On Today’s Teenage Shenanigans:

Angsty Appearances

The paint on my face is beginning to crack. Bright red smile, cheery eyes and rosy cheeks; they peel off
slowly and fall. Everywhere I go, I leave a pile of paint flakes on the floor like the protagonist in a soap
opera flooding their floor with tears. It’s really annoying. Unlike them, I don’t have a camera crew to
clean up after me. Or a smoking hot love interest so infatuated with me they’d change their name and
leave their life of luxury behind to run away with me.

Damn. I’m so lonely. And single. *winks.*

Alas, it would seem I’m running low on the glistening paints I used to cake on my face. What terrible
fright I must unleash on unsuspecting innocents! The tired lines of my skin weighed down by bricks, eyes
so tired and empty they resemble the entrance to Hell itself! Yes, do please forgive me for my
carelessness, how dare I taint your view of our wonderful Lima with my unholy face? Such lovely tones
of gray cruelly polluted by the aspect of a she-demon. I apologize.

Forgive me, world, for daring to believe you might like the face underneath! Forgive me for daring to let
the plastic mask slip. Maybe I hoped that for once, you might enjoy me more than the face I’ve painted
on, the golden child with perfect numbers you can pin on your wall. Maybe you’d see beyond the flaws I
carry with me. Maybe I hoped you’d look at me and smile. Nah, who am I kidding? I’ve just been too lazy
to paint it on recently.

Not to worry! I’ve made a new batch of paint. I’ll smear away the bags under my eyes and cover up my
scratches. I’ll rouge my lips and twist my tongue ‘til we all forget where plastic ends and I begin.

I won’t give up anime though. Can’t beat that out of me with a lead pipe.
There are lines even I will not cross.