DYSTOPIA [hs] |Complete|

xxi - Home.

chapter song; it's all on u - illenium

     "I feel like you're both old enough so I shouldn't be asking this, but I'll do it anyway." I turned my head to stare at Lark as he shut the door of the Land Rover, awaiting his question. "Does anybody need to take a piss?"

     We both looked at Harry who was fiddling with the car keys. His gaze met mine before it flickered to Lark's, and sighed.

     "Come on guys, it was one time."

     "Three." Lark and I said simultaneously.

     I watched Lark toss a bag of necessities to Harry, which he caught with one hand and let out an exasperated groan. He began to walk away, still muttering to himself at being babied. But just as Lark stated we won't be stopping along the way. We can't afford to lose any more time on stops that could be prevented.

     Heading through new territory was always terrifying. We weren't aware of what was ahead, how many walkers inhabited an area, or if we were to run into corrupted groups of people. The last thing we needed was a rehash of events.

     Behind me I heard Lark laugh quietly to himself, immediately catching my attention.

     "Jordyn, come take a look at this."

     He was leaning against the hood of the car with an opened book and what looked to be photographs in his hand. I stood by his side, examining what was indeed pictures. He turned each picture around to find them labelled with tiny black writing.

     "I completely forgot about these. This was us in university."

     Lark handed me the pictures once he was done examining them. It was a picture of Ash and Harry. Ash had his arm around him, smiling brightly at the camera as he did so, whilst Harry was drinking some sort of beverage through a straw. The photo was slightly blurred, but bright green and red lights were distinguishable in the background.

     I was given another of the three boys which I couldn't help but laugh at. Lark was standing in the middle, smirking widely with both hands outstretched with his middle fingers facing towards the camera. However, both Harry and Ash were clutched to his sides, their necks arched with their lips in a pout.

     "This is gold." I smiled, receiving more and more photographs from Lark as we shared small chuckles and gasps.

     "I remember, this was one of the parties we threw in our first year. Man... We were so immature."

     I ponded for a moment and thought whether 'were' was the appropriate word to describe their immaturity. It still remains.

     After multiple of pictures consisting with mostly the three of them, and a few other people, I began receiving individual pictures of the boys. One of a half naked Lark with a straw hat, another of Ash asleep with dozens of empty beer bottles, and one of Harry with his face turned away from the camera with an off-sided smile. He was very obviously interacting with somebody off-camera.

     There was one thing in common with all of these pictures Lark had shown me. They were all happy. There wasn't a single dull photograph shared. Although they were only some years younger than they are now it's just a representation that not only have they physically changed, but also mentally. And the outcome wasn't a positive one.

     "It was such a simpler time, you know?" Lark whispered. "At this time Haz was still doing ballet, Ash's parents weren't divorced, and I still had my best friends."

     "You still have Harry."

     He only nodded. "That's true. But he's not the same Harry as he was three years ago. This carefree spirit you see here in these pictures has turned into a self-loathing, protective person. Same physical features, but everything else is different. His depression only gets worse over the years, and I'm scared that I can't help him."