Thanks for giving this story a chance. It means a lot to me.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.
Beauty queen of only eighteen
She had some trouble with herself
He was always there to help her
She always belonged to someone else
I drove for miles and miles
And wound up at your door
I've had you so many times
But somehow I want more
I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay a while
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
Tap on my window
Knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I know I tend to get so insecure
It doesn't matter anymore
It's not always rainbows and butterflies
Its compromise
It moves us along Yeah
My heart is full
And my door's always open
You can come anytime you want
I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
I know where you hide
Alone in your car
Know all of the things that make you who you are
I know that goodbye means nothing at all
Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls
Tap on my window
Knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay a while
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
(I try so hard)
And she will be loved
(To say goodbye)
(I tried so hard)
(To say goodbye)
( I don't mind spending everyday)
(Out on your corner in the pouring rain)
I tried so hard
To say goodbye
She Will Be Loved, Maroon 5
She was terribly beautiful and beautifully terrible. Even at eighteen, Pippa Cross possessed some innate ability to contrive the perfect pout at the ideal moment in order to get exactly what she longed for. She was pathetic. The only thing she ever wanted was her very own prince charming to come and sweep her off her dainty feet.
I was no prince. I was dreadfully intense and intensely dreadful. I was not so stunning as to flutter my eyelashes for what I wanted. Rather, I got what I was searching for by carefully engineered manipulations. I was less a knight in shining armor, and more a pauper coveting the expensive shields one got as a knight.
But, like so many others in the world, I wanted Pippa. I craved her soft touch of hand and childish tantrums. When she was gone I missed her make-believe tales of French movie stars. Truth be told, I was a realist. She was a romantic. I longed for an escape from the harsh realities of my existence. She was an idealized notion—something to be sought after simply for the chase. At least, that's how it was at first.
Pippa Cross knew she was beautiful, but she hated herself. She hated her parents because they were blinded by her beauty. We all were. Her splendor cast a shadow over all her innermost eccentrics. Under the smooth milky skin there was a girl deeply lost. A child loomed in the corner waiting to be rescued.
I wasn't beautiful, but I loved myself. My parents were absentees-the type of parents who substituted love for credit cards. I hid behind layers of false-pretense. I was self-assured and confident. But, like Pippa, underneath the surface I was lonely. But most of all, I wanted to be powerful.
She had a boyfriend when I met her. Actually, Pippa Cross always had a boyfriend. She was never single for longer than a few hours. She went though men the way most go through underwear. She was on a mission. She knew what she wanted.
I knew my intentions were no good when I befriended her. Like the others, I saw Pippa as beautiful—someone to use. I couldn't possibly have known that beneath the golden surface was a girl so unlike myself that I had no choice but to love her. I was wool; she was silk. We never stood a chance.
It was the night of graduation when I finally got up the nerve to make my move. She was in a relationship with the man that would later become her husband. They had been dating for most the school year. And she was serious about him. After so many princes turned out to only be frogs, this new boyfriend was at least a duke. She made a sacrifice and agreed to settle for second best.
We sat alone on my bed—our black robes unzipped. Her pale legs cast an eerie glow in the increasingly shadowed room. The cool summer breeze from the open window served as a soft touch on our sticky skin. Pippa was there, across from me wearing a purple dress that enhanced the violet in her eyes. And I was in my usual jean shorts and tank. There was nothing different about the moment, except perhaps the diplomas at our feet.
She was vividly describing a scene in which her duke drove forty-five minutes to fix her flat tire. I was feigning interest, but really I was lost in the ramblings of my mind. I wanted to tell her that I would have swum across the ocean to fix her tire. I wanted to say that she had the best looking lips in the whole world. Just a few months prior to this encounter only one of those statements would have been true. But somewhere in the midst of pretending to be Pippa's best friend, I actually became it. I fell for her. I, who swore off love for all eternity, plummeted into its sugar-coated lies.
When a dead silence loomed over the darkened room, I found the courage I was begging a higher power to give me. I placed my ghost-like hand on her lightly freckled knee. After one deep breath, I raised my eyes to hers. And that's all it took. After months of tightening our bonds of friendship, moving to the next level was only the natural thing to do.
Pippa pushed her lips out the tinniest bit. Pippa was always the damsel though. She waited until I was ready. When my lips did finally catch her top lip in between them, she surrendered everything to me.
It was only a kiss. And it only lasted a few short minutes. But it was enough to hook me in for life. That night I took my first leap of faith in years. I jumped gladly into the blissful arms of Aphrodite and vowed to love Pippa Cross forever.
