Katrina stepped out of the shower with a towel wound tightly around her form. She took her time drying each and every droplet from her flawless skin. She surveyed herself in the mirror, and took in each detail with beautiful amber eyes. Her skin was the color of freshly made coffee, with just a dollop of milk mixed in. Her high cheekbones and wide-set, large eyes cast an aura of mystique around her willowy figure. With onyx hair hanging to just below her chin, she was beautiful.

                With cat-like grace, she turned from the mirror to sit on the edge of her bathtub, her long legs folding into her body with ease. She rested her cheek on her knees, her arms hugging her legs into a tight bundle.

                Katrina sat this way for a while, staring at the skylight that cut a hole in her vaulted ceiling, watching light flood the luxurious bathroom as the shadows crept further and further away from her curled body.

                Her phone buzzed on the vanity, and she was startled back to reality. She slowly uncurled and stood up, allowing the towel to drop as she walked over to check her phone. A text message from her agent. Of course. Today’s a big day! Don’t forget, you need to be at the plaza by eleven. Bring those gold shoes of yours, the strappy ones, not the heels. –Samantha.

                Katrina closed her eyes and delicately trailed her fingertips across her face. She snapped her phone shut and leaned against the vanity, staring at her feet.    

                Her hand shot out and closed around the bottle of vanilla scented lotion to her left, and she delicately unscrewed the top and dribbled the lotion into her palm. She turned her attention to her right leg first. Slowly she ran her lithe fingers down her perfectly sculpted thigh, rubbing in the balm as she went. “I hate you” she whispered. Her fingers trailed down to trace her calf. “I hate you, too.” 

                Her hand moved over to her left thigh, and repeated the process. “Why can’t you be thinner?” she said to her flawless skin as it absorbed the last of the lotion. She poured some more into her hands, and slowly worked her way up her stomach. “I hate you”. Katrina reached her left shoulder and paused, her hand cupped gently around her smooth skin. She closed her eyes and tilted her head until it rested lightly on her cupped hand. She envisioned herself shrinking smaller and smaller until she could run on nothing but air and the sunlight streaming in from the skylight in her vaulted bathroom ceiling.  She curled in on herself further, and continued her hand’s journey down her sapling arm.  “Be smaller” she whispered to her shoulder.

                Katrina finished applying the lotion and stepped into her carefully pressed clothes, tightening her artfully crafted belt to the last hole. As she walked out the door, she glanced once again at the full-length mirror glinting in the sunlight from the skylight in her vaulted bathroom ceiling.

                Without a word, she smashed it and stepped out the door.

-N