I used to tell my parents all about how guys liked me and how I rejected them. Vain and inconsiderate, I know, but 14 year old me thought it was something to brag about. My mum then showed me a picture of this beautiful girl who I had never seen before. I asked who she was but my mother just started talking about how this girl had a lot of guys chasing her too, because she was pretty and popular and very outgoing. And she would always turn them down, and sometimes show off that she had rejected so many guys. “Just like you”, she said.

I was pretty damn proud she thought a monkey looking ass like me even resembled the lady in the picture, so I did a stupid grin before she stared at me, dead serious. Mum then revealed she was one of my aunts, an aunt that I knew, we’ll call her Aunt May.

I didn’t believe her because Aunt May had half her face looking horribly disfigured, and was always the ‘ugly’ one to me. She stayed back in family reunions, and rarely talked to people. I didn’t know her well and avoided her because I was scared of her face.

Mum revealed that Aunt May was the beautiful girl in the picture, and because she had bragged about all the guys she rejected, one day out of a spite one of the guys poured acid on her as she walked out of her house.

I will never forget that gut wrenching feeling of my previous misconceptions and prejudices coming to light. It was just impossible for me to think that the ugly aunt at the back was this beautiful girl in the picture in front of me, and how her whole life changed in that one second.

For some days after hearing this, I did get irrationally paranoid that some little 14 year old squirt would similarly splash me with acid though. But I think I was more shocked and haunted than scared.