Chapter 1: A Heavy Heart

"Junior!"

I resist the urge to grunt at the sound of Slightly's voice calling out my name, pulling me from my restless sleep. Instead, I just stayed still, knowing my adopted brother would leave me the hex alone eventually if I feigned being asleep. Especially given the fact that I haven't been in the best of moods lately.

"Come on, Junior! Get up!"

'Ignore him, Junior. Ignore him. He'll go away...' I tell myself.

"Come on. Don't you want to see Isabella before she-"

I throw my pillow at Slightly upon him mentioning the name of my best friend forever after, triggering my anger and causing me to stop pretending to sleep.

"No. Now leave me alone," I ordered him, pulling the covers up over my head.

"Really, Junior? You can't still be mad with her," Slightly says.

"Yes, I am and I said leave me alone!"

"But didn't you say that you could never stay mad at Isabella for very long?"

"That was before she broke our promise! Now leave me the hex alone!" I shout to where I was certain most of Neverland had heard me. Not that I cared. I just wanted to be left alone. I didn't need comforting or anything. All I needed was space, something my family or that pea brained codfish was never going to learn anytime soon. Even if the event that had caused me to be in my semi-depressed and aggravated state happened two days ago.

I sit up when I hear Slightly sigh and see him leave the room I shared with him and Cubby. For a moment, I considered getting up and going to the mainland, but immediately brushed that aside. There was no way I was going there. Not even to see Isabella off to her new school in which I knew I would lose her forever after…

Upon that thought, I lie back down, staring up at the ceiling. It was hard to believe that despite promising to be together forever after that she would break it all too soon by not speaking up to her parents that she did not wish to go to Ever After High when they told her they'd enrolled her for Legacy Year.

Of course, I tried to talk her into speaking with her parents when she informed me during my last visit to the mainland. But no! She had to insist on retaining her "I obey my parents" attitude! Just once – just once, she could have been rebellious! Even if she talked to them and they refused to cancel her going to Ever After High, I would have brought her to Neverland in a heartbeat!

A voice in the back of my head keeps saying that I'm being selfish. That I was being unfair to Isabella. That I had to face facts and let her go. That I'd always knew this day would come, when she would have to officially be bound to her story and become the next Beauty to the Beast. That we weren't going to be together like we used to anymore.

My stomach churns upon those last two statements and I turn over on my side. I mentally yell at that irritating voice to shut the hex up. Sure, I knew that I had to let her go now, but a part of me doesn't want to. Not after all we've been through together. Not after being together since we were kids.

"Junior?" My mother's voice interrupts my thoughts, to which I am somewhat grateful for.

"Yes, mom?" I ask right before I feel my bed shift.

There's a long silence as I feel my mom place a hand on my shoulder. In a way, it's comforting, but not by much. It just makes me a bit calmer, but doesn't soothe the horrible ache in my heart or make the voice in the back of my head shut its annoying nagging up.

"I know it must be difficult, Junior," Mom finally says. "But … even here in this world, sometimes the happily ever after you want doesn't happen…"

I roll my eyes.

"What are you talking about mom?" I asked, frustration in my voice.

Mom sighs.

"What I'm trying to say is that … that you're going to have to try to let Isabella go. I'm not saying that you can't go and visit her, but you're just going to have to accept the fact that her story needs her. After all she is the main protagonist-"

"Don't you think I already know that? Or furthermore, that I've known that for years?" I tell her.

"Then why are you trying to deny that fact?"

"I'm not denying it! I'm just frustrated and hurt! She broke our promise, mom!"

"Well did you honestly expect to be together forever after? Grow up, Junior."

"Forgetting one detail, mom. We live in Neverland. No one grows up here."

"Junior…"

"Well, it's true."

"Junior, I am your mother. Don't be a smart aleck with me."

'Whatever after,' I thought while getting out of bed. I didn't dare say it aloud though I'd been close to. After all, I did not wish to provoke my mother's wrath when she came to try to console me. That was one of the last things I needed right now.

I feel her stare as I get a change of clothes. Upon securing my dagger to my belt, I walk out of the room in silence, mom following.

Toodles comes by me, yet I pay him no mind as I proceed toward the exit of the hideout in which my adopted brothers, parents, and I lived.

"Better hurry if you want to see Isabella before she goes off to her new school," My dad says when I pass by where he's sitting in his favorite chair.

"I'm not going to see her, dad." I inform him, pausing for a moment.

"Oh? Where are you going then?"

"Nowhere in particular. Just going to fly around Neverland for a while."

I glance back at my parents. I can tell they're both a little worried about me, given that Captain Hook was likely to try to take advantage of my distressed state if I had an encounter with him. Still, they nod and I leave the hideout, walking away instead of flying, my heart feeling like an internal weight that kept me grounded. Preventing me from flying.

Trying my hand at writing in a guy's first person point of view. Think it turned out alright. Anyway, I want to apologize to all my readers for taking so long. Please, forgive me.