once upon a time, say say didn't think she could achieve such pure, unfiltered happiness. stuck in her delusions that she was unlovable, consumed by her grief with losing custody of tulip and reliving the phone call informing her of the death of tulip's father, she had naturally assumed things would stay like that forever. then came marisol, who single-handedly delivered her from her sorrow, and for eternity, say say would remain indebted to her. of course, marisol didn't feel like there was a debt to be paidβanother admirable trait of hers that say say marveled at daily. but she kept her busy on days where she was plunged in the depths of her rotting mind, and while once she had sworn she would never put her through that again, she knew that if she had to, marisol would remain steadfast. it seemed that, although summer was her favorite time of year, say say's auditory and visual hallucinations, these conniving beasts, had extensive plans on attempting to wreck her life all over again. admittedly, she had withdrawn a bit from society; she hadn't seen her family for weeks before the rodeo, was beginning to cower in the form of disappearing into her work which was antisocial by nature, and oftentimes had trouble forcing herself out of bed when she knew what awaited her when she woke. marisol and tulip anchored her, however, and made her feel like she could survive this so long as she had their presence in her life. whenever marisol revealed the flower, say say gasped a little, a blush encompassing her grinning face. "it's beautiful. thank you," she said, reaching up to brush her fingertips over the soft petals. "no wayβyou know there's no escaping a gift from me. it's inevitable. accept your fate," she laughed blithely as she reached out with both arms to wrap around marisol's middle, pressing her in close. "i was thinking... once we leave here, maybe a movie night at home? just us and our girl. i think she'll be tuckered out after all this, and she absolutely loves falling asleep to never ending story."
