Silence by Rebekah Shimer (summer books TXT) 📕

I still remembered when she first brought the idea up; I thought she was completely crazy. We were in the fifth grade, so I thought that graduation was still a lifetime away. I slowly walked over to my door and unlocked it. I heard the little click of the lock being unlocked, but it sounded deafening to me. I opened the door and saw that Andrew was waiting in the living room. He looked up at me when I walked out and I knew that he wanted to talk to me about Delilah. I sat down next to him and we sat quietly for a minute before he turned towards me.

He asked me, “How are you?”

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly.

He said gently, “You know you’re going to have to go over to her house sometime this week right?”

I nodded again and he said, “Please say something.”

I said quietly, “I’m okay. I looked at our scrapbook.”

He faintly smiled at the thought of the pictures, “Really?”

I nodded again and said, “Mom said that I need to make this a positive thing in my life, but I don’t really know how. What am I supposed to do?”

“Maybe you could go over to her house and talk to her parents. Give them some closure.”

“I know I know. I’m planning on going sometime later next week after they’ve had some time alone. What else though? I feel useless right now.”

“I don’t know. Maybe you could visit Logan. You know him right?”

I nodded and thought about it. Logan hadn’t seen anyone since Delilah was first taken, but maybe he would make an exception to his girlfriend’s best friend.

I nodded quietly and said, “I’ll visit him tomorrow.”

“You have school tomorrow though.”

I silently glared at him for reminding me.

He smiled and said, “Hey. You had to know sometime. I seriously doubt he’s going to school or football practice, so maybe you could go to his house after school.”

I nodded and said, “Yeah. I’ll drive over there after school. Maybe he needs a pick-me-up anyway.”

Andrew nodded and put his arm around my shoulder.

He said, “It’s going to be okay. Trust me.”

I nodded, almost feeling hope at his words. I looked outside and saw that a lot of cars were driving by every few seconds.

I asked Andrew, “What’s going on outside?”

He looked outside and said, “Hmm. I don’t know.”

I got up and looked out of the window. I looked down the road and saw that all of the cars that were driving by would stop just outside Delilah's parent’s house. People would get out, carrying a tray of some kind of food, and would walk up to the front door. I was almost surprised that Mark and Lindy were the ones that answered the door. They would smile, or at least try to smile, and take the food gratefully. I noticed, however, that they didn’t invite anyone who brought food in their house. They would say goodbye and almost slam the door in the face of the person who brought the food.

One lady’s face was particularly funny as she backed away from the house slowly. Her mouth was down to the ground and I could see that her shock quickly turned to rage. She stomped back to her car and slammed the car door as she got in. she turned her car on and drove away furiously. I chuckled quietly and shut the shades back over the window. I walked back into the kitchen and saw that mom had left some of her delicious pancakes on the counter for me, knowing that I would get hungry and want to eat later.

I pulled the saran wrap off of the plate and put the pancakes in the microwave to warm them up. I waited for the microwave to stop heating my food, but something outside caught my interest completely. I looked out the window, only to see that three police officers were standing on the porch of Delilah’s house. They were talking to Mark and Lindy, who looked like they were about to burst. From anger or sorrow, I couldn’t tell. They both became red in the face, but one of the police officers blocked the view from me to see their full reaction.

I kept looking out of the window, even though my pancakes were already losing the heat from the microwave. The police officers waved goodbye to Mark and Lindy, who were almost in hysteria. I could see after the police officer moved that Mark was almost purple from rage and Lindy was trying to control herself from bursting into tears. The police officers drove off after a few seconds and I looked back at Mark and Lindy. I could almost read Mark’s lips as he was talking to his wife, but a few words were a bit fuzzy. I finally made out what he was saying though, and what he was saying terrified me.

He said, “Don’t worry. We’ll find whoever killed our daughter. If it’s the last thing I’m going to do.”

Logan

I couldn’t believe that she was gone. Just like that. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her. The last time that I saw her, she was wearing a light blue blouse with a band’s name on it. She was wearing her favorite pair of black skinny jeans that I thought she looked pretty good in. Tears started to roll down my face when I thought of our last conversation.

I asked her as she stood up from my couch, “What’s wrong?”

She crossed her arms and I knew that she was going to talk about something serious. I stood up too, showing her that she had my full attention.

She said, “I just think that we’re going a little fast, don’t you?”

I gave her a confused look and said, “We were just watching a movie Delilah. What’s wrong with that?”

She looked at me and said, “I just think that we might need a little space. Just for a little while.”

“What? You’re going to break up with me just because we were watching a movie?”

She didn’t even look like she was going to cry.

She said as she stormed out of the living room, “I just need some time.”

I gaped at her as she left. Was she serious? I followed her to the door, but she slammed it right as I reached my hand out to her. I opened it again and saw that she was running through the rain to her car. I ran out into the pouring rain and followed her to her car. She heard me running after her, but she turned around. I didn’t care if she wanted to break up. I was going to fight for her with all of my heart. She was about to say something, but I cut her off by kissing her. She seemed surprised at first, but she didn’t ever kiss me back.

I backed away after a few seconds. I gaped at her as I realized that I didn’t feel anything when I kissed her. There wasn’t any emotion that sparked between us. I let my hands fall to my sides and she just gave me a blank expression. We knew that this was the end, but why didn’t I fight for her more? What was wrong with me? How could I have just let her walk away from my house that night? That same night that she was taken. Would she still be here if I had fought for her?

I ran my hand through my hair for the fifth time that same minute. I looked up at my ceiling, but I closed my eyes after a minute or so. Why didn’t I fight for her? I was about to break down again, but I heard someone coming up the stairs to my room. Since my room was the only one on the third floor, I knew that someone was coming to see me.

I heard my mom’s voice on the other side of the door, “Honey? Are you going to school?”

Oh yeah. That was today.

I said weakly, “No.”

“Okay…do you want to talk?”

“No.”

I knew that she would feel hurt, but at that moment, I didn’t really care. I didn’t want to face all of the guys today. None of them understood. I had gotten a ton of texts from them saying that she was just a girl and there were plenty of fish in the sea or something like that. I hadn’t even looked at my phone for a couple days, not really wanting to see how many people were trying to consol me. I heard my mom go back down the stairs and I sat up on my futon.

I looked around my room, not really knowing what to do. I looked at all of my black walls that were covered in posters of bands. My eyes rested on the Silverline poster that Delilah loved the most. I felt my eyes mist over, so I moved my vision to the rest of my room. My plasma screen was collecting a layer of dust, along with the X-Box that was connected to it. I looked over at my desk and saw that all the food that was piled on top of it hadn’t even been touched since a week ago.

I took a deep breath and made my way over to the plasma screen. I looked through the different games that would occupy my time, but none of them jumped out at me. I didn’t feel like playing games, but I eventually just closed my eyes and picked one. I pulled out Call Of Duty and put it into the X-Box. I started to play it, not really being amused by killing things. I heard a soft knock on my door, but I didn’t answer. I heard it open, but I still didn’t turn around.

My mom’s soft voice said slowly, “Logan?”

I say unemotionally, “What?”

“I need to talk to you.”

I let out a deep sigh and paused the game. I got up and looked at my mom. She was wearing her usual business clothes, with her light brown hair pulled back into a tight bun. Her usual soft brown eyes were red and puffy.

I asked her cautiously, “What?”

“Its Delilah.”

My attention was suddenly all on my mom, “Did they find her?”

My mom nodded, but she didn’t smile. I could see that she wasn’t telling me everything.

I asked her, “Where did they find her?”

“In Lake Titan.”

I gaped at her.

I asked her, “Delilah drowned?”

“Her parents say that she was found with a cracked skull and she had bruises and scratch marks on her arms. Logan, the police believe that Delilah was murdered.”