The petals on the rose were soft, yet were strong. In the greater view of things, they were weak. Fragile. But if one tried to pull apart a rose petal, or cut a hole in it with their fingernail, it would be difficult.
No rose was without it's thorns. There was no beauty without pain. Or so the saying went.
But sometimes beauty was not painful. Sometimes it was something that people were born with. Was it not?
Society dictates that to be beautiful, a woman must have blonde hair, blue eyes, large breasts, long legs, and a thin, hourglass figure. Among other things.
What if they were born with it? What if they hated it?
But that was why roses - or in this case certain "beautiful" women - had thorns - in this case, were assholes.
Because things were expected of them. Things they resented.
Or it was jealousy.
Because some people are more "beautiful" than others.

"Oh, how it must be to be a rose." A woman whispered, pricking her finger on a rose's thorn. "Beautiful. With nothing expected of you. And strong enough to defend yourself against the brutality of humans." As she held her finger above the rose, crimson blood dripped down, staining the white petals red.
"I envy you. You're strong. But you're pretty. And despite it all...you're a symbol of love."
She scoffed to herself. "Love is foolish. Too often does it end in heartbreak." The woman brought her finger to her mouth, and licked the droplets of blood from the cut. And then, she let the rose fall to the ground, cuts across her palm from it's thorns.
On her legs, cuts covered her skin. Cuts over scars, and scars from past cuts. She was the caretaker of the roses. The roses that she watched so many people stare at. The roses that she heard so many people praise.
She was used to the cuts. Used to their pain. There was something comforting in the stinging burn of tiny wounds. The roses were where she belonged.
A glass vase fallen off the shelf, left to shatter. And around it, a rose garden.
The woman was the shards. The woman was the broken vase.

The caretaker of the roses.