Silence by Rebekah Shimer (summer books TXT) 📕

I started to eat my supper and nodded in approval when I bit down into the turkey. It was definitely the best thanksgiving meal that my mom had prepared for us in a long time. I looked over at my mom, but she wasn’t really eating. She glanced up after a few seconds of just staring at her food blankly and noticed that I was looking at her. She quickly smiled and started to salt her turkey. I brushed it off and noted to myself that I would ask her later why she was so out of it. Even though Andrew had gotten a huge pile of food on his plate, he was the one who was done first and getting seconds before I was even done with mine.

I looked at him incredulously and he asked, “What?”

“How you manage to wolf down that much food is a mystery to me.”

He laughed and said while getting more sweet potatoes, “It’s a hidden talent of mine that I don’t like to show off all the time.”

I nodded sarcastically at him and he shrugged his shoulders. After we had all finished our dinner, I helped my mom clean up the kitchen.

As we were doing dishes together, with her rinsing and me drying, I asked her, “Mom? Why were you acting all sad before you started eating?”

“You noticed that did you? Oh well. I was just thinking of what Mark and Lindy must be going through right now. I can’t imagine losing either of you kids and I don’t know how Mark and Lindy are doing it. I can’t even think about losing you guys.”

I hugged my mom and she hugged me back tightly. I didn’t really feel the water running down my back at that moment. I didn’t really care. My mom had just said something that I had been waiting to hear my entire childhood. I know that she felt that way, but I just wanted to hear it from her own lips. We broke from our hug and finished the dishes soon after. I said goodnight to my mom and walked upstairs. I got ready for bed and set my alarm. I laid down in my bed that night thinking about what my mom had said. I went to sleep that night thinking that this experience actually had a positive effect on my mom, which had made my night a little better.

When I woke up, nothing felt wrong or out of place. Everything felt right, but that was before I stepped out of my house. I had gotten up earlier than normal so I would make it to school early to work on homework before the bell. When I walked out of my house to go to school, the entire town seemed to have a dark hue surrounding it, preventing any ray of happiness to be sucked down by all of the darkness. I drove to school slowly and by the time that I had arrived, my mood had turned for the worse. I got out of my car slowly looked around. I recognized the back of Edwyn’s jacket as he was sitting on a bench that was facing the track, so I decided to go meet him over there.

When I walked over to him I said, “You know, only nerds come to school early.”

He turned around, startled that I had appeared so suddenly. He calmed down after he had seen that it was I and made room for me on the bench. I sat down and tried to ignore the fact that the bench was a little wet from the dew.

He asked, “How did you sleep last night?”

“Fine. We had some of my mom’s thanksgiving dinner so it put me right to sleep.”

He moaned and said, “I love your mom’s thanksgiving dinner.”

“Okay fine. Next time we have it, I’ll invite you over.”

He smiled, but he seemed distracted by something else.

He looked back over at the track and I asked him, “How’s track going?”

He shrugged and said, “Coach said that I need to get some film of me running. I need to start sending them off to colleges.”

“What college are you wanting to go to?”

“I don’t really know. I don’t want one too far away.”

“Why? So you can see my shining face every weekend?”

I laughed, but he didn’t really show any sign that he was amused.

I asked him, “What’s wrong?”

He said slowly, “Have you ever had a gut feeling, but you didn’t know if it was real or not?”

“I don’t understand-“

“I like you Audrey. A lot. I don’t just want to be your friend. I want us to be something more.”

He didn’t look at me as he said this, almost as if he were afraid I would slap him or something. I took his chin in my hand and turned his head so he faced me.

I asked him, “Do you really feel that about me?”

He nodded and looked me in the eyes.

He asked, “Audrey? Will you go see a movie with me or something?”

I knew that I had always like Edwyn, so I slowly started to nod my head yes.

He asked me hesitantly, “You aren’t just saying this so I don’t feel bad are you?”

I shook my head and smiled. Only he would think that I would go out with him just to not hurt his feelings.

He smiled and asked, “So why are you here so early?”

“I was planning on getting some homework done, but I don’t think I’ll be able to concentrate now.”

He smiled and said, “I seem to have that effect on people.”

I punched him in the shoulder and he pretended like it was a full on punch. I rolled my eyes at him and pulled my English book out of my bag.

He made a face at it and I said, “I know. I know. I really have to get this done though.”

He laughed and said, “Allow me.”

As it turned out, Edwyn was a genius when it came to English, so I got done in record time, with him helping me of course. I shut my book when we were done and put it back in my bag. As I turned around to put it in my bag, I noticed that a lot more people had shown up, which meant that it was probably almost time for class.

I asked, “What time is it?”

He pulled out his iPod and said, “Seven fifty-two.”

I groaned and said, “We’d better get inside.”

He nodded and we both got off of the bench. I felt the bottom of my jeans and grimaced when I felt that the butt of my jeans were a little wet.

Edwyn laughed at my face and said, “You can't really tell with your jeans since they’re black.”

I nodded and we both walked into school.

He walked me to my locker and asked, “Are you doing anything tonight?”

I searched through my mental schedule and smiled when I realized that I had nothing going on, “Nope.”

“Can I come over to your house?”

I nodded and he smiled.

The bell rang and he said as he walked away, “See you at lunch.”

I smiled and walked to my first class. The morning passed as a complete blur and I found myself walking to lunch.

I heard someone behind me say, “And I heard that now they’re dating. Can you believe it? The tallest, hottest athletic star and the short, wimpy girl who can't even play a sport in P.E. to save her life.”

I knew who the voice belonged to without even turning around. Emily Wale. The girl who thought it was fun to turn my life into a living hell. I ignored her comment and continued to walk.

Emily continued, “I bet they don’t even last a week, unlike my Bruce and me. We’ve been together for two months now. I don’t ever see us breaking up.”

This Bruce guy must've had a lot of patience. I don’t know who, in their right mind, would go out with Emily. She’s just the school bully who has no respect for anyone else’s feelings or belongings for that matter. I walked into the cafeteria, and I could tell that Edwyn knew I was mad at something. He gave me a confused look and I shook my head at him nonchalantly. He turned back around and started to talk to Logan about something. I looked over at Logan and he actually smiled at me. I was actually still kind of surprised that he had come to school, what with how his room was looking when Edwyn and I went over there.

I got my food and walked over to our usual table. I sat down next to Edwyn and tried to push Emily's venomous words out of my thoughts. Edwyn and Logan were talking about some football that happened last night, so I immediately became part of the conversation. Despite popular belief, I actually did know something about sports. I knew the rules and scoring of football and I even knew a lot of the teams. Emily just didn’t know what she was talking about. I can play sports! How does she know that I can’t play sports anyway? She was never in a P.E. class with me when I was in it. Sure I haven’t been in it since last year but still. That didn’t mean that I was completely in the dark when it came to sports!

Edwyn asked, “Are you okay?”

I said with a little more force than necessary, “Yes.”

He raised his eyebrows and said, “Really? You expect me to believe that?”

“It’s nothing. Really.”

Logan asked, “Are you sure?”

I nodded my head and they both knew to drop the subject. They started to talk again about their weekend plans. The bell rang and I slowly got up, not really wanting to go to my choir class. I knew that Emily was a new member to our choir class, which I wasn’t thrilled about even before I heard her saying bad things about Edwyn and me. I walked in and she immediately honed her eyes on me. She leaned over and whispered something to someone next to her and they both looked at me. The other person started to giggle, but they looked away when they realized that I was looking at them. I had a feeling that it was going to be an interesting week.

Audrey

The rest of the day passed with distant looks from the popular kids and the only nice looks I had were from Logan and Edwyn. The only thought that lightened my day was that Edwyn was going to come over that night. I was almost giddy from that thought, but of course, Emily had to ruin my good mood. She walked up to me in my last class of the day, with not even five minutes left of the class.

She asked me, “So what’s new?”

I shrugged my shoulders and said politely, “Not much.”

She asked, “Really? I heard you and Edwyn were dating.”

I nodded and she said, “You don’t count that as much?”

“Well I guess it won't really change much. We’ve been close friends since we were little, so it’s not like our relationship is going to get any deeper.”

She looked me over and said, “Interesting. Very interesting.”

I