Hence, I shall say it to myself, ‘The power is within you.’

With a complicated meaning

I don’t think people can see the

Sparks that fly when the sensation runs up their bloodstream

Hard as they tried

Failure falls upon them every time they tried

Of course they say, no man is an island but

Reality does not follow any rules,there are

Lonely ‘islands’ around

Oh who would have thought that I would be an island I

Ventured too deep into the unknown mists of no return losing

Everything that I ever cared about

I cannot break down. I must be strong. However I still hope, I still hope,that  just to get me through days like these someone will come. However, such hopes are very evidently baseless. I think I might just succumb,for now nobody even cares if I succumb.

“Kosth, I missed you!” she replied,laughing as she gently kissed his tender lips.

“Oh.My.God.” Beth exclaimed punctuating every word. “Cut the drama man,you guys just saw each other last night!”

“But its been so long,” Kosth replied not really looking at Beth but at Kiara’s soft hair which danced gently in the summer breeze. Beth rolled her eyes at the cheesy couple and walked into the sea which was sparkling like jewels under the Sun. There was something about summer that made everything look more beautiful,maybe it was the brighter light. Kiara was sitting on Kosth looking into his lovely blue eyes,thinking how it resembled the beautiful ocean.

“Kiara, when are you going to introduce your parents to me eh? I want to get to know them better,” Kosth asked her.

Kiara suddenly stiffened at the mention of her parents. How was she supposed to introduce her homosexual parents to her boyfriend? What if he left her like all her previous boyfriends? Fear gnawed at her heart. She did not want to lose Kosth under any condition,she wanted to marry him and lead a happy life with him.

“Soon, darling soon.” she replied.

“You’ve been saying that for the past six months Kiara,I’m tired of this nonsense. I want to see your parents this Sunday. No buts.” he replied with a tinge of annoyance. For the past six months he had been practically begging Kiara to bring him to her parents. He did not understand why she was so hesitant about it. He wanted to speak to her parents before proposing to her,he had it all planned but he just need to get her parents’ approval.

Kiara sighed, she knew that there was no other way out. She nodded.

“Promise me you will never leave me,” Kiara asked Kosth. Kosth hugged her tightly chiding her for asking such a silly question.

“I never will.” he replied.

~

The pale man was in the arms of the stronger one,who was rocking him gently as he would have rocked Kiara. He stopped rocking when Kiara came into his mind and sighed.

“Kelvin, are you thinking about Kiara?” Justin asked,knowing that there was only one person,other than himself,who could distrupt his motion like that. He sighed and hugged him tightly,

“I wish, I wish I could do better for her,maybe we should have left her at the orphanage. I mean what were we thinking? Gays raising a child? It was our fantasy and its ruining our daughter’s life” Kelvin said.

“If we never adopted her, we never would have had a daughter and we would have never had the experience of changing diapers in the middle of the night,” Justin replied laughing at the memory.

She sharply turned her head upon hearing the door unlock. She ran down the stairs to the living room to see two grown-up drunken men enter the house. A tall burly man carried  a man who was the same color as the midnight moon. His skin sparkled as the stronger one turned on the light. The sudden bright light caused all three beings to squint and blink,trying their best to adjust to the darkness. The tall tanned man slowly shifted his weight and dropped the other man onto the sofa,who protested at the sudden contact with coldness. The tall man smiled to himself,almost in a sadistic way enjoying his other’s half’s drunken protests.

Then, by chance he looked up to see a  tall white figure standing on the steps watching them with unblinking eyes. There seemed to be some form of annoyance on her face, as well as some relief. The young girl stared at the tall tanned man with muscles far too big for his tiny face, something she rarely did. The man was surprised to she her waiting for them,even more surprised that she was actually looking at him for more than 10 seconds and decided to take advantage of the situation at hand.

“Wer…Are….Um….Wha….Were you waiting for us?” He asked her.

“Do you think you are still twenty years old? You guys are almost forty now, partying until so late is going to cause your health to deteriorate.” she uttered completely ignoring the question that was posed to her.

“It’s Friday and you are usually not at home so-”

“So you decided to party and stay out till three in the morning? Brilliant Daddy, brilliant. I completely see your logic. Oh, forget it. That’s how you met Pa anyway right? By partying and then-”

“Enough, Kiara. Don’t bring it up again,please. I am sorry that I fell in love with Pa and that I got married to him and decided to adopt you. I am sorry I had to ruin youurr liiifee annnd youur aucnlsv” he replied,the night’s drinks finallycatching up to him. Kiara sighed as he walked over and hoisted her father and brought him to the room ignoring his rambles. Then she brought her other father who was now soundly sleeping and gently laid him on the bed. Then she closed the room and switched off the lights and went to bed.

~

The next morning when the pale young man woke up he felt like crap, a hangover plaguing him. He saw a bottle of water on his table,which he drank greedily. Beside that,there was pickle juice which he also drank with the same velocity. After his head had cleared a little he wondered who had placed the liquids there,ready to ease his hangover. He slowly trudged over the the kitchen to make some toast when he saw eggs and toast readily waiting for him and a post-it beside the plate.  He picked up the green post-it which read :You guys are old, Pa seriously I thought at least you would have the brains to realize that you should not drink so much at this age. Please eat the toast and don’t skip breakfast just cos your feeling like shit. There is another bottle for pickle juice for daddy. I will be coming home late. The pale man smiled as he bit into the toast already feeling a bit better.

but I get hate only. I refuse to show my true self anymore. “Be yourself” Ha! what a joke,an idealistic way,will never happen. I can never be me.

okay I seriously need a change, a spark,something,anything.

I don’t even try to get free.

A soothing salvation,

my own painful resurrection.

It is a fallen rose

a stench up my nose.

However I do not halt

thought its detrimental to my heart

Mt friends flee

fearing the future they see for me

Leaving me alone once again

as I try to gain the wings of freedom my angel told me about

Like every other rose up from the ground I arose

Everyday I grew

in a garden owned by Drew

I was watered

and like everyone else was fertilized

but unlike the others I was not normal I grew differently,wrongly.

So while all my friends were picked

I lay untouched

The humans looking all the same

walked past me hanging their heads in shame

because I was black, the curse of the dead,

unlike the other normal roses which were red.

Or was dying on the sandy shores their dream?

Its a bit like our life,working towards our dreams and essentially facing death,

what is the point then of working towards a dream,

when we are all headed for the same direction.

The waves start off calm,

like the innocence we started off with.

Then it increases in amplitude,roaring,raging as it nears the shore,

full of anguish and pain that we all suffer, and bursts of happiness and tears we enterounter.

Then it crashes on the shore.

Its a bit like our life,working towards our dreams and essentially facing death,

what is the point then of working towards a dream,

when we are all headed for the same direction.

Dreams eventually die,emotions eventually fade away and dissolve into the earth.

We are all headed for the same direction.

Cedric’s father, Kim Mickey, laid his hand on his son’s shoulder and softly whispered in his ears, “Son, we have to leave now, the next hearing will start soon.” Cedric sighed as he got up and looked at his father. His face seemed even older than the 57-year-old father’s face, dark circles and wrinkled covered his entire face. Grief and worry swirled around him like a heavy cloud. The father put his hand around his son and walked him to the car.

“Where do you want to go son?” He asked.

“Hospital, her friends are coming over today,” he replied. His Dad sighed.

“Dad, she needs me, don’t start that nonsense about me spending too much time there okay? I’m seventeen, I know what I am doing Dad,” Cedric said even before his Dad could say a single word.

“Son, you are there almost 24/7, I am worried for you! You need to take care of yourself too! ”

“Da-”

“She is just a girl, another girl will come, I mean it’s not like you are going to marry her! You life needs some attention too,” he said slightly aggravated by his son’s reckless behavior of spending almost every second of his free time with Christabella.

“If you are going to continue talking, I’m going to take a taxi instead.”

The father resignedly starts the engine and heads to the hospital.

Lily, Clare and Betty are carrying huge stuffed animals and chocolates with them. They hurriedly walk down the alley, ignoring the people’s stares. They were finally going to meet their friend, Christy, after the whole ordeal. Smiles were plastered on their faces as she seriously discussed on what not to talk about and what to talk about. Lily was worried about bringing Betty along, she was a blabbermouth who often said things without thinking, nevertheless she was a good friend of Christy it would be too mean of her to ban her from coming. The three friends were in view of the hospital and it motivated them to walk even further. As they reached the entrance, they saw a young man step out in a white t-shirt and jeans. Clare stared at his bulging muscles and his well-built jaw line. Over the weeks he had lost a couple of pounds but he still looked a breath-taking as ever.

“Cedric! We are here!” Clare shouted. The striking seventeen-year-old turned towards the girls. He recognized them and broke into a wide stylish grin. He waved to the girls, and then politely bowed to his father who was in the car and ran towards them.

“Are you ready? She still is having some trouble with new people, so don’t startle her,” he told them.

Cedric slowly pushed the door open. The figure of the bed froze for a moment, before recognizing Cedric. She smiled sending her eyes in to half-moon slits. Her face was fresh, no make-up what-so-ever, just her natural stunning beauty. Her eyes sparkled with innocence and curiosity as she slowly got off the bed to walk towards her friend. The white, hospital gown made her look like an innocent baby.

“Oppa! I missed you!” she cried hugging Cedric tightly.  Cedric squeezed her back and ruffled her long ebony hair. Then she noticed three other strangers standing in the room behind Cedric. Fear clutched her heart as she tightened her grip on Cedric.

“These are you friends Christy. That’s Lily, she is Clare and this is Betty,” he told the frightened Christabella.

“Don’t you remember us Christy? We used to shopping together and stuff?” Lily gently prompted.

“Shopping…Oppa what is shopping?” Christabella asked Cedric. Cedric smiled as he gentled carried the seventeen-year-old back to her bed. He slowly explained to her the meaning to shopping and introduced her friends to her again. They gave her a big teddy bear which Christabella loved. She hugged it feeling the warm soft fur of the bear.

“Oppa this teddy bear is….” she stopped, unable to find the right word for it.

“Cute?” Cedric asked gently. She gave a puzzled expression. Cedric laughed and explained what cute meant. Christabella smiled,

“Cute teddy bear, like cute Oppa!” she said gurgling with excitement. Then she went onto name the teddy bear, Mr. Cutie.

Betty was taken aback by her friend’s condition; she was acting like a little kid, so fragile, so vulnerable. As she looked at her, tears began to fall from her eyes. Christabella immediately noticed this and went over to her face then suddenly she burst out crying as well. She started wailing and screaming that everyone did not like her and made the three of them leave the room.  She clung onto Cedric, like her lifeline and sobbed into his shirt. Cedric patted her and pacified her with gentle words.  Cedric was the only one that Christabella trusted; even her own parents came second. At the night when she had gone into shock the last thing she had seen was Cedric’s face and so that was the only thing that she remembered after the memory loss induced by trauma.  Cedric held onto her knowing that he probably was the only hope to her recovery.