Stolen Voices ✓

July 16th

kinda a filler...but important at the same time. whatever, enjoy lol.

July 16th:

Elias tosses Mara the ball, a terse spiral that slices through the air. She catches it flawlessly, throwing the ball back as fireworks erupt in the sky. Red and orange bombs of light, sparking against the dark canvas of night, their laughter mixing in with the bodies around them. They are relaxed, tossing a football between themselves, her friends wrapped up in blankets near them.

They are having a picnic for dinner, watching as families on the opposite end of the part set off weeks-old fireworks. Loud booms that make their ears hurt, their eyes sparkling in wonderment. Nobody is too old to appreciate fireworks.

Cairo and Ryn are laid out on the old knitted blanket they've draped over the fresh-cut grass while Will drags over two cases of beer. They are away from the rest of the masses gathering in the park, igniting fireworks into the night sky. The aftermath of those fireworks being a haze of smoke in the atmosphere. Fire-like embers, falling from the sky, landing in the grass.

"Who do you think invented fireworks?" Will asks, sitting down next to Ryn and Cairo on the blanket. He has a cold beer in hand, bringing it to his lips as he watches more lights flash up in the sky.

"I don't know, William, but they are probably as stupid as you," Mara teases, throwing the ball back to Elias. He is grinning, disregarding every worry he had talked about in therapy with Dr. Alice only earlier that morning.

It is easy for him to forget, wrapped up in the small cocoon of happiness with Mara's friends. The air is tender out tonight, the sky clear besides the smoke left by leftover fireworks from the Fourth of July. They discard sweatshirts for tank tops, tennis shoes for flip-flops. Their skin, sticky with sweat at the night's humidity.

Earlier, Elias had confronted Mara after talking to Dr. Alice. He was worried, despite her protests, that she was fine. All he asked was that she speaks to her doctor about going back on medicine, and she promised him she would.

So he relaxes into the background, tossing the football with Mara as he drowns in their easy conversation. Her friends aren't that hard to get along with, each of them their own character.

Ryn is utterly blunt, with a personality like the sparklers they'd run around with earlier. Will is the known crazy of the group, the one whose stupid illusions make everyone snicker. And Cairo is the visionary who can make even the dullest of minds imagine a place of sheer euphoria.

Elias has never felt more comfortable surrounded by personalities. His anxiety is low tonight, he even wore short-sleeves, his tanned skin on utter display to everyone. Nobody would know this, but that is a triumph itself.

- Hours Earlier -

"Dr. Alice, I'm happy," Elias states, with a big grin on his face. She sat across from him with a smile playing on her lips, the yellow walls appearing brighter today. His mood was lightened, his shoulders eased as he dipped into the comfort of the sofa.

"That's great, Elias," she gleams, crossing her ring-covered hands in her lap. He clutches his worn notebook in his hands, tapping the surface of its cover. He hesitates a second, biting his tongue as he glances out the window.

"Is there more?" She asks modestly, her posture open for conversation. She was gaining trust with him, growing the little yellow circle on his drawing each hour-long session. She kept it in the back of his file, a reminder of how far he's come.

They'd even started delving into his past trauma, a slow process, but he was opening up more about it. Because he was eighteen, legally, Dr. Alice wasn't allowed to discuss with his parents what she speculated. She could only encourage him to tell them, but today, his mind was elsewhere.