beautiful // l.h.

300 days before

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elicia lived in a beautiful province of a beautiful country. everyday she would go out for ten hours and, instead of studying and going to school, helped her mother and father in the rice fields for something to sell and eat.

but she didn't mind. she loved how beautiful it was outside, despite the heat burning her exposed neck and arms as she harvested the product of her family's hard work. for someone who spends all day carrying heavy loads she wasn't as thin as she would had liked to be.

that particular day, her parents told her to go to her friend's house and take the day off. elicia protested, keeping the real reason why she wanted to stay to herself, but her parents insisted.

so she walked a few blocks before hailing a tricycle to take her there. the whole time on her way she saw colorful flowers and the green grass which was rarely found and thought to herself, "if i could just be as beautiful as these."

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4,435 kilometers away was luke. he was doing what he dreaded doing: going to school. as he forced himself to go to every class, he didn't pay attention to anything. during discussions, instead of taking down notes like he usually did, luke just scribbled on his notebook.

he didn't have anything specific to write about, and he had no inspiration whatsoever. (who would when you're stuck in math class for an hour?) despite the lack of motivation he decided to write something for the people who constantly stalked his blog for new posts.

luke wasn't happy with that. it seemed to show in his recent poems, but his followers didn't notice it. for them, it was still beautiful.

but it wasn't to luke. it wasn't anymore.

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when elicia arrived at her friend's house, he immediately answered the door and welcomed her with a huge grin plastered on his face.

"hey, el, what's up?" pablo asked, opening the refrigerator and grabbing the carton of orange juice. "you hardly ever come here or anywhere else at, like, three o'clock. juice?" he offered.

elicia smiled. "nothing much, my parents told me to take the day off. oh, and sure, i'd love some."

grabbing two glasses and filling them nearly to the brim with orange juice, pablo said, "oh, hey elicia, there's this really cool guy on tumblr and he posts every week with a beautiful poem and i think you might like them."

shrugging, elicia replied, "sure, let's check him out."

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opening his computer, luke logged on to tumblr. he immediately went to his drafts and posted the poem at the very bottom of the page. it was about the usual topic he talked about: suicide.

not even skimming it, he posted the poem and within seconds gained hundreds of notes. luke didn't check his activity or inbox, but went back to his drafts to type in the recent poem he wrote.

the five most recent ones were all about gender equality and happiness and beauty in its simplest form. he thought it was beautiful, which it was.

others didn't think of it the same way. when he posted one poem about happiness a few years back he received so much hate he never expected.

why would people find something not beautiful, beautiful?

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"so what did you think?" asked pablo, waiting for elicia's review.

she shook her head. "nope. isn't that beautiful for me."

"what isn't beautiful here?" pablo asked, surprised. he read the poem again and tried to read it from the point of elicia. he couldn't see anything wrong with it, but only found it more haunting and beautiful.

elicia didn't want to talk about it. "the character is insecure, and starts to cut because of it. he dies, without anyone there to help."

"yeah. it's the haunting kind. it isn't good?"

"it's good, i guess. just not beautiful."

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the blond haired boy stared at his most recent poem, and loved it more and more with every read. he compared it to the poem he just posted, and was unimpressed. it wasn't beautiful to luke; who would find one of the hardest moments in their life romanticized and glorified and just hid the pain they felt into a poem for the sake of views?

he decided to do something he was afraid to do months ago. luke posted his favorite poem about happiness, and added, "this is true beauty."

his notes started to shoot up once more, and he got multiple messages saying to do those poems more often, and that it was better than anything he posted.

and he agreed that it was beautiful.

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