Stolen Voices ✓

May 24th

*For those of you who don't know, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is about a boy named Charlie who was assaulted  by his Aunt at a young age and watched his friend commit suicide. It goes through the process of him making new friends while suffering in silence.

A/N: Favorite Book?

May 24th:

Elias is stacking shelves when Mara shatters through the front doors, singing at the top of her lungs. Her voice is scratchy with overuse, her vocal cords straining. She isn't particularly a good singer. It feels very much like the first time they met, although now Elias is prepared for the storm of personality that will follow her charismatic smirk.

"Elias, Elias, Elias," she chirps in a sing-songy voice. Her eyes carry a wild glint today as she seems strange. She looks almost disorganized as she continues to look over her shoulder. Her clothes are all wrinkled, and her hair appears not  to be combed, as if she came in a hurry.

'Emmy Emmy Emmy,' he uses her new nickname. She walks into the aisle, brushing her fingers over the binds of the books. Her irises dilating as she smiles, looking back at Elias over her shoulder.

"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite," Mara mumbles, pulling The Perks of Being a Wallflower from the cart he pushes. She flips the book over in her hands as Elias can only stare at it. His head hurts a little, his ears ringing while his body turns hot.

That book is so close to his reality that he feels sick reading the first page. His teacher had assigned it to them a month after the day, which became his first hit of truth. Reading halfway through the book was when he realized, honestly, what had happened to him. It was a punch to the gut, his first real panic attack, and the day he chose to shut everyone out.

Elias coughs, clearing his throat as he looks away. Mara, too focused on whatever, doesn't seem to notice as she places the book in a random spot on the shelf. She skips back towards him, brushing her hand across his back before looking at the colorful bookcase across from them.

"I think people need to talk about it more, what happened in that book. What Charlie went through." Mara sighs, looking at Elias over her shoulder. She tilts her head at his hurt expression, pouting out her bottom lip in question.

'You have no idea,' he signs, turning away from her. It hurts his heart, hearing her say those words out loud. He feels, somewhere, that he can trust her with his most sinister secret. And that terrifies him. He's kept this to himself all these years. 

His trauma has grown to be a part of who he is as a person.

He is afraid that if he lets her in, he will crumble. That all the walls he's built up will dissolve into ash, and he will be left vulnerable and exposed. His words, agreeing with what she said, are the closest he's come to a confession. And it scares him because he is willing to tell her everything. All the words and the nightmares he's kept bottled up over the years. Everything he can't make his vocal cords say but wishes he could.

But, when he turns around, Mara has disappeared into another aisle. So he drops it and plasters a smile back on his face like so many times before. Hoping that if he can pretend happiness, he will eventually believe it to be real.

Shaking his head and ridding himself of his somber mood, he wanders out of the aisle. Pacing the long stretch of carpet, he looks out for Mara's dancing figure, following her hums. It is like a game of hide and go seek. Eventually, he finds her in the children's section, sprawled out on the floor.