So this chapter is dedicated to XxToffeeTicTacxX for her amazing comment :D
I was really excited when I saw the first comment on Listening to the Silence and it just made me feel warm and happy :3
I hope you enjoy this chapter too girl!
If there was a way to dedicate a chapter to two people I would've done that with this chapter because there's this other awesome girl named xXSweetSorrowXx but I promise the next chapter will be dedicated to you girl! I think I was dancing around when I saw that there was a second comment on Listening to the Silence xD Like I told you I didn't take as long to update :3
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and leave more comments because I really do love them ^^
-> Desyre
Oliver
I don’t know why I’d said that. I hadn’t really been planning on saying anything. I just watched his back as he was about to leave my room and I thought I hadn’t apologized yet about the string thing. And I felt so guilty because it must cost something to buy a new string. Did they sell just the one or the six strings? And he probably had to go somewhere to get it done. Did they do that type of thing here? I knew there was a piano tuner because when I moved here I had to tune it again, but other than that I knew very little about any other instruments. And about modern music, I realized.
I knew there were genres and all that but I didn’t know the difference between them. I had always listened to classical music. Anyway, I realized I’d been very mean to him when he hadn’t done anything to me and it came out. God, that fucking voice, how I hated it. I thought he was probably going to laugh at me or something. He did look surprised at first but when I saw him acting normal and not laughing, I was actually pretty taken aback. There was also the fact that he was able to understand what I said without me having to talk. It reminded me of the… I mean, my parents.
So well yeah, I agreed blindly to take him to the city as a kind of apology for being so mean with him at first. He did seem nice enough, a little relaxed and maybe too sarcastic but alright. The morning after my little talk with Sal I was actually kind of smiling goofily. I realized it and scolded myself. No. Not again. I’m not going to do this shit again. Not in this small ass town anyways. Maybe in the city I would’ve given it a chance, but here? I don’t think so. I wiped the smile off my face and told myself not to get high hopes about something impossible.
I arrived to school and just like every day went to my locker to grab my books and went to class. I went to sit in a desk and waited for the teacher to arrive. While I waited I got out the book we were reading in English. It was a really short book and I’d already finished it, but I was reading it again because... I don’t know really. Well, I often paid more attention to the little details the second time I read a book. Also, I liked the story, so why not read it again? The teacher arrived and I hadn’t even read two pages. I put my book away and got out my notebook.
Class started just like normal. And just like normal too, about half an hour after class had started Sal arrived and handed the teacher a tardy slip. I didn’t really know him all that much, I had only talked with him yesterday but I thought he probably had a relaxed attitude towards everything. He never minded arriving late, or if teachers sent him to detention. I had even seen Brent mocking him, shoving him around and insulting him once or twice the last week and he looked like he didn’t really care. The teacher asked him why he was late and he just shrugged his shoulders. The teacher, who sounded mad already, looked even angrier.
Oh. He’s going to get sent to detention again today. Maybe we’d be there together again. It seemed teachers didn’t like that I didn’t talk and didn’t answer them when they talked to me and I always ended in detention. I imagined them taking turns to find reasons to send me to detention. Assholes. As if they’re going to make me talk by doing that. I was happy the principal hadn’t told my mother about that yet because when he did, damn, hell might break lose. My mother. I smiled internally about calling her that. Anyway, she was small and cute and normally happy but she could be deadly when she was angry.
The teacher told Sal to go take a sit and Sal rolled his eyes like he always did when teachers told him that. There was a free seat right in front of me and he took it, sprawling on the chair and slouching. He was always slouching. I wondered if he looked tall slouching how tall he’d be if he stood straight. I didn’t think he’d be taller than me, but maybe he’d come close. He also never seemed to take notes during class, actually looking kind of bored. Why didn’t he ever take notes? I thought about it for a little and finally decided to ask him myself. I wrote the question in a little piece of paper and threw it towards him.
It landed in his desk and he looked at it for a few seconds tilting his head to one side. Finally he opened it and read. He took out his notepad and put it in his desk. He wrote something in the corner of the notepad before moving it to one corner of his desk. Oh. Smart. Instead of passing me another note he wrote it in the pad and I could read it. Nice. In the corner it was written, “I already read about what we’re seeing. I have too much free time.” That’s cool. But you had to like reading far too much in my opinion and have way too much free time in your hands to read text books about, biology for example. A novel I understood, but a text book about genetics? Boring.
I decided to leave it at that for now. I didn’t really want to get caught sending notes during class. I should probably ask for his phone. That would be a lot faster than the notes. Class ended and I went to my next class and so on. Everything seemed to be going alright, and by alright I meant I didn’t have detention for now. When finally the bell for recess rang I went to look for Sal, I wanted to know if the asshole from this morning had given him a detention slip. I didn’t see him anywhere, though, so I went to his locker planning to leave him a little note. It turned out when I got to his locker he was coming down the second floor stairs. He saw me and gave me a lazy smile. The second floor? What was he doing up there? I think the question was written in my face because he took out his notepad and wrote, “In the music classroom.” Oh. That was a pretty amazing classroom. It had a piano. I asked for his notepad and he gave it to me.
“Do you have to stay for detention because of what happened this morning?”
“What do you think?”
I wrinkled my nose in disgust as if I had smelled something horrible. Why was this school like that? Just because he didn’t talk. Just like with me, I realized. Maybe they had something against people that didn’t talk in general. Such assholes. He shrugged and I could almost hear him telling me to ignore it. See what I’m talking about? Too laid back. Right then the bell rang and I waved at him. He gave me another last smile and waved back at me. The last classes of the day went on without incident. Huh. Looks like I won’t be staying for detention today. The final bell rang and everyone left their classrooms the halls becoming almost asphyxiating.
“Hey fag!” I heard someone yell. I got up on tiptoes and saw Brent not that far from me.
I felt sorry for the poor soul that held his interest right now. Brent was huge jerk. Not because he was that much of a jerk, which he was, but because he was literally huge. He was buff and tall and played in some sport, probably football. He had at least five inches and quite a few pounds on me. Not that I was anything to compare to really, I didn’t practice any sport, but I jogged whenever I found time and did a little routine all on my own. I had some muscle, but it was practically nothing compared to Brent.
“Hey, I’m talking to you fairy! Answer me when I talk to you!” I heard Brent yell sounding a little angry and saw someone being pushed into the lockers.
Oh God. It was Sal. Not this again. Why couldn’t he just answer to please the jerk? Well, I wouldn’t answer either so I kind of got it. But I still wished he’d say something just to get Brent off his back. Brent knocked Sal’s books to the floor and Sal looked down at them before looking back up at Brent again. I hadn’t ever noticed it but if I looked into his clear blue eyes I could see small flashes of anger.
“What? Are you pissed? Gonna go tell your mommy about it? Oh, wait. Which one?” Brent sneered. I heard some snickers from the crowd watching the spectacle.
What? Which one? Sal had more than one mom? I had only ever seen Mina around the house. But now that I remembered, I had seen a tall woman sometimes. Could it be…? Sal had two moms?
“You all are disgusting!” Brent sneered getting even closer to Sal. He looked like he was really getting pissed at not being able to draw a reaction from Sal.
When Brent started to get closer I saw something that looked like fear in Sal’s eyes and he pushed Brent away from him. If anything Brent looked even more riled up and even angrier. Oh. This is getting dangerous. Sal, get out of there. Now.
“What?” Brent sneered again getting close to Sal, who looked blatantly scared now.
I started moving instinctively towards them but the halls were still packed with people, and even more now that the people were watching everything. Sal. I had to get to him. This didn’t look good.
“Are you scared fruitcake? Is that it? Are you shitting yourself?” Brent said in a mocking tone and some people snickered again.
Sal. I was walking faster pushing people as gently as I could. Brent looked like he was about to do something. I just wanted to be there to stop it or something.
“Well you know what fag? You should because your faggot moms aren’t here to protect you,” Brent sneered getting up in Sal’s face.
That did pull a reaction from Sal and he looked angry. I had never once seen him so angry. He slapped Brent right across the face, the mark of four fingers turning red and swelling in Brent’s cheek. Brent seemed surprised, probably not used to getting slapped. But when he snapped out of it, he looked deadly. I saw his hand turn into a fist when he realized what had happened. God. God. He’s going to hit him and I’m not there yet. Have to stop him. I started literally shoving people out of my way, but I was still late.
“You motherfucking little piece of shit!” Brent yelled, hitting Sal right in the face as I burst through the crowd.
Now that I was inside the small circle that formed around them I saw Sal slide down the wall, holding his cheek. Tears were starting to roll down his cheek. Oh. That punch and the slash on his cheek from the guitar string hitting him went perfectly together. God. I saw the way his cheek was already turning a dark tone of red under his hand, his lip torn and bleeding. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know why I was so angry but I was and I couldn’t help it. I turned towards Brent and when I saw his smug ugly face, I punched him square in the nose.
Brent yelled in pain and threw himself on the floor. I shook out my hand bottling in the pain I felt. I saw his nose bleeding profusely and I literally wish I broke it. Served the asshole right.
“What’s going on here?!” I heard a teacher yell but it still sounded far away.
Everyone started to scatter, running away from the crime scene before they got involved in it. Brent still lay there squealing and holding his bleeding nose. One of his friends, I guessed, was calling his name and telling him to get up, that they needed to get away from here before the teacher got here. I thought about that too, but running would only make things worse. In the end the friend ran away too and left Brent on the floor.
“What happened here?!” The teacher yelled finally arriving to where we were.
“They started it! We didn’t do anything!” Yelled Brent in nasal tone, who seemed to be finally well enough to talk.
The teacher looked at me and at Sal and then looked at Brent again.
“Is that true?” He asked in a low tone that told me he was angry as hell.
I shook my head immediately and the teacher turned to look at Brent.
“Liar! You attacked us first! We only defended ourselves!” Brent started yelling.
“Enough,” The teacher said in a firm tone. “Go to the principal’s office, the three of you.”
I sighed, we were in for a long day. I helped Sal get up and we all walked to the principal’s office. Brent had stopped bleeding but his nose looked a little swollen and I started to wonder if I had broken it. Once inside the principal’s office the teacher explained what he’d seen and heard when he arrived and then left us there, closing the door after him. After what felt like ages we finally came out of the principal’s office. Sal’s cheek had turned dark purple and was swollen. Sal’s lower lip had stopped bleeding, the blood crusted around the little wound. Brent’s nose was looking worse and I had come to the decision that I had broken it.
We all left, Brent with his horrible nose and looking happy, and Sal, with his swollen and purple cheek, angry and bitter. That asshole, the principal, had believed Brent’s story even though it was obviously a lie. In the end Sal and I ended with two weeks of detention. The principal also called our parents to come pick us up. Just what I needed. By the screams on the phone I thought it was obvious my mom –little internal smile- had picked up and was pissed. I sighed and looked at Sal who looked bitter and tired. He should probably go to the hospital to get that cheek checked.
“Oliver!” I heard mom yell. Shit. Saying she was pissed was an understatement.
I looked toward the gates and there she was standing next to Sal’s mom who just looked a little worried and frantic. It was the small petite and cheerful woman I had seen around. Sal’s mom turned when my mother yelled and when she saw her son, she gasped, her eyes filling with tears.
“Sal…” She said in a small broken voice coming taking a small tentative step towards him.
Sal looked almost hurt by seeing his mom like that and I just wanted to do something to make it all better. My mom turned to her and then turned towards us again, I think she hadn’t noticed Sal until Mina had said his name. She gasped too and covered her mouth. Mina came running towards Sal and hugged her son tightly. She was crying now and I think I saw a small solitary tear on Sal’s cheek. He hugged his mom back, and I had to look away.
“Ollie,” My mom’s voice was now small and a little broken too and I saw her coming toward me. Oh, now you’re not pissed, huh?
“Ollie what happened? I got a call from the principal, he said you hit someone! Is it true?” My mom continued.
I shook my head and dragged her down towards me. I didn’t really want to talk but I had to explain what had happened to her. When I had her ear close enough I whispered “Brent” into it. She seemed to get it immediately. Everyone in town knew about Brent, he made trouble for everyone. What I didn’t get was why they let him get away with it. She looked towards Brent and his parents who were getting on their car and leaving. Her eyes narrowed and I got little bad feeling.
“Sal. Oh my God. Look at that. It’s so swollen. We need to take you to the hospital, but it’s so late,” Mina said looking at Sal’s cheek. Her tears had stopped but she looked even more worried now. “God, and your mother’s out for the weekend with the car. We’ll call a cab, we need to get a doctor to check this right now.”
I looked at them for a few seconds an idea forming in the back of my head. I looked back at my mother who was now busy examining me. I stopped her hands and she looked into my eyes. I cocked my head significantly over towards Sal and his mother. She frowned and stared me for a second not getting what I was trying to say. Then she seemed to get it and looked a little hesitant about it. “But it’s so late,” she mouthed at me. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms. Finally my mom sighed and turned towards Mina and Sal who were already walking away.
“We could take you,” my mother said.
Mina and Sal turned around and looked a little surprised.
“I’m sorry, what?” Mina asked.
“To the hospital, we could take you,” my mother said putting her arm around my shoulders and walking towards them.
Sal looked at me with wild eyes, and I just gave him a small smile. Sal stared at me for a while before giving me one of his lazy smiles. Mina looked at him as if asking silently and he nodded.
“That would be great, thank you so much,” Mina said with her sunniest smile on her face, and it actually looked sincere.
My mom gave her another smile and we all walked towards our car. We got in the car, mom and Mina in front and Sal and I on the back. Mom started the car and we made the long drive to the city. The whole thing took hours. Sal’s cheek wasn’t an emergency anymore and the hospital seemed to be packed today, it took a while until finally a doctor examined Sal’s cheek. Then it was more waiting while they made sure that Sal’s jaw wasn’t broken or fractured. Finally he was sent home with a piece of paper he had to take to the pharmacy across the street to buy some medicines he had to take for the next two weeks and nothing else. They had told him to put ice on it and take it easy for at least a week in case the punch had rattled his brain a little but that was it. Could you imagine if they had paid for a cab to come and go for something like this? We did arrive really late and I was tired and still bitter about the Brent incident, but I was glad we had taken them to the hospital.
The next day all the school was silent. Both Sal and Brent had decided not to go to school, and well, I had no excuse to skip so I came. As soon as I stepped foot on the classroom I almost wished I hadn’t come. Everyone was looking at me, talking about me, whispering among themselves, and pointing at me. God I hated this fucking town. For a whole week I was everything the school could talk about, and I hated it. I had plenty with the fact that I was the new kid in town and now not only was I the new kid in town but the one that hit Brent to defend a fag. Idiots. I went to visit Sal the day after the incident and we had talked, well, more like wrote on his notepad for a while. We rescheduled the trip to the city about two weeks from now, to let him have the rest the doctor ordered and a little more just in case. But generally we just talked about nothing important. He did come to school the next day, with his greenish and still-swollen cheek, but I still didn’t see Brent around. It wasn’t until the next week that Brent made an appearance, and guess what? He came back with a vengeance.
I got up Wednesday after the weekend when Sal and I were supposed to go to the city, got dressed, had breakfast, and went to school. I arrived with enough minutes to spare to be able to stop at my locker and still be in time for class. I got to the class and discreetly looked around to see if maybe the world would end and Sal was on time. He wasn’t, of course. I chuckled and smiled to myself as I made my way to an empty desk. He was never on time. The day he was the world would seriously end. I suddenly felt a huge hand grab my shoulder and spin me around. And there was Brent, his nose covered with bandages and tape, the area around his eyes looking purple. Oh shit. I really did break his nose.
“Hello fag,” he sneered.
I knew it was stupid and risky but I made a little waving motion with the hand and gave him a smug smile.
“You cocky bastard,” Brent spat pushing me really hard against the wall.
“You think I’m going to let you get away with breaking my nose?!” He yelled sounding really pissed. Oh God, I’m going to die.
“Well, guess what, I won’t,” he said fisting his hand and throwing a punch at me.
I didn’t really do it on purpose, I just reacted instinctively. I saw him planning to throw a punch before he actually punched and I ducked. It’s instinct. You see something coming at you and you duck. But the thing was behind me was none other than the wall so when I ducked he hit the wall with full force. I heard a sickening crack and Brent let out an ear-splitting scream of pain and threw himself to the floor hugging his hand to himself. Oh shit. Not this again. I looked around and saw the teacher standing there looking taken aback at first and then he got his serious look on his face again.
“Oliver, go to the principal’s office immediately and wait for me,” he said in a low menacing tone.
I sighed and went to the principal’s office. I waited on the chairs outside for a while before the teacher finally made an appearance. He dragged me into the office and explained what he had seen to the principal. Which was pretty much the part where I ducked and Brent hit the wall instead of me. The principal looked at me and sighed. I knew I was in deep shit again, and knew that, just like before, I was going to lose. The principal had just started talking when this petite girl with fiery-red curly hair and pale skin came running into the office. She started yelling about how I didn’t do it and they couldn’t blame me about it and how Brent had started it all. She was talking too fast and we couldn’t really understand what she was saying. Finally the principal told her to calm down and start from the beginning. After she told her story she was sent out of the principal’s office and it was just me with the Spanish inquisition.
I really hated talking. The few minutes where I’d thought I had to explain what happened with Brent last week had been horrible. I didn’t want anyone to hear my horrible voice. But it turned out it didn’t matter. Sal took out his notepad and explained what had happened, and I hadn’t needed to talk. I used that same tactic this time, seriously not wanting to talk. Just like before it took what felt like years before I came out of the office. But unlike before I wasn’t bitter and angry, instead I was quite relieved and a little elated. I’d explained what happened to the principal, but it turned out that without Brent’s side of the story because he was absent, probably on his way to the hospital, he couldn’t make a decision yet. I was safe for now at least. When I came out the girl was still waiting outside of the principal’s office.
“So? What happened? Did they blame you?” She asked sounding anxious.
I shook my head and even I couldn’t believe it.
“I knew it! Without Brent to tell his story to refute ours he can’t do shit,” the girl said smiling.
I gave her a shy little smile and started to walk towards the cafeteria because it was already recess. She followed me still smiling.
“I’m Emerald, or Em, by the way,” the girl said. “And you’re Oliver Andel, right?”
I nodded and she smiled at me. I gave her a shy smile in return.
“Oh, almost forgot, I’m Sal’s best friend,” she added.
Huh? Oh. He had told me about this girl and this guy that he’d known since they were in diapers. Guess this was the girl.
“I heard what happened last week, with Sal. I was pissed when I heard you two got two weeks of detention. Do you know why the principal believed Brent’s story?”
I shook my head, not really knowing why she was talking to me.
“Brent’s parents are pretty well known around here and well, let’s just say people like to be on their good side,” she said sounding bitter.
Oh. That explained why the past week we had been blamed for the whole incident even though it was clearly a lie.
“Yeah. Things are like that around this town,” Em added sourly.
I didn’t know what to say to that so I just kept walking to the cafeteria. Once there I followed her to the line. I didn’t know when it had turned from her following me to me following her. I normally didn’t eat in the cafeteria, but that day I hadn’t brought anything for lunch. We bought our food and paid. I thought she was going to sit in one of the tables but instead she walked back out of the cafeteria. I followed her silently and soon realized we were going to the music classroom. Oh. So that’s why I had seen Sal come from the music classroom so often. We entered the room and sitting there, strumming the acoustic guitar that was always on the room, was Sal, along with a guy with sandy blond hair and pale skin too. Sal stopped playing once we entered and he gave me one of his lazy smiles. I waved at him and gave him a small smile in return.
“Hey, man! I’m Dustin, but everyone calls me Dusty or Dust. You must be Oliver,” the guy said offering his hand to me.
I nodded and grabbed his hand shaking it.
“Well it’s great to finally meet you. We’ve heard about you, but Sal was adamant on introducing you to us,” Dusty said looking pointedly at Sal.
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he just shrugged, focusing back on the guitar. He tried a few notes before he started playing a song. I thought, as I listened, that it was the first time I’d ever seen him play. He closed his eyes and he kind of reminded me to myself. He seemed to find pleasure in the music he was playing.
“Oh I love this song! Play it from the start, play it from the start,” Em said sounding really excited.
Sal stopped playing again and threw her a really annoyed look.
“Pretty please with sugar on top,” she said pouting.
He stared at her for a few seconds before sighing and starting the song again. I really had no complain about it. I actually had liked the song as far as he’d played it. Em closed her eyes too and then started singing.
Take a photograph,
It'll be the last,
Not a dollar or a crowd could ever keep me here,
I don't have a past
I just have a chance,
Not a family or honest plea remains to say,
Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day,
All the world is waiting for the sun.
Is it you I want or just the notion of
A heart to wrap around so I can find my way around?
Safe to say from here,
You're getting closer now,
We are never sad 'cause we are not allowed to be
Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day,
All the world is waiting for the sun.
Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day,
All the world is waiting for the sun.
To lie here under you,
Is all that I could ever do,
To lie here under you is all,
To lie here under you is all that i could ever do,
To lie here under you is all,
Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day,
All the world is waiting for the sun.
Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day,
All the world is waiting for the sun,
All the world is waiting for the sun,
All the world is waiting for the sun.
The guitar stopped completely and Em made the last word longer, stretching out the note. It was a beautiful song. I had never really noticed but Sal was really good at playing the guitar. And Em’s voice was great! They should really think about doing something, forming a band, studying music, becoming professionals or whatever. Dusty applauded and Em opened her eyes smiling widely. Sal opened his eyes more slowly, and he looked right at me. I smiled for real this time because for some reason even though I was maybe going to get in deep shit because of Brent; even though this town was shitty and had rumors and the people in it were far worse; even though I was having a hard time adapting from the city to this little place; even though I didn’t talk; even though I had a horrible past and all that stuff, I felt happy.
Right then the bell rang and we left the music classroom each going to their classes. I entered the classroom and sat in a desk not really listening to the class, just thinking about what Sal had told me the first time we really talked. I hadn’t ever really cared much for any other music genre apart from classic, maybe it was time to listen to something else?
“Oliver Andel must go to the principal’s office immediately. Oliver Andel, please report to the principal’s office,” I heard the old woman in the main office say through the speaker system.
Everyone in the class fell silent. No snickers, no laughs, no comments. Shit. Time to face the music I guess.