The Perfect Time

In Her Castle

She almost forgot that he existed.

Her life was busy, a whirlwind of friends all coming and going. It was exciting and fun, but at times she wondered why everything felt so shallow. Like the people she met were always temporary. Like they were all boats in the vast ocean of life that were simply passing her by. It seemed no one had the same destination as she had in mind.

Friends were fleeting, even the boys who claimed they loved her always got bored and left her side. To be honest she didn't feel anything for them either. She got used to being alone. The kind of alone where the room was full of all kinds of people, but when came down to it, she was always fighting alone with no one by her side. 

Over time, she became a loner out of choice. Friendships weren't worth the effort anymore. If people were going to take what they needed from her and leave, she didn't see the point of trying to fit in. Of faking. Of changing herself for others. At some point she had tried to be friends with other loners out in the periphery, but even they used her without giving anything back. Besides, she found that most of them, although interesting and more genuine than the main crowd, were emotionally unstable. In the end, taking care of them became more tiring than trying to fit in.

Her mother told her she was too nice, that she made people feel like they didn't need to try. Her mother worried that she was selling herself short. That Alice would be taken advantage of. So, in high school Alice shut herself in. Built a wall of icy attitude and indifference and made her relationships as minimal as possible. She learned to slip into the shadows, disguising herself as a haughty sportswoman to school friends and as a studious nerd to her swimming teammates. Her fortress was impenetrable from all directions. Inside this castle, she forgot what it was like to spend love given without a demand and how to long for its reciprocation. 

But he found her in those shadows.