Oscar requested for me in his home.
Before then, I had taken a break from seeing anyone, saying I was sick.
No one questioned it, it was not like they'd miss me. Even Oscar had said I deserved the break cause every genius needed to sleep.
For three days, I had laid on my bed, Jamie's words replaying in my head and my heart aching more than I could carry.
And then, Oscar called for me.
I reached his house, noticing that the place was eerily quiet. Even Ryan was no where to be found.
His maid took me to where he was. A patio with a table filled with food.
"Sit, please" He said, hands waving at the cushion chairs "You look like you could do with healthy food for a change"
I sat. I was never one to talk too much anyway but I didn't eat.
He commanded that I did.
I obeyed.
The food felt dry and patchy to my mouth but I swallowed them nonetheless. His eyes followed me, as if he expected me not to digest them before he said "That should be enough. I don't want you having a stomach upset"
I stopped eating.
He dabbed a cloth on his lips before he let out a relaxed sigh and rested on the back of his chair "Skyler. Can I tell you a secret?"
"It depends" I didn't want to play his game.
He smiled "It's about you"
"Me?"
"Why I hired you, personally"
I thought it was because of my book. I told him.
He laughed "Your book was wonderful, yes, but it'd have been a bit unrealistic for me to have demanded for you all across the world and pay the way I have, even if you're gifted"
"So what?" It was the first time I was relating with anyone since James. It was the first time y mind was cleared from punishing itself.
Oscar stared at me, his garland blowing with the wind before he spoke "Skyler Castle. Was born female and raised presbyterian. Second child of Mr and Mrs Castle, who, like me, have generations of money to spend, and unlike me are oil conglomerates"
I was staring at him. I had always believed that Oscar knew nothing about me except my real name. He never asked anything.or suggested anything about my past.
"Lost your younger brother, Oliver, to him overdosing on sleeping pills and kissed a little girl when she was eleven"
I stilled.
No one knew that. Not even James.
"Her name was Agnes—"
"Stop"
My heart was beating fast. I was scared. I realized that was what I felt with the way I was gripping the arms of my chair and couldn't move.
How could he know that?
How could he know Agnes?
"She was my wife" He said, as if he read my mind. The happy, dreamy look on his face was replaced with something colder.
His wife.
The woman in the painting…
"Her parents married her off to me because they were ashamed of her, and she was talented, I'd admit but I couldn't stand what she was" He said "The abuse she had gotten all those years ago made her afraid of people and she used drugs more than I could accept"
Agnes. Agnes.
"We divorced sometime ago And I haven't set my eyes on her ever since" Oscar said "I hated her as much as I loved her. I don't know if you understand that. I wanted what was best for her and she wouldn't listen to me no matter what I did, but one thing she did know for sure when she wasn't too high, was that she was glad they didn't hurt Skyler Castle"
A tear dropped out of my eyes.
"When I read stay, I could see it. The darkness. The regret. Stay is all about having a demon that grew and festered inside you" He said "A demon of not speaking up when you should have. A demon of letting someone else be hurt because of something that was your fault. Stay made me realize that I should have been stricter with Agnes. Spoken to her"
"It made me realize that I needed to see you"
Oscar crossed his legs "There is this thing about the brain and the heart. One is used for making rational decisions and the other, irrational. When a person goes through a thing so dark, so scary. The brain and heart work as one, to protect them. To give you an outlet"
"Some dive into competitive swimming. Some running. Some drawing and others, they write"
"The darkness is what gives you an inkling of what to write because your characters are based on people you could have been, that you are, that you wished you were. Your life, you write it down and twist it"
"But it's not supposed to keep chaining you down" He said "Agnes was a beautiful artiste and she painted that version of her in the ground floor. A version she wish she was but didn't fight hard to become. She was an enigma. Just like you are. I swore never to let anything happen to you like I did to her"
"And you brought me here?" I asked.
"I've been watching you for years now" Oscar admitted "Especially you and James"
"No" That struck me "Don't"
"I won't talk about your love life with him, that doesn't concern me" He stood "But you should know that what it is that haunts you, starts right from the beginning. You would keep wishing of the things you could correct and hate yourself more, but you can't correct the past. You can only right the."
"Take a week off, and when you come back, you better be a sight for sore eyes"
YOU ARE READING
US
Teen Fiction"What we are Skyler, how we feel. We don't have to give it a name. It's just Us" ~ Skyler has never felt like they belonged anywhere. Not being sure that they were a girl or boy, not fitting in a Christian family, never feeling completely happy. Tha...
