There's a saying about people who live in glass houses, but Bliss decided it must not apply to those already homeless. Everywhere she went, the stares and whispers followed, waiting to see if little Bliss would turn out like her brother after all. Everyone knew about the accident. About how her brother had slowly went crazy in the weeks before it occurred. Her 'friends' at school had slowly drifted away from Bliss in fear of something similar happening. It was understandable, of course, who would want to be friends with the girl with the crazy brother?
Aaron Grey wasn't really insane, just different. He spent his free time holed up in his room, staring blankly at out the window a humming the same tune over and over again and in the rare occasion he was around people, he'd weave stories of a fantastical wonderland with talking animals and enchanted forests.
No amount of psychologists could help Aaron, or that was how it seemed until he showed up.
Doctor Markus Hodge. A "thirty-something" man who connected with Aaron in a way no one else could. Bliss was never able to understand the conversations they shared, but Doctor Hodge communicated with Aaron like he knew all about the land her older brother had rambled on about for years on end.
Markus reminded her of Doctor Halloway—the psychiatrist Bliss herself has been seeing on and off for the past few months. Doctor Halloway talked like she understood and believed Juliett when she recounted the strange dreams she had been having ever since she had began therapy.
"You mentioned the forests? What about them?" Doctor Halloway asks, watching Juliett through glasses connected to a silver chain, looking thoughtful and interested.
It was a warm April afternoon and the teenager was sat across from the doctors large desk, grateful for the excuse to be away from her mothers penetrating gaze and constant attempts to get her out of the house.
"Yeah, they just looked... They looked like the could be beautiful, but something was stopping them," Bliss answers, resting her head against the cool glass of the window and watching as the leaves fall from the trees. They were discussing her strange, lifelike dreams.
Doctor Halloways fingers drum against the desk, looking as is she was torn between doing something before she opens a drawer and pulls out a brochure, sliding it across the table into her patients hands.
"What's this?"
"It's... It's a summer camp of sorts. For people like you—and I mean that in the nicest way possible. They offer specialized classes and workshops for kids who have trouble fitting into society like you do, it's a rather prestigious program, and the best part is, your insurance covers it," Doctor Halloway responds.
Bass Academy, it was called, and as Bliss flipped through the brochure, her hopes soared. They had classes that her school didn't. Better yet, Doctor Halloway had said there'd be people like her there. People that understood the thoughts and images that ran circles through her mind.
"So I was thinking, maybe your mom could come to your next appointment and we could talk to her together," the doctor says, and Bliss's hope dies. No matter how hard she tried, she knew her mother would never agree.
The teen then shrugs, sliding the brochure into her bag and saying, "I'll ask her."
*******
The sun was bright, even through Bliss' darkened glasses and squinted eyes. Her mothers hands were tight on the steering wheel—as they always were—and they were cruising down the highway at 60 miles per hour.
"I really don't get why we've got to do this. You don't like him, I don't like him, it's pointless!" Bliss grumbles, fanning her face against the hot air of the Ohio summer. School had ended three days ago.
"Your father said he wanted to see you before you go, and he has that right," Her mom replies, mouth set in a grim line.
It had taken a lot of convincing on Doctor Halloways part, and a lot of whining on her own, but in approximately six weeks, Bliss would be flying off to Bass Academy.
"Well the least he could have done is come to us."
Maybe there was something wrong with her, maybe she will end up like her brother. In fact, that's certainly how it felt. It felt as if her brothers antics and words and thoughts were all leaking into her body. Burning her from the inside out. Her mothers detachment and the way the rest of the town alienated her surely didn't help either. She often found it easier to slip into the wonderland that is her mind than to socialize and attempt to please her mom.
Three rest stops later, Bliss is sat in her mothers car, eyes closed as she ignores the unceasing knocking of both of her parents.
"Bliss Ann Grey, get out of that car this instant," her father growls.
'Why should I listen to you?' Bliss wants to ask, but because she didn't want to start anything, she stays quiet, staring stonily out the opposite window.
Minutes pass with the teenager still in the car as her father runs his hands through his hair, the same blonde shade as her own and seeing it makes her sick.
"Bliss please," her mother pleads, "your father and I have something important to tell you."
This piques her interest and Bliss turns to look at her mother through the slightly rolled down window and raises an eyebrow.
"Tell me now then."
Sighing, her mother walks away and engages in a conversation with her father our of earshot. The 15-year-old begins to mess with the beads on her many bracelets as she waits for someone to tell her what's going on and moments later her dad approaches the car.
Leaning down to the window he mutters the 3 words that will flip Bliss's world upside down, an evil smirk gracing his face.
"I'm getting married."
