Finding Everett | ✔️

Chapter Six

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Dedicated to dreamofkingdoms for mentioning me in her recommended books!

Song in the sidebar is Never Far Behind by Aly & AJ (78Violet)

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The next day when Everett came home from school, he changed the routine he had strictly kept for years; he was, for the first time, going to deviate.

It might have seemed minor, but for Everett this felt pretty big.

Today, he was not going to sit at the piano and play, at least not initially. He had things he knew he needed to take care of before he even attempted to retreat into his own little world. He wouldn't be able to concentrate, anyways.

The stunt he pulled stuck to the back of his mind; it was like a leech sucking all his sanity away as the days dragged on. It was driving him crazy.

So instead of sitting on his piano bench, he grabbed a soda from the fridge, a bag of chips from the cupboard and entered the living for a movie. Kneeling in front of the shelf with all the movies, Everett counted the shelves down until he hit the third one. He let his fingertips follow the cases until he felt familiar lettering. Ah, Les Miserables.

For some reason, he wanted to watch this; he needed to know there were people who were feeling the backlash from their mistakes as much as he did. Everett needed to briefly exist with someone, even a fictional character, who held regret inside.

Even though it was only couple days ago, it felt like the guilt had been following Everett for years. It might have had something to do with the fact that he could have prevented it; he didn't have to lie. He didn't even need to.

But he did. His conscience said stop and he just pushed forward.

He was a real jerk and he knew it. He halfway wondered if he had always been this way. Was he always so manipulative to get his way?

With a loud groan, Everett put the movie in and grabbed his remote, pressing the play button. It wasn't long before he could hear the sorrowful and heartbreaking melodies of Fantine and Jean Valjean.

He didn't have to see the film to know that these people were aching; their stories were not ones that would cause somebody to jump for joy.

No, it nearly broke his already unsteady heart in two.

These people, they had good reason to be upset. They had reason to feel that their worlds were caving in around them; that was because they were. What reasons did he have to be the way he was? Sure, he couldn't see, but was that really a reason? His mind wandered slightly away from the movie playing, What Lizzie had said struck a chord that resonated in the back of his mind.

The time for mourning is over ...

Come back to the living ...

Is that what he had really been doing? Is that what he sounded like? Doing something he hadn't done since ... well, forever, Everett began counting his blessings rather than his curses.

He had a home, a roof over his head. There was always food in the cupboards. He had a family who, although confused about him and didn't completely understand, still cared for him. They still loved him.

Most important, he had his life. He was able to walk around, speak, play music. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how childish he may have been. He had things that most people only dreamed of having; regardless of what he didn't have, he had more than enough to compensate for his loss.