As It Was (COMPLETED) (wattys2023)

Coming Apart, Coming Together

I was stirred out of a light sleep by my phone vibrating against my ear. I tried to ignore it for a couple minutes, but within seconds of the first call ending, another came. Sitting upright, I yawned and looked to see who was calling.

I had over a dozen missed calls from each parent and even more text messages. As I was holding it, my mother texted me again.

Mom- Evie, come home pls

What did u do everly?

Everly, what is this video?

Before I can think up a response, there's a gentle knock at the door and Garrett walked in, phone in hand, mid yawn. He quickly glanced my way, as if he's expecting me to still be asleep, but looked relieved that I'm up.

"Good, you're awake." he moved to where I sat and exited out of his messaging app. "Javi and Angie sent me this like twenty minutes ago."

Within seconds he has a Youtube video pulled up and I caught sight of my video. It was creeping up on a million views and had only been uploaded a little over an hour ago.

"Oh God." I breathed.

He doesn't play the video but turns his phone off and nudges me. "Ev, I watched the finished product and it's so emotional, so raw, so real. Even more so than the audio they uploaded last night. Because all the videos and photos are playing behind you as you speak. I know how hard this was for you, Ev, but you are so brave for doing this."

If only I could agree.

*

Having Javi and Angie join us outside for lunch was a bit unnerving. I'd grown so used to it just being the two of us, that it felt as though they were invading our little world. That quickly became an after thought as I began to disassociate while they talked about my video, rubbing the sleeve of Miles' jacket as I stared straight ahead. It isn't until Javi touched a gentle hand to my shoulder that I'm pulled back down into reality.

"Huh?"

Javi smiled as if I hadn't just completely ignored whatever he'd said, "Garrett said Mr. Andrews is trying to get you into RISD. My sister is there right now. She loves it."

"Yeah." I mumbled, still not quite there with the three of them. "But he wants the portfolio by winter break in a couple weeks and I haven't done much outside of class in a couple months."

"So?" Garrett piped in. "Use the work you already have, Ev. I've seen your sketches. Use some of those, they're amazing. And use some of the art you've turned in for class."

I shrugged a shoulder. "I don't think those are good enough."

Angie decided to take that as her opportunity to interject her opinion. "That's because we're our own worst critics. I, for one, think they're all beautifully macabre. You can see what you've experienced in every piece I've seen."

"Thank you. I just. . . for a long time art was my only way to escape myself. It was almost therapeutic, I guess. But I guess that's because I was drawing everything I was feeling the best I could."

"And there's nothing wrong with that." Javi responded, running a hand through his dark hair, "You're human, Everly. Everyone has their own way of handling grief and their emotions. For you and Gare it's Art. For me it's football. And for Ang its academics."

Hearing the support from all three of the people around me, I dropped my gaze to find my hand clutching Miles' necklace around my neck; I had grabbed it sometime during our conversation.