Silence by Rebekah Shimer (summer books TXT) 📕

She asked me, “What happened to you boy?”

I shook my head, not really being able to form words. All I tried to say came out as blubbering.

She said meanly, “Say what you mean to say boy! I don’t have time for your nonsense talk! I actually have things to do!”

I looked up at her and just shook my head. Her only son was on the floor crying right in front of her and she just says that she has more important things? I stood up and leaned towards her face so we were only inches apart. It was the closest I had ever really been to my mother.

I whispered to her, “You wouldn’t understand. You never do. You have no idea what’s going on in my life and I honestly don’t think that you care about my life or what's going on in it!”

She narrowed her eyes and said, “If I cared, I would’ve gotten you a stuffed teddy bear. Now get out of my way so I can go up to my room for some money.”

I didn’t move, “What do you need the money for?”

She looked everywhere except in my eyes and said, “Things that we need in this house. Food, clothing. That sort of thing.”

I whispered as I walked out the door, “Lies.”

She yelled something back at me, but I slammed the door before I could hear what she had to say about my behavior. I walked over to my car and got in. While I was driving, I let all of my tears out. I didn’t care who saw me. I just let go of everything in my life that was a burden to me. My parents. My house life. The death of my friends. I let it all go, except for the one thing that made my day brighter. Audrey. As I thought her name, her house appeared around the corner and I almost smiled to myself.

I pulled into her driveway and rang the doorbell when I had walked up to her house. She answered the door and gasped at how bad I looked. She quickly covered it though and motioned for me to go inside. I ignored her gesture and just pulled her into a tight hug. She was a little stunned at first, but she melted after a few seconds of awkwardly hugging.

She asked me after we let our arms drop, “What happened?”

I explained carefully, “Logan . . . he-he’s missing. His mom said that he never came home from school yesterday and no one’s seen him since. They’re having a huge search party go out today and look for him.”

“What does that mean?”

I shook my head and said, “I don’t know. I don’t want to think the worst, but it’s Logan. He never does something like this. He wouldn’t just leave without telling anyone.”

“Shhhh. You said they were sending people out to look for him. I’m sure he’ll turn up. Trust me.”

I nodded and tried to convince myself, “Yeah. Yeah you’re right. He’ll turn up later today and it’ll be like nothing happened.”

She brought me into the living room and asked as we sat down on the couch, “Edwyn what’s gotten into you? Not even a week ago you and Logan were fighting. Now, your worried sick about him. What’s going on?”

I sighed heavily and sank back into the couch, “I asked him to come over for lunch yesterday.”

“Why?”

“You need him.”

“But Edwyn I have-“

I smiled and said, “I know I know, but admit it Audrey. We were both a little depressed without him around to cheer us up.”

I knew that she would’ve said that she had me and she didn’t need Logan around, but I knew her better. We actually both kind of needed him for a little comic relief. I was just glad she wasn’t arguing the point. She nodded and I wiped my eyes off. I looked around her house and pretended like I was getting really awkward. I mainly did it just to make her laugh and make the moment lighter.

She laughed and asked me as she went into the kitchen, “Want anything? Milk? Water?”

I said loudly, “I don’t know. I'm just going to look in your fridge and take whatever I find.”

She laughed and I got up. I walked into the kitchen slowly, only to find her trying to make something from what she had just pulled from the fridge. I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist, mostly just to see what she would’ve done. She smiled, which surprised me.

I asked her slowly, “Whatcha making?”

“I’m making . . . something. I don’t really know what it’s going to be yet but when I find out I’ll tell you.”

I laughed as I sat down in one of the chairs.

She asked me while making some eggs, “Did you get some footage of you running yet?”

“Not yet really. I have to be running at a meet in order to really show them what I run like. If they like it, they’ll show up to one of my practices where I can show them how fast I can run different things.”

She turned around and said, “Cool. At least you know what you want to do with your life. I have no clue as to what I’m going to do when I go to college.”

I laughed and said jokingly, “You’ll figure it out. Look at me. If I can figure it out, anyone can.”

She laughed without humor and said, “You were running before you could even walk! It’s not that hard of a decision for you.”

“True. Maybe I can get some college scouts to watch you run.”

She playfully glared at me and threw a piece of an eggshell at me. I grabbed it out of the air and threw it into the kitchen sink, which was what I was hoping for so I would be able to impress her.

She said quietly, “And he can play basketball.”

I asked her humorously, “What was that?”

She turned around and said, “I said you can say basketball.”

I asked her with challenge in my voice, “Are you sure that’s what you said?”

She nodded her head and I think she thought I was going to hurt her or something.

I laughed while I walked over to her and said, “You know what? We haven’t even really had our first date yet. I mean, we tried to but it kind of ended in a fight.”

She smiled and asked, “Are you free today?”

“I think I can clear up my schedule.”

She looked like she was about to say something, but the doorbell rang before she was able to say anything. I laughed quietly as she walked to the door. I couldn’t really tell who it was at first because she was talking so quietly, but I figured out who it was after a while.

I heard the familiar voice of Bruce say, “They found Logan.”

Audrey practically screamed, “What!”

“They found Logan.”

I ran into the foyer of the house and asked Bruce, “Where was he? Where is he?”

Bruce took a deep breath and said, “That’s just it. They found him in Lake Titan. This time, they know that someone has definitely murdered him.”

Audrey asked hesitantly, “How?”

“He was stabbed in both sides.”

How did Bruce know so much about Logan’s death already?

I asked him suspiciously, “How do you know all of this?”

“My house is right next to Lake Titan. I woke up and there were a bunch of police cars all over my block. It was pretty intense this morning.”

I looked over at Audrey and saw that she was blocking things out. She usually did that when she wasn’t trying to think. I could see the tears start to form in her eyes, so I started to shut the door on Bruce. I knew that I would just apologize and explain to him later, so I didn’t really feel all that bad for doing that to him.

I said while shutting the door on him, “We’ll talk to you later Bruce. This really isn’t a good time for either of us right now.”

I shut the door fully and sighed heavily. I looked back over at Audrey and saw that tears were pouring down her face. I rushed over to her and wiped the tears from her eyes. I pulled her into me and held her tightly. We only stood like that for a couple minutes, but it felt like hours to me. I started to smell something burning, so I looked around to see what it was. Audrey did the same and realized that something in the kitchen was burning. She raced into the kitchen and I followed her. She was trying to fan away the smoke, but I knew that she would probably just hurt herself. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her behind me.

I grabbed the pan and threw it into the sink roughly. I turned the water on, but that just made it smoke even more. I tried to fan away the smoke like Audrey had been doing, but I had ended up just making things worse. Audrey turned the kitchen fan on and we both retreated into the living room. I didn’t try to talk, beings how there really wasn’t anything to say. What were we supposed to say? ‘Oh it’s a really shame he had to go and be killed. Just after we had all become friends again. It’s a real darn shame’. I didn’t know what else to do, so I turned the TV on, hoping that it would fill the silent void with noise. I turned it to a game show that my grandparents used to watch whenever I was over at their house, but Audrey didn’t seem too interested.

She asked me quietly, “What are we going to do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well we can’t just let this killer go around town killing people at random? Are we just going to sit and hope that we don’t get killed next?”

“Audrey. It’s not like we can do anything. This killer is obviously too clever to get caught by the police, so why wouldn’t the person be too clever for us too?”

She sighed heavily and said, “I know I know. All I’m saying is that I just can't sit around here waiting for something else to happen. I need to know that this isn’t going to happen again. I don’t think I could take it again.”

Her voice broke at the end and I could tell that she was about to cry. I knew that I had to make her feel safer than what she was feeling.

I said sternly, “This isn’t going to happen again. They’re going to catch this killer and do whoever it is some justice. Trust me. You don’t need to be afraid Audrey. This killer will not even touch you. I will make sure of that.”

Audrey

I could tell that he was trying to make me feel safer, but it wasn’t really working. I nodded uneasily and he sighed heavily.

He said, “You know what you need? You need a day off. Let’s go somewhere out of town. We can go to another town if you want. I’ll drive.”

He clasped his hands together and got down on