door and the frame. "Did you want to come inside?"
Ben's eyes widen and he stutters, digging his hands deep in the front pockets of his skinny jeans and lowering his head, a tuft of brown shaggy hair falling over his forehead. "Is your family home?"
Viola nods, "you can say hello." She smiles reassuringly and grabs his hand, dragging him over the threshold and into the heated front room of the house. When she closes the door, the light bang causes her mother to pop her head around the corner of the living room, an inquisitive expression morphed into her features. Viola veers into the front room and spots both her brother and father, lounging lazily across the couches with a game of soccer playing back on the television.
"Um—mum, dad, this is Ben." Viola looks over to her brother nervously, clearing her throat as she gazes back to the box next to her. She continues more timidly, "you guys obviously know each other." Finny grunts but the shadow of a smile plays on his lips before he gets up from the couch and slaps Ben's back affectionately.
Viola's mother comes forward with a hand out, "it's lovely to meet you Ben. We were just waiting for Viola to start dinner; would you like to join us?" She questions, a gentle and welcoming smile displaying brightly. Viola looks up at him shyly and with a light smile, she nods quickly.
Ben's smile widens, "I would love to." Viola's mother places a hand behind his back and ushers him through the large archway that leads into the living room, where he then shakes hands with the man of the house. Viola watches them speak animatedly before pushing herself off the framework.
"I'll be back, just give me a second." She says to Ben who looks towards her with slight panic in his eyes, realising that she's about to leave him alone with her family. She smiles at him reassuringly and scurries for the stairs, walking up with a deep breath filling her chest and releasing a kind of heaviness she wasn't aware was there before.
Viola pushes her bedroom door open and walks into the dark space, flicking on the light switch and stepping inside. Her room stays neat besides the stack of homework that sits on her desk in the corner and the stray t-shirt she hadn't bothered to hang back up. She faces a single white wall, the full-length mirror staring mockingly back at her with the patterned scarf hiding her away from herself.
For the first time in a long time, Viola pushes the scarf back, sliding it far enough to the edge that it simply falls off. She takes in a deep breath as the view of her entire body reflects back at her and she smiles, so unsure as to why she would've hated to look before. She runs a hand through her chestnut hair, admiring the way the fluffy waves tumble over her shoulders and down her back a few inches. The light hazel of her eyes spark confidence beneath the dark lashes that surround them, a perfect complement to the light tan of her smooth skin and heart shaped face.
She runs a hand over neck and dances over the front of her body, finding comfort in the slight dips and curves of her waist and hips, a feature she had once desired to rid of through grueling ab exercises and salad diets. Her hands stop on her thighs, the bare skin of them revealed completely under the white light of her bedroom, the stretch marks and small imperfections an exhibit of her beauty and health. The display of difference through her skin conveying the simple growth of her body and the journey of being a woman, something that should never be a flaw or injustice to what is deemed 'perfect'.
But she was perfect. Under the light of her own room and in the eyes of the people that mattered to her, Viola Lancaster was the most perfect girl in the world. That now seemed to be all that mattered, that in her own definition of perfect, it represented the girl that was staring back at her.
Viola lets out a slight chuckle, picking up the scarf from the floor and folding it neatly, storing it on the shelf inside her closet. She flips off the light and descends back downstairs, smiling at the boisterous laugh and chatter that flows out from the kitchen.
She stays hidden for a moment, admiring the scene folding out in front of her. Her mother stirring something delicious in the pot, her father placing plates on the table and her brother talking all kinds of things with the boy she's falling in love with.
As if sensing her presence, Ben looks up towards the doorway and a smile lights up his face. He stares at Viola hidden slightly in the shadows and with a nod of his head, gestures for her to come forward and join them. So, she does, she flicks her brother on his head and she places dishes of her mother's cooking on the dinner table, all the while staring back and forth towards Ben.
It seemed like the perfect moment, like everything was finally falling into place. To Viola, it was and through all the chaos of her family during dinner she thinks of one thing the entire time, her hand placed sneakily in Ben's under the table and she realises it's been a lesson well learned.
Love in this world can be a difficult thing and you can't expect to love someone, if you haven't opened your heart to the one it's beating for.
