𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐋𝐘
- 𝙖 𝙬𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘
❛ she smiles like a child with flowers
in her hair, with blood on her hands
into the sun she stares ❜
- 𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇, the...
GEORGIA WAS PUTTING PRESLEY IN A MOOD. Not just the state, even though Georgia really did suck. It was one of the worst of the fifty, but Georgia Greene didn't make it any better.
Presley had spent the past two days dealing with her own shit, and she still wasn't feeling much better from the barn. She thought Georgia would be doing terrible. Breaking things, screaming, going her aunt's route and collapsing out of grief, or at least crying . . . but she wasn't.
She wasn't even doing it like Carol was. Carol was quiet, trying to find acceptance in the silence. But she looked sad, she radiated sadness, and it was thick. Being around her for too long could put you in one hell of an existential crisis.
But Georgia? Nothing.
Presley watched her. The designated dad seat in the corner of the dinning room had become Presley's new tree stump. She loved that chair. But she didn't feel welcome sitting there when Georgia was peacefully drawing, with crayons, five feet away from her. Her feet crossed at the heels, her hair tied up in a bun — and her hair was clean. Very clean, like she had the energy to shower. But they weren't long showers, ones where you'd expect someone who went through a terrible loss to sit. And think. And waste away. But no, they were normal end of the world showers. Hot water was a gift, so she spent no more than ten minutes in there. And She wasn't drawing to escape, she was drawing because she was bored.
Her mothers decaying head was crushed in front of her, and she was coloring.
Presley did not have a good relationship with grief, but the one time she lost someone, she could not move. For months. She cried, she screamed, she grieved until it was not acceptable to do so. When she was screamed at to stop. And now she ignored it, as much as she could. But she still grieved. Her process now was different, she didn't cry when she was sad, she would just get mad.
But she was still grieving. In her own special way.
This? Whatever Georgia was doing? That wasn't special. That was unhealthy.
Georgia Greene has unhealthy coping mechanisms, there, Presley said it.
