Wait For You

Feels Like Home

    By the time dinner rolled around, we'd managed to get everything moved into my room. It didn't take long for Braylon to show us to my new room; all we had to do was walk through a corridor into a hall of doors. Each door had small plaques on them that informed outsiders of those who lived there.

When we reached my door, I wasn't surprised to see three other names above mine: Cristiana Alfonza, Noelle Bennington, and Corrine Harrows.

"Do you know any of them?" My mother asked Braylon.

He nodded a few times, "Yeah. Noelle's my cousin on my mother's side, but I don't know the other two very well."

"Oh okay," she answered. "Do you think Noelle will get along with Bae?"

"Hmm, I guess. I don't really know Baeleigh enough to answer that." At his words, I clenched my jaw. If he was going to pretend to not know me, then I would do the same. If he didn't want to be my friend then so be it. I slid my key into the door and walked in.

"Do you all need help moving anything in?" Braylon asked my parents.

"No," I hissed. "We've got it."

I'd always known I was different ever since I was a young child. But it didn't really hit me until that night, as I lay in bed wide awake. Under the given circumstances, I should have probably been admitted to an insane asylum. I heard voices and saw my dead best friend... not exactly something that would get you into an elite boarding school. But hey, everyone here seemed to have a secret as well. The counselor, the guide, and most likely everybody else too.

It wasn't long before I dozed off, falling into the other world I'd grown to know so well.

This was the first time that I didn't dream about Braylon. The dream boy I'd grown up with over the years had finally chosen to leave; I suppose he got out at the right time. Having me at school would be too much, he must have realized. Maybe I wasn't good enough. That could have been it. I wasn't worth hanging out with, getting to know in person.

"We were never friends," I called into the darkness around me. "I know you can hear me, Braylon. You always could. But you didn't care. I know you didn't."

The dream began to shift like it usually did. The darkness was replaced with a forest.

"Baeleigh, let's play!" I watched as the young Braylon ran in circles around me. He wore a superman costume—one of his favorites during that period of time. I was wearing a dainty pale dress that cut off below my knee. My light hair was a curly mess cascading down my back.

"What do you want to do?" My child self asked, joining Braylon as he ran around.

"Hide and Seek!" He squealed, before beginning to run away. Rather than disappearing into the tree line, his small frame disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

The shift occurred again. Only this time I was ten and standing in a meadow. "Hello?" I called out into the field. I didn't know Braylon's name then. I didn't feel like I had to know his name; he always came, he was always my friend. What would knowing his name do? Perhaps it was my mind's way of building a defense system. If I didn't know his name, I could never tell people about him. And if I never told people about him, it was almost like he didn't exist.

"Baeleigh!" His childish self squealed, jerking me from my thoughts. I watched as he ran up to hug me, his tiny arms lifting me into the air and spinning me around. I giggled loudly until he sat me back down.

"I missed you!" I'd yelled.

"I missed you too!"

"Tag, you're it!" I laughed, poking him. I took off running into the meadow filled with dandelions and daisies. The sun was slowly setting, casting a faint glow on everything. I watched for a few moments as lightning bugs began to float around us; we jumped and jumped, struggling to catch them. As soon as Braylon caught one, he burst into a cloud of smoke.