Silence Protect Me

Riiiiiiing… Ring… Riiiiiiing…Ring

I quickly finished scolding the first layer of skin off my hands, drying the red hued palms on a white fluffy towel. I was still in a state of shock, after the- after the incident. I don’t want to mention it again if I don’t have to. Every time I accidentally think about it, a wave of nausea kicks me mercilessly in the stomach.

Before I had started to wash my hands, I had thrown up about three times.

My feet thudded on the wooden floor as I dashed downstairs. The only phone upstairs was in the place I had just evacuated- I didn’t want to do that again. I nearly tripped on the stairs in my haste to find the phone before the ringing cut out. In our house, all the phones are set to three rings and that’s it. My mother finds the noise unbearable. I find that surprising, since, being a socialite, she uses the phone more then anyone else in the house.

The phone was resting on the granite-topped bench in the kitchen, separated from its trusty stand. The rest of my family always forgets to put the phone back in its stand. Only I ever replace it (when I can find it. Tyler sometimes likes to hide the phone in odd places), and yet they wonder why the batteries always need recharging. I grabbed the slim receiver, pressing the call button before I held it to my ear.

“Hello?” I asked, wondering who was calling.

“Hi Ivy!” Beth’s merry voice boomed out from the receiver, nearly giving me a heart attack.

“Oh, hi Beth,” I replied, ignoring my sudden palpitations.

“How come you’re still at home? I’ve been waiting on you for about two hours! I hired ‘Snakes On A Plane’ for us to watch- I’m not going to watch it by myself.”

”Huh? You’ve been waiting for me?”

I heard her sigh loudly on the other end of the line.

“Yes, Plant-boy. I’ve been waiting for you. Your Dad said he left you a note for when you woke up… Didn’t you find it, or something?”

“Um… Yes… I did…”

“Well, why didn’t you do what it said? God Almighty! Adie’s already started making lunch, so she sent me over to get you. It’s not nice to stand up invitations, you know.”

“Lunch? Invitations?”

“I thought you said you found the note,” was Beth’s critical reply. “Okay, think back. Your Dad took Tyler and Deedee to Billie’s and told you to follow as soon as you woke up. Only, for some stupid reason unknown, you either slept in really late or found some kind of time-waster. And since you were taking so long, I came to get you. You got that, so-called genius?”

“You’re getting me mixed up with my sister.”

“Look, are you coming over or not? Like I said, I have ‘Snakes On A Plane’ waiting for just us to watch. Well, not just us, I guess, since the minute we put it on everyone will crowd around wanting to see it too…”

To anyone else, her pointed way of speaking may sound like she’s a bit of a bitch. But she’s not, no, far from it. She’s the kindest person I know, apart from Billie. Besides, I know now she’s only kidding when she insults me.

“Beth, you know I don’t like thriller movies-“

“But this one’s funny! Apparently some guy gets bitten on the-“

“Okay, okay. I’ll watch it. But no spoilers!”

“Got that, Plant-boy. By the way… You run pretty fast when you want to, don’t you?”

That was an odd thing to say on the phone, I thought, a small frown creasing my forehead. I looked over my shoulder, passing the phone to my other hand.

“What do you mean, ‘I run pretty fast when I want to’?”

“Oh, you know. You’re one of the slowest sprinters in school, yet you just ran like Road Runner to get to the phone.”

How did she know that? I thought about it for a moment, before a small smile spread like treacle across my features.

“Where did you say you were, again?”

Beth laughed.

“I didn’t. I’m standing out the front of your house, watching you through those big glass windows. Hey, look up! I’m waving!”

I complied to her request, angling my gaze until I was looking straight through the said windows. Sure enough, just behind the huge hedge at the front of my house, I could see a flash of white; one big tanned hand waving over the foliage. I extended my fingers, giving a tiny wave back. I heard Beth laugh again in my ear.

“Nice to see you so enthusiastic. Oh, and great jeans. You don’t usually wear the tight ones- you should wear them more often.”

Colour rose in my cheeks at this personal and embarrassing statement.

“Don’t say things like that,” I muttered, shying away from the windows.

“Aw, sorry Ivy. I forgot what a shrinking violet you are. Ha!”

“Oh, very funny, Bethany.”

“Just a hint- you could just get off the phone and open the door. You know… I don’t have that much credit left, and landlines are expensive- why don’t you have a mobile?”

“Who, me? What would I need with a phone? You’re the only one who would call me!”

“Pah! Once you get a girlfriend, you’ll have two people to call.”

I snorted, trying to mask my discomfort.

“Right. Girlfriend. For me.”

“God you’re annoying! Just open the door!”

“Well, if you’re going to be like that-“

“Fine. Please open the door, and I won’t try and bash it down with my forehead.”

“You sure you can afford to lose any more brain cells?” I joked, making my way to the front door. Beth muttered something unintelligible.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” I asked as I searched for the key in the cluttered bowl on the hall table. Almost every type of object you could imagine has passed through that bowl. As well as housing numerous keys, it contains old candy from last Halloween (Tyler dressed as a Native American, of course. Deedee went as Ophelia from ‘Hamlet’, and wondered all night why no one got her costume), a packet of dental floss, some gel shoe insoles (my mother’s. She gets sore feet a lot), some discarded fan mail (my dad’s, of course), a few rubber bands and a book entitled ‘How To Begin Studying English Literature’ (used to belong to me, but Deedee borrowed it without permission).

“I said, ‘why are you taking so long?’”

“Hold on! Obviously when they were handing out patience, you were somewhere else.”

“Yeah, I was taking a crap under a bridge because I couldn’t be stuffed about waiting in line.”

“Don’t be disgusting,” I chided, finally finding the right key and sliding it into the lock with a satisfying ‘click’. The door swung open, revealing Beth standing right outside, impatiently scuffing her purple shoes on the wall. I cleared my throat. Beth immediately looked up and stopped kicking, her small green phone still glued to her ear.

“Took you long enough,” she grumbled, her voice doubling up through the phone. I took the phone away from my ear, pressing end call. Beth, of course, didn’t have the common sense to do that, and still kept talking into the silent phone.

“Ivy, no offence meant, but your face looks…”

“I know,” I said quickly, looking down at my bare feet. “That’s why I didn’t go to Billie’s straight away. I wanted to- to just, kind of, cover it up.”

“I see,” Beth said into her phone, her dark eyes trailing down my frame, eyelashes fluttering with each unintended blink. She shook her head at my injuries, giving me a weird look.

“I didn’t think you were the kind of person prone to vanity,” she commented, referring to my previous statement.

“No. I’m not. I just didn’t want anyone to see it, just in case someone took a picture and it got on-“

“Pfft!” she exclaimed, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. “You’re being completely paranoid. No one cares that much about you!”

“But-“

“Just get your bike. Adie’s making vegetarian lasagne for lunch, and I really want to sample it.”

“Okay,” I replied, slipping on a pair of shoes I had conveniently left at the door. “Oh, and Beth?”

“Yeah?”

“You can put your phone away now. I’m standing right here,” I pointed out, gesturing to her ear. Beth blushed, fiery red blending with her snowy hair. She snatched the phone away from her ear like it was burning her, shoving it deep into her pocket. I laughed gently.

“Just get your bike,” she growled, grabbing her scooter that was propped unceremoniously against the wall. I nodded, scooting around the side of the house and into the back yard. Light sparkled off the pool’s surface, almost as blinding as the hot Californian sun. Sometimes I wonder if Global Warming is just an effect of the sun gradually getting larger. Maybe. But everyone, including my Dad, is convinced it’s all due to pollution. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think pollution is good. In fact, thanks to Beth, I try to be as clean and ‘green’ as I can. But Global Warming… It’s just so uncertain and debated, according to Deedee. She and Dad sometimes have arguments on that subject. I don’t take part in them. I’m still not sure what my stance is.

My little blue bike rested in the corner of the yard, almost a forgotten memory of childhood. Dad brought it home for me when I was about twelve, back when he was very busy due to the new album the band had put out. It was bribery, I admit, but useful bribery. He gave Deedee and Tyler something too; I think Deedee got a special doll (which she hated and said was ‘creepy’) and Tyler got a teddy bear that completely dwarfed him. He still has that bear, even though it doesn’t seem to be as big any more.

I wheeled my bike back to the front of the house, where Beth was waiting on her scooter. She loves that scooter. She even says insistently she’ll keep using it, even when she reaches the age where she’s allowed to drive. She probably will. Beth hates cars with a passion.

Well, I guess maybe you would, if one had stolen your father’s life.

Beth doesn’t talk much about her father. Not to me, anyway. All I know is that he died on June 24th 2000; hit by a dark green SUV (it was in a newspaper clipping I saw at Beth’s house), and on that date she always isolates herself from the world. She cries about it still, too, even though it’s been about seven years since his death. Once she started crying in the middle of a visit to my house, when we were about ten or eleven. It took her ages to calm her down. In fact, my Dad had to call Billie (he was home at the time, but just as useless as when he was away), seeing as Billie’s Dad had died too, so maybe he’d be able to talk to her about it. He worked wonders when he arrived at my house. He just took Beth aside for a couple of minutes, talked to her quietly, and a minute later she was laughing with me again, a juice-box in her hand. I don’t know how he does it.

He’s just a magician.

I hopped on my bike, my legs easily reaching the ground. I had out-grown the bike years ago- in fact; I was probably too big for it when my Dad brought it home for me in the first place. Still, it’s my only mode of transport, apart from my own two feet.

Beth pretended to rev her scooter, providing adequate sound effects with her confident vocals.

“Bet you that I’ll get there first!” she whooped, her raven eyes narrowing like a Hell’s Angel’s. I shrugged, leaning back on my bike and starting to peddle.

“You do that,” I replied smoothly, letting myself slowly drift down the street. Beth rolled her eyes.

“You’re no fun!” she whined, before frantically pushing her foot repetitively on the ground and zooming in front of me. I let her outstrip me, happy just gliding down the black tarmac. I gazed quietly at the houses, clones of my own right down to the colour, sitting serenely under the oven-like sky. It puzzled me why Dad had bought a house that wasn’t unique. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would want to be like everyone else.

It was about a five-minute bike to Billie’s house. He only lived about three streets away, funnily enough. Mike lived pretty close too. It was convenient for band business, I guess. Beth pulled into Billie’s driveway first, after making sure the gate was open. Billie lives in a suburban fortress. His house is big, yellow and gated. It’s intimidating to bike up too- almost every time I feel like someone is going to scream at me to go away.

So far, that hasn’t happened.

Before I had even gotten off my bike, Tyler had ambushed me. He had been hiding in the foliage, I think, due to the fact his fluffy black hair was full of twigs and miscellaneous leaves. I just had time to see a blur of dark blue (Tyler’s favourite colour, annoyingly enough. He’s obsessed with the ocean) before I was knocked off my bike by childhood obesity. A minute later Tyler was laughing above me, his snub nose wiggling in front of my face as his hazel eyes sparkled.

“I-VEE!” he squealed, bouncing up and down on my chest. I felt my jaw clench in annoyance and pushed him off, dusting myself off as I got up. Tyler was undeterred.

“’Ou’re finally here! Here! Here! Here where Speedy is! Oh, ‘ut you ‘issed it!’Issed Speedy! He was going ‘eally, ‘eally fast,” he chortled and drooled, clapping his podgy hands. Behind me, I heard Beth giggle. She actually likes Tyler for some weird reason- she’s one of those people who think an over-weight short six-year-old with a speech problem is ‘cute’. I gave Tyler a blank stare, projecting my disinterest with Billie’s kid’s fish. Tyler, as usually, didn’t care.

“I wanna ‘ishy. A widdle ‘ishy, just like Speedy!” he exclaimed, trying to grab my hand. I ignored him, quickly putting both my hands deep in my pockets. “I-Vee, do ‘ou dink tat Daddy will ‘et me have a ‘ishy?”

One thing I really dislike about my little brother is that he can pronounce all his words perfectly. He just doesn’t want to, or is too lazy too. He doesn’t speak like that at school, because he knows he’ll get picked on. But as soon as he’s with family and adults, he switches on his baby voice and immediately gets whatever he asks for.

Clever little gnat.

“Hey Tyler, how’re you?” Beth asked, crouching to his level with a smile. Tyler immediately switched his charm to her, bored with running up against a brick wall.

“’Eth! It’s ‘Eth!” he roared, bounding up to give her a sloppy kiss. “’Ello ‘Eth. I’m good- Daddy’s gonna buy me a ‘ishy! A purty ‘ishy, just like Speedy!”

“That’s great, Tyler!” Beth said enthusiastically, using a tone usually reserved for her puppy, Gonzo. “Have you asked your Daddy about it, though?”

“Um…” Tyler began, rubbing his apple cheeks with his fist. “Nu uh. Not ‘et.”

“Well, maybe you should,” I cut in, annoyed with Beth for being so easily fooled. “Go ask him now.”
“’Ut I’m talkin’ with ‘Eth!” Tyler protested, stamping his little feet. His round face was starting to turn red- which was a dangerous sign. Whenever Tyler turns red, he gets mad. And when Tyler gets mad, everyone in a five-mile radius knows about it.

“It’s okay, Tyler,” Beth said quickly, shooting me a warning look. “I don’t mind.”

“’Ell… Okay den!” Tyler laughed, his complexion fading back to a normal pink. He scuttled into the house like a fat crab; his behind wiggling like a puppy’s tail. As soon as Tyler was safely out of the way, Beth turned on me.

“Why do you have to be so mean to him?” she hissed, her hands already in a domineering position on her hips.

“I’m not mean to him,” I calmly replied, starting to walk into the house. Beth’s eyes narrowed, but this time not in playfulness. She darted in front of me, standing in front of the door like a guard.

“You are so! God, can’t you see that he really looks up to you?”

I rolled my eyes. Who was she to lecture me on my siblings? She is an only child, and has no idea how devious little brothers and sisters can be.

“He doesn’t look up to me. He just wants attention. And you can provide that for him, so I really don’t have to do anything.”

Beth shook her head in disbelief.

“You’re- you’re a jerk, Ivy Wright!” she declared, before flouncing through the screen door. I waited a moment before following, sighing at her hot-headedness. For a pacifist, she verbally beat people up a lot. Usually me. But, whatever she says, I am not a jerk.

Adie, bustling about in an apron, greeted me as I walked into her home. She gave me a soft smile, her cow-like eyes twinkling in the light. I returned it shyly.

“Nice to see you finally made it, Ivy. Ouch- that looks sore,” she said, taking a look at my cheek. “I can give you some stuff for that- but, anyway, it’s lunch, and I know for a fact that Billie really wants to see you.”

She smiled at me again, before darting through another door and into the kitchen. From that door I could smell baking pasta and simmering tomato puree. I breathed in the smell hungrily, my stomach coming to the realisation that it never got to have breakfast. Adie is a very good cook, almost as good as Mike is. I followed the smell into the kitchen, looking over Adie’s shoulder as she busied herself with the meal.

“Everyone’s sitting outside, if you want to join them,” she told me, pointing to the sliding glass doors. I nodded in thanks, going over and sliding the door open. Billie, Joey, Jakob, Beth, Dad, Deedee, Tyler, Mike, Frankie, Elise and some other person I didn’t recognise were all crowded around two tables pushed together, talking and laughing loudly together. My stomach contracted as I walked closer to the table, nerves bubbling around my insides. At least at my house, I know what to expect at mealtimes. With other people… Anything could happen. More people would try to talk to me. It would be louder. People would accidentally touch me-

“Ivy!” Dad called, his bright blue eyes resting on me like a giant spotlight. It had the same effect. Almost immediately everyone at the table turned to stare at me, like I was the Mona Lisa come to life. I borrowed her smile too, my lips unsure of how to move. My features felt set in stone and unmovable. Below my motionless head, my heart beat erratically.

Stop looking at me. Stop staring at me.

“Hey Ivy,” a gentle voice spoke, flying birdlike up to my sensitive ears. I looked to see Billie giving me a crooked smile, his eyes half-closed against the sun. “Pull up a chair. I got someone here who I’d like you to meet.”

He gestured to a spot between him and- him and a complete stranger. My eyes scanned him warily, searching for concealed weapons. He looked about my age-that was the first thing I noticed, as he lounged in his seat like a sun-worshipping lizard. His chocolate-tinted skin glimmered in the light; sweat coating his brow and cheeks. Dark brunette hair crowned his head, spiking up around his face like a startled hedgehog. Thick-rimmed square-framed black glasses almost completely hid his bored gaze- from what I could see his eyes were framed with thick lashes and the iris was very dark, perhaps brown, maybe the same rare shade as Beth’s. His glasses rested on an oddly shaped nose. It looked like it had been broken once or twice, the tip elegantly pointed and nostrils large and flared. His lips were like mine, featureless, while his chin was sculpted and proud. His bone structure was excellent, I must say. His cheekbones reminded me subtly of Mike’s- I took a moment to compare the two.

“Have you forgotten how to sit down or are you brain dead?” a melodic voice asked, sounding snide. I snapped out of my observing gaze, startled to find the snide comment had just come from the person I had been observing. He tilted his head, a mocking grin on his plain lips. I fought an urge to narrow my eyes, instead having the grace to sit down in my pre-allocated spot. Billie laughed, pretending to swipe the guy over the head with a calloused hand.

“Excuse him for being an a-“

“Billie,” Mike interrupted warningly, gesturing to all the kids at the table. Billie stuck his tongue out at him, turning back to me with a grin.

“Sorry, I forgot that mealtimes are always censored. Anyway, this… snide guy… over here is Alex. He’s Adie’s nephew, all the way from Minnesota.”

“Yeah, real far away,” Alex mocked, rolling his eyes. “Who’s the startled guy with the long hair, anyway? Looks kind of like a girl-“

“His name is Ivy,” Beth said loudly, her cheeks pink as she stared defiantly at the newcomer. It didn’t have the effect she desired. Alex burst out laughing.

“Please-tell-me-she’s-not-serious!” he choked out between chuckles, clutching at his stomach for support. “That’s-not-seriously-his-name?”

“Yes, it is. What’s so funny about it?” Beth challenged, her face still coloured with her rising blood. Alex’s laughing died down slowly. He gave Beth a smug smile, toned arms folded across his solid chest.

“There’s lots of things funny about it. A guy that looks like a girl is funny enough. But when he has a girl’s name-“

He started to laugh again, lying back in his chair with his eyes squeezed shut. I felt my face heat up and looked down at the table, silently willing him to stop. It’s not my fault my name is so ridiculous! Did I name myself? No. And as for my hair… Well, maybe I’m used to having it this length. Cutting it off would seem strange and foreign. I couldn’t even imagine myself with short hair any more.

“Okay, Alex, finish up. Joke’s over,” Billie said lightly, watching his nephew in law roll around in his seat.

“My name’s not really Ivy,” I muttered, the figurative light bulb shining brightly over the top of my head. “It’s… Ivan. Ivy is just a nickname.”

“Pretty stupid nickname, if you ask me,” Alex snorted, raising a thick black eyebrow. “Do you want to be a girl or something?”

“No…”

“I-Vee,” Tyler’s voice popped up from the other end of the table, obliviously seeking to wreck my cover story. “’Ou’re name’s not ‘Van. It’s I-Vee!”

I groaned audibly, putting my heads in my hand. Far from trying to leave me a scrap of dignity, Alex ridiculed me further.

“Oh, really? I see. Did your Mom think you were a girl when you were born? Or were you born a hermaphrodite and your parents named you before flipping a coin to decide what gender they’d raise you as-“

“Alex! That’s enough!”

I peeked through my hands, expecting to see a superhero standing in all their lycra-clad glory next to the table. What I really saw was just as comforting- Adie, carrying a tray of food and scowling at her ‘funny’ nephew. She set the tray down with a loud bang, adopting the typical angered female stance with her hands on her hips.

“You had better shape up, or I’ll send you back to your parents!” she threatened; looking like Alex had done a lot more then just insult me. Maybe he had. But her words had the right effect. The snide smile peeled off his face immediately. He nodded docilely, bowing his head.

“Sorry Auntie Adie,” he mumbled sullenly, playing the cutlery in front of him. Adie nodded stiffly, picking up the tray and setting it more gently on the centre of the table.

“Everyone help themselves. There’s lasagne, salad, bread, butter-“

Before she had even finished listing the things available, everyone had reached for their forks and started to pile things on their plates. Adie shrugged in defeat, sitting down next to her husband and reaching for her rapidly disappearing work. Beside me, I felt Alex lean forward, presumably reaching for the salad.

“Don’t get confident, just because you have crazy girl over there and Auntie Adie on your side. They won’t always be around,” he hissed in my ear, his breath tickling my neck. Then I saw him straighten up, smiling in an obviously fake manner at Adie.
“Hey, Auntie, this salad looks delicious!”