Flicker - Chris Sturniolo

Enchanted

‼️TW MENTIONS OF OVERDOSE AND ADDICTION‼️

"Hey Chris," Alora whispered breaking the wall of silence they'd built.

"Hm, what's up?"

"Do you ever think about what your life would be like if one little thing didn't happen?"

"Yeah, all the time. For me, if I hadn't posted this one tiktok in an orange hoodie who knows if you and I would be sitting next to each other right," Chris told her.

"You know that tiktok is how my mom found out about you guys."

"Your mom found us?" He asked a little confused.

"Yeah, she saw your tiktok sent it to me and I quote the words "Alora look at how handsome he is" and then we found out about the channel. It's crazy how this world works," Alora mumbled.

"So I do have a chance with Momma Adiar?" He jokingly asked.

"Hey stick to the younger Adiar," She said which led him to raise his eyebrows in a state of surprise. It was bold. And he loved it.

"You know that's an even better idea."

Silence overtook the two again before Chris spoke, "Hey Alora can I ask you something?"

"Yeah of course Chris."

"Most of your songs have this common theme about being written during the toughest time of your life mentally. Obviously, if you don't want to talk about it you don't have to, but what was it like?" Chris knew there was a risk in asking Alora a question this personal but it felt like they had spoken about worse so he took his chances.

"Well, I had been diagnosed with anxiety and attention deficit disorder back in elementary school. I was always out of focus and fidgeting all of that. I have always kinda had meds for it and so it's not bad anymore. Though throughout high school my anxiety was terrible. I skipped so many days during my sophomore year because of the anxiety attacks it got to the point where they almost had to hold me back. Even with ups in my dosages, it seemed like as hard as the meds pushed the anxiety pushed harder. It got better over the course of the summer, but came back just as hard at the beginning of my junior year," Alora stopped to take a breather and saw Chris waiting for her to continue. He was all ears. "We were half online, half in person for the beginning of it which wasn't terrible, but three days after we all went back fully someone found out the backstory of my dad and what happened with him. No one would shut up about it. It was constant questions, whispers, and all the rest of that. I tried to keep any knowledge of my dad away from everyone in Glastonbury. I never wanted anyone to know to keep away from what that brought. Everyone distanced themself from me. Not wanting to be stuck around the girl who's the talk of the town. Well everyone but Miya. She stuck by me and as much as I thought that would be enough I had still never felt so lonely."

There were two different Aloras. The one she spoke about in her own songs and the one who now never went anywhere without a smile on her face. She had grown far from where she used to be mentally. Anyone who knew her then and now could notice.

"That's when I met this kid Ryan. He and I clicked instantly, but we also got ourselves into a lot of shit quickly. Ryan had struggled with addiction for a while before I knew him, but I think when he found someone to do it with his problems escalated. He introduced me to weed first. It started out with us smoking every day after school for the fun of it, but as time passed the started smoking every chance we had. Whether it was the 7 minutes we had between classes. Whatever we could get we took. Then the effects of weed grew immune to us so we hopped on over to alcohol with it. We really relied on alcohol in all honesty, but weed just wasn't doing it for us after a while so we went over to the next thing we could find. Shrooms, Molly, Coke, Acid. Name anything I can assure you I did it within the span I was friends with Ryan. I pushed everyone away and let him drag me with him. Then in the last few weeks of Summer Ryan had too much and overdosed. He and I smoked the night before. But nothing of that crazy shit. Just weed. We thought we'd go back to our roots for the fun of it, but I guess after he dropped me off at home he went home and took something stronger. My world just fell apart harder after that. I lived on the harder shit too. Whatever I could find without him around I took. Until I ended up fucking myself over by taking too much. There was one night in my room where everything was too real so I took it all. Within minutes I could feel my breathing slow and all of that. My body was shaking. It was terrible. I had never been more scared than I was at that moment. So I crawled to my mom's room and she barely got me to the hospital before my heart stopped. After that, I went into rehab and spent some time there, which helped. I got over my addiction and haven't touched drugs nor alcohol since. But my mental health took time. I needed to teach myself how to live without the abuse that stuff brought me. And now I'm here. Doing what I love and writing music about the experiences I went through in hopes that they'll help someone else know that they can beat whatever they are going through. And yeah I miss Ryan all the time. I wish he would've gotten the help he needed while he was still here, but God had other plans for him." Alora was strong in that way. She told everyone she could her story. It was worthy of being heard and it helped. After the first few times, the tears wouldn't fall. Instead, she would smile when talking about it because if she was allowed to tell her story then that meant she had gotten somewhere. Somewhere where the drugs didn't control her. She controlled them. Chris was speechless. He didn't know what to say. "You don't have to say anything Chris I know it's a lot."

Chris always thought actions spoke louder than words so he scooted closer to Alora and allowed her to put her head on his shoulder while he wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulder. "You are a lot stronger than anyone else I've ever met Alora. I'm glad you did what you needed to do for yourself to get to where you are. That couldn't have been easy, but you did it. You fought and I'm really proud of you." Alora smiled into his shoulder.

"Thank you for listening Chris and thank you in general."

"I could listen to you speak forever if you needed to me to Alora." Alora was convinced that he could feel the heat that was radiating from her face. She was also convinced that she had never blushed harder than right now. "Give me your keys."

"Chris I trust you, I swear I do, but most definitely not enough to drive my car. That thing is my prized possession."

"No no, not to drive I have a different idea." Alora reluctantly handed her keys over to him and he shot up and ran to her car half parked on the sand. He turned on the car and put the headlights on before returning to Alora. "Come on get up." Alora took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.

"What are you doing?" Alora asked completely dumbfounded.

"Give me a song."

"Uh Enchanted by Taylor Swift?"

"Really out of all the artists out there you choose Taylor?" He questioned

"Uh yes? She's a queen. Oh my god don't tell me you don't like Taylor."

"Meh not really a fan. At all." Alora's mouth dropped at Chris's words.

"Oh, Chris you will be a full-blown Swiftie. Just wait now I stand with my statement. Hit me with Enchanted." Chris complied and put on Enchanted and gave his hand out to Alora. "Chris, what are you doing?"

"No clue but I know you like to dance so let's dance," He told her.

"Chris, do you even know how to dance?" She asked while trying not to laugh.

"Absolutely not but oh well," He replied.

"I'll teach you. Here put your hands on my waist." She said while guiding his hands before putting her arms around her neck. "Honestly there's no right way to dance just try and follow my lead, okay?" Chris nodded as he tried to mimic Alora's steps. It took him a few tries and a lot of laughing between the two but he got the hang of it. "There you go you go it now."

"Don't jinx it Adiar," He firmly said trying to stay focused. They doubted their dancing could actually be classified as dancing but they were enjoying themselves nonetheless. The end of the song was coming.

Just as they were about to stop Alora tripped over air and almost fell. Before she could Chris caught her and she landed straight in front of him when the song had come to an end. They were barely inches apart and nothing but the sound of waves hitting rocks could be heard. "I didn't get to thank you for texting Miya and getting them over here."

"You don't have to thank me Alora. You deserved to have your family and best friend there," He truthfully told her." Being so close was killing them. Especially since neither was doing anything. Alora's hands were comfortably placed on his chest as his arms held her tightly around her waist.

"Your eyes are so blue," She blurted out which caused him to laugh. She had never taken into account how beautiful Chris's eyes really were, but now as they were being lit up by nothing but the moon she really saw them. Or maybe it was just the fact that they were the only thing she could see with how close she was to them. "Chris..." She whispered and to which he replied with a light hm. Now or never was all Alora thought to herself. Chris's eyes flickered down to her lips before looking back into her eyes.

"Oh fuck it," Was all that was said by Chris before he pressed his lips to Alora's. Alora was taken aback. She had expected it but she hadn't expected Chris to make the first move. She quickly recovered and moved her hands around Chris's neck as she pulled him closer. This is what the two longed for. This is the contact that they really wanted. All the little hand holds, knees touching, nothing compared to this.

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REALLY SHORT CHAPTER BUT FINALLYYYYYYYYYY. now we cheer, but not for long...

and happy fridayyyyyy

as always please correct me if you find any mistakes.
i love you all and i hope all is well💋