Miss Understood

It was a Sunday afternoon and I was just walking around, window-shopping at the Waterside Mall. This is one of my favorite things to do on a beautiful, sunny, summer day. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone in the flashiest clothes I had ever seen. I made a double take at her. From top to bottom she was dressed completely in bright, pink, sequenced clothing. She had on the highest stilettos and I couldn’t fathom how she was able to walk so gracefully in them. I would have guessed that she was around the age of twenty-five years old and most likely exceedingly wealthy. The amount of shopping bags she had in her hands was countless. The names sprawled across the bags read Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, etc. I watched as she continued to strut down the mall pathway and disappear into Tiffany Co. I felt like that moment had just been a scene from a movie and I couldn’t help think that I had seen that lady before.
I continued shopping by myself for a while. Later, I saw her again. She was in Nordstrom with more bags than before. She must have had over twenty bags! This time she didn’t look so stunning. She was sitting on a bench inside with her freshly manicured fingers covering her face. I swear I saw a teardrop fall down her face, but it had to have been my imagination. As I quietly walked over next to her I saw that I was right, she had been crying. Her mascara and eyeliner were running down her face and she looked like a mess. I sat on a seat across from her but she didn’t even look up at me. Another girl, about the same age and not as ridiculously dressed, sat down next to her and handed her a tissue. I kept quiet and tried to listen to their conversation. The one in bright pink was now balling her eyes out. Through the sobbing I could only make out a few things she was saying. “Shopping is the only way I can keep my spirit high these days”, she said. After eavesdropping for a few minuets, I comprehended that her drug addict father just passed away from an overdose. She was completely distraught over this. Before I had envied her and now I felt bad for her. What seemed to be a flawless movie character on the outside turned out to be a scared, misunderstood individual on the inside.