I knew something was up when Alison walked into the school gates last month with a whole new face. Her normally chubby face was replaced with a slim, chiselled one. All of her features had completely changed. The only way I could recognise her was from the birthmark on her left cheek that looked a bit like a scar. As she was walking up to me, smiling since she could see how shocked I was, she was immediately crowded by people saying how pretty she was and if she was new. Boys were saying they could show her around the school and I watched from a distance but could still hear her as she said,
“Guys, it’s me, Alison. I’m not new.”
Loud shouts and screams of shock and confusion erupted and circled her.
“There isn’t any way you’re Alison,” someone said.
“Alison? Are we talking about the right Alison?” Another person said.
She cleared her throat and began speaking.
“Well, I’m honestly flattered. I’ve just been taking better care of myself, and I guess the hard work finally paid off,” she said, beaming with pride. I had never seen her like that, physically and mentally. She was always timid, but I could tell with her new self her confidence would rise greatly.
“Girlie, we need to know what you did, like we totally need to have a discussion!”Layla, one of the popular girls exclaimed, as she dragged Alison away from the crowd, and Layla’s friends followed her. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. I thought I was dreaming. Alison, the girl who was laughed at in the hallways, Alison, the girl who was relentlessly bullied by boys for being unattractive, now was this whole new person. And it didn’t even make sense because we only had a one week holiday. Nobody changes that much in a week. Even if she did get surgery, it would take time to heal.
For the next 3 weeks, I never had a chance to talk to Alison. She didn’t even text me, just left my messages on read. I tried to wave at her once, and her ‘friends’ gave me a judgemental look, while she just looked at me awkwardly. She didn’t even wave. How rude. She was now doing the things that she used to say she would never do, like making out with boys in the hallway, getting drunk at parties and posting herself singing with her ‘friends’ in her drunken state. She somehow was able to get good grades but by the way teachers looked at her, I could tell she did something in exchange for those grades. Or maybe even nothing. She was just so alluring, that she could murder someone and people would find it hot. It was like she had put a spell on everyone. Girls and boys stared at her in the hallways like she was hypnotising them.
Last week, my mother invited Alison and her mum for dinner. As we were eating, Alison’s mum spoke.
“I’m just so surprised my daughter has turned out to be so beautiful. Puberty worked wonders for her overnight! I remember the day after her school started she came up to me and I almost fainted at her beauty. I always knew she was going to receive my looks but I wasn’t expecting it to be now!”
I watched Alison as she smiled weakly. Alison’s mother was always obsessed with looking good, and when I would go to Alison’s house her mother would always make snarky comments about her looks, and her weight. Alison would always complain to me saying how her mum was making her feel insecure. But now that she had completely transformed, her mum didn’t waste a second to show off her beautiful daughter.
“When you showed me a picture of how she looks now I thought you were lying! But now that I’m seeing her I’m shocked!” My mother exclaimed.
“It’s honestly been a while. We need to catch up. Let’s go shopping! You girls be good okay?” Alison’s mother said. They both squealed like teenagers as they went out the door. When the door shut, I was met by awkward silence, as Allison tapped away at her phone.
“Hi,” I said awkwardly. She didn’t respond.
“Hi,” I said, louder this time.
She looked up at her phone, looking at me rudely. “What?” When she said that, I’d had enough.
“So we’re just not gonna act like friends? After you got this whole new face you decided to ditch me for the people you hated. Now look at you. Normally we would be talking and laughing with each other now you’re acting like I don’t exist. Trust me, if you didn’t have this face of yours no one would even acknowledge you. Well, it’s not like your face is even real anyway,” I knew I really shouldn’t have continued, seeing her eyes water, but I did. “We were best friends, Allison. Is it worth it? Is all of this worth i–“
“Just shut UP! Why do you even care? You’re just jealous because nobody likes you. I was your only friend, I was only friends with you because nobody would like such an ugly girl like you. Just look at you! Looking like a fucking mess every single day. You don’t know what I did to get this face, and you don’t need to know. I was tired of being this unpopular girl that nobody knew. And you know deep down you want to be popular too. To be seen.”
I was speechless. I just looked at her, with tears in my eyes. I think she realised the severity of what she said because she started apologising while crying. But I knew she was right. As much as I hated to admit it. My throat hurt from trying not to cry, so I just looked away from her as tears started to fall down my face.
“I’ll make it up to you. I promise,” Is all that she said before our parents came back. Alison and her mother had to go home early because they had a ‘family meeting.’
Yesterday, she texted me at 10 pm.
“I hope you’re happy.”
Confused, I replied:
“What?”
“Come over and you’ll see for yourself. It’ll be pretty cool for you to witness, but painful for me to feel. Well, I hope not.”
I told my mum that I needed to get something from the shop. She said okay, surprisingly, and told me to buy a few things for her.
As I walked through the empty streets leading to her house, I texted her:
“Is your mum home?”
“No. She won’t be until tomorrow,” she replied.
“Ok. Be there in 10.”
When I finally arrived at her house, the door was wide open. I got pretty worried. The house seemed empty. I texted her:
“Where r u?”
“my. room. hurry. i was right, it hurbts.”
I raced to her room and opened the door to see Alison, her face blueish-purple as a black thing that looked like a tentacle tried to claw its way out of her mouth. She was making gagging sounds and trying to close her mouth but she couldn’t. I screamed her name but I knew that she couldn’t answer me. But I kept screaming her name, hoping that somehow this was all just a horrible nightmare and that I’d wake up. But it wasn’t. Blood trickled down her mouth as her body began to tense up, shake violently, then go limp. That’s when it was able to come out of her. It poked holes through her body and just burst out. I watched as her guts flew across her room, blood splattering the walls, and then, I blacked out.
I must’ve been out for a few minutes because when I opened my eyes a creature was looking at me, with hollow holes for eyes. It was hunched down, with spikes covering its body. The spikes were shiny and black, like a polished shoe.
“WHAT ARE YOU? GET AWAY FROM ME!” I shouted as I broke down into tears. When I got up it continued to look at me. Nausea overtook me and I threw up on Alison’s bedroom floor. It stood there as I retched and heaved while crying. When all that was done, I ran out of her house.
When I got home, my mother could tell by my puffy face and runny, red nose that something was wrong.
“What happened?” She asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it. I’m sorry.”
She gave me a sympathetic look as I tiredly walked to my room.
Now, as I’m writing this I realised what Alison meant by “I’ll make it up to you,” because when I woke up today and went to brush my teeth, I almost dropped my toothbrush as I looked at my reflection in the bathroom mirror.
I was finally beautiful.