Speechless

I held my breath and opened the front door of my house. I poked my head through to see it was empty. Relief washed through me as I walked in. Brendon had a protective stance near me the whole time. It was a bit odd, but I honestly didn’t mind it so much. I became tense again as I walked around, waiting for my dad to show up, but he never did.

“Where’s your dad?” he asked. Hell if I knew. I shrugged at him, and started examining the house. After a little bit of the detective game, I found a note on the table along with a thick wad of cash from only God knows where.

“Ryan-
I’m going to be out of town until the end of July. My job has transferred me to a temporary spot in California. Here’s some money for food. The bills have already been paid in advance. Oh, and you’re in huge trouble, by the way.
-Your father.”

Well… I could postpone the beating until August, right? No big deal. I plopped down on one of the dining chairs, and Brendon did the same. “Well, hopefully he forgets by then?”

I mouthed, “doubt it” to him. Well, at least I could spend the majority of the summer with Brendon before school started for him, right? It was only July 3rd at the moment, according to my phone’s calendar. Then I realized that tomorrow was the Fourth of July. I wrote down on my notebook, “Hey, I just remembered that tomorrow is July 4th.”

“Oh shit, it is?” Brendon asked. I nodded my head once, and he asked me, “Would you like to come over then? We usually just do our own little backyard show. I’m not a big fan of the big fire works.”

I mouthed the words “me either” at him. He smiled, “Then it’s a date… uh… I mean.” I laughed. It was weird how I could easily let my voice escape it’s restraints through laughter around him, but when it came to words, I was powerless.

“It’s okay, I know what you meant,” I wrote down. He smiled. I noticed how perfect his face was when he smiled. I wasn’t sure why I noticed it, but I did.

“What are you looking at?” he joked. I snapped out of my little daze and shook my head. Well, that’s embarrassing.

We decided there was nothing to do at my house, so Brendon and I cleaned ourselves up, then went on a walk. We walked down to the park and sat on the swing set for no good reason. Then, I saw him. I remembered a boy in my grade when I was younger who constantly ridiculed my lack of speech. I hated that kid so much. Brendon noticed the tension building up in me when I saw him, but didn’t question it. I just put my head down and pretended not to notice him.

Then he spoke, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, no way. Ross? Ryan Ross? I thought you died or something.” He laughed. He probably had hoped I died.

Brendon looked at me in confusion, “You know him? I thought you didn’t go to school here.” I nodded and wrote down, “elementary school” in my notebook.

“Oh, still not talking, eh?” he said. “Figures. Who’s this guy anyways?” he asked, pointing at Brendon.

“Hi, my name’s Brendon. I just moved in next door to Ryan,” he said, and he sounded almost euphoric when he said my name. It made me feel wanted and loved in ways I had never felt before.

“Why are you hanging out with him, though? He’s such a loser.”

So, he still hated me after all these years even though I had done absolutely nothing to him in my life. I grunted a bit, but didn’t say anything. He just laughed at me and walked away. Ugh, way to ruin my day.

“Who was that, Ryan?” Brendon asked, his eyes wide with curiosity.

I wrote down my whole life’s story from ages 8 to 10 when I was still in school. I told him about how that guy, Pete, was always making fun of my odd behaviors as a child, and how he was the reason I dropped out of school to take online classes starting in middle school.

“Jesus Christ,” was all he could reply with. Feeling witty, I wrote down the words “I thought you were atheist,” and he laughed. He and I sat there all morning just talking, or rather he talked and I wrote. I felt accepted around him, and that was a great feeling.

It was about midday, and my stomach began to growl again. “Hungry?” he asked. I nodded my head twice and rubbed my stomach. “Let’s go home. We can make some sandwiches or something.” I nodded again and we walked back in silence. It wasn’t an awkward kind of silence though, more of a content and happy kind of silence. The kind that makes you just completely love your life at that moment in time.