Falling Colors

Chapter Thirty-Four: Felix is Sorry

     Everyone was sitting quietly in their chairs listening to the grunting and swearing of Cleo and Wiley in the storage closet.

      “You couldn’t have cleaned this out earlier today?” Wiley seethed.  A crash of what sounded like a guitar followed.

      “No, well you know how it is,” Cleo replied sounding strained, like she was stretching for something.  “Give me a boost, will ya?”

       A shuffling of feet and objects being moved drifted out of the storage room.

       Bria was wringing her hands while fidgeting in her plastic seat.  Mason was hunched forward, his elbows on his knees.  Felix sat calmly but his eyes shifted quickly.  Avery was on her phone scrolling.  And I was – well I was lost in my own thoughts.

      I wasn’t trying to ignore what was happening around me or in my head like I usually did.  I wasn’t trying to remain blank.  I was trying to fill myself to the brim with words.

       Cleo and Wiley came out of the storage room looking a bit bedraggled.  What they pulled behind them by a rope was half of a telephone booth.

      “Guess what we are doing today?” Cleo beamed.

       “Playing telephone?” Avery offered sarcastically.

        “Haha, no,” Cleo said, not amused.

       The telephone booth half was in the middle of the room now receiving many confused and curious stares.

      “So today we are making a phone call,” Cleo said blowing some dust off the top of the phone.  “All you have to do is pretend you’re calling someone and forgiving them.  It doesn’t matter who as long it is someone you need to forgive.  So who’s first?”

      Everyone gave a frightened look, and turned their gaze elsewhere – well not Avery.  She gave a critical look to Cleo.  She opened her to mouth to say something, but thought better of it and went back to scrolling on her phone.

      Cleo fervently tapped her hand against the side of her thigh.  No one was making a move to volunteer to go up and talk. 

      Forgiving someone was hard.  It showing you were strong enough to move on and overlook what they had done.  It was showing you were above what they had done. 

       “Okay, Felix, you’re up.  Shows us what you got, champ,” she chirped, winking.

       Like a deer caught in the headlights, Felix froze and his eyes widened.  Cleo raised her hands motioning for him to stand up.  Slowly he did and stepped up to the phone booth.

        Unsure, his hand hovered over the black receiver.  His fingers clenched and unclenched.  His gaze was straight forward, intense, his thoughts elsewhere.

       “Go on now, pick it up,” she encouraged.

      His hand shaking he picked it up and put it to his ear.  He did nothing for a long time.  The only sound was the raspy sound of his breathing.  Occasionally his mouth would begin to open to start talking, but he would quickly clamp it shut again.

      I looked away feeling bad for him.  I knew exactly what he was probably feeling.  All these people were staring at him waiting for him to say something.  To pour his feelings out for them to hear and see what they could to help make him better.  The pressure he was feeling was unbearable.  If it were me up there I would have dropped the phone.  But Felix wasn’t me, he was someone who decided long ago he wanted to get better and he was already following the map to a happier world.