The Only Way Out

His laugh broke the silence. Every day, the boy would come into the classroom, sit down with his notebook and pen, and write. He never spoke to anyone in or out of class, always writing in his notebook, what he wrote, nobody ever knew, but most of the students didn’t care either. Our teacher never called on him to answer any questions, nor did she ever ask him to read aloud; the boy was invisible in our class, at least invisible to everyone but me.

It was Monday when the teacher instructed everyone that we were going to pair up and work on the play we were reading. I was taking notes on the play when our teacher started choosing everyone’s partner. He was sitting in his seat, minding his own business, writing in his notebook when his name was called. His head turned at the mention of his name and so did mine once I realize I was called to be his partner. A sigh passed my lips as I moved to go sit by him, wondering what was going to happen while trying to work with him; would he talk, or keep to himself, and how we were going to pull this off when we read it out loud.

“I was thinking that maybe we should get started with the more difficult section of the play because if we understand that, then the rest of the sections should be easier to get,” I told him, hoping that he was going to say something.

He glanced up at me with a look of surprise on his face, figuring it was because I talked to him, I smiled, then motioned for him to scoot his desk closer to mine. There were less than 5 minutes left of class, which meant no time to work on the play, which in return meant getting a bad grade because you can’t learn lines for a play in only two days.

“If we don’t get-“I started to say, but the bell rang, interrupting me.

“If you want to, you can come over to my house later, so we can work on it,” I told him, as we gathered our things.

He nodded, then fell in line, leaving the room. What did I get myself into? I thought to myself, I mean, this boy doesn’t speak, so what am I supposed to do, this boy is probably going to stay mute during our entire play and both of us are going to get a horrible grade. Why me? The rest of the day went by faster than normal and when the final bell rang, I grabbed my house keys and left the building, rushing out to the parking lot, hoping that my parents would actually be there this time, not forgetting me again. As I walked towards the car, the bottom fell out of the sky, causing me to get soaking wet.

“Great, just freakin’ great!” I said agitated, quickly looking for either of my parents cars.

I was standing in the rain, in the middle of the parking lot, looking for my parents, who just so happened to not be there. What is wrong with them, I thought to myself, do they realize they have more than three kids? I pulled out my phone and called both of my parents, the calls going straight to voicemail both times, apparently not, I confirmed in my head, letting out an aggravated sigh. I turned around and started walking back towards the school, hoping that one of the seniors would take me home. As I walked back to the school, an arm grabbed me, pulling me to stop in my tracks.

“What do you-“I began, until I saw who had a hold of my arm, “Oh, um, hi Ethan.”

He let go of my arm and I blushed furiously, I almost yelled at my English partner, what kind of moron would do that? Ethan opened his mouth, as if he was about to speak, but quickly closed it and nodded towards a truck less than a foot away.

“You have a nice truck?” I questioned, quickly adding, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come home with me,” Ethan finally got out, “t, to work on the project, I mean.”

“What, I, um, I guess,” I mumbled.

The corners of his lips turned up as he smiled a small, but genuine smile. He turned away and began walking to the truck, with me following close behind.