Not So Complicated

Chapter eleven

Carmen's POV

It got harder to ignore the fact that Flint wasn't in my life anymore and it sucked. 

On top of that, though two cycles of tests were done, it didn't stop the professors from loading us with assignments. 

Ever since my birthday, I hadn't spoken much to Arlo, since both of us got caught up with college stuff and it was a little hard to catch up with Dan and Esme, since their were building their relationship further, so Esme wasn't available much at our place. I didn't blame her either.

It was okay. Or at least that's what I told myself.

I used to become tired and had headaches more than usual which was why I decided to head out to the supermarket to buy some rye bread and pineapple squash.

Picking up my waveboard, my bluetooth headphones and a cloth bag, I reached the ground floor and I was already out of breath. As I glided through the pavement, I felt a little better, since I was moving against the wind. It was soothing and felt like I hadn't stepped out in ages.

As the supermarket was nearing, I stood by the light pole and was looking out before crossing the road. But something caught my eye. A tiny puppy limping and making  its way to the base of the pole for support.

My heart raced when I noticed its bleeding paw and I felt a pang in my chest and felt a similar pain in my toe. Tears brimmed my eye lids and I bent down, wanting to help the puppy.

Though he was undergoing something awful, he looked so damn adorable. Unable to think of something, I looked around for something to help the little one.

The moment my eyes landed on my cloth bag, I tore the cloth bag and carefully tied it around his extremely tiny paw, placing him on my lap. He whimpered in pain and was reluctant to let me aid him, because he thought I was going to harm him but when he saw me draping the cloth around his paw, he slowly gave in and settled in my lap.

How could someone hurt such a pure soul? I thought and comforted him, trying to make myself feel better as well. Just then, a man of somewhat my age walked up to me in a hurry, maybe looking for his puppy.

"Thank you so much, I really appreciate it." He told me and gently picked up his puppy, walking away.

Even before I could say something back to him, he had already crossed the street, leaving me at the pole.

I tried my best to shake it off, as I browsed through the bakery section for some rye bread. Picking up the pound of rye bread, I turned around to get some pineapple squash and even before I could reach out to the top most rack on my toes, from my peripheral vision, I noticed someone pick it up and hand it to me.

Tilting my head, I saw Flint handing it to me. I stood frozen there, blinking at his retreating figure. I mindlessly wiped my tears and headed towards the billing section.

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"Hey! I'm home!" Esme echoed from the living room before peeping into  my room.

I smiled at her weakly, as she approached me.

"Carmen, have you been crying? Don't lie to me." She said and sat, facing me.

I told her about the puppy incident and about Flint as well.

"Okay, its about time I told something that I came across about you." She uttered.

I looked at her and my heart picked up the pace, bracing myself to hear out whatever she was about to tell me. About me.

"Can I tell you something?" I asked.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Okay, so what I've observed about you is that when someone talks to you about their feelings or share something with you, you talk to them about it like as if you've personally felt them and have gone through them. And when you see someone get hurt, you feel somewhat the same pain in the same part of your body as well. I've seen this a couple of times and you've told me that you've felt it a lot of times but you thought that you might be overreacting and you had brushed it off. You're a mirror synesthete and a cognitive empathetic person." She revealed.

"I-I don't know, Esme. Now that I think of it, I've had many instances like that. But all this while, I've just brushed it off, thinking that I'm over exaggerating it and ignoring it to my best. And I honestly don't know how I feel the other person's feeling so easily and what they're exactly going through. I can connect to their true emotions and I don't even know how I tell them something to calm down and they tell me that I always knew to tell the right thing which was actually soothing. Like, when I was back in Puerto Rico, it had happened to me many times. I've connected with so many of my friends' emotions and tell them stuff which turned out to be the right thing. I don't even know if its a good thing or a bad thing but I've been experiencing these from a very long time, Esme. Like, a very long time. I didn't even tell my parents about this because if I did, they would've surely been worried about this. You're the first person I've told about this."

 "I-Is that a bad thing?" 

"Certainly not a bad thing, but you'll partially go through the pain the other is going through when you notice them in pain. Other than that, its nothing serious, nothing to worry about." She confirmed.

"O-okay. Is there a cure?"

"I'm afraid not. its something related to the mirror neurons in your body and its a rare form of synesthesia you've acquired. I think your condition might get better with time, but its not something that's curable."

I couldn't think of anything else other than what she told me.

It felt like the universe was conspiring against me.

"Hey, don't cry. Its definitely not a bad thing, Cams. Its like you have superpowers!" She tried to cheer me up.

"I-I need some time to process that piece of information, so please don't feel bad if I ignore you or have small talks with you. I can't help but keep to myself when I think about something in deep and when I mean deep, its usually deeper than Mariana Trench in the Pacific." I tried to humorize my words.

She chuckled and said, "Sure. But please don't take too long, yes? Because I'll be bored without your constant rants and stupid talks."

"You'll have Daniel for company, though. And Arlo."

"But who's gonna tease me and make me blush? Who's gonna make me cry because I laughed too much at your meaningless poor jokes?" She told and hugged me.

"I know you're feeling really bad about me keeping to myself for a few days, Esme. You can't hide that from me." I pointed out. 

"Yeah, of course I'm going to miss you, just know that its not a bad thing and you've got nothing to worry about, okay? Take your time. And don't stress yourself too much on that. I want my cousin back, yeah?"

I tried to crack a smile.

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Author's note:

Hi y'all.

So yeah, here you go. Another chapter(unedited, sorry).

Will try to update soon.

Until then, happy reading!

Don't forget to vote, comment and share!

Stay safe.

Love,

Peaches;)