Silence by Rebekah Shimer (summer books TXT) 📕

I said, “Well I’ve got to go.”

She nodded and said icily, “I bet.”

I walked away from her, not even being tempted to look back. I walked out to my car and I almost smiled when I saw Edwyn standing by my car door.

I walked up to him and said when I poked his stomach, “Hey.”

He smiled and said, “Hey. I feel really bad, but can I come over tomorrow instead of tonight? I have some family stuff to do that my mom just told me about. I’ll make tomorrow double extra.”

I smiled and said, “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“All right. I’ll text you later.”

I nodded and he walked over to his car. I got in my car and almost gagged when I saw Emily flirting with Logan. She was almost throwing herself on top of him, which I could tell he was uncomfortable by. I almost got out of my car and screamed at Emily. The guy had just lost the longest relationship he had ever had with his girlfriend, and Emily just saw him as an open, hot guy that was breathing. She sickened me. I drove out of the parking lot and slowly drove back to my house. I grabbed my bag and walked into my house in no rush.

Andrew had gone back to college, but he was going to come back in a couple days for Delilah’s funeral, which meant that the entire house was empty. Most people would’ve been creeped out by the fact that the house was empty except for me and that there was no sound to be heard. I set my bag down and walked into the kitchen. I pulled some grapes out of the fridge and walked into the living room to watch TV. My phone went off and I picked it up to see who it was. Logan was calling me.

I answered as I turned the TV on, “Logan?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“Just watching TV. What’s new with you?”

“Not much. Just bored. Want to hang out tonight?”

“Sure.”

“You can come over here and have supper if you want.”

“Okay. I’ll be over in a few.”

“Okay. See you later.”

“Bye.”

I shut my phone and stared at it for a few seconds. Logan sounded a bit strange on the phone, but I shrugged it off and got off of the couch. I put my jacket on as I noticed that it had started to rain. I ran out to my car and drove over to Logan’s house. I pulled into his driveway and noticed that the front light was already on for me. I pulled my hood up onto my head and dashed to the front steps of his house. I ran underneath the safe cover of his porch roof and rung his doorbell. I could hear someone behind the door before it opened. Logan smiled at me and ushered me inside. I wiped my feet off and took my coat off.

He said, “Thanks for coming. I was really bored. I hope you weren’t doing anything?”

I shook my head and said, “It’s all right. My parents weren’t home so I was just kind of home alone.”

“Well there’s food in the kitchen if you’re hungry.”

I nodded and followed him into his huge kitchen. They had an island in the middle of their kitchen that had food piled onto it. I gaped at how much food was on that island, but Logan just laughed at my expression.

He said, “Take whatever you want.”

I grabbed my plate and started to grab food from the buffet. Logan grabbed a plate and put a couple things on his. I sat down at the table, but Logan just laughed at me.

He said, “We can eat in the living room. We can at least watch TV in there.”

I nodded and carried my plate into the living room, which was twice the size of the kitchen. The living room had an impressive fireplace right underneath the plasma screen and the couches were the really expensive kind that I had only seen in furniture stores, but never in someone’s actual home. We sat down on the couch and Logan turned the plasma screen on. We settled on watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, even though I knew Logan hated the actual show. We watched the show in silence, occasionally commenting on some of the designer’s choices in furniture. When we had finished our food, Logan took my plate into the kitchen and I followed him after I shut the TV off.

He started to wash the dishes and I joined him. We finished our dishes and went up to his room, which was considerably cleaner than the day before. Most of the torn down posters from before were now hanging up on his wall, almost as if they hadn’t moved in the first place. The only poster that was missing was the torn one that I had seen earlier. We sat down on his futon and he turned on his X-Box. I was content with watching him play Call Of Duty, so I turned him down when he handed me the remote controller.

He said as whiny as possible, “Oh come on. Please?”

I shook my head and said, “Trust me. I can’t play this. I would probably end up just killing myself.”

“You would have to either plant a bomb or respawn.”

“Exactly. I’m perfectly happy just watching you play.”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Suit yourself.”

He continued to play, often making sound effects or yelling whenever he shot someone else. I started to laugh as he started to yell at the computerized player for not going to exact way he wanted it to.

He looked at me playfully and said, “Oh you think that’s funny?”

I tried to hold my laughter back and said sarcastically, “Oh no. Not funny at all.”

He shook his head and said, “Whatever.”

He continued to play the game, but my attention started to wander off to the rest of his room. There was just one window, but I could clearly see that it was getting dark outside and I knew that I had to get home sometime soon.

I sighed heavily and said, “Hey. I have to go. My mom will kill me if I miss curfew.”

He paused his game and smiled at me, “Okay. Want me to walk you to your car?”

I shook my head and said, “I think I can manage.”

“See you at school tomorrow.”

“Yeah. See you.”

I walked out of his room and laughed when I heard him yell when I was still on the second floor. I walked out to my car and drove back to my house. I was thoroughly confused, however, when I saw another car in my driveway. I parked next to it and recognized it as Edwyn’s car. I got out of my car slowly, trying to remember if he had said something about coming over. When I realized that he had said that he couldn’t come over tonight, I was even more confused. I walked into my house and smelled turkey, which meant that we were having leftovers. I walked into the living room and saw Edwyn watching TV.

I asked him, “Hey?”

He looked back and smiled at me, “Hey.”

I asked as I sat down next to him, “I thought you said you had family plans?”

He smiled slyly and said, “I got out of it.”

“How?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “A true magician never reveals his tricks.”

I punched him in the shoulder and he pretended like it had immensely hurt him.

My mom came in and said, “Audrey! Stop beating up Edwyn! Oh and supper’s ready.”

Edwyn jumped up and ran into the kitchen, with me following slowly behind. My mom laughed at Edwyn's expression as he sat down at the table.

She said pointedly at me, “At least someone likes my cooking around here.”

I said as I sat down next to Edwyn, “I already ate over at Logan’s house, but I guess I have some room for some of my mom’s famous thanksgiving dinner leftovers.”

We all laughed and got ourselves situated in our chairs. We joined hands and I could tell that Edwyn was a little uncomfortable. His family had never been religious and I could tell that he was only doing it to please my mom.

My mom said quietly, “Father, I thank you for this wonderful day. I thank you that you give us people in our lives to give us guidance and friendship. Thank you for this food and I pray that you will keep everyone safe. Amen.”

Edwyn mumbled, “Amen.”

We let go of each other’s hands and Edwyn immediately started to dish his plate. My mom and I chuckled at Edwyn and he shrugged his shoulders.

He said, “What? I’m hungry and I’m definitely not going to let this food go to waste.”

We all dished our plates and started to eat our food quietly.

After a few seconds of silence, my mom asked, “Edwyn? Do you know what you’re going to do after school?”

He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Hopefully, I can get a scholarship for running track, which might be what I want to do as a professional.”

My mom nodded and I smiled as I bit into another piece of turkey. My mom seemed to approve of Edwyn, beings how he had an actual plan for his future. The fact that we had pretty much grown up together helped too. Edwyn was practically my best guy friend, beings how he would always come over to my house when his parents weren’t over at his. His parents were the kind to give him some money for the night and then go get drunk at a bar. His parents started this when he was just eight. Now, at the age of eighteen, he fully knew how to cook decent meals, how to manage a budget for different food and items, and how to take care of himself.

Edwyn’s humble childhood seemed the change him for the better. He was the most hospitable person that I knew in the entire high school and he also had more mercy than anyone else in this town. If a complete stranger asked him for the shirt off of his back, he would give it without complaint or questions. Sometimes though, people took advantage of his hospitality. They would ask him for stuff, making it seem like they really needed it and he would give it to them, but he never really knew that they were just using him.

If anyone told him that they were, he would just shrug his shoulders and say, “Maybe it will help them become a better person if an example is set for them.”

Edwyn pulled me out of my thoughts, “Isn’t that right?”

I could feel myself turn red when I asked him, “Pardon?”

“Logan seemed better today in school.”

“Oh yeah. He seemed okay when I went over to his house today.”

My mom asked me, “What did you guys do?”

“Logan pretty much just played a video game the whole time.”

“Well that was kind of rude to ignore you.”

“It’s okay. I like watching better anyway. He offered to let me play, but I didn’t want to. I don’t think that I would be able to play at all.”

Edwyn said, obviously amused by my modesty, “I could change that sometime.”

I smiled and said, “Okay. It’s a date.”

He laughed and said, “I’ll mark my calendar.”

I turned back to my mom and asked, “How was your day?”

“Oh you know. Same old, same old. Nothing new.”

I nodded and continued to eat my dinner. The rest of the meal was relatively quiet, with a few comments from Edwyn or my mom about how the day was or the weather. After we were done, Edwyn and I offered to help my mom with the dishes, but she just shooed us into the living room. Edwyn and I sat down on the couch and turned the TV on. After looking through the channels, I finally found a movie that I knew Edwyn liked a lot, which was Zombieland. I never really liked the