Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up

[start_a_rumpus]

There are drums beating out in the jungle. It's the native people of the island and they've come to reclaim what's theirs. All night and all day they've been playing and yelling and threatening Max and everyone who has taken over this place. Boom, boom, boom. Max can hear them even through the walls of the compound. He slinks down the halls, and

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[goingtodorking]

She stands and watches him for a long moment before she gets down on her knees and starts to crawl under the table. Her blond hair hangs in her eyes. She tilts her head and studies him for a moment. She knows what this place is like; she knows what it does, sometimes.

"What did it do to you?" she asks, quietly.

[start_a_rumpus]

"Nothing," he fires back, hunching in on himself. "It's my sister's, but she's not here. She left me...again. I looked everywhere."

He unfolds his hand just enough for the newly smashed heart frame to be visible.

[goingtodorking]

"Oh," says Karen, a little quiet breath as she reaches out and touches the very edges of the paper frame with careful fingers. "It's probably like my dinosaur book. She wasn't..." She bites her lip. "You want them to come with it, but they don't."

[start_a_rumpus]

"Why not?" he asks quietly, frowning down at his hands. "It's hers so why isn't she here, too? No one else could have had it?"

[goingtodorking]

"It probably got here on it's own," says Karen, with a little huff of a sigh. "I don't know whether it's supposed to make you feel better or miss them more. I never know."

[start_a_rumpus]

"It's not very nice," he sniffs, trying to wipe his face without letting her know that's what he's doing. He doesn't want to cry in front of a girl.

"Did your thing make you sad?"

[goingtodorking]

"Sometimes it isn't," she says, and she doesn't notice him wiping his face, or, if she does, she doesn't say anything.

"Yes," she says, finally, sniffing. "It did."

[start_a_rumpus]

"I'm sorry," Max mumbles, lightly gripping the delicate paper heart. "I made this for my sister for her birthday but then I got mad at her and smashed it all up. I don't know if she even noticed."