p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Guess who did something amazing today?" Y/N said as she walked through the front door. It was an attempt to lighten the mood, as she could already feel the tension entering the house. Aunt Maybelle was very strict with curfews and Y/N was just over an hour late. She proceeded with caution towards the living room where she found Maybelle sitting comfortably in a chair in front of the television with her legs propped up, though she didn't pay much attention to the current events playing on screen, as she was more focused on scrolling through the celebrity gossip on her phone./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""May?" Y/N said again realizing that she didn't even seem to notice she had walked in. She felt a bit of relief and a bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, she would be able to avoid a lecture from Maybelle about how it didn't matter that she was an adult, she still lived under her roof, therefore, she still went by her rules. Y/N hated those lectures, moreso when Maybelle went the extra mile and nagged her about her supposed lack of appreciation for all she's done for her over the years./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Upon hearing her name, Maybelle looked up from her phone to meet her gaze before setting the phone face down on the arm of her chair as if there was some secret on the screen she didn't want her to see. Maybelle was nearly fifty years old, but there was still youth in her emerald eyes. Her hair was a pretty shade of blush red, but there were small signs of her age in the way it was starting to dry out and gray. Still, she was a very beautiful woman. The very type of woman who others hoped to age as graceful. "When did you get back?" she asked./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Y/N felt her heart leap. She couldn't tell her she just walked in. Maybelle would look at the time and start her lecture if she did, but she couldn't lie either. That was an unforgivable offense to Maybelle, even if the lie was very small. It was all the same to her. Lying about stealing a cookie from the kitchen was on the same level as lying about borrowing the car. Y/N decided it was best to change the subject./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I saw an owl today," she said wearing her best innocent smile./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Excuse me?" Maybelle said. Y/N could feel her voice starting to firm./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""It was in the woods by the park," Y/N went on, "He was tangled up in fishing wire in a tree, but I saved him! It was amazing! He let me get close enough to help and he was able to fly away."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"As soon as Y/N was finished with her story, she knew almost immediately it was a bad idea. Maybelle's thin lips curled downwards in a frown she had come to know as the "upside down happy face" in her mental notes. It was truly a terrible look, as all of the beauty in Maybelle's face was lost almost instantly and she turned into a crone. Even when Y/N was a kid and Maybelle was still in her prime years of youth, the "upside down happy face" made her looked like a terrible wicked witch from fairy stories meant to scare children./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Y/N, you're going to be graduating soon," she said, "Here I thought that maybe you were late because you were trying find a way to do something with your life, and it turns out you're in the park dilly-dallying like a child with filthy animals!"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The volume of her voice rose with each word spoken, and Y/N began to feel herself shrink as she stood from her chair. "Every time I think you just might have grown up, you pull this kind of thing," she said, "You're in your twenties, Y/N! What are you going to do when you're done with school? Hell, what can you do with a degree in Creative Writing? You think you're just going to be able to live your life writing those stupid fairy tales? For Christ's sake, Y/N! What's wrong with you?!"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Even at the age of twenty-two, Y/N wondered if Maybelle had some sort of magical powers to take away any of the good energy she held throughout the day. It didn't matter the situation, Maybelle was always able to take away her good mood. Even when she did something Maybelle approved of, Maybelle would kill the mood by acting indifferent. Now, Y/N felt none of the satisfaction she got from rescuing the owl earlier. Only shame./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I took you in when I didn't have to," Maybelle said, and as soon as she spoke these words, Y/N knew she was in for the lecture she was trying to avoid. "I gave you the life your parents never could. I spent years trying to raise you into a decent human being, and you've repaid me so far by being useless, picking a dumb major, and doing silly things like goofing off in the park when you ought to be doing something constructive."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I'm sorry," Y/N said softly, but she knew it wouldn't be enough. Maybelle was going to keep going. "This is why you don't have any friends," she said, "This is why you don't date. Everyone else your age is socializing and making connections. You spend your time outside of school reading those childish books and drawing those creepy pictures. This is getting to be too much, Y/N. And your hair…I wish you'd straighten it out. I wish you'd put more care into your appearance. I can only imagine what everyone in the neighborhood must think of me to allow my niece to walk out of the house looking the way you do…."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The lecture went on and on, and nothing was off limits from the way she dressed, to her interests, to her future, and overall just how embarrassed Maybelle was by her. No matter what Y/N did wrong, it somehow always turned around to being about Maybelle and how the things she did and the things she liked were personal insults to her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"***/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Y/N didn't eat that night. Receiving berating lecture from her aunt was always a surefire way to kill her appetite. Instead, she changed into an old unicorn shirt long enough to work as a nightgown and went straight to bed, not because she was particularly tired, but because in times like this, she felt most comfortable pulling the covers over her head and pretending to fade away into the darkness./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The worst part about Maybelle's verbal lashings was that part of Y/N felt that they were a little bit true. She was twenty-two years old, and all of the friends she had from high school seemed to have moved on to bigger and better things. They all went out of town to college and picked better majors. Y/N knew there were better majors to pick. She could have picked something that the job market was a little friendlier towards, but she knew her heart would not have been in it. Now, however, she was starting to wonder if following her heart was a dumb idea. Despite how much she loved her aunt, she wasn't quite sure how long she'd be able to continue living with her. Every day there was something knew she disapproved of, and Y/N was getting tired of everything she loved getting trashed by her. She needed a change, but how was she going to attain change when all the gateways to such were blocked by a wall of "5+ years of experience?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Holding back tears of frustration and feeling like a total failure, Y/N closed her eyes and eventually found sleep./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"***/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"In the dream, there is a handsome stranger standing over her bed. His features are sharp, his hair platinum, and he's almost glowing. There's no other way to describe him other than glorious./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Who is he? How did he get in her room? Above all else, why isn't she terrified? Her heart is racing, but not from fear./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"His smirk is one of a man who knows just how amazing he is, and of a man that knows that the person looking at him knows how amazing he is as well, but there is a softness in his eyes. He looks at her as if she is worthy. As if she is more wonderful than she thinks she is. His look makes her forget the cold, cruel words of her aunt from hours before. The only thing that matters is this strange, yet comforting feeling she gets from the way this handsome man looks at her./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"And then….he's leaning down and planting a kiss on her forehead./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"She feels like she could fly…as if all of her problems are solved by receiving that kiss. As if he cured all of her despair. Everything okay now….but now, something strange has happened. The man has transformed into the owl she saved. How is this happening? He flies out of her open window and it closes behind him in a slam./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"***/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The noise startled her awake from her dream, causing her to immediately pull the covers from over her head and check her surroundings./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"With her heart still racing, she got up from her bed and approached her window to investigate. It was closed, and she had recalled it had been before she went to bed. When she was a kid, she used to keep it open with hopes Peter Pan would pay her a visit. Maybelle usually came in later to close it, but later would tell her not to keep it open at all anymore because of the bugs she was letting in./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Y/N opened the window to take a quick look outside. There was nothing strange or out of the ordinary, and turning to look around her room, nothing looked out of place. Nothing indicating anyone might have broken in./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"A soft mischievous giggle could be heard from outside. Y/N almost felt it sounded like that of a child, but there was something inhuman about it. She took another look outside, leaning over the sill. There was nothing but the rustling green trees. Deciding it was nothing, she closed the window and tried to forget the whole thing as she snuggled back into her bed, dreading the coming day that was sure to be full of more disappointment./p