Hear No Secrets

Hear No Secrets Chapter 4

Hear No Secrets

Taylor Lautner as Grant

Kristin Kreuk as Chloe  

Chapter 4

“So what’s going on with that new Grant guy?” Mia asked, “We heard you drove him home the other day?”

“It’s no big deal,” I told them, “The principal wanted me to show him around. We’re kind of friends.”

“Kind of friends?” Lana said, “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “We don’t seem to get along very well. We fight… a lot, but he says he needs a friend.”

“So you’re gonna be his friend,” Lana finished.

“Yeah,” I said, “I’m gonna try to be. I just don’t know how to be a very good friend. I’m still getting used to it. Before they were just friends I made who knew my name. They were people to talk to who updated me on everything that was happening here and I didn’t have to try very hard. I didn’t have to do anything as a friend. I’m still trying to learn what being a friend is.”

“Chloe, being a friend is about being yourself,” Mia said, “It shouldn’t be that hard. Talk to each other, find common interests, and do something outside of school and working on projects. Get to know each other. It won’t be so hard after that.”

I smiled, “Thanks guys.”

“No problem,” Mia and Lana both smiled.

                When I walked to my car after school Grant was waiting there. We haven’t talked much since our talk the other day by my car. Maybe I was afraid to talk to him. After all, besides Peter, I’ve never been friends with a guy before.

“Is this going to become a habit?” I asked as I unlocked my car and threw my bag in it.

“One of them went home sick,” he said, “Now the rest of us don’t have rides.”

I sighed, “Well as long as I don’t have to take the rest of them home too.”

“Just me.”

“Good,” I said, “Get in.”

                That’s what started my friendship with Grant. A ride home a few days a week turned into giving him a ride every day. Mia and Lana asked me about him every day, but he was never around when they were. I never saw him talk to anybody else either. When he was around the rest of the Deaf Group he stuck with sign language. I tried to get him to talk around my friends at lunch once in a while, but it never happened.

                The next time I drove him home I finally asked him about it.

“Grant why do you only talk to me?” I asked him.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean,” I said, “I’m the only one you talk to besides using sign language around your other deaf friends. Why won’t you talk to anyone else?”

“I just don’t.”

“They’re scared of you, you know?”

“They are?” he asked.

“Please don’t tell me you haven’t noticed the way no one wants to approach you in school.”

“That happens at every school,” he assured me, “Not just this one.”

“Is that why you put on the tough guy act?”

“Tough guy act?” he sort of asked.

“Yeah, the leather jackets, quiet act, and sitting isolated with your group of friends.”