The Silence She Speaks✔

Thirty-Mason

"No!" I yelled, cutting my brother off. "She's dead, Devin! Quinn's an orphan! She never even got to say goodbye! She never got any closure! She's so hurt, Devin, and I can't do anything to help!"

"Mason," he whispered, trailing off. "Mason, bud, come here." Devin got off of me and stood up with his arms open to me. "Come here, lil' brother." I stood up, only to collapse into his arms and sob.

"It hurts!" I wailed. "Make it stop hurting, Devin! Please!"

Devin shushed me and hugged me tighter, rubbing my back in soothing circles. "It's gonna be okay, Mace. I've got you, it's okay."

"But Quinn won't be," I argued weakly. "She's so hurt, and I can't do anything for her."

"Yeah you can, Mason. We all can. We're her big brothers, there's plenty we can do to help." Devin pulled away and held my shoulders, giving me a determined look. "We'll be there for her through it all."

"She doesn't want us to be. She says that she wished she never came here," I sniffled. "Did we really do that bad of a job? Are we that bad of brothers that she doesn't love us anymore."

"No, Mason. There's stages to this kind of thing. I kind of remember it from health class. The first stage is...it's denial! Yeah, that's it. She's denying stuff and saying things she doesn't mean. Just give her time, bud. Now let's go get your hand cleaned up, since I'm sure you being hurt won't help the situation."

I nodded and followed Devin upstairs. He ran cold water over my knuckles while grabbing the first-aid kit and cleaning my hand. We were both pretty much silent as he worked, the only noticeable noise being me hissing every once-in-a-while at the pain.

When we went back downstairs, Devin and I both took up our own half of the couch and watched some T.V.. we really just wanted something to distract us from what had happened, especially me. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad left to go talk with Quinn's social worker. They said that we would be able to make Quinn feel better; at least, more than they could.

After a few hours, Quinn came downstairs with red, puffy eyes and an angry look. Devin stood up and smiled at her, opening his arms to our sister. "Hey sis, come here," he said softly. Quinn only glared at him and stormed into the kitchen.

Well, we love you too, Quinn.

"Is this the next 'stage' or whatever?" I asked.

"Hold on, let me look it up," Devin muttered. "You call Alex and Camryn. Camryn's smart and Alex is the favorite, so they'll help more than us."

The two went on some field trip for their college class to—you guessed it—a college. There really couldn't have been a worse time, though. I mean, our sister is trying to deal with becoming an orphan while they're meeting college professors and talking about their future.

All I have to say is: Screw the future!

"Here it is!" Devin turned to me and asked, "Did you get them to pick up?"

"Nope. Does the college not have internet or something? I left a bajillion texts and called at least ten times for each of them," I mini-ranted.

Devin sighed. "Well, I guess we're doing this one alone, huh? Come look, I found what Quinn is going through." We moved to the center of the couch together and looked at the screen of Devin's phone. "First it's denial, then it's anger. That's why Quinn is so mad. She has to take the blame out on somebody for losing her mom, and it's our family at the moment."

"I can understand why. The last time Quinn got to see her mom, she was trying to kill her. I'm sure she'd rather have her mom die when they're on better terms than that," I replied quietly, suddenly feeling guilty. "I feel so selfish for always wanting Quinn to be by me. I only wanted her close because I could protect her that way. There was no way to do that in Georgia, but now she's here with me. It's selfish—she had a whole life built back there, and I'm trying to keep her trapped here."