Alexander Morgan hated his expensive, yet exclusive, boarding school. He was bullied mercilessly by the rugby team and his only refuge was his room. Fortunately, as no one wanted to share a room with him, he enjoyed having a twin room all to himself...
Never Be Alone - Shawn Mendes (2015) https://youtu.be/bB6C7T_ezho
Author's Note. ✍🏽
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Xander's POV.
It was Dad who broke the silence.
"I'm sorry Alexander. I've not told you things because I thought you were too young to understand. I left things to Nana and Bamps because it was easier for me. Bamps reminded me that you're now 17 and will soon be a grown up and there are things that you deserve to know."
"Is that what Bamps whispered in your ear earlier?"
He cocked his head and looked surprised. "You noticed that?"
"No, but Cliff did." I answered and saw him wince. "He didn't hear what Bamps said Dad, so don't worry. Bamps would never tell me or him anyway. That's something that Bamps would never do...., you must know that."
"Discretion is one of his middle names, isn't it?" He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "The thing is you've been led to believe that your difficulty with your emotions is all down to the accident. Well! That's not entirely true. It's possible that you may have actually inherited a mild form of your emotional issues from me. The accident may have just increased its effect on you."
"You mean my Alexmotionalism's?"
He nodded. "The correct word Alexander is alexithymia but because you were only suffering from a mild form of it, Alexmotionalism was a good word for the doctors to come up with."
"That's why I prefer to be called Xander. Alexander and Alexmotionalism are too much alike."
"To me you will always be my little Alexander.... I chose the name because I liked it."
"Well if you had my issues you wouldn't like it either." I answered petulantly.
There was something in the look he gave me that made me realise he had something important to tell me.
He cleared his throat, nervously. "Actually I didn't associate Alexander with alexithymia when I named you....... Maybe I should have...."
He hesitated and cleared his throat again. "I had a bad accident when I was 13. Thomas and I were out on quad bikes rounding up the sheep for shearing. Thomas started larking around, being silly and trying to scare me. He was coming right at me, making me serve out of the way but was always pulling away at the last minute..... Only this one time he misjudged it and crashed into me making me hit a rock and turn the bloody thing over. I ended up in hospital. It left me with difficulties like yours and the doctors cannot be sure if the accident caused it or I inherited the condition from either Bamps or Nana. The cause of alexithymia isn't that well understood."
