Alex’s head is in a muddle. What just happened there, in the eraser room? He had Isabel. Beautiful, lovely Isabel who practically jumped on him, wanting to kiss him. “Why did I pull back?”

He tries to kick himself mentally for that but finds the desire gone. The irony of the words “be careful what you wish for, you might get it,” suddenly hits him. What he waited for his whole life had just been handed to him on a silver platter. And he didn’t even take it. Why?

Deep inside he knows the answer to that question. His dream of Isabel, of Isabel and him together is just that … a dream, a fairy tale made from castles in the air. A fantasy that had been with him for long, he stopped asking himself why it was even THERE.

Until Tess. Until last night. It made him see that relationships could be something other than fairy tales. That they could start out from scratch, from the reality of a seemingly innocuous date, and be built upon.

“Alex, are you okay?” Tess sidles up to him with a worried frown on her face.

“I’m fine,” he tells her. If fine meant having his whole world suddenly turn upside down.

“You don’t look fine,” Tess confronts him.

“What do you mean? I’m great!” He gives her his patented thumbs up signal.

“Alex, we have to talk,” she tells him in a determined voice.

“I know,” he sighs.

“You felt it, didn’t you? This connection … this thing between us?” Tess tells him.

He wanted to deny it. He wanted to retreat back into his safe world … with Isabel. But somehow that didn’t make sense anymore. Not with Tess standing in front of him. Whole. Real. And yes, even normal.

“Yes, I did,” He stares at her eyes, the ones that held that his so earnestly.

A weight drops off his shoulders. Saying out loud what was in the back of his mind finally jogged the final piece in place. He bids his dream goodbye.

“Alex, I know this wasn’t what you were expecting. It wasn’t what I was expecting either,” Tess says quietly.

“But just because it wasn’t there in the beginning, doesn’t mean it’s not right. That it’s not real,” Tess reasons.

“I know,” he agrees with. “Life can get pretty surprising, can’t it?” he smiles at her.

We were both looking for something and thought we found it with other people. Perhaps we wanted to find that something so badly, we failed to see the bigger picture. Failed to see past the haze of fantasy and look at what was right in front of our eyes. Each other, Alex thinks to himself.

“I told Isabel once that everything got easier once a person was not alone. I just didn’t think I was all that alone because I had Isabel. Until I met you. Now I feel like nothing was really real before I met you,” he tells her.

Tess smiles. He did understand. He did feel the same way about her. Suddenly her world felt lighter.

“So … you up for another scary movie?” Alex invites her.

“Always, Alex, always,” she tells him.

“Great! I know just the flick. You seen ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’?

“No!” she replies.

“Well, come on then. You don’t know what you’re missing,” Alex tells her.

Alex takes Tess’ hand as he guides her past the school entrance doors. They emerge out into the bright sunlight. He breathes in slowly, savoring the moment. This was the start of his life. His life with Tess.