Tall Girls | ✓

03| tall girls

she thought high school would be a new beginning. 

but nothing had changed except for her dropping grades. she tried to ignore it, telling her parents it was because high school was harder. she wasn't lying, technically. high school was harder, just not academically. 

it exhausted her mentally. she didn't know how long she'd be able to keep up with all the name-calling and taunting.

at school, you didn't notice the way she forced a smile around her friends or the way her eyes lost their spark whenever someone mentioned her height.

she watched as you leaned against a locker with an arm draped around a girl who barely reached up to your shoulders.

she heard the squeals and gushes of how cute you two looked together. she even heard the small cracks and then a shattering sound that rang too loudly in her eardrums. 

she felt bitter. envy was running through her veins and becoming a part of her.

no, she wasn't mad at the girl or her height. or you and the way you didn't notice her. 

she was mad at herself. only herself. it wasn't hard for her not to blame herself. surrounded by people who would always ask about her height, if she joined any sports, or if she wanted to be a model was somehow her fault. 

if she wasn't so tall, she wouldn't have to hear any of it. 

they would notice for her brains and not her legs. how she could find the integral of f(x) in a few seconds and not how she could reach the highest shelf in a library without tiptoeing. how she could cook, not how she barely had to jump to get the rebound in basketball.

slowly, she was breaking, whether you knew it or not. and, maybe,  if you had known, you could've helped her. 

but the problem was inside of her. she didn't need someone's help, she needed to save herself. 

yet she continued to watch as you bent down to brush your nose against the girls'. watched as you intertwined your fingers together and began to walk. watched as you passed by her without even sparing her a look.

she was simply a tall girl, and no matter how long her arms were, you were always out of her reach.