Illusory | ✓

i l l u s o r y : 19

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHTED 2015

I L L U S O R Y : 19

In the beginning people don't know how to react when it comes to me and Bridger dating. Some don't know what he can see in me, others are just shocked but soon get over it and a selected few don't care from the start. Bridger and I receive plenty of told-you-so's from Darby when she hears it from us since we first told her in the parking lot when we got to school, while Jamal simply just fist pumped with Bridger in respect towards his decision.

Now though, a month and a half into our relationship, Patty becomes more present whenever Bridger and I try to hang out alone with each other. It's a sixth sense when it comes to Bridger knowing when his sister is in the room, all because of 'the look' I get when I see her enter the room out of no where. It's enough though for irritation to flow throughout my being, at the fact that even when we're alone from the living, we're still being interrupted and not from ghosts that are strangers but instead by the ghost of his sister.

Right now I'm sitting in my living room with Bridger, he's sitting on the couch watching a comedy show while I'm sitting on the floor near the coffee table, doing some homework that I had forgotten to do the night before. My hair is pulled back in a sloppy ponytail and I'm wearing a baggy t-shirt and some pajama pants.

My eyes snap up when I see Patty enter the room and sighing underneath my breath, I sit my pencil on the surface of the glass coffee table and stand up from the ground. Bridger snaps his eyes away from the television screen and one glance from me is enough of an insight for him to know that we're in the presence of his sister again.

"Patty," I start to talk to her but she holds her hand up, as though to tell me that it isn't needed. I close my mouth and fold my arms against my chest, before motioning with my hand for her to continue.

"I...I know that I've been getting on your nerves lately, especially when it comes to Bridger too. I always appear when you are having your alone time, cuddling on the couch and watching movies and every time I thought that it would feel like the right time for me to move on but it hadn't. I feel like I'm a burden to you," Patty confesses in a rapid rush, enough for my eyes to blink and shame to float up upon my features.

"It's okay, Patty. I understand," I tell her and she sighs a large sigh of relief, as though she's glad that I have not kept a grudge against her when it comes to what she's been doing. She flickers her eyes towards Bridger though, who's turned around on the cushion to be watching the both of us talk to each other.

"This time though, I feel like it's different, as strange as that sounds," Patty admits and some more and her voice is actually eager this time. She looks at me as though she had finally found what she was looking for.

"I visit Cayson sometimes, just so that you and Bridger can have some alone time. I was visiting him a few minutes ago and he was making out with some other girl on the cheer leading team and you know what? I didn't care. I didn't move the pictures or throw the girl across the room or yell at either of them. In fact I would rather him actually move on and find another girl than be wallowing and wondering about me.

"We spoke about forever like it was something that was going to happen but let's face the facts. Every couple likes to think that they are going to last forever, if they are deeply in love with each other but most of the time they don't. They break up sooner or later so even if I hadn't died I know that I wouldn't have married Cayson in the end. He wanted to be in the NFL, which was a silly and cliche comment on his part, and I actually wanted to do something that actually mattered and impact the world for a change...." Patty trails off for a moment and I can't help but watch her with warmth now upon my own features, at hearing how she sounds so free all the sudden.