Eliska: Character Sketch

(This is a character sketch I wrote after my trip to Prague on study tour 2010. Enjoy!)

She’d grown up in Prague, knowing as if instinctively never to look anyone in the eye.  By fifteen she’d held and smoked her fair share of long, skinny cigarettes, much like the one currently dangling from her bright red, glossy lips.  She barely felt the cold of Praugian winters on her perfect button nose, reveling in the fact that it was always perfectly dabbled in pink during the bitter cold months.  The fur coat she donned was well worn after years of use, and she paired it perfectly with black jeans and three inch pumps, in which she walked as if they were merely an extension of her petite feet.  

As a line of tourists walked by, big suitcases pulled behind them, she turned her nose a little higher, flicking her cigarette on the ground and stamping out the end with her pointed, patent toes.  She reapplied her lipstick unnecessarily and entered the café, meeting her friends for an early afternoon breakfast.

Eliska made an entrance wherever she went, with her dark brown hair hanging halfway down her back, and perfect bone structure, she turned heads without even trying. Which isn’t to say she didn’t try; she loved the attention, and did all she could to garner more.  A meeting with friends at a café was no exception, making a lavish display as she kissed each of them on the cheek.  As they sat and talked she leaned her head back and laughed, heartily and strong, yet beautifully reserved as well.  Everyone loved her, from the barista serving her cappuccino, to the woman by the window reading a book.  

Everyone, that is, except for one of the friends sitting next to her, Tereza.  Tereza was also lovely, with her bright blue eyes and dirty blonde hair, contrasting perfectly with her translucent skin.  And yet, no one ever noticed her, because Eliska was always sitting by her side, strikingly beautiful and positively outrageous.  Tereza had also grown up in Prague; the combination of harsh winter conditions and cold-shoulders had thickened her skin, but on the inside there was still a sense of fragility she couldn’t seem to displace.