Skott - Once In A While -

Then, "once in a while," the atmosphere shifted. It usually happened when he was with her. They would be standing in a field at sunset, or perhaps leaning against a cold brick wall, and for a fleeting second, the "clouds would disperse".

He felt as though he’d skipped a beat or "fallen between the lines" of a life everyone else seemed to understand. To the world, he was a "freak" or at least an outsider, but he chose to stay a "fool" for the few things that still felt real. He stopped trying to figure out what he was "supposed to do" and decided, for once, that being exactly where he was was okay. The Dispersing Clouds Skott - Once in a While

He realized then that life wasn't perfect, and neither was he, but everything could be "perfect, once in a while". Then, "once in a while," the atmosphere shifted

In those moments, the "sun" would actually break through. It wasn't a permanent fix—happiness was fickle and intimate—but when they smiled, they "smiled together," and the crushing pressure of the everyday dissolved into a singular moment of harmony. For a few heartbeats, the struggle with identity and the "boxes" he put himself in didn't matter. He felt as though he’d skipped a beat

Elias spent most of his days "in a box"—a metaphorical one he’d built out of routine and quiet expectations. He lived in the gray space between feeling "dead and alive," moving through a world that felt like a series of red and brown leaves hanging on to a letdown. He often wondered if he was even supposed to "dream just a little dream" when the weight of the world felt like it was coming down so hard. The Falling Lines