Speak No Evil

Both bodies seemed to freeze at the sudden noises, slowly turning to look at the cause. They stared at the other person, wondering when they had entered the kitchen unnoticed. Brian’s mouth slightly parted as he looked at the girl in front of him with bed hair, smudged make up and the black Juicy hoodie she wore scrunched up around her waist. Emily studied the man that stood in front of her; his hair was spiked to perfection, not one strand stood out of place and the leather jacket he wore slightly concealed the white V-neck underneath.

What seemed like minutes to the both of them was in reality only a matter of seconds. Their stare was broken by Leana’s question of what the hell had happened. Emily moved her foot causing her to step on one of the larger pieces of glass. A gasp escaped her lips as the pain set in. Brian had never moved so fast in his life before. The beers he had collected forgotten and not even caring or giving a second thought to the fact that he didn’t know her. When entering the house he had not bothered to remove his shoes causing the glass on the floor to easily break into tiny pieces as he ran over them.

He picked Emily up bridal style and took her to the other side of the kitchen and placed her on the granite counter. Leana ran over to them, signing faster then she had in her life, sure of herself that she had missed out words, she continued anyway. Emily nodded at random intervals, tears streaming down her face, the already smudged make up becoming even worse. Not caring much for his brand new black jeans from two days prior, Brian lent his back on the island in the middle of the kitchen and rested her bleeding foot on top of his thigh to examine the damage. Emily’s face contorted in pain with every touch to her foot no matter how gentle it was. The rest of the guys and girls stood in the arch way looking at what could only be Leana’s best friend. Jimmy grabbed the broom from the closet, making his way towards the broken glass he began to sweep it skilfully into a neat pile.

Valary DiBenedetto pushed past the others and made her way over to the three people crowded around the counter. Having toured with the guys for years you could almost class her as a professional first aider. Many things had happened to the guys in their first few years of touring, Val being the only one able to fix it. Telling Leana to get her a clean, preferably new, cloth and some alcohol, she told Brian to move and pass her the towel to his left. Taking it from Brian’s hand, she placed it on the bar stool and rested Emily’s foot atop of it. Leana was back moments later with alcohol and cloth giving it to Val she placed her hand on Emily’s left knee. Brian hopped up next to Emily, wrapping his arms round the stranger knowing the pain she had been through.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Eight years prior

“Brian you idiot! How did you do that?” an 18 year old, fresh faced out of high school Val asked an equally 18 year old Brian.

“I don’t know. Some idiot broke their bottle leaving shards for people to step on,” he replied examining the centimetre of glass stuck in his right foot,

“Yes, but people are usually wearing shoes Brian, and clothes for that matter,” she sounded pissed and usually when she was pissed people knew to stop, but not Brian Elwin Haner Jr. he will never back down.

“Johnny dared me to go streaking, you can’t say no to a dare, can you?” the cockiness annoyed Val further and without warning, she poured the alcohol over the cut making him cry out in pain.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Her petite hand grabbed his with force as the tears streamed faster down her face when Val poured the alcohol over the cut. As slowly as she could she removed the piece of glass, blood pouring out of the wound faster as the last part lost contact with her foot. Anneliese turned around into Brian’s chest not being able to stomach the sight of blood.

Silent whimpers left Emily’s mouth as Val poured more alcohol onto the bleeding wound. Leana began wrapping a bandage around Emily’s foot trying to stop the bleeding, or calm it down at least. Val handed Brian some tissues and he began wiping the stopping tears from her face, trying to remove some of the smudged make up as well.

Emily realised there was a stain from her make up on Brian’s crisp white V-neck. Looking for Leana she tried to get her attention but failed miserably. Everyone watched her curiously, having been previously told that she did not speak they didn’t expect words to fly from her mouth, but it was still weird watching her.

Picking up the dirty teaspoon from next to the coffee machine she chucked it skilfully at the back of her best friends head, smiling as she hit the middle perfectly. The barely 5’2” woman turned round with her hands on her hips.

“Now Emily, we have talked about this.” Emily signed back,

“I don’t care that I had my back turned you don’t throw anything at me, you could have pointed to me or something,” she spoke as if scolding a small child. Emily signed again, trying to get Leana to say what she couldn’t

“Why can’t you tell them?” Emily signed again, the group watched curious at their exchange, the look of concentration on each woman’s face was almost comical. Leana sighed, “Val, Brian. She says thank you both.” Val shook her head and Brian squeezed above her elbow slightly to tell her it was no problem.

Emily smiled and jumped off the side landing with most of her weight on the left foot, where she had just cut. Almost toppling over from the pain that wracked its way up her body, she was saved by Brian and lifted into his arms bridal style. She stared up at him curiously,

“Where does she want to go Le?” quickly signing her destination, Leana told him as well as handing him a note pad and pen for her to write on saying she needed to carry on with dinner.

He moved Emily’s body carefully to his left side, hooking his arm under her bottom and took the notepad and pen in his other hand before beginning his journey to her bedroom.