The first time I met Vincent was on that day. The day I got a friend for the first time.
I wasn't used to socializing. I wasn't used to talking much. Neither with family nor with strangers. Since childhood, I was always avoided because I seemed quiet and cold. Especially because of my blue eyes, which scared them and made them always call me the snow princess.
It was the same in elementary school. I didn't make any friends. Even if I wanted to be friends with someone, that person would avoid me, saying I wasn't suitable to be their friend. Yet others could be friends, why couldn't I?
At that time, I knew the answer. They secretly talked about me behind my back and said I was scary. I looked like the evil snow princess from the movies.
Not only at school, but at home, my mother and father never paid attention to me. They paid more attention to my siblings who were smarter and more talented than me. In their eyes, I had nothing but beauty.
I cried alone in the empty playground that morning. I didn't want to go to school anymore. At school, there were only bad people who looked at me with ostracizing gazes. I didn't want to go to school. I also didn't want to go home. At home, I was just a walking doll. I didn't want to go home.
After a few minutes of crying alone, footsteps were heard. A boy approached me. He asked softly, worried.
"Why are you crying?"
I looked up. I saw the face of a boy my age looking at me with pity. He then sat on the swing next to me without saying anything.
"My... My school friends avoid me... They say I look scary..."
"But you're beautiful?"
I stopped crying and sobbed upon hearing that sentence. The boy said with a questioning look.
"I'm beautiful?"
He nodded.
"Your eyes are blue like crystal, your hair is shiny silver-white like real silver. I've never seen anyone like you."
At that moment, my cheeks flushed. I was still little, but why did he say something like that to me?
I shook my head.
"No! I'm not beautiful. Everyone avoids me because I look scary."
"Ehhh..." The boy became confused by my behavior. I seemed to make him uncomfortable. He would probably leave soon.
Or so I thought.
He pulled my hand from the swing. He then took me running to a place. A place with a large, leafy tree, and next to it was a clear blue pond so that anything reflected on it looked like a mirror.
"Aria!!!"
"Vincent. Why did you take so long?"
There was another girl there. She seemed to be my age. Her hair was pink short with twintail hair and her eyes were sapphire blue. She was similar to me, in her eye color.
"Aria! I found a new friend. Introducing umm... what's your name?"
I hid behind the boy named Vincent. Shyly answering.
"Iris... Iris Winterbourne.."
"I'm Vincent Fortis, and she's Aria Rosenfeld. Nice to meet you, Iris, with this, we are friends."
Vincent invited me to shake hands. I hesitantly accepted.
"Nice to meet you, Iris. I'm Aria, just call me Aria." Aria give her hand with joyful smile.
"Oh... did you bring your lunch box, Vincent? Didn't you go to get your lunch box from home?"
Vincent chuckled, scratching his head.
"Hehe, I forgot. I stopped at the playground and saw Iris crying alone, that's why I forgot."
"Oh... you. Luckily, I asked my mom to pack more lunch than usual." Aria took out a lunch box from her bag. Inside were fruits and bread with sausage and lettuce.
She then gave Vincent an apple and me a banana.
"Eh?"
"Here. You're our friend now, so you have to eat with us." Aria said, offering me the banana. I shyly accepted it.
"Aria, Iris is a beautiful girl, isn't she?" Vincent said while munching on an apple.
Aria nodded slightly. "Yes, she's beautiful. But I'm more beautiful, ahem ahem. She's like Snow White."
"No!"
I shouted unconsciously at that moment. I didn't want to hear that nickname again.
"Hm? What's wrong, Iris?" Vincent and Aria asked, confused, seeing me suddenly shout.
"Eh? Umm... I don't like it.."
"The banana?"
I shook my head.
"Snow White. I don't like it."
Vincent and Aria fell silent.
"Have you ever heard the fairy tale of Snow White, Iris?"
Vincent asked. I shook my head. The Snow White I knew was a beautiful, evil princess who froze anyone near her.
"Then listen to me, i'll tell you a story."
Vincent pulled a book from his bag. It was a fairy tale book.
"I was just about to ask you to tell a story, Vincent. I can't wait to hear a fairy tale from you." Aria sat next to me, while Vincent in front of us began to read his book. He cleared his throat a few times first.
"Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when snowflakes were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen was sewing by her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed, she looked up at the snow and pricked her finger with the needle. Three drops of blood fell onto the snow. The red on white looked so beautiful that she thought, "If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in this frame."
Vincent told the modern version of the Snow White story to the end.
"The stepmother was very evil. But in the end, Snow White got a good ending."
I nodded. "The prince was so romantic to kiss the sleeping Snow White. One day, I want someone to wake me up with a gentle kiss like in the story."
Aria nodded in agreement. "Even though you have silver hair, Iris, I think you're like Snow White. Your beauty makes any woman envious. But I'm prettier and cuter than you. Right, Vincent?"
Vincent neither nodded nor shook his head; he just chuckled.
"You two will grow up beautiful like fairy tale princesses."
Aria and I became shy.
"You, Vincent, will be the prince. Iris and I will be the princesses. And the three of us will live happily ever after." Aria said happily while smiling wide full of cheer. The three of us laughed together. It turns out having friends is fun.
On that day, the day I finally made friends, was also the day I fell in love. And that love grew beyond my limits. Until I finally met two other princesses, and the tragedy happened. A tragedy that would make Vincent lose his childhood memories, the color of my eyes, and his mother whom we loved very much.
***