Stolen Voices ✓

July 10th

words are easy, like the wind, faithful friends are hard to find.

-Shakespeare

July 10th:

Mara raps swiftly on Ryn's door early this morning before the sun even rises beyond the horizon. An orange glow sets out on the long winding streets leading to the apartment complex. The crisp air outside warm with the morning breeze that messed up Mara's blonde hair as she walked.

With her knuckles now resting against the door frame, the rattling of a lock comes from the reverse side. After a minute of hesitation, the old door swings open, a gust of wind hitting where Mara teeters on both feet. She smiles brightly, trying to calm Ryn, who doesn't look pleased to see Mara at this hour.

Ryn frowns, her eyebrows furrowed as she shakes her head. She crosses her arms over her chest, throwing Mara a chilling glower. Ryn is the type of person who won't wake up before 1:00 AM on a good day.

Her thick, raven black hair is tied up into a short ponytail, her blunt bangs in disarray. She is bare-faced, a rare sight for Ryn, who mastered that art of makeup by the time she was sixteen. She even had a youtube channel with a few thousand dedicated followers.

Her baggy clothes are so big on her petite frame that the collar hangs over one shoulder. She stares at Mara for a long second, rolling her eyes as she gives her enough room to step in. Mara breezes by, falling into the messy living room. Clothing is strewn over the floor, pizza boxes on the coffee table. The window is still open, letting in a soft breeze to eliminate the smell of weed.

"We should establish a 'no waking Cathryn up before noon rule,'" Ryn bites out, flicking Mara's forehead.

Cairo emerges from their bedroom minutes later, his bare chest wet, a towel around his shoulders and waist. He rubs the slumber from his eyes, yawning widely. Taking one glance at a standing Mara, Cairo laughs, shuffling into the kitchen. He reemerges into the living room moments later, two steam cups of coffee in hand.

"I would offer you some," he says, chuckling, handing a steaming cup to Ryn, who smiles softly at him, "but it looks like you don't need any more energy."

"I want to find my dad," Mara states bluntly. With the mug against her parted lips, Ryn looks at Mara over the rim, her eyebrow raising upwards. Mara had told Ryn all about her mother's deception, to which Ryn shrugged, not caring. She will help Mara out, of course, they are closer than most sisters even are. At least, in Mara's case.

But Ryn doesn't understand how having three parents can be something to sulk about. Ryn wishes she could even have an ounce of that amount of love.

She only has two parents, and barely even that. Her adoptive parents are friendly people whose business skyrocketed when she was around fifteen. After that, it was business calls and two-person excursions to tropical islands, leaving Ryn home alone with a qualified nanny. Even though it wasn't the same, she felt abandoned for the second time in her life.

"And how do you suppose we do that? Remember we're college students struggling enough with rent," Ryn laments, flopping down on the tattered couch. Cairo had turned on cartoons, Bugs Bunny, that play softly in the background. He is staring intently at the flickering screen, his head on Ryn's shoulder, who gulps down her coffee and begins sipping on Cairo's.

"At the library," Mara's smile grows, taking over her features, "they have computers and free wifi." And Elias Mara adds inside her head, her sunny mood rising. Ryn throws her a look that gives away her obvious starstruck character. Clucking her tongue, she looks at Mara an assessing second.