Chapter 4 HORIZON SKIES

Horizon's POV

As the time clocked five am in the morning, I arose from my reading desk, my eyes weary from the much reading I had gone through. But just in time, my assigned maids swarmed into my room, ready to prepare me for the day.

One may think living the life of luxury was everything, but it wasn't for me. All my life, I have desired to explore the meaning of this one word "fun" but my approach was nowhere near becoming. My solace, I discovered, wasn't in the life of luxury. Although, it wasn't my fault I was born in the home of New York's best fashion designer, but it wasn't my luck either.

Since I was unable to live the normal life I wanted, I derived a new kind of joy from books. The "other world", I called it, wherein I could imagine myself as the protagonist and live the life I never had. They were my consolation, and the reason why I rarely sleep at night.

"Good Lord, child! Look at the bags under your eyes!" Meredith, the chief maid gasped the moment she entered with the dozens of maids. She was more closer to me than even my own parents, and had this English accent I loved, but a strictness I abhorred. She came over to me where I stood beside my bed, tired and a bit woozy, and pinched the bottom lid of my eyes, startling me.

"Meredith...!"

"Oh My Gosh!" she gasped once more and snapped for the attention of one of her maids. "Get her optician! Her eyes must be affected from her constant readings!" she instructed, and the maid left almost immediately.

Sometimes, or all the time, Meredith acted like a mother to me, which was a very different act compared to the chief maids of my other friends. But I was definitely sure it was because of the fact that she had grown fond of me, and I, her, as my parents were constantly away for work. And also, she never failed to mention it sometimes that I was like the daughter she never had.

"Meredith, I don't need an optician," I told her as she frantically searched my face for any other kind of swell or acne or whatever as she always did every morning. She paused when I had uttered my very words and her grey orbs peered into mine.

"You don't know that, child," she said. "Your mother would kill me if she saw a hint of imperfection on you."

"Then she's gonna regret it because she cannot do what you do for me, and I'd suffocate her without you," I countered, lacing my voice with a hint of displeasure as I pulled her hands down from my cheeks. She seemed to notice it as her brows furrowed with concern.

"Child," she huffed, one of her hands finding its way to my face once again. "She's still your mother, you know?".

"I know, Meredith." I sighed, plopping down onto my bed and freeing my cheeks from her touch. "I just..."

I ran out of words to say, and she looked at me in anticipation of my words. It felt awkward. Awkward in a sense that I was about conversing about my mother's flaws before the woman who behaved as a true mother to me.

"You know what, Meredith? Let's not talk about mom," I said. "What are my schedules for today?"

Meredith's expression contorted into a eager one, and as she sat down beside me, she began speaking with enthusiasm.

"You've got Spanish lessons by 7a.m, Japanese by 10, and-"

"I'm not attending any of them. Tell my parents that." I bluntly told her, earning her puzzled gaze.

"Why?" she inquired.

"I'm doing things differently today." I replied, collapsing into the soft plushness of my bed that had been yearning for my presence the entire night. "I'm gonna sleep and explore the world without having to learn languages every single passing day,"

Meredith tried making me change my mind, but I was adamant on what I wanted. All my life, I've learned different languages that never helped me reach my goal, and it was all I dedicated a quarter of my day to. Apart from helping me be able to communicate with my parent's foreign contractors, and understanding some language novels, it was useless. Right then and there, with an exhausted, yet motivated figure, I debunked my going to any of the language lessons, and Meredith could do nothing about it but watched me as I dove into the overwhelming enchantments of sleep.

I woke up later on, an hour later, to the sight of a room cascaded with luminous sun rays that peeked into the room from the open window, and to the symphonic chirpings of birds living in the tree beside the window that graced the ethereal silence engulfing my room. I was enthused with joy as I sprung up from my bed and glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table.

9:57 A.M, it read.

My lips broke into a wide grin and I immediately hopped off my bed, catching the sight of one of my summer dresses already prepared as it laid on my Vanity's chair. There was a note on the dress, and as I picked it up and glanced through it, my heart cascaded with nothing lesser than excitement.

"I'll cover you up for today. Do whatever it is your heart wants to do. But don't go off running to the other side of the world that it would prompt the parents having to find you! Good luck, child. Love, Meredith."

That was more than enough motivation for me to dress up and oust the tall, magnificent yet boring mansion I've spent most of my time being holed up in, to the outer world for exploration.

The sea of blue and white hovered gracefully above my head, up in its peaceful horizon, as I made my way into the world to break free from the horizon I had so long been stuck in.