Voices

The boy looking out the window is stuck in his head again. He tries to forget all the sleepless nights while his father was drinking and his mother was crying behind locked doors. His sleeves are long, even in the summer. His eyes are scary and dark and full of hate; kind of like a prison. But no one notices the scars on his wrists that he hides or the messy uncut hair. No one notices until it's too late...

The singing girl puts on a show so that people can't see what's really going on in her head. Every day she wears a mask to cover her pain and only lets her tears wash away the facade when she's alone. No one ever notices how poor her family actually is and how much hope she has to become a great singer one day. But just like her poverty, no one ever notices her talent - maybe because it's her talent to act like everything's alright...

The boy with headphones on is tired of being told that he’s wrong. He’s stopped speaking up for himself, because no one ever listens to him anyway. He blames himself for everything that goes wrong, but the only person noticing is the voice in his head, telling him that he would be better off dead...

The girl doing her makeup has a perfect life. She has great friends, a wonderful family, a sweet boyfriend. She's rich. She’s pretty. That's the most important thing for her. Being pretty; having control. He's proud because she didn't eat breakfast again. He tells her she can only be pretty when she's hungry. But no one ever notices her pale skin or the bony legs. The only one noticing is the mirror...

The boy writing in his notebook is actually writing to his sister who lies in a hospital a twelve-hour drive away. She's gotten into an accident. The doctors aren't optimistic. So he writes a letter to her to ease his mind. But no one notices how each and every single stroke kills him more and more on the inside…

The girl clinging to her boyfriend's arm actually does notice something. He flirts with everyone but her. She can't believe it - refuses to believe it - even though she knows he cheats on her. Countless times, she has turned a blind eye to the bras and makeup that don’t belong to her, trying to hide the truth from herself. She does everything she can for him to love her again, but it's never enough. He never notices; no one ever notices the hurt burning in her chest...

She's annoying, the boy with the headphones thinks about the singing girl.

She's way too clingy, the singing girl thinks about the girl next to her who everyone calls “bitch".

He looks like he’s doing drugs, the girlfriend thinks about the boy at the window.

He's probably writing some stupid poem again, the boy at the window thinks about the worried brother.

She probably never had any real problems, the worried brother thinks about the pretty girl.

He’s not fun. He never talks to anyone, the pretty girl thinks about the boy with the headphones.

And she’s there, sitting in the middle, breathing in their dark, scary thoughts. She hears them, their voices. She hears them all. Their pains, their sorrows, their anger. Their cries come in waves, and tonight, she’s drowning.