Free Mask of A Legend by Stephen Andrew Salamon

start talking about us. I guess that’s why.” The rain started falling harder outside, bouncing off the window in herds.
    “Well, that’s the reason why I don’t want to go to this search. I am fat … and those girls are skinny…. Especially you, I mean, you think that you’re ugly, but you don’t realize how lucky you are to have a figure like that. You have a slim, perfect waist, perfect breasts, and overall a perfect posture. With me, my belly is beyond large, my breasts seem like they’re a part of my stomach, and my posture is like a fish hook, hunched and curved.” Legend immediately got up from her bed and gave her a hug. “I mean, that’s why I always stick up for you when Dina or the other bitches make fun of you. You’re special, you’re the only one who likes me for who I am . . . not the way I look. And, if I go to this search with you, all those girls are just going to be like Dina, nothing but bitches.” Jenny cried on Legend’s right shoulder and absorbed her tears with Legend’s shirt.
    The bodyguard spoke. Silence and a brief echo of the rain hitting the window was all that was heard. The truth was spoken. Jenny, of all people, was actually crying. Legend was so fixated on herself that she completely forgot about Jenny’s feelings. But now she knew.
    “Jenny, listen to me, I know that people pick on you because of your weight, and I know they pick on me because of my looks. But, overall, if we allow them to stop us from doing what we want, just because of evil words they say about us, then that makes us everything that they call us. It makes you nothing but a fat slob, and makes me nothing but ugly. . . . That’s mainly why I’m going to this model search. This is our last year in high school, and I really don’t want to remember this year as doing nothing but crying because of name-calling to me . . . I want to remember it as actually going to this model search, and being happy because I went.”
    “I want to remember this year as myself walking on a catwalk with Dina and all the other beautiful models, and realizing that we’re all equal. The only moment when we aren’t equal is when we all walk off the catwalk and the agents begin to choose which girls they want. But for that one moment when I’m equal to Dina and the other beauties, that one moment is worth a thousand tears from my eyes. . . . It’s worth more than the three hundred dollars I paid to go to this search, it’s priceless, and I want to live that moment, Jenny.” She kept on hugging Jenny, both balling and trying to catch their breaths.
    Jenny released her arms from Legend and walked up to the window again. “Alright, I’ll go, but I’ll only go on the second day to see you walk on the catwalk. The first day you really don’t need me, all they’re going to do is teach you how to walk on the cat . . . but the second day I’ll be there.” Legend ran up to her and gave her a tight hug.
    “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Jenny, and you won’t be disappointed either. I promise you that day will be a day you’ll never forget!” Her bedroom door opened and her mother walked in. Legend saw her in the window’s reflection with a bottle of vodka in her grasp, and a cigarette in the other.
    “Legend, I have to talk to you immediately,” her mother slurred. Legend became embarrassed, knowing her mother was obviously drunk; she didn’t want Jenny to see her that way.
    She ran over to her mother and whispered, “Mom, could we please talk about this after Jenny goes home, and after you’re sobered up?”
    Her mother grabbed Legend by the hand and replied, “No, we’re going to talk about this right now!”
    Her mother guided her out of her room as Legend said, “Jenny, I’ll be right back!” She closed her bedroom door and her mother kept on pulling her hand toward her. They walked in a fast rhythm down to the kitchen. “Mom, could we please wait till you’re sobered up? I hate it when