Lame traffic earring- part six

Why?
Why would you want to stay here with a stranger?

I already knew the answer.

The same reason I hadn't jumped off the edge to fight his killer,

or screamed in that perfect classroom.

Because, he whispered into the endless, blue water,
even if I don't know why I want to stay,
the feeling is real.

He finally turned to look at me,

and I saw it then, past the perfect facade of the fake boy,

the ghost of a wish I recognized all too well.

He wanted to exist.

He wanted a friend.

And in this fake world, he didn't have to be dead to get it.

I want to go back.

I want to go back to the real world. 

So many things are wrong here.

So many things.

My brother can cook,

Daikon girl's apparition friend is gone,

and my best friend-

the one that died in my arms, is still alive.

It doesn't feel right.

I need to go back to the real world, with real people.

But to do that-

I have to talk to wonder number four.

I found her in her studio, a quiet girl,

painting a world that would never dry.

I want to leave, I told her, my voice clear and steady.

The people here, they aren't real. I need to go back.

She put her brush down, a sigh that tasted like oil paint and dust.

She understood the longing in my chest, the pull back to the mess of life.

You can leave, she said softly, turning her grey eyes on me.

You can go back to your brother who can't cook,

and the daikon girl who misses her ghost.

But there is a toll, a price this time.

You have to make this world perfect again.

You have to kill the boy you found by the pool.