This one's a little awkward to read. It did feel right to me as it is. Dunno, this fics a prety narcisstic on for me. It felt right, so it's up. Usually I really care about fics being well written and everything, but for this one....
Please don't hate me for it ;). My edtor didn't check this one out either. I would ask that if you do read it, you let me know which senshi you think it's about. I wrote it with a specific one in mind, but I'd like your opinion. If anyone knows the song, tell me and I'll write a story on a SM topic you'd like, in the style of mine you want.
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She stares out the window, ignoring the looks she's receiving from everyone else in the small café. She's the only one in there who would call it that. Most everyone else refers to it as a pit stop. Then again, most everyone in this place spends their life on the road, or stuck in places like this. She's the only one there by a personal choice.
They watch her, trying to figure out what she was doing in their safe haven. She wasn't a waitress.
And she sure as hell wasn't a trucker.
She smiled to herself as she poured more sugar in her coffee. It tasted like metal, but both the caffeine and the sugar would be needed to get her through the long night of driving ahead. People had always told her how amazing her energy level was. Now it was time for that to come in handy.
When the only other female in the place came to refill her cup, she just waved the lady away from the cup. Instead she asked for the check and directions to a place she'd never heard of until four days ago. The middle aged woman looked down at the young lady in surprise. It wasn't the sort of place young women would often ask for. All the lady did, however, was offer to write them down and bring them out with the bill.
She accepted that with a smile that showed so much more pleasure than any of her previous, almost mocking expressions. The waitress hurried off, pleased to note that the young woman would be able to take care of herself.
She got up to stand by the counter. She didn't really want to sit more than necessary, since she still had a ways to go to get to her destination. One of the truckers, a big, middle aged man who wasn't looking at her lie his next meal, offered her a cigarette. She took in with a little smirk and lit up, despite not ever having done so before. She glanced around at the heat in the younger men's eyes and couldn't hold back a slight chuckle.
Once, she'd have been smitten with them. She'd have swooned over one or another. She would have flirted and chatted to her heart's content.
But not now.
She wasn't still the young girl she had been. She still looked like the carefree child she'd been until recently, unless you looked at her eyes.
Those calm orbs betrayed none of the hectic energy from before.
She stubbed her butt out, then passed the waitress a twenty and left with her instructions.
As she pulled out, she reflected on how, a few months ago, she would have been terribly disappointed in that sort of experience. Now she could enjoy it for what it was. Different.
She smiled as the car drove off into the fading light, happy with herself and her life. She watched the bugs spatter on her windshield, laughing. Before, the smears they left would have been an unattractive blemish.
Now they were art.
Now she could see art, see real beauty. Now she was free.
Her heart's not broken. She's not hurt.
She's never been more content.
She's never been happier in her life.
For the first time since about puberty, she's not in love.