The Freedom That Paper Gives

What Was Really Going On (Content Warning Stated)

CW: The following episodes heavily surround themes of bipolar disorder. This includes but is not limited to; depression, mania, not eating, self harm and suicide.

If you feel uneasy around subjects surrounding depression I would advise that you skip the next couple of chapters (chapters 12-16). You will not miss too much in terms of plot. Check out my insta for a break down of those episodes.

Asha drove in silence as Percy looked out the window. He would know if Asha was taking him the wrong way as he had walked Marie home before. Only once, it was darker than usual when Percy was closing up and he could tell that Marie was anxious to walk home alone. Marie's house was in the exact opposite direction to Percy's but he didn't mind walking with her, it gave him an opportunity to talk to her more. They discussed the current exhibition at the nearby art gallery and Percy wondered whether he should ask Marie if she would like to go with him. He thought against it not thinking that they were good enough friends yet and not wanting her to get the wrong idea, as he was nearly sure Byron was her boyfriend.

Looking back on it now Percy wished he asked her. Perhaps she caught something from walking home with him, perhaps he should have offered her his jacket. Maybe then she wouldn't be sick. Percy was looking back through the past few weeks to see if there was anything different about Marie. He remembered thinking that she looked a bit tired recently and she was wearing darker clothes that didn't match her usual aesthetic. She wasn't smiling as much and had twice turned down his offer of cake nor was she drinking as much hot chocolate as usual. He also noticed that she didn't eat anything the entire time he was saw her last. She also wasn't writing as much or engaging in conversation as much as usual. He sometimes felt she was spacing out. But at the time he put that down to stress, thinking she had a project or paper due, or some form of exam. Looking back on it now he wondered how he could have been so stupid, of course she was ill. She was acting differently, Percy should have put his fear aside and asked if she was ok. Not pushed her into conversation, or left her alone. He should have been more adamant that she go home and sleep, or eat something. Percy couldn't help but feel that he could have prevented this if he had been a bit more attentive.

"Alright we're here. Just get out and knock on the door, we're ages away from home." Asha said, breaking Percy's train of thought.

Asha didn't like this, she shouldn't have brought Percy here. He didn't need to know Marie's business. But before she could say anything Percy had already left the car and was going to the door. Asha wondered to herself how he knew which one it was, and she hoped he hadn't walked Marie home because its almost twice the distance from here to their house as it was from the cafe. And their mum didn't like Percy walking from the cafe. But Percy was already at the door and knocked on it. The worse case scenario Asha thought was that Marie answered, but she wouldn't in her current state. The best case scenario was that Oscar answered, everyone was at least a little scared of Oscar as he was probably the tallest person Asha had ever seen. Oscar would go into protective best friend mode and scare Percy away. But it wasn't Marie or Oscar who answered it was Byron. That's alright Asha thought, Byron knows Marie better than anyone, he'll know how to deal with this.

"Um, hi you must be Byron. I'm Percy, Marie's friend from the cafe. I just wanted to make sure she's alright." Percy said.

Even in this situation Percys first thought was wow, he couldn't help it. Byron was very good looking and Percy had never seen him that close before. His dark brown eyes seemed limitless and his messy dark hair made him look like a mix of farmer and academic. That and his sleeves were folded at three quarter length revealing his forearms. Percy could see why Marie was dating him, if she wasn't he would.

"Of course Percy, Marie's mentioned you." Percy noticed Byron had a small Italian accent which only added to his frankly unfair good looks. "Marie's not well at the moment but she'll be fine. I'll tell her that you asked after her."