WE CHOSE.

“Which is why we need disguises!  Preferably FBI.”

                her arms hold too many books as she approaches the table with little grace. in fact, she nearly trips over her own feet, a notebook clattering to the ground as she steadies herself on the edge. ( jessica never thought she’d be here, honestly – college didn’t seem like it was in the cards for her. however, a strong shove from her parents sent her toppling into adulthood, and now that she’s here, she finds herself overwhelmed most of the time. )

                ❛ sorry, ❜ she starts, letting some books rest on the tabletop before she bends down to scoop what’s fallen. ❛ all the other tables were super full, and my arms were about to fall off, ❜ she adds, chuckling at her own dramatic sense of humor. head turning, she flicks some hair away from her eyes as her smile grows wide. ❛ care for some company? i’m really quiet, i promise. ❜

                   dana seems to be in her own world, pencil tapping quietly against the edge of her textbook. she’s here alone, most days, finding a table far from any of the other students studying their lives away. she’s grateful for the quiet corner she’s found, and though she had to brush a slew of crumbs from the tabletop, dana could take a small amount of cleaning over being in anyone’s peripherals. the noise startles her, pencil falling onto the table with a noise loud enough to embarrass her. widening eyes move up to the blonde, watching her struggle, petite hands instinctively reaching out to steady the large stack of books.

❝   sometimes   it’s   really   hard   to   forget   things   in   your   past.   you   could   be   having   the   best   day   &   uh   ━━   it   just   .   .   .   pops   up   out   of   nowhere.   like   your   brain   doesn’t   want   you   to   move   on.   does   that   make   sense   ?   ❞

❝    given that thirty - eight thousand people die every year in car accidents i’m not really surprised.    ❞       statistics are tasteless on his tongue,    an automated vessel for facts of life and death.     quickly he realizes how he lit a match in an already ablaze nervous system.     to distinguish this,   he can only add on with something more optimistic.       ❝    however the chances of dying from a car crash are one in one hundred and three.    ❞       humming against his words whilst also making sure to keep his eyes on the road in front of him,    hands steady with the grip of the wheel. 

             “durin’ hard times, my daddy says a lot of people find god. or god finds them, when he’s needed. is it kinda like that?”

in  most  instances ,        father  page  did  not  open  his  door  to  just  any  old  parishioner.    he  was  a  private  man  with  an  anxious  predilection  towards  a  good  book  and  a  warm  chair ;     yet  when  he  seen  little  dana  polk  through  the  peep - hole ,    he’d  swung  the  door  open  so  fast  the  latch  caught  and  immediately  closed  the  door  again.    

now,   settled,    rodrick  arrives  from  the  kitchen  with  hot  chocolate  in  two  blue  mugs.   whip  cream  &   peppermint  shavings  sat  atop.    

     ❛❛     maybe  there’s  a  reason    –    ❜❜

❛❛          yanno  –       there  must  be  a  reason  for  the  nightmares .         did  you  say  you  were  in  a  cabin   ?         ❜❜       ​

                   of all the places dana could have gone, she chose him and here. never has she been particularly religious, nor has her family, but after everything she’d been through, god could be just as real as any of the nightmares she saw that night. getting here had been a blur, like she was on autopilot — she was, most days — and dana was grateful that father page let her in. ‘ oh, thank you... ’ blinking away the daze in her eyes, dana carefully takes the cup, almost amused by the prospect of sharing hot chocolate with a priest. 

        ‘    IT ONLY TAKES ONE SMALL THING,    to make you feel like your back on top of the world and something even smaller to send you crashing back down to the ground    —-    don’t be afraid to take some time before your find your footing again,    the wait is worth it,    trust me.    ’    he follows with a slow pull of his cigarette,    unsure if what he was even saying was close to advice,    but it had been something he was told over and over again in rehab.    take your time,    don’t try and rush yourself back to a sort of normal.