Chap. 10

"Hopefully I'll start to see my dyslexia that way."

Will stands out in the hallway, hearing those words come out of Bella's mouth.

Will just stands there. He doesn't know what to do, he doesn't know what to say after hearing that come out of Bella's mouth.

Suddenly, he begins to hear her footsteps coming towards the door. He doesn't want her to know he was there, at least not now. He quickly turns on his heal as quietly as possible and walks as fast as he can, while still trying to maintain some sense of silence, and heads for the opposite direction.

When he realizes he's a safe distance away, he stops and leans against a locker, eventually sinking to the floor. His mind captures himself in thought.

Bella has dyslexia. He couldn't believe it. How could Bella have dyslexia and Will not see it? Had she always had it?

Will rolled his eyes at himself. Of course she always had it. You can't just get dyslexia, can you? He honestly didn't know. It was entirely new territory for him. He didn't know too much about dyslexia. He knew as much that it was a learning disability that impaired your reading skills. But it didn't seem right to him. Bella seemed like a good reader. She was smart and got good grades. Was it possible that she could really did have this disability?

Will stopped himself. He was making assumptions. Just because Bella had dyslexia didn't mean she wasn't smart, obviously.

Something else haunted Will at the same time. Why didn't she tell him? Why would she keep this from him? He recalled the conversations he had with her when he realized she was hiding something.

It's not something you take lightly.

It's different than the mermaid secret.

People might not treat me the same.

The last thing caught Will dead on. He had just found out Bella had dyslexia and he was already looking at her in a totally different way. He tried to snap himself out of it. He needed to realize that she was the same Bella she had always been.

By why did it feel so different now?

Because of the secret, he thought to himself. It was the secret. Will shattered whatever invisible barrier was between them, the secret that Bella didn't want him to know. Will didn't want the barrier there, but Bella did. But now it was broken. Now he knew.

But Will still didn't understand. Why would Bella want the barrier there? Maybe it was to hold on to whatever sanity she had through the rest of what she experienced. Maybe it was the thought of her own security within herself.

Will didn't know what it was, but whatever it was, it made Will feel like Bella didn't trust him. After all they had been through, why wouldn't Bella want him to know, or maybe even not trust him to know?

Bella had made it pretty obvious before that she wanted to keep her secret to herself. So now that Will had it, what did he do with it? Should he tell Bella he knows? Tell the others for their own good? Just keep it to himself all in all?

He knew the last option wasn't good. He couldn't just leave himself unanswered with this information. It didn't seem right to him. He also knew his second option was no good either. It wasn't his secret to tell, and she obviously didn't want anyone know. He was breaking the rule by knowing himself.

That left him with his first option. He had to tell Bella he knew. But how?

How would he even go about doing that? He can't just go up to her and flat out say it, flat out tell her that he was eavesdropping when he heard her admit it. He really had to approach it lightly, unlike the way he did when he found out Bella was a mermaid. Maybe he would just tell her he needed to talk to her and gently explain himself.

Another thought occurred to Will. Maybe he would just wait until Bella told him herself. She would tell him at some point, right? Maybe she wouldn't. But she wouldn't keep it a secret forever, she wouldn't keep it from him forever, would she? She wouldn't. She couldn't. But then again, maybe she would. After all, that's what she was planning to do with her mermaid secret before he found out. Would she do the same with this?

Will thought it was unlikely. Being a mermaid and keeping it a secret is a lot different from having dyslexia and keeping it a secret. Dyslexia wasn't a totally uncommon thing and it's not a big deal. Or maybe it was. Will didn't know, but he supposed some people just wanted to keep it to themselves.

Bella would probably tell him eventually. She said that, didn't she? She just said not yet… right? Will thought she would tell him.

But how long would it really take for her to tell him? From what she made it sound, it wasn't going to be anytime soon. Will shook his head. Now he had to tell her he knew.

Will put his head in his hands. This wasn't easy. How is he going to tell her? He needed to think about it.

He recapped in his head what he already knew. Bella has dyslexia. Will knows almost nothing about dyslexia. He found this out by eavesdropping outside of Mr. Bennett's classroom while waiting for Bella. Bella is intentionally trying to keep it from Will and the girls, as well as everybody else. Will isn't supposed to know. He somehow has to explain everything to Bella. This isn't going to be easy.

Will put his head in his hands. Everything seemed confusing right now. But one way or another, he had to get around this all with Bella.

Will looked at his watch. 12:06. He corresponded this time with his schedule. Sixth period, he had study hall. Perfect.

Will slowly stood up. He needed to think about what he was going to do. But first, he headed towards the library. He had some research to do…