Kandi Katastrophe's Arc

Chapter 8 of 4

Two days after the treehouse, Willow came over to raid Kandi's closet. They needed stage looks for the show. Kandi's room glittered with piled clothes and Hello Kitty everything. She held up the rainbow hoodie, then a skirt, snapping fast jokes to keep the mood up. Willow tried on a bone-white tee and studied herself in the mirror. "You always know what works," she said. "You just hold it together. I don't know how." Kandi laughed it off, but the words landed wrong. Willow said them a lot now. Ever since the hospital, she looked at Kandi like a wall that couldn't fall. The strong one. The fixer. Kandi wanted to argue, but every time she opened her mouth, she pictured Willow's face changing. If the wall wasn't real, what did Willow have to lean on? So she kept smiling and passed her another shirt. "You're the strongest person I know," Willow said, quiet. "Thanks for being that." Kandi's throat closed. She almost said it's nothing again. Then the door banged open. Mia ran in, brown hair flying, still half in a cosplay skirt. She thrust a white pill bottle into Kandi's hand. "Mommy said it's TIME! Your medicine! She said DON'T forget again!" She spun and bolted back out, already yelling about her costume. The bottle sat in Kandi's palm. The label faced up. Prescribed to Kandi Katastrophe. Antidepressant. Take one pill by mouth daily. Kandi's whole body went stiff. She could hide it fast, shove it under a shirt, make a joke. Willow hadn't asked anything. She never would. But Willow was staring at the bottle. Her eyes moved across the label. She didn't speak. This was the moment. Kandi could keep the wall standing. Or she could show Willow the truth she kept skipping past. Her hand shook. She turned the bottle so the words faced Willow fully. "This is what strong looks like," Kandi said. Her voice cracked. "I take these so I can get out of bed. Some days I still can't. I'm not holding it together. I've just gotten good at making it look that way." Willow was quiet a long time. "I thought I was the broken one," she said. "And you were the one who never breaks." "There's no one who never breaks," Kandi said. "I lied without saying anything. I let you believe it." Willow sat down on the pile of clothes. She reached over and touched the bottle, then Kandi's hand. "I don't need you to be a wall," she said. "I just need you to be honest. Same as me." Kandi breathed out. The image shattered, and Willow was still there. But something new pressed in. If she could show Willow the truth in a quiet room, the show was tomorrow. Wig or no wig, honest or hidden, everyone would be watching. And Willow would be onstage beside her, expecting the real Kandi now.