Brilliant

It was too much pressure. Caiden ran away. Look perfect. Act perfect. Be perfect. And be brilliant.

It was the only thing that he could ever be in her eyes; and yet he didn't know it. He said he had nothing to prove but deep down he'd never believed it. He thought he could never measure up. They had beaten him down; the other ones, they said he was stupid, and ugly. A failure. They called him names and mocked him. He hated them. They were his best friends.

He hadn't minded so much until he met her; Lily. Then everything had changed. He loved her, but he knew she could never feel the same. 

He was wrong.

She thought he was beautiful and brilliant. In her eyes, he could be perfect. With her he thought, maybe his life could be different; he could escape the trap he was caught in; his life, his friends.

But they laughed at her too. Taunted him and called her the names they'd once called him. Oh how he hated them. He even stopped seeing her. Stopped calling her and talking to her so that they would leave her alone. He tried to protect her from the hell he'd been put through. But it didn't stop them, and it only hurt her, as she didn't know what was going on, only that her beloved Caiden had stopped being her friend.

Lily would've taken care of them if only she'd known. Somehow, she would've fixed it so that they could never hurt anyone again; certainly not her Caiden. But she never knew, because he had never told her.

There was just an absence in her life now. A hole where his bright shiny words had been & now... the void of nothingness sucked her dry & made her life hell too.

So they were both living in hell, apart, separated by silence & mocking.

She hadn't heard from him in weeks. She was heartsick, wondering what had happened to him, and trying desperately to figure out what she had done to make him leave. She was left with a photograph and his brilliant words, love sonnets he had written just for her. Reading them made her cry, left her sobbing into her pillow every night. This could never be enough.

But she was committed to waiting for him, as long as it took. She would give him all the time that he needed. And she knew that one day, he would return to her. She was certain of it.

Everyday she would look at his picture, and speak words over it. Magic words; a spell. She wasn't even sure where it came from, only that when she looked at his photograph, the incantation flowed from her lips. It frightened her and excited her at the same time. Words had made him run away, could words bring him back?

She held his picture to her breast and closed her eyes. She could feel him, he was so near. More words came from her mouth, they were his words, and they were brilliant.

He was coming back to her, he loved her. The magic words came from him, he always knew exactly what to say. He truly had a gift.

He was brilliant.

©2011 Garden Summerland