Forced to be Aware

It was a warm summer’s night at camp Tawingo, crickets chirping in the soft, damp, grass. The moon was bright in the sky, reflecting on the surface of the still lake. A soft breeze fills the air, the light winds rustling the trees. It was rather late at night, the children in their beds, resting soundly after a long day. Well, all except for two, Brandy Smith and Brody Allen. The two sat out on the pier, looking out at the still water of the cloudy lake below. Brody had asked Brandy to meet him there with the intentions of telling her something important. Brody had been carrying around a pretty big secret, a secret that, if revealed, could change his life… Truth be told, Brandy had a pretty big secret of her own. Hers was less life changing and more friendship altering, yet it was still just as big a secret. Brandy met with Brody this night not knowing the surprises and twist that awaited her, and would send her down the road of self-discovery. The two sit together in silence, both too scared to admit the reason they are sitting out on the pier in the first place. Finally mustering up the confidence, Brody turns and looks at Brandy. Feeling his eyes on her, she looks at him. They look at each other for a moment before Brody speaks up. “Brandy? I need to tell you something, that you can never tell anyone else. But most importantly, promise me you’ll never tell Daniel?” “Your secret’s safe with me,” Brandy replies calmly. Silly me, I forgot to tell you who these people are. Let me give you some more context on these two, and the others. Why not begin with the man with a secret, Brody Allen. Brody is the son of a priest and practically grew up in a church. With his father being a priest, Brody grew up very religious and fairly well off. Despite his hyper religious family, his best friend, Daniel, was quite the opposite. Now Daniels parents were in no way against religion, they just found it to be rather silly. Daniels parents were very free-spirited and strong-headed. And so was Daniel. Thats one of the things Brody liked about Daniel. He was ambitious, passionate, driven, spontaneous, wild, energetic. He was everything Brody wished he could be. Brody’s parents had basically planned his whole life for him and he didn’t have much of a say in changing it. That was until he became friends with Daniel. Brody was never really interested in making friends with other kids until he met Daniel. Because of this, Brody’s parents were more willing to let him do things so long as he didn’t stray too far from the path his parents set him on. As children, Brody and Daniel would spend all their time together, running and playing together. They grew a bond stronger than most. Because of that bond, they shared everything with each other, never feeling a need to hide the truth. When they were about 7 years old, Brody came running into Daniel’s house, panting, frantic, and scared. “DANIEL? Where are you?” Brody screamed as he began running around the house, a hint of desperation in his voice. He runs upstairs, eventually running into Daniel. Daniel stops him, holding him firmly by the shoulders, looking at him with concern. “Brody, what’s wrong? What happened? Calm down and breathe.” With a shaky breath, Brody begins to speak in a low muffled tone. “I don’t want to go back home, don’t make me go home please!” Tears begin to well up in his eyes, he begins to shake, clinging onto Daniel. Daniel rubs his back gently to comfort him. “It’s ok. You’re with me. Just tell me what happened?” Brody sniffs softly. “I said something to my dad and he… He got so mad… He was so angry… If i go back home he’ll… He’ll kill me.” Daniel looked at Brody in shock. “What did you say to him? What could have made him so mad?” Brody never told him what he told his father, why he got so mad, why Daniel wasn’t allowed to see him for a while. When he did see him again, Brody seemed different. He wasn’t his bright, energetic self. Instead he was sad and moppy. Daniel tried to talk to him about it but Brody refused to say anything. His spirits eventually rose, but he was never quite the same afterward. Enough about Brody, let me tell you some more about Daniel, Daniel Ryder. For the most part, there isn’t much to say about Daniel. He lived a relatively normal childhood as a middle kid in the 70’s. He got good grades, goofed off with friends, and lived how he wanted to. His dad was a business man and his mother was a bartender. His dad made good money and his mom only worked for fun. Daniels parents were very lenient with him. They let him use the world as his playground and educated him on things he found interest in. This was kind of a double-edged sword though, as when Daniel discovered m*******a, his parents allowed him to experiment with it as long as he was at home when he did. That led him to develop a mild addiction, smoking weed regularly. He tried to get Brody to join him but he always declined his request. Seeing Daniel fall into this addiction made Brody scared for Daniel. When Daniel started to show interest in stronger drugs however, both his parents and Brody stepped in to stop him. He got clean off weed in the span of a few, very long months and has never gone back. Now you may be thinking to yourself, “these two kids seem interesting but what about the girl? Who is she?” Well dear reader, I’m here to tell you. Brandy Smith, the woman with the secret of her own. She’s one of Daniel and Brody’s friends they met at summer camp a few years prior. Now Brandy has her own extensive past, but this moment is Brody’s to have. But fear not, she will get hers later. Now that everyone has been introduced, why not get back to the story? Shall we?