Scary Stories and Urban Legends

Perfect Girl

One Summer, a girl moved into
the house next door. She lived
with her mother and they were
quite poor. Her father had
abandoned them years before.
She was new in town and found it
hard to adjust. Although we both
came from different backgrounds,
she and I got to be friends. We
were not very close friends, but I
often visited her house and we
would talk.

The moment I laid eyes on her, I
knew she was the perfect girl for
me. Unfortunately, she didn't feel
the same way. She was attracted
to boys who were handsome and
confident. It was clear that I
wasn't her type, so I decided to
wait.

She didn't have any friends of her
own to talk to, so she confided in
me. Mostly, she would complain
about her life, telling me how her
mother hit her, how the girls in
her class were mean and excluded
her. She also told me about a boy
she had a crush on. He was very
popular with the girls in school.

As she talked about her problems,
I just sat there and listened.

One day, the girl stopped coming
to school. As it turned out, it was
because she was being bullied.
She told me that one of the
popular girls in school had found
out she had a crush on her
boyfriend. The popular girl and
her friends would bully her every
time they saw her. She said they
even spread vile rumors about her
to the other classmates and they
were making her life a living
nightmare.

I just kept quiet and listened as
she vented her problems.

Her behavior began to change
after she entered junior high
school. She stayed out until all
hours of the night and began to
smoke cigarettes and drink
alcohol. I heard rumors that she
was doing drugs too. She fell in
with a bad crowd and was even
arrested by the police once.

Her home life grew even worse
and she would frequently quarrel
with her mother in the middle of
the night. All of the girls in school
hated her. Someone sprayed
graffiti all over her house, calling
her horrible names and saying
disgusting things about her.
Someone even killed her pet cat
and stuffed it through her
letterbox.

Eventually, the girl dropped out of
high school. She became
withdrawn and locked herself in
her bedroom. She stopped
speaking to her mother and went
for days without leaving her
room. She rarely came out even to
eat. She looked pale, sickly and
painfully thin. Her mother took to
leaving food outside her door. She
would only come out when she
needed to use the toilet or in the
middle of the night when her
mother was asleep. It was a
miserable life.

I went to see her for the first time
in a long time. She refused to
come out to see me and even
though I yelled through the
keyhole, she refused to answer.
Her mother gave me a bowl of
soup to take upstairs to her. I
caught a glimpse of her when she
opened the door to take it. She
was pale, drawn, haggard and
emaciated. She looked like a wet
rag that had been wrung out.

I went to see her every day. After
a while, the girl began talking to
me through the door. She told me
how she was constantly fighting
with her mother and all of her old
friends had forgotten about her.
She told me how she had fallen in
with a bad crowd and went out
with them at night, stealing, doing
drugs and getting into trouble.
She told me she was caught
shoplifting by the police and she
had a criminal record.

She told me how her mother tried
to help her at first, but when she
wouldn't listen, her mother flew
into a rage and beat her. Her life
had become unbearable. She
wanted to die and she told me she
had tried to commit suicide many
times by slitting her wrists.

Just like the old days, she
continued to talk on and on and I
just listened. Whenever she asked
for my opinion, I just shrugged or
made some innocuous remark.

As time went by, the girl's mood
gradually began to brighten. She
even decided to come out of her
room. It seemed like things were
getting better and the future was
looking positive. Her mother
broke down in tears and thanked
me profusely.

One day, the girl went up to the
roof of an apartment builing in
the neighborhood and jumped off.
The building wasn't very high and
she landed in the shrubbery. That
was probably what saved her life.
However, her spinal cord was
injured in the fall and she was
paralyzed from the neck down.
The doctors said she would spend
the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

When she got out of hospital, I
went to see her. She was lying in
her bed, unable to move. She
apologized to me over and over
and she couldn't stop crying. She
said she wished she didn't survive
the fall and told me she was sorry
for all the trouble she had caused
me and her mother.

I tried to soothe her and stop her
crying, but it's hard to comfort
someone when they are lying
down. I embraced her awkwardly.
She was weeping so much that
her whole body was shaking. She
couldn't even wipe away her own
tears.

As I held her in her arms, I asked
her to marry me.

She was like, "Really? Are you
serious? Me? Really?"

She couldn't believe that anyone
would want her. I had to propose
to her several times before she
would believe I really meant it.
She cried so hard, her tears ran
dry. I tried to reassure her and
told her I wanted to marry her
was because I had always loved
her.

She was the perfect girl for me.
She always had been.

Even when she ignored me and
didn't return my feelings.

Even when she was hanging out
with a bad crowd.

Even when I had to listen to all
her stupid problems.

Even when she became so thin
and was hiding in her room.

Even when I told the popular girl
she fancied her boyfriend.

Even when I was spreading vile
rumors about her to her
classmates.

Even when I sprayed graffiti all
over her house.

Even when I killed her cat and put
it through the letterbox of her
house.

Even now that she is lying there in
her bed, small, weak and unable
to move.

Even now I still love her.

You see, she is the perfect girl for
me.

Soon we will be married.