Stolen Voices ✓

September 10th

Hi guys! I missed you all.

September 10th:

The concept of college, even the idea of something more, was never really anything Elias thought of a few months ago. Now he wanders through the crowded halls, various bodies ramming into him on either side. A weighted backpack slung over his broad shoulders, his arms full of textbooks for classes that are each a job themselves. He's been so lost in the library the past few days that his skin misses the warmth of pure sunlight.

With his face stuffed in more assignments, he doesn't notice the girl in front of him stop abruptly. Crashing into her back, both his books and hers are launched to the ground, spewed across the hallway floor. Different shoes all manage to avoid the mess, though nobody stops to help.

"I'm sorry," Elias says to the girl, both of them reaching for the books. She laughs lightly, a smile playing on her lips as she glances up, her hand brushing his.

"Elias, right? We went to high school together," she replies. Elias studies her profile a second, the girl has a rounded-shaped face and swarthy brown skin, her large brown eyes aren't what draws his attention. Rather her vigorous lilac hair that falls to her shoulder blades, board straight and smelling of wildflowers.

"Uh," Elias stumbles over his words, a bashful smile on his lips. He recognizes her by the memory of him and Mara, more importantly, her jealousy of this girl. But he doesn't remember her as herself, her personality, her name.

"It's Isha," she sticks her hand out, shifting her textbooks on her hip. Elias accepts her hand offering, his hand enclosing over hers. She is petite, her eyes level with the center of his chest. She has to look up to see him, craning her neck in an unpleasant position. A smile, almost proudly, remains on her plump lips.

"Right," Elias chuckles, shaking his head. He tries not to think about Mara as she made it clear she won't be thinking about him at the moment. Elias is already suffocating in homework and studies, he hasn't had even a second to consider any heartache.

That, and a part of him already knew she was gone, before she pulled away.

"What class are you coming from?" She questions, her doe-shaped eyes glancing towards his stack of books and overloaded backpack. People recapitulate to shove into them on either side, the fragrance of cologne and perfume mixing into an overpowering aroma that tightens his chest.

"English," he lifts up his old book, "headed towards the library to study."

Elias has found sanctuary in the municipal library, as the elder librarian at the front is abnormally strict with noise. Even the slightest of sound, the tapping of a pencil or the bouncing of a knee, will get you kicked out.

And the Wifi, unlike that of the library he used to work at, has no buffers. Elias will spend hours at the public library, way past the necessitated hours to study. Simply just taking a pause from the entropy that has kindled when he started college.

"Oh! I'm going to The Bean, the best coffee in town," Isha's lips tug even more upwards, her tone offering. 

In high school, Isha was known as a quiet transfer student from India, the label she acquired from the other students. But Elias realizes that she is actually friendly, with a character that can only be described as indulgent. It's ridiculous how often you can see a person in the halls every day and not really know them. Elias should know. He was one of the ones inundated by so many rumors that a part of him couldn't decipher his own truth.

Elias, Isha, they all just exist, like glass figures. Only glanced at to be critiqued. All the other time, they are stared through as if they are nothing, as if they were nobody.