Coping With Clarity

Chapter Ten

The first one was of her and Demi on the bench. There’s a distance between them and David, who had been the one with the polaroid camera. Selena is pulling her tongue out to the person looking at the photograph; reminding them that the gesture was meant for David, in the wake of her victory of getting Demi to the bench. Demi smiles widely on the glossy image, with her eyes closed and, though Selena didn’t realize at the time; she leaned into her shoulder. Sunlight made them glow.

David is in the next snapshot. He stretched his arms above their heads, an impressive feat as he was sitting below them on the grass, to capture all three of them in the shot.

There are multiple shots, more of David, more of Demi. They cover the once-bare-walls of Demi’s residential room. They mock the generic ward standards. Each photo adds to the depth, character and personality that Demi hadn’t been able to express before. Now even when Selena isn’t there, Demi has faces to turn to.

Selena’s favourite photo, however, is the one directly to the left of Demi’s bed, its on level with her eyes. Selena likes to think thats the side Demi sleeps on. Seemingly insignificant but whenever she’s in the room her eyes drift to it- no matter how many times she’s seen it. Ironically neither of them are looking at the camera. Demi was in mid-sentence; Selena can remember the sentence when she sees Demi’s parted lips.

“I grew up thinking hypnotized was spelt with an ‘M’; My brain can’t comprehend that there is no such word as ‘hypmotize’.”

The picture must have been taken about halfway through the quote because Selena’s eyes are closing and the birth of her smile is becoming present. She can’t grasp how happy she looks in that photo - compared to others.

Selena’s eyes drift down. There’s a mumbling in the background but her fingers want to flip through the catalog on her lap more than her ears feel like listening. Colours. Sizes. Lengths. Selena suddenly wants to fall into sleep. The happy induced feeling the photo gave her fades within the choice of prom dresses in the book in front of her. Prom. The idea made her kinda happy, but she predicted, it wasn’t going to stay that way for long.

“Selena.”

Demi leaned on the barriers of her bed, she’s supported by her upper body on her elbows and lets her small waist drape under covers. She was also wearing her own clothes. Demi had taken to making a subtle effort for her visitors; because of this Selena had learnt some more of Demi’s favored bands and designers. It was an insightful change.

But then the image of someone dressing her would come back and haunt Selena. Choking back the thought, Selena closed the dress catalog.

“Sorry I got a bit lost in the pictures.” Selena saved. Demi rolled her eyes. Probably because she’d experienced the same feeling every night since the pictures had been put up. There were hundred to taunt her imagination. 

“Thats good, but you really need to get lost in your math revision.” Demi shoved the heavy textbook through the slots of the barrier on her bed. Selena quickly caught it, briefly pausing to consider who would come running from the crash it would have made on the cool floor. Not Henrie; he was on vacation for the weekend. Selena’s fingers skin the shiny cover. MATH. A terrible word. And seriously? When would she ever need it? Finals aside...

“Your only saying that because you don’t have to do it.” Selena sneers distastefully. She still had a few weeks.

“True.” Maybe weeks ago Selena would have been more aware that mentioning school wasn’t a positive place for the girl. The words and mentions had lessened so, apparently, had her reactions to them.

“Besides, I’m being distracted.” Selena is stuck on dimensions. Its ironic if you think about it, because she’s good at the dimensions of people. Weaving in and out of faces, making friends, avoiding enemies, finding their comfort zones. She’s just not good with nameless, soulless, inanimate objects. Even though she’s dealt with a fair few of them in L.A.