Seeking Smiles//Slow Updates

five

I don't know if I should be scared.

Nope, I definitely should be scared. A kid who nonstop bothered me for a whole day and then ceased all communication for a whole week now wants to meet me in a park and if I don't come on the time he wants me there, he'll show up at my house and do god knows what.

I brought a knife... just for precaution. I don't know what Tyler plans on doing, but I don't think it'll involve hurting me. I'm just paranoid. I don't know what's going to happen; nothing was specified. So just like the saying, it's better to be safe than sorry. As stupid as that sounds.

The uncertainty of Tyler's intentions send a shiver up my spine. This kid is weird. Far weirder than I ever expected. I'm scared of what his plans might turn up to be. What they involve and what they result in.

I inhale some of the crisp, autumn breeze, following the stinging feeling as the air travels down my throat and fills up my lungs. Maybe if I focus on my breathing, I'll stay calm. My mind won't wander into dark corners of 'what ifs?' and I will be able to get through this.

My awareness toward my breathing becomes more and more apparent. The way my chest rises and falls, first filling up down in my stomach, then my chest. My shoulders move only with the bouncing of my feet as they hit the sidewalk pavement. The way the air burns my nostrils as it travels in and the way my mouth fills up before I exhale between my lips.

Small houses and run down campers increase in the space between them. The trees, growing thicker, shade the edges of the road in strange patterns, causing the breeze to be cooler when the sun isn't warming my skin.

I shiver in my jacket, my process of respiration is set in a singular repetitive arrangement. I near closer to the park, my feet almost stepping on the boundaries of the property.

The sidewalk ends and melts into the grass slowly, plant growth thicker in between the cement cracks until no more cement is shown.

Soccer nets stand on either side of a white-lined painted field, trees hovering over the tips with a dark shade of shadow.

I cross the empty fields with regret boiling in my stomach. I could've just let him try and find my house in which he would've failed, but I chose to come out here. Maybe it isn't too late for me to turn back, but either way, my feet persist on toward the park benches.

I see a light brown head facing away from me, staring beyond the trees and into something bigger made by his mind.

I approach Tyler, but don't sit down next to him. "What do you want then?" I ask harshly and he snaps out of his daze with a few blinks before tilting his face to meet my eyes.

"Alice In Wonderland Syndrome," Tyler states, the sort of stupor still clear on his face. "Do you know what it is?"

I furrow my eyebrows in frustration. "Do I bloody look like I know what that means?"

Tyler just shrugs and continues, "It means my mind can take objects or people or anything really and morph them out of proportion without me even realising. Normally, telling with people is easier because I have a general idea of what they should look like and how things are when they are too big or too small, but objects vary the most."

I can't fathom why Tyler is just spilling his mental illnesses into my lap. I'm a stranger to him and he's a stranger to me. I don't understand why he wants me to know this about him. I keep everything to myself. Why shouldn't he?

"Like the book or film Alice In Wonderland that's what it's based off of." Tyler keeps explaining when I don't respond. "Like being on mushrooms. I've always wondered if things would look normal if I took them. Like some sort of reverse effect or something of the sort." Tyler looks past my head for a moment.