The Woman

She wrapped her expensinely manicured fingers around the glass and lifted it smoothly to her lips, the moisture icy against her burning skin. She drank deeply knowing she would feel it's effect immediately, she refused to care, even the surrealness of intoxication was better than feeling nothing.
Her glass empty she slipped off the stool, swinging her hips suggestively she made her way to the jukebox. To any of the men watching she would appear sexy and confident, she saw the way they looked her up and down, their approval evident. But it didn't make her feel the way she had thought it would. She still felt empty.
The tight white T-shirt showed off her full, round breasts perfectly, breasts she had been envious of on other women; tonight made her feel hideous, grotesque and a fake.
She should leave, everything from the shinny round tables to the cocktail menu and the large brown sofas strategically placed told her she didn't belong here.
She'd entered this bar full of confidence and belief, it was purely fear that made her stay; fear of never belonging, of never being accepted for what she was, fear of being afraid for the rest of her life. Her future started now, today. She's promised herself that this morning. It was just so damned hard to be different.
As she walked back to the bar she laughed at the irony of the song she had selected 'man, I feel like a woman'. Those six words were at the core of her whole life, well now she didn't just feel like a woman, she was one.

END