Lessons On Love

6: Wonderland Or Neverland

Just a belated THANK YOU to DancerNwriter for the lovely cover that everyone's been praising about! You are amazing girly!

Also, a reader is telling me that someone is stealing this novel and somehow posting it on a phone app that is completely not WP related. I havent confirmed it with my own eyes yet, but if there is someone actually doing this, stop.

 

Chapter 6: Wonderland Or Neverland?

            For Tyler, it was like a young boy at a brand new toy store. Everything in my room captivated him, and everything within reach, he wanted to touch. I could tell it from the way his eyes caught and reflected the bright sunshine that fluttered into my room like golden butterflies. It left my room aglow, casting a soft, warm blanket over it, but I’m freezing. All I feel is cold.  

            His fingers touch the poster of Audrey Hepburn on the wall, crept across the edge of my vanity, felt the texture of the blankets I slept on and pinched the ear of the single teddy bear at the corner of my bed and nightstand. The whole image reminds me of all the times I visited Chinatown, where all the stores had big round mirrors on the corners, cameras zooming in, shop owners staring at you, and little tags that decorated every shelf, ‘you break, you buy.’

            Except in this case, Tyler has broken enough things of mine. I’ve drained him dry and now he stands in front of me, with a smile of painful nostalgia on his lips. He’s broke now. Just as I am. And I don’t want anything of him anymore, just for him to get out of my store.

            “It’s the same,” he said. “Everything’s still the same.” His eyes landed on the picture of my mother holding me when I was only 5 days old and gently picked it up to have a closer look. It’s the only picture I have of the two of us together, and after a brief look, Tyler sets it down on the nightstand before angling it so that the picture faced the bed. It was the way I liked it. From that angle, I could see it when I woke up in the morning, the picture of my mother holding me, and the words that she wrote at the bottom in small captions.

            My beautiful daughter Camila, you were born to do something amazing. Never let anyone stop you. Remember that the brightest stars in the sky are always surrounded by darkness. Shine on. Love, Mom.

            “Things have changed,” I said. “You just haven’t noticed. Nothing lasts forever.”

            Tyler stood with his back facing me, didn’t say a word as he slumped down and placed his backpack on the carpet. “Have you found a topic for the project? Since it’s on psychological diseases, I was thinking maybe Bipolar or split personalities. Or do you have something else in mind?”

            I grabbed the small, coffee table that’s placed in the corner of my room and parked it in the center, separating Tyler and me, like a wall. I often do my homework on it, but the excuse for today’s occasion is slightly different. “I do have something else in mind,” I told him. “I’ve already started on it last night.”

            “And what did you decide on?”

            “Alice In Wonderland Syndrome.”

            It wasn’t one of the things covered in class, but Tyler seems to know what it is. “Beautiful name for a beautifully tragic disease,” he said.

            I agreed.

            But I didn’t tell him sometimes I feel like I have it – like living inside a vivid fantasy of a bitter nightmare. No one ever wakes up. When Prince Charming comes to kiss Sleeping Beauty, she turns to ashes. You’re late. A hundred years too late. That’s the story of Tyler and me.