2003-05-28 - 12:40 p.m.

she asked me if i thought that she was pretty.

to this, i replied: "Beauty exists in everybody. its just more apparent in some people than in others. for some, just one glance is needed for you to decide that they are beautiful. for others, it takes longer. but if you look long enough, eventually you'll find it. its kind of like an acquired taste. once you realise this, sooner or later, you're gonna fall in love with everybody."

"so...have you fallen in love with me yet?" she grinned, showing crooked, yellow teeth. and i decided that she was not so pretty.

but i answered her question with silence, because i did not know yet whether it was a Yes or No.

"i tend to believe more in the reverse", she said. "Ugliness exists in everybody, but its not so apparent because we try means and ways to cover it up, to hide it. but everytime we look in the mirror, we see again our true selves with all the defects and imperfections and hate it."

"sometimes we see what we don't want to see."

"Precisely."

"no, i mean, sometimes we see something that isn't there, that exists only in our fear and imagination; in order to satisfy our own paranoia that something must be wrong. we forget that because nothing is perfect, nothing is perfectly imperfect."

"What are you talking about?"

"Actually, i don't know."

in the silence that followed, i observed her. the skin on her forehead was scrunched together at the point between her eyebrows and she was biting her lower lip. i found myself strangely yearning for that mischievous grin to appear once more upon her face.

"Yes," i said.

She looked at me with a slight, questioning look in her eyes. i smiled at her and suddenly she grinned. i had found the beauty in those crooked, yellow teeth. yes, i think; i have fallen in love with her.

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