With the summer afternoon rolling by, and feeling the warm breeze of the high winds here at this national park; I thought things could get anymore stranger than that. Yet to only be met by a mysterious person who happens to stroll by just to annoy me. So here I was, stranded in a picnic area, and this young girl who is sitting next to me….smoking; goes by the name of Lyla Park. By the way she looks; I say she is a few years younger than me. She has the attitude of a badass girl, but is dressed modestly in business attire, as if she were attending a business meeting. With a red linen neck collar button shirt, black linen-cotton jeans, and short black leather boots. She is a typical girl; however, her eyes tell me a different side of her, looking tired and sad as she quickly puffed up another whiff of her cigarette as she raised it to her lips.
She notices me, looking at her….and seeing me looking all awkwardly spoke her mind off, "Take a picture….It will last long." Looking all frustrated at me. "Why do I even bother….talking to you of all people?"
"What's your problem, Ms. Lyla?" I replied by feeling annoyed at her attitude towards me.
"First off, it's….Lyla... Ok!" she shot back with a high-pitched tone, "And second of all, I am not married…..Yet."
"Wait a minute? You're not married yet?" laughing back at her response.
She paused briefly and finally spoke her mind off more, leading me to listen to what she had to say next, "Well, yeah…I am not married just yet. However, I am in the middle of a crisis just now, and with this job that I got transferred to….my hands are all tied up at this moment."
Seeing her reply, and not wanting to face her mean tone again, I chose to tone down the awkwardness and started a decent conversation with her; something to ease my mind from this depressing atmosphere.
"So, do you want to talk about the issue you are facing right now? I promise I won't make fun of you, nor judge you." Giving her an honest look.
She hesitated of not wanting to answer my question, but proceeded…cautiously…. "Chloe, right?"
"Yes!?" I replied, looking all confused at her gesture.
"Have you ever once developed these awkward feelings to the one you are considered very close to… you know like someone you grew up with?" Lyla asked, as she finally put out her cigarette.
I was skeptical at her question, as I answered her back, "Now that you mentioned it, I have."
Lyla hearing my response, looked all surprised and was curious about my personal life; leading her to ask another rhetorical question that I deemed it too uncomfortable. "Wait! For real?"
"Yeah." I shot back
"So who was it, if you don't mind asking me? And are you still with that person to say the least?" She said, now feeling a little bit calm.
"Well you could say we were together for sometime….however we started out as friends. All thanks to our parents who were in fact friends right before she and I were born." I answered feeling regret in my heart, "And that old friend of mine became more than a friend….she and I became a couple."
"Wow, I am amazed to hear that from you…." Looking all interested in my personal life, "So who was she?"
I met my gaze towards her and told her everything about my life and the relationship I had with Rachael Amber before having that intimidating relationship with my dear old friend Max Caulfield. And how our relationship slowly drifted us apart, leading me to abandon her at a time she needed me the most. What's worse is how my recent relationship with Leila was short-lived when she chose to abandon me here at this National park, all because I was no longer interesting to her, leaving me all confused and useless to say the least. As the evening rolled by, Lyla stood there listening to my story and noticed me crying for the first time in my life, for I never show this sad side of my life to anyone. I hardly ever cry in front of everyone. I tend to keep my personal feelings a secret, for I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me.
Lyla who noticed me sobbing for the first time approached me and gave me a big hug, "There….There Chloe, please don't cry….I had no idea you been through so much in your entire life. But it is never too late to make amends."
"What do you mean?" I'd asked as I wiped my tears away
"Well, Chloe…what I am about to tell you may come as a shocker to you, and you might not be the only one to experience weirdness at a whole new level. So, without further ado…let me tell you something about myself and the one who goes by the name of Sean Diaz." She said, finally regaining her composure, and sat up straight on the picnic bench.
I stood up and took a good stretch to numb my aching legs, before sitting back down on the picnic bench. It was there that she finally told me what she has been going through, and other personal stuff she had to deal with, while I stood there listening about her personal life; without any interruptions or whatsoever.
"You heard of the incident that happened in Seattle a couple of years back?" She asked, looking all scared
"Yes, I heard about an incident that happened to an American Hispanic family of three. Leading towards one them getting shot right there and then by the police officer who was on patrol at that time." I replied, trying to visualize the incident that happened in Seattle.
"Well, to put it lively, I knew that family. In fact, I was friends with them." She paused as she stood there smiling to herself before proceeding with her story.
I began to notice Lyla's gorgeous hair. Seen her semi-short black straight hair reminded me so much of Max, and not stopping myself from admiring Lyla's hair, I stood there listening to her story as she proceeded to tell me more about herself.
"When Sean and I became friends, he introduced me to his family. I was anxious to meet his family and seeing both his father, Esteban and his little brother, Daniel Diaz; I felt acquainted with him more, than ever. And slowly he began to open up to me even more, and how his mother sadly, chose to leave them behind; in favor finding her inner peace in life." She stopped mid-sentence as she started to blush. "Yet, I took it upon myself to care for Sean and his brother even more. And being friends for a couple of years, I started to develop feelings for him. However, I couldn't proceed with that relationship for I was too afraid to omit my feelings to him; fearing that it will tear our friendship apart…."
She took a breather, giving me an open opportunity to ask more about her relationship with this Sean guy. "So, this Sean guy you mentioned earlier? You and him have a thing with each other?"
"Yeah, Sean and I had this deep emotional bond with one another. You see, I was born with strict parents, who expected highly of me to succeed in all educational and curriculum activities. They even had the audacity of monitoring my life strictly, leading them to drive most of my friends away, and would sort of… try to threaten my livelihood if I didn't meet their highly curricular agenda. But, not Sean….he was different than the rest of my friends, who sadly stopped being my friends. He gave me courage to stand up for myself….he made me smile"
Lyla also mentioned how she was in and out of the mental hospital due to her reaching a breaking point of wanting to take her own life, right after her parents' harsh criticism of her getting a C average on her grades, which spiraled out of control. With no way out, she secretly took some of her parents' strong sleeping pills and tried to overdose on them; her parents eventually found out about her intentions and immediately got her sent to a mental hospital for an evaluation. After her release from treatment, she made that decision in life, and she knew well that the only way to get away from her parents was to succeed in school and enroll at a university far away from them. But, as luck would have it, Sean did manage to give her some sigh of relief during her enrollment in high school. It started with a simple chat amongst each other, and thanks to Lyla's initiative, she finally made a new friend.
…. "So, yeah, Sean was everything to me. A friend who wouldn't back out on me, who does look out for me, and makes me smile for once in my life…yet my parents still considered him to be a bad influence in my life. But, no matter how hard they tried to keep him away from me; he still remained being my friend and gave me a strong will to continue on living."
"Amazing, that's one hell of a story. So what happened next?" I asked, as we finally got acquainted with one another.
"Well, there was this Halloween party that Sean and I were to attend at a nearby forest, after school ended. However, something terrible happened to the Diaz family, and to make the story shorter. Their neighbor threw a fit after Daniel, who was trying to show everyone his Zombie costume filled with fake blood wandered outside without a care in the world and had accidently spilled some of it on to the neighbor himself…..let's just say that he wasn't very happy with Daniel and tried to beat him up. This is where the troubles began when Sean intervene and had unintentionally put his neighbor in a coma; leading towards police intervention." She paused, as she started wheezing uncontrollably.
"Hey, ….are you alright?" I said, as I reached out to comfort her.
She slowly was able to keep her breathing issues under control before proceeding…. "Yeah…. I needed a moment to breathe. I'm still traumatized of that incident….and it still haunts me to this day….."