Abused, Mute, and Human

Chapter 10

(edited)

Conlan's P.O.V

"Something is wrong! Go help mate!" Ryan growled at me.

"Alright, alright! I'm going, I'm going!"

"Hey guys, I'll see you at lunch," they nodded off to me and continued with their conversation. I ran to her, quickly catching up with her slow pace.

"Amanda!" I yelled out to her. "Amanda! I know you can hear me,"

I'm starting to feel a sense of deja vu. After about a minute, I finally caught up to her and cut off her path. My hands grabbed her shoulders lightly, bringing her to a stop. What I saw before me wasn't what I was expecting.

Amanda had several more bruises on her face then when I left her house. Her cut lip was even deeper with fresh blood that she was licking up each second to try to stop the flow of liquid. There was a straight line across her cheek bone that looked like a mark made from a hand with a ring on it.

"Who did this to you?" I asked, doing my best to control my anger. It helped that I currently was in contact with her, but I was still raging.

Amanda was avoiding my eyes in every way possible, which didn't help with my current temper problem. Wherever her eyes went, I attempted to put my head there so she would look at me. It nearly worked before Amanda stubbornly closed her eyes.

"Please," I pleaded. "I want to help you,"

Nothing.

This was getting on my last nerve. Then an idea appeared in my mind.

I let my arms fall from her shoulders, straightened up and walked to my next class. For the next couple periods, I acted like Amanda never existed. "How?" you might ask. It was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do, but I just imagined that she did something absolutely terrible to me.

The temptation to look at her was truly unbearable, but every time I got the urge to look, I pinched my wrist with a slightly extended claw. There were some blood shed and lightheadedness, but I knew it was all worth it. I hoped she got the message, which was "unless you 'talk' to me, I won't talk to you". If only ignoring her was easy.

Amanda's P.O.V

I'm currently feeling very conflicted. All day Conlan has been ignoring me, excuse me if I'm just imagining this, in every way possible. I don't know if I'm acting above myself, but he hasn't looked, touched or talked to me once since the confrontation this morning. If he thinks I'm going to "break" and confess all of my problems, then he's got another thing coming. I don't give up that easy.

"Homework tonight is to continue and hopefully finish the project. Remember, it's due Monday. So you guys have 3 more days to finish this. I want to be amazed by these posters. AMAZED!"

*ring* I got up from my seat to make my way to the door. On my way there, Conlan ended up next to me. Since everyone in the class was trying to get out at the same time, I was bumped into him; feeling those familiar sparks. Apparently, though, the feeling wasn't mutual because he jumped back like I had burned him. I'm not going to lie; that did hurt my self-esteem a little.

My head was shoved down as I quickened my pace out of the classroom. What was with this sudden change of attitude? Not even a day ago we were laughing and making fun of Mrs. Hanagan and how she sometimes snores, while were working on handouts. Now he can't even be in a 20-mile radius without wearing a look of disgust directed towards me.

Maybe this is for the best. Now that's one less person to worry about in figuring out my secrets. Why am I so hung up on him? I don't even like Conlan...do I? I've never liked a guy before so I wouldn't know. Ugh, why is life so confusing? Why can't I be a normal teenager who talks, has friends and doesn't have to worry about hiding these big secrets from the world?