Jack's smile. She had noticed, maybe the others had too though she was definitely the first to realize it. But of course she had, after all the mouth was her area of expertise. Those shimmer white teeth were all she saw at first but as she spent more time with him it became so apparent and it made her so sad. His smile was fake.
Not all the time, Jack had many kinds of smiles. A soft sweet smile, a joyful grin, an amused smirk. They were frequent, happy, genuine, and free. But his fake smile seemed practiced, and it broke her heart. Why had he practiced a fake smile? He would throw it up and leave it frozen on his face. It would make his face stiff and leave his eyes a bit dull. It was like an injured butterfly. She would always find it beautiful but sad.
She had to remind herself not to frown every time he wore it. If the others noticed they never mentioned it either. She tried to paid attention to when it appeared and attempted to identify what caused it. Sometimes it came when Bunny and North argued a little too loudly, or when Bunny's joking got to be a bit much. Sometimes it came when they talked about past events. Sometimes it came at the simplest of times for the simplest of things, or for no apparent reason at all. But she realized that it came most often when someone said goodbye.
Author's comments
So here's a little story I found floating around in the notes on my ipod. I thought I would share. I have a few more that I will post soon.