‹ i'm just igby ›

#15 - worries

[written by shundorifurry]

I was totally frozen up in my seat as my appearance showed up on screen. Mabel's yelling and shouting was soon muffled as I just stared at the bright, luminous screen.

"Igby!" Someone called my name.

"Igby?! Earth to Igby!!" It was Iris. She lightly smacked my cheeks repeatedly to grab my attention. "Igby, bruv, wake up. Wake up, I say! Have you watched Harry Potter?! Rengardium Leviora! Did I say it right? WAKE UP!"

... She's definitely a mental asylum escapee.

I was quickly brought back to my senses as I looked up to see both Aqua and Iris staring at me with slight concern. Well... More like they were freaked out rather than concerned.

"You good, man?" Aqua asked, raising an eyebrow. "The movie ended five minutes ago and we've been calling you since!"

"... What? What do you... What are you talking about...?.." I spoke breathlessly, surprised that I could even get any words out at all.

"Bro is NOT a-okay," Iris commented, seemingly finding the situation quite funny. It was certainly not funny.

"I... Need to go..." I got up from my seat and ran, daring not to look back.

"Wait- Igby!-" They called out but I ignored them. I couldn't take it anymore.

I ran all the way home, the whole three miles. It took me almost half an hour to even reach my front door. My lungs and throat were burning like hell and I could barely breathe. I quickly unlocked the door and shoved my way into the house and slowly running upstairs to my bedroom. I locked myself in there and leaned against the door, trying to recompose myself and gain my breath once again. I slowly fell to the floor as I trembled. My vision blurred with tears before they rolled down my cheeks.

I couldn't take it. I felt so extremely overwhelmed and I didn't know why. I couldn't even force back the emotions; they were too big.

When I was younger, maybe in Year 2, we had reading assemblies where a teacher would read a book to us all. I remember this one specific book about worries. It was about a young girl who worries about literally everything. Each worry added to her bag of worries which followed her wherever and everywhere she went. She couldn't get rid of it no matter how hard she tried. It grew bigger and bigger the more she worried. One day, she met a nice old lady. She said that she could see the girl's bag of worries and that she knew how to get rid of it. She said to speak out about it. Her bag of worries soon reduced in size until there was nothing left.

This memory isn't my own. It's stolen... Or rather more gifted from someone. ... Someone real unlike me.

Sorry, I better quit yapping or I'll become like Iris.

It was a slightly comforting memory though that I ended up forgetting about the situation I was in. As soon as I calmed down, I found myself dozing off. I fell asleep on the floor in front of my bedroom door.