Bite Your Tongue

Korinne;;

“Korinne? Are you still asleep?”

I opened my eyes slowly and found myself looking at my mother’s face. She was leaning over my bed, looking at me with concern in her eyes.

“Oh. Well, I’m going to the nail salon; it’s been so long since I’ve had a manicure. You want to come?”

I looked past my mother to the clock on my nightstand, which told me that it was only 8:30 A.M. Is she crazy? It’s Sunday, for god’s sake!

I shook my head, and my mother sighed.

“Alright. I’ll be back later this afternoon, okay? Elias is in his room doing homework if you need him,” she said.

Right. The only thing I need from Elias right now is for him to fall down a well.

I nodded. The door closed as my mother left. I definitely didn’t feel like getting up, so I remained where I was, burrowed beneath the covers, and drifted off to sleep again.

+++

“Elias! Christ, don’t drive so fast! You’re going to get us killed!” I screeched. Elias grinned.

“Relax. I was only fooling around. You know I’m the best driver, like, ever,” he said cockily. I rolled my eyes and loosened my grip on the seat a bit.

We were driving home from the movies after having seen ‘Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium’. Both of us had been bored out of our minds all day, and eventually we decided to do something about it and go to the movies. Unfortunately, the only thing playing that we hadn’t already seen was some dumb kids’ movie. It turned out to be pretty hilarious, after all. Even though it was a kiddie movie, Elias managed to turn nearly every line into some sort of dirty joke. God, did I love my brother.

“So now what? Still bored?” Elias asked as we pulled into our driveway.

“Nah. I think I’ll go read or something,” I replied. He rolled his eyes.

“You’re such a nerd,” he said, ruffling my hair. “Have fun reading. I’m gonna go put some gas in the car so Mom doesn’t flip out when she gets home.”

“Okay.”

He waited until I was safely inside the house before driving off. I went up to my room and flicked on the lights. I stood in front of my beloved bookshelf and picked out two of my favorite books, then set them down on my bed. Then I went downstairs—if I was going to be reading for the rest of the afternoon, I was going to need some food. I made myself some tuna on crackers and was carrying it upstairs when the phone rang.

“Shit,” I cursed, nearly dropping my plate. I placed it on the steps and ran for the phone, getting to it right before it went to voicemail.

“Hello?”

“Korinne, hey. Could you make sure that your grandmother gets her mail? I can’t remember if I brought it upstairs for her or not.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” I said, rolling my eyes.

I hated having my grandma live with us. She just took up space and added an extra ounce of worry to each of our lives.

“Thanks, honey. I’ll be home in a few hours, okay?”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye.”

I went into the kitchen and sure enough, there was a pile of mail addressed to my grandma sitting on the counter. I tucked it under my arm and climbed up the stairs, pausing to put my food in my room before going down the hall to my grandma’s room. The lights and the TV were on, but she was curled up on the bed. I put the mail where I knew she would see it—on the chair next to her bed.

“Grandma?” I said. She didn’t respond. I shrugged. She was probably sleeping. Whatever. I headed back into my room, closed the door, and turned on some music. And then I dove into yet another good book.

I guessed that I must have fallen asleep, because when I woke up, it was dark outside. Someone was yelling something downstairs and there was the sound of loud footsteps climbing the stairs. I sat up groggily and opened my door. I stepped out into the hall, only to nearly be knocked over by two men in EMT uniforms rush past me into my grandma’s room. I felt my heartbeat quicken—this couldn’t be good.

My mom stood near the doorway to the room, with a hand pressed to her mouth, tears streaming down her face. I hurried over and followed her gaze. My heart sunk. The men were loading my grandma’s body onto a gurney. They pushed past my mother and I and rushed back downstairs, putting my grandma quickly into an ambulance I hadn’t noticed before in our driveway.

The ride to the hospital was probably the most terrifying ride of my life. Elias drove, since my mother wasn’t in any shape to. My dad was at work at the time. I sat in the back as Elias weaved perilously through the traffic, barely stopping in time to avoid several what would have been car crashes. He was angry, I could tell, but I didn’t know about what. When we reached the hospital, my mother went straight to the information desk and inquired about her mother.

“I’m sorry, M’am. Abigail Swanson just passed away.”

My mother sank to her knees, and Elias knelt next to her, alarmed. I stood back and watched it all happen as if I wasn’t even there. I felt detached from the world, like everything was going on in a separate dimension from where I existed. Suddenly, the floor began to crumble, and then it dropped out from beneath my feet. I fell and fell, but didn’t hit anything. And just when I thought I was going to keep falling forever—

I woke up suddenly, gasping for air. My face was stuck to the sheets and I was shaking like there was no tomorrow. The clock told me that it was now 11:02. I have to get out of here.

I sat up slowly, wincing as the movement caused pain to shoot through my back and wrist. Flashes of what happened last night ran through my mind, and I instantly forced them to stop. I got up and went into the bathroom, quickly washing my face and brushing my teeth. I changed into a lightweight pair of blue sweatpants and a yellow shirt, and then pulled my hair up into a ponytail. I grabbed a pair of black flip flops out of the box of shoes I still hadn’t unpacked, seized a book at random, and headed downstairs.

I walked as quietly as possible past the kitchen in case Elias was there, but he wasn’t. I could hear loud snoring coming from his room down the hall. I took a water bottle from the fridge and went out the back door. The beach was literally right there. Our house faced the street, but all the rooms in the back of the house had large windows that looked out on the ocean. I walked carefully down the rocky path—falling and splitting my skull open wasn’t exactly how I’d hoped to start the morning—until I reached a spot in the middle of the beach.

The touristy part was obviously several miles away, and most houses in this area had a mile or two of private ocean view. I plopped myself down a few feet from the water; far enough away so my feet wouldn’t get soaked, but close enough that the spray from the waves would hopefully cool me off if it got too warm. I opened my book and began to read.

I was so into the novel that I didn’t hear the soft footsteps of someone coming up behind me.

“Hey,” a voice said. I jumped and the book flew out of my hands, snapping shut upside down a few feet away.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

I turned to see who it was and had to remind myself to breathe. It was the guy who had about run me over in the lunchroom two weeks ago. He wore nothing but some black swim trunks and some sunglasses. I had to tear my gaze away from his muscled chest.

“You’re Elias’s sister…Korinne, right?” he asked, sitting next to me.

Oh, god.

I nodded.

“I’m Brian,” he said, smiling.

I smiled back and hoped I didn’t look like too much of an idiot.

“So what were you reading?”

I reached over and grabbed the book, handing it to him. He read the back cover and handed it back to me.

“Sounds interesting. Is it good?”

I nodded again in response, keeping my eyes on the sand. I was wondering how long it’d be before he got fed up with my not talking and left. Weirdly, I found myself not minding the company.

“So…Elias said you didn’t talk…” he trailed off.

I looked up at him, wondering where he was going.

“You know, that’s oddly refreshing. It’s nice to be around someone who doesn’t feel the need to fill every second with noise.”

I raised an eyebrow. There were so many things I wanted to ask him, but I knew the words wouldn’t come out even if I tried. Why is he still talking to me? Why doesn’t he seem to think I’m boring? Does he brush his hair to get it like that, or does he just roll out of bed looking drop dead sexy?

He seemed to guess what I was thinking. Not about his sexiness, though. Thank god.

“Am I making you uncomfortable? Do you not like it when people talk to you?”

I started to shake my head but realized that would give him a confusing answer, so I took out my phone and typed in a text message.

“It’s fine. People don’t usually talk to me, though.”

Brian read what I wrote and looked perplexed. “Why not?”

I shrugged.

“Well, I think its pretty nifty. Everyone has their own thing, you know? Your thing is just being silent. Hey, you’re like a mime! Except you don’t really mime things…and damn, I sound like an idiot right about now,” he babbled.

I smiled. It was scary how easily that seemed to happen over the past few minutes.

“You’re not an idiot…but, nifty? Who says that anymore?” I wrote.

Did I know him well enough to tease him? Oh, hell.

Brian laughed. “Brian Haner says nifty,” he said, referring to himself in the third person.

Hmm, so his last name is Haner.

What are you gonna do, use that information to stalk him or something?

No! Of course not....maybe.

“BRRIIIAAANNN!!”

A loud, shrill voice rang out clearly across the beach. Brian sighed.

“WHAT, MOM?” he shouted in the direction of the house next to ours.

“THERE’S A SPIDER ON THE KITCHEN CEILING!”

He rolled his eyes. “I gotta go. My mom’s such a pansy when it comes to bugs,” he explained.

I nodded. I was the same way—bugs freaked me out.

“I’ll see you around school, then?”

I nodded again and waved as he jogged off towards the house. I hadn’t realized that anyone lived in the house next to us.

Sure makes that whole stalking thing a bit easier, doesn’t it?

Shut up!

I watched him until he disappeared inside the house. Then I picked my book up again and tried to find my spot again, but it was proving impossible. Because my mind was thinking only two words, over and over again. And those two words were ‘Brian’ and ‘Haner’.

+++

6:45 P.M.
Brian;;

“Syn! Where the hell are you?” Zacky shouted from somewhere upstairs.

“On top of your mom!” I shouted back.

“I’m flattered that you think of me that way, Brian, but could you please not scream it across the house?” Mrs. Baker said.

Jimmy and Matt cracked up as Mrs. Baker walked past us, carrying a basket of clean laundry up the stairs.

“I…uh…s-sorry…” I managed to say. I hadn’t realized that she was home.

“Good job, man,” Matt said, wiping his eyes.

“Shut up.”

“You should have seen the look on your face!” Jimmy choked out, still laughing hysterically.

“I hate you all,” I said bitterly.

We were in Zacky’s basement, lounging around on the various couches and chairs. Final Destination 2 was blaring loudly from the television screen as we waited for everyone else to get here. Since we all had such busy schedules with school and all that extracurricular shit, the only time we really had together was band practice and the Sunday Night Movie Tradition that Stevie started two years ago. We’d all gather at someone’s house and watch a few movies until the person’s parents either kicked us out or someone remembered that they had homework due the next day. This week we were planning on watching Final Destination 3, only Matt hadn’t seen the second one yet, so he had gotten here early to watch it.

“I think the girls are here,” Zacky said, walking into the room as the doorbell rang. We heard Mrs. Baker open the door, and then several sets of footsteps as the girls ran downstairs.

“We come bearing gifts!” Stevie shouted. She dumped a large grocery bag of junk food out on the floor.

“Dude, be careful with that. If any of that shit gets on the carpet, my mom will crucify your ass,” warned Zacky.

“You guys are so going to die prematurely of a heart attack,” Delia declared as we grabbed at the food. She carried a small lunchbox that I imagined was full of that organic junk she was so fond of.

A collective eye roll took place as everyone reached for the food anyway.

“Are we ready to start the movie?” Zoe asked. She picked up a package of powdered doughnuts off of the floor and came and sat next to me on the couch.

“Almost,” I replied.

Matt’s eyes were glued to the screen as the movie drew to a close. The barbeque exploded, sending the severed arm of the guy in front of it flying through the air where it came to land on the table in front of the kid’s mother, who screamed.

“Awesome!” Matt exclaimed while the credits started to roll.

“Awesome? That was a severed arm, Matt,” Stevie said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“I know! That’s why it was so awesome!”

Stevie shook her head and started crunching on some popcorn.

“Can we start the movie now? I’m ready to see some people get smushed in a roller coaster,” Johnny said, appearing out of nowhere at the bottom of the stairs.

“Where were you?” I asked.

“I told you, my dad was making me baby-sit those brats across the street from us. I just got here,” he said, annoyed.

“Oh.”

“Let’s get this over with. I’ve got a World History test tomorrow that I still haven’t studied for,” Zoe sighed.

She laid her head on my shoulder, and I wrapped my arms around her small frame. It was more out of routine than out of actual desire, I realized. After being with Zoe for nearly two years, I was starting not to feel the spark anymore. It wasn’t like I hated her or anything; our relationship just lacked the spontaneity we used to have. Yeah, I loved her, but frankly, sometimes the girl bored the hell out of me.

About halfway through the movie, Delia got to her feet suddenly.

“Tell me when this part’s over,” she said quickly as two girls were getting burned to death in tanning beds on the screen. “If I have to keep watching this, I’m going to vomit. As in, projectile.”

“Eww! Go on; get your ass out of here!” Stevie exclaimed. She shoved Delia slightly and returned her gaze to the screen. A few of us laughed; we’ve all teased Delia about her weak stomach at least a few times.

Zoe’s hands were twined with my own as the movie played on. The warmth was nice, but I felt my mind wandering. There were only so many times you could watch Death’s shadow chase after someone before it got old. I let my thoughts travel where they wanted and they soon settled on my conversation with Korinne at the beach. I didn’t know why, but I liked talking to her…even if she didn’t talk back. There was something about her that made me sure she was taking in everything around her, and that she didn’t miss a thing, despite her silence. And I was also really curious as to why she didn’t talk. She might have implied that it was nothing, but the look in her eyes told me something else.

There was an explosion of some sort on the screen, and Zoe jumped, bringing my attention back to the present.

“You okay?” I asked.

She giggled nervously.

“Yeah, this is just a bit freaky. No way in hell am I letting my mom go to the tanning salon anymore,” she replied.

I nodded. Zoe was abnormally close with her mom, which I thought was kind of strange, but she seemed to be happy with it.

I ran a hand through her hair slowly and brought her face close to mine for a quick kiss, suddenly wondering why I had been thinking about someone else when I had a perfectly amazing girlfriend sitting right beside me.