Smile

She smiled, her gawky stupid looking smile - it was stupid, that’s what most people said when they walked away. She’d been slapped this one time in school, because her teeth showed through the smile “its too broad, broader than my fist, once its on your face” someone had said.

Nine years later, that man had walked away, after the movie and the unseen fondling. “Its a very stupid smile, to be honest. Change it.”

Even crying didn't change the smile, you know the way it does to most people? It stayed, true and same. The dentist hadn’t helped either. Her mother said, it became worse after the dentist visits. 

Along the years, there came these endless magazines and supermodels, smiling their perfect practised smile, too known and familiar, far too visible and way too accepted. Commonly appreciated.

Today, as she sat waiting for her coffee, figuring out inside her head whether to smile at the waiter or not, she wanted to sink in. She hadn’t eaten, and she had brushed just before leaving home, double checking that everything was acceptable and normal. She hadn’t smiled at the autowala even after he returned all the change, she hadn’t smiled at the beautiful rainbow in the sky that nobody around her seemed to have noticed. She didn’t even smile at the man walking up to her with a bunch of flowers.

He smiled.

She recognised the smile, it was the same smile she had seen so many times before. Mirrors, photographs, school pictures, blackboard drawings, everywhere. She recognised the stupidity, the never-ending size of the smile. The smile that had tormented her all these years of her teeny tiny life was’t only hers. 

There was this stupid looking man, with a bunch of flowers, walking right up to her, dressed in any common manner, unnoticed and unprivileged with the same smile she had carried around all these years.

She smiled too. 

Sometimes you can’t help it.

“Hello, you look familiar.” the man said.

“How?” she responded, suspicion taking over.

“I don’t know, there’s a familiarity on your face.”

She smiled, not knowing what to say.

“I think its your smile” he thought for a second before he answered, taking his seat opposite her. “And these flowers complement that smile. So, you can take them.”

More smiles.

“ummm…I’ve never really liked my smile…you know?” she got it out of her mouth.

“What?!” an exaggerated response is sure to make anyone laugh - she did too.

“I’ll tell you about it, later” she smiled without showing her teeth.

“Everyone has called mine stupid too, you know?” he replied with a sense of knowledge and took her hand in his.

And even though they didn’t work out eventually (because he didn’t like skinny girls after a year) she slowly started noticing the stupidity of smiles that surrounded her and now wouldn’t leave her, ever.