Marked with Silence

“Is it true?”

That was the first thing Dylan said to me when he saw me that morning.

“Is what true?”

He rolled his eyes, “I know you know what I’m talking about. You and Sapphira. Boyfriend and girlfriend.” he emphasized.

I smiled and shrugged at the same time. “We kissed.”

He put his hands over his mouth. “Way to go Washfield,” he said when he moved his hands from his face to pat me on the back

“Wait a minute. How is this already around the school?”

Our first kiss happened just a few days ago.

“Psh, rumors have been going around for the past month, man. But I just heard a couple minutes ago that some people saw the two of you linking arms as you left school together yesterday. So I had to ask.”

That rumor so happened to be true. But over the past several weeks, I’d had heard some pretty crazy stuff. She and I had a hot rendezvous a few years ago while I was still in the Philippines and when she was there for the summer visiting her grandparents. She and I were arranged to be married after we graduated. She was using me for sex—that one was my favorite.

The truth was, Sapphira and I hadn’t really made anything official. I didn’t want to push her away by bringing the subject up. I considered her my girlfriend, but we hadn’t talked about what she considered me.

“She and I, I’m pretty sure we’re dating,” I clarified.

His mouth dropped, “You’ve been here for like, what, two months? And you’re already with one of the hottest girls in the school.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” I refuted.

He shook his head, “Do you have any idea how many guys have tried asking her out? How many girls have tried to befriend her? And you waltz in and not only does she talk to you but she’s dating you.”

I rolled my eyes, “You’re acting as if I’ve done the impossible.”

“You have,” he insisted. “I bet there are easily twenty guys that are jealous of you.”

“Oh, cause I’m Mr. Popular,” I replied sarcastically.

Dylan smirked and suddenly started pounding the locker beside him with his fist. Several pairs of eyes turned to look at the disturbance.

“Hey guys,” Dylan nearly screamed, “Jerome and Sapphira are dating!”

Many people turned to the person next to them and started talking in not exactly hushed tones.

“I hate you,” I said to Dylan.

He chuckled and put his arm around my shoulder before leading us away from all the whispers.


Like weeks before, we were walking to Sapphira’s house. Only this time, I was holding her hand.

“We haven’t gone on a date,” she said.

“Huh?”

“We haven’t gone on a date,” Sapphira repeated. “I know that we hang out and spend a lot of time together, but we haven’t gone on a real date.”

“You want to?” I didn’t think she’d care about the tedious rituals of dating.

She shrugged, “I haven’t gone on a date in a while.”

“Friday? Dinner and a movie? I mean, we might as well do this right.”

She softly smiled at me just as a harsh Delaware December gust hit us full on.

Sapphira shivered and put the hood of her jacket over her head. Well, if it was her jacket. I had yet to ask her about all the men’s clothing she wore. If it wasn’t jeans whose inseams were too low it was oversized, non-girl-cut t-shirts. Sometimes it was the accessories—watches too big to have been made for a lady’s wrist, or rings that weren’t sized for her ring-finger. But today, it was her lime green jacket--Quicksilver.

“Um, is that yourjacket?”

She replied with a light scoff, “I was wondering when you were gonna ask about the clothing.”

“I just noticed that you wear a lot of guy stuff. Not that that’s not okay,” I quickly added. “I just want to know if you like…buy it, or like, if they belong to old boyfriends or something.”

Sapphira was amused, “Do you think I have a collection of guy stuff from me hoarding articles of clothing from my copious amounts of exes?”

“Well, maybe not copious amounts…” I teased.

She hit my shoulder. It took a couple of steps for her to respond.

“It was my brother’s,” she finally said. “This jacket, the jeans I wore yesterday, every single piece of man-clothing I wear, they belonged to my brother.” She pointed to the watch that was on her wrist today, “The watches are my dad’s. Watches were his absolute favorite jewelry to wear.” Sapphira disentangled her hand from mine to tuck her hair behind her ear. “These earrings were my mom’s. She looked simple stuff, but she had a lot of it,” she informed as I stared at the diamond solitaires. She let the hair fall back into place. “I got all of their things after they passed. I couldn’t give anything up. Most of it is in storage, but I kept a bunch of their favorite things and I wear something of each of theirs’ everyday.”

I wasn’t sure whether that was the saddest or sweetest thing I had ever heard.

“You think I’m weird, don’t you?”

“Everyone’s weird,” I replied. “What you’re doing, it’s like, you’re taking a piece of them with you everywhere. Maybe it’s a little unconventional, but it’s not, I don’t know…creepy.”

She took my hand again. “So how was your day?”

“Interesting. Have you heard the rumors going around the school about us?”

Sapphira shook her head, “Why would I? You’re the only person I talk to.”

“Oh…right.” It was funny how I had forgotten about that fact.

“What are they saying?”

“One of them is that we hooked up in the Philippines and then I tracked you down all the way across the ocean because I missed my lover so much.”

She laughed, “Tell me another one.”

“Um, Dylan kind of told everyone that we were together.”

She narrowed her eyes, “That isn’t exactly a rumor…”

Confirmation. I couldn’t help the grin. “I just wasn’t sure if you would mind.”

Sapphria shrugged, “I don’t care about them.”

I stopped walking to kiss her. I had taken her by surprise, but soon she kissed back in full.

She broke away and said, “You make me happy, you know that?”

I just stared back at her.

“It scares me.”

I grasped the back of her neck and pressed our lips together again.

“There’s no need to let it.”

She sighed, “I really wish I believed you Jerome. I really wish that I could.”