I'm Breathing in this Silence

Her eyes lit up at the sound of his voice. He was behind her, talking to one of his friends. She couldn’t hear what they were saying; she didn’t care. It was just nice to hear his voice. Soon, he would be over by her and would be saying wonderful things to her.

Only, he wasn’t. He walked right past her and found his way through the crowded hall. He might not've seen her, but mostly likely he just didn’t want to talk to her. No one wanted to talk to her anymore. But who could blame them? Who would want to talk to someone that would never reply anyway?

So she just sighed and slammed her locker door, leaving everything inside. She wasn't going to go to her next class. She didn’t care that it was important – that she was already going to fail more classes than she would pass. She needed to get out of the halls and out of her life.

Too bad she couldn’t do the second.

Excitement pulsed through her veins as she turned on the engine of her car. Her lame, broken down car that almost never worked properly. Still, she was happy to leave. It always gave her a rush to ditch school. She drove off as fast she could and was soon in the driveway of her house.

Her parents were gone, her father at work and her mother off doing some worthless shopping. Her little sister, too, wasn’t home – most likely still sitting in classroom, similar to the one she should've been in at the time.

Emmett Slade removed herself from her car and made her way to the empty house. She made her way into the house and to her room at the back. There was a door to the outside in room. At one point, her parents had to worry about her sneaking out. But now, where would a silent girl run off to?

Of course, she had been tempted to simply run away. Maybe somewhere else she could use her voice. Maybe somewhere else wouldn’t yell at her if she so much as parted her lips. But that was too much of a hope, a dream, for her to actually try to runaway.

So, instead, she sat down on her bed and pulled out her cheap mp3 player from her back pocket. Her sister had gotten a brand new iPod last Christmas and had given the worn down thing to Emmett. She was just happy to have anything to listen to.

When the house was empty, Emmett would trust the walls with the sound of her voice. She would find a song – usually When It Rains by Paramore – and would blast it so loud that if felt like her ears would fall off right then and there. Then, she would sing.

The music was so loud that she couldn’t even hear herself. But that's what she wanted. She didn’t want to hear her voice, but it felt so good to let something out. There was only so much one could keep in. She never sang before she stopped talking. She honestly didn’t know if she way any good at singing, but she didn’t care. She could sound like a pack of wild dogs for all she cared.

It wasn’t long before the doorbell rang. It was right between a song switch so Emmett was actually able to hear it. It might not've been the first ring, but it would be the last. She dashed to the door, pen and paper in hand in case she had to say something. In general, if she could, Emmett would just nod or shake her head.

She opened the door and there he stood. His brown hair was longer than her choppy black hair. He was wearing the exact same glasses that she was. They both were wearing girl pants and lose fitting tee-shirts. He gave a small smile. Emmett just looked at him, waiting for him to say whatever it was that he was going to say.

"We got a new book in English," he spoke smoothly, pulling out a book from his messenger bag and handing it over to the small girl in front of him. "Palmer wanted me to make sure you go it today 'cause we have a big test tomorrow that no one's excused from."

Emmett nodded, knowing she should say thank you or something else. But she didn’t. Still, he stood there. Christofer Drew must have been waiting for something from Emmett.

In the end, Christofer just sighed. "Is there anything you need?" he asked, wanting to get her to say something, even if she was just going to write it down. He knew she had a voice. He had heard her singing as soon as he got out of his car. It half angered him that she had a voice that she just wouldn’t use, but half of him was happy that she simply had a voice at all.

She shook her head no. There wasn’t anything she needed other than to disappear. Although she had once loved Chris and all of his friend's company, she didn’t want to be standing here with him, unable to talk. She knew that he was only talking to her in hopes she would accidently let a word slip from her mouth. If she was still speaking, he would've left the book and dashed off, in need to work on his music or something of like that. She was never that important to him.

"Well," he spoke, his hand on the edge of the door, ready to shut it on Emmett's face, "we should hang out sometime. The guys miss you."He started to close the door, but then stopped, barely an inch still open. "Honestly, they don't care if you don’t talk anymore. They miss you."

Then the door was shut in Emmett's face. She wanted to call out for Christofer, wanted to say something now that he was gone. But her words had left her, too, and she was alone.