Silence by Rebekah Shimer (summer books TXT) 📕

grasp, but he was persistent. He jumped in front of me, which blocked my path to the front door. I glared at him, but I really didn’t want to fight with Logan on my girlfriend’s front lawn while we were having our first date. Something about that just didn’t seem right.

I said firmly, “You aren’t going to ruin a perfectly good relationship of mine again. Please move.”

He laughed and said, “Oh Edwyn. Always so polite.”

I gritted my teeth and said as nicely as I could, “Thanks. I try.”

Logan seemed angered by my response though and I could tell that he was about to throw a punch. To my surprise, he grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back, making me completely stationary. I almost cried out in pain, but I constrained caught it before it escaped my lips.

Logan said, “You give up this relationship Edwyn! It’s not meant to be.”

I said roughly, “Let me guess. You think Audrey and you are destined to be together.”

I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “You said it not me.”

I clenched my teeth even more and I knew that Audrey would hate me for fighting with Logan. We were her best friends and I knew that she would hate to be in the middle of this argument, but he was making threats against the only thing in my life that was actually right. God knows my family wasn’t even close to an actual family. I bent back around and caught Logan off guard. My hands formed into fists and I sent one flying towards Logan’s face. I definitely knew that Audrey would’ve been mad when I felt my hand connect with Logan’s jawbone. Logan took a few steps back, obviously taken back by the fact that I had actually hit him.

I usually never fought with anyone, let alone my actual friends, unless it was something that I truly did believe in. Logan recovered quickly though and came back towards me. I brought my fists up to my face and readied myself for the blow that would come from Logan. I felt Logan tackle me and we both fell to the ground. We rolled around for a few seconds before Logan finally pinned me down to the ground. He held my hands down to the ground and straddled me, making it impossible to kick him or punch him.

He brought his fist up and connected it with my face before I was even able to make a move. I felt the blow from his fist and I didn’t feel the pain at first, but then my cheek lost the numbness that had come from the beginning of the blow. Logan raised his fist and punched me again. This happened over and over until blood was running down my face from my split lip, bloody nose, and a cut that he had somehow made on my cheek. Logan raised his hand for another blow, but something stopped him. I tried to open my eyes, but blood had run into them, making it impossible to see anyways.

I heard Audrey scream, “No!”

Indifference

Audrey

 

I opened the door and I knew that I had made a mistake. I should've never come out into the lawn. I saw Logan on top of Edwyn, who looked like he was about to pass out. There was blood covering Edwyn’s face and I saw Logan raise his fist again.

I screamed out, “No!”

Logan stopped and looked at me with pure terror in his eyes.

He said quickly, “Audrey. You weren’t-“

“Logan! Get off of him!”

Logan quickly scrambled off of Edwyn and stood up to face me. I bent down to help Edwyn up, but Logan grabbed my wrists before I could reach Edwyn.

Logan said quietly, “Please. Let me explain.”

I glared at him when I said, “I think you’ve done enough.”

He let his hands drop from my wrists and I knew that our friendship was over. There was no way I would be able to forgive him for doing what he did to Edwyn. Edwyn. I looked down and saw that he was just starting to slowly get up. I bent down and helped him up slowly, making sure that he didn’t get dizzy from standing up. I put his arm around my shoulder and helped him back into my house. I looked back just in time to see Logan speeding away in his car. I sighed heavily as I carried Edwyn into the bathroom to wash his face off. I pulled a box of bandages and disinfectant out of the cabinet and I saw Edwyn make a face at the first aid kit.

He said slowly, “I’m fine.”

I gave him a look and he knew that I wasn’t going to let him go home looking like this. He sat quietly as I got the disinfectant ready. When I turned to him, I realized that I would have to ruin one of our good towels in order to wipe off all of the blood that had already run onto his face and shirt. I smiled to myself when I realized that Andrew would have to lend Edwyn some of his clothes, but Andrew didn’t have to know that. I grabbed one of the towels out of the cabinet and started to wipe Edwyn’s face off with it, afraid that if I pressed too hard, it would hurt him.

I didn’t know how nurses always were able to do that on a day-to-day basis, since I was almost gagging at the amount of blood that was on his face, with more coming from his open wounds. After I had gotten most of the blood off of his face, I poured some disinfectant on a clean towel and started to dab his wounds with it. I heard him occasionally hiss at the effect of the disinfectant, which made me want to stop even more than normally. After I had only cleaned two of his cuts, with three more to go, I huffed in frustration and he smiled apologetically at me.

I asked him, “Are you okay?”

He nodded and said, “It’s better to get it done sooner rather than later.”

I nodded and took a deep breath. I poured some more disinfectant on the towel and started back on the unclean wounds.

I asked him as I cleaned his wounds, “What were you and Logan fighting about?”

He sighed heavily and said, “Nothing.”

“It was obviously something if he was punching you.”

“How much did you see?”

“I just saw Logan hitting you, so I yelled at him to stop.”

He nodded and said slowly, “Logan’s getting . . . protective over his friends. I think that he’s a little on the safe side from Delilah so I wouldn’t really think anything of it.”

I nodded, not really wanting to argue with him while he was in this state. I finished cleaning his face and got some of the bandages ready. I was only going to put a quick bandage on his cheek, which was the only one that I would actually be able to bandage normally. I grabbed a square bandage and used some medical tape to attach it to his face. He smiled at me while I was putting the bandage on my face and I gave him a confused look.

I asked him as I finished taping it to his face, “What?”

“Nothing. Just nothing.”

I shook my head and smiled as I put the last piece of tape on the bandage. I clapped my hands together and started to put the first aid things together.

I said, “I can get you a change of clothes from Andrew’s closet.”

He nodded and said, “Yeah. I probably don’t want to get blood on the seat in my car. My mom might ask questions.”

I laughed and said, “Along with the police.”

He laughed with me and I walked out of the bathroom. I walked to Andrew's room and walked over to his closet. I looked through his clothes for a few seconds before I found a shirt that would fit Edwyn. I didn’t really notice if Edwyn’s pants were also covered in blood, so I grabbed a pair of athletic shorts out of one of Andrew’s drawers. I walked back into the bathroom, only to find that Edwyn had moved into the living room. He wasn’t sitting on the couch, which I was glad for since my mom would’ve freaked if she had known that he had sat on the couch with blood on his clothes. He was looking at the pictures that were on our mantle, often faintly smiling at the pictures.

I said while holding the clothes up, “Here you go. I hope they fit.”

He turned sharply towards me, almost as if he were startled by me. I threw the clothes over to him as he walked into the bathroom to get changed. As the door closed, I walked over to the mantle and saw the picture that he was looking at. It was the one of Andrew and me as little kids. We were covered in mud from head to toe, and the only distinction that would hint at the fact that it was children underneath all of the mud were our eyes and teeth. I smiled at the memory of when the picture was taken.

 

It had been raining all day. Andrew and me were quietly sitting at a window, praying that the rain would stop falling so we could’ve gone outside and played.

Andrew asked mom for the fifth time, “Mom? Can we go outside?”

My mom sighed heavily and I could tell that she was about to reach her boiling point.

She said slowly, “No dear. It’s raining and I don’t want you to get all dirty before supper.”

Andrew sighed and put his head in his hands. I sat quietly, not really knowing if I wanted to say something and risk getting in trouble or not.

I said quietly, “We could go up to the attic Andrew.”

He nodded slowly, almost looking like he was going to cry. We walked to the hallway that had the ladder that would lead us up to the attic. Andrew pulled down on the string like usual and we climbed up into the attic. We started to play pirates, figuring that the pounding sound of the rain would make the ship feel real. After a few hours of playing, we were finally reached the decision that the fluffy teddy bear, Mr. Cuddles, would have to walk the plank in order for this ship to survive. I was about to give the order for Andrew to throw Mr. Cuddles overboard, but then I realized that the rain had stopped.

Andrew whispered to me, “This is your part. Tell him to walk the plank!”

“Andrew! Do you hear that?”

He listened for a minute and said, “I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly!”

I stormed down the ladder, almost falling in the process, and ran to the living room window. The rain had stopped, leaving mud puddles in the street and streams flowing down the curbs of the streets. Andrew’s face lit up when he finally realized that we were able to go outside. We threw the front door open and ran straight into the puddles on the lawn. We splashed each other with the water until we were both soaked. We were rolling in the mud, laughing until we