His Collection

NINETEEN

Marina, and I laided out in the field out back as Lance quietly collected the butterflies that would flutter above us.

"They think we're flowers," my lips barely moved, and my voice didn't even reach a whisper. Somehow I didn't feel comfortable voicing out my thoughts, especially when most had to do with my personal life, and how I was planning on getting back to it. The soft grass provided great cushion, it had to be better than the beds themselves. I inhaled the country air as the sun warmed each molecule that buzzed together to create me.

I wanted peace, and I was trying to create it with this outing. We've been out since breakfast; Lance smiling at whatever I couldn't see, and Marina prancing around the tall grass like a bird with a broken wing trying to get noticed.

My arms cover my chest, and I place my hands over the little heart that silently had been crying these past days. It had been longer than a week, I know, but I couldn't pin out just how long I've been here.

I need to mark it down somewhere.

A single white butterfly drifted down to my chin, and rested its wings as I maintained still just for its sake. Closing my eyes, I licked my lips before giving out a little sigh through my nose.

I won't be here long. I'll rest...then go.

Marina began humming. Her arms spread out, and her left one curled around mine.

"Can you sing?" She asked. I didn't want to talk, especially about that, so I stayed quiet to maybe have her believe I was napping. Marina wiggled my arm, and still I didn't budge.

Not now, Marina. If you can pretend to sleep, so can I.

As a final attempt, she tickled my arm pit. I jolted up with laughter as she continued.

"S-stop! Ha, ha, ha! Please!" My arms wrapped themselves over me to cover any other spots she'd go after. Lance had a smirk on his face as he watched me wrestle Marina down, which failed due to our sizes; she was beyond taller than me, and had the legs to prove it.

"Let me hear you sing, come on." Her inky hair spilled over my face, then splashed to the side as she turned to Lance. "You want to hear her sing, too, right?!"

"It'd be an honor." The smile on his face didn't fade as he rested on his arm. "But I think you have to get off her first, Alice."

At the sound of that name, her eyes changed, and quick as that, she obeyed. Sitting next to me, she faced me. I knew she wanted to hear me say Marina, that was all, but she made it clear to only use it when he wasn't around.

Why do I feel I should make you happy, argh.

I sit up straight, and clear my throat. She asks if I can sing at all, and I squint my eyes.

Let me not mention the countless hours I had spent singing in church when I was younger due to my mother's demand.

Placing my hands on my thighs, I look up to the sky. "I can sing a little."

"Oh, what?" Marina leaned in, and clapped her hands. "Let's hear something."

"You don't have to if you don't want to, Blanca." Lance's voice could almost always bring me back to reality, and it bothered me that I couldn't put it aside so I could go on focusing on escaping in peace.

"I know." I turned to Marina, "but she really wants to hear me." Trying to avoid saying Alice only to please her seemed almost too much of a sweet gesture, but I couldn't call her that. If I were her, I wouldn't stand it either being called somthing I didn't like.