The Silence Is Scaring Me

Ashlynn was so grateful for the fact that she didn't have to wake up at four thirty in the morning. She ended up waking up at 9:30, still pretty early, but hey, it was five hours she didn't have before. She instinctively took a quick shower and made breakfast for everyone. She was thankful that Gio let her stay at her house, but she knew she had to go back home eventually. Ashlynn had no money and she was positive that if she was ever found he would beat her close to death, but not bad enough that she couldn't complete her chores, lovely.

She had prepared a lot of food to show how grateful she was. Tom was the first to wake up.

"Food." he said, rubbing his eyes as he walked into the kitchen. He took a link of sausage off one of the plates on the kitchen table. He took a bite out of it, "God bless you."

Alexis smiled. Then she remembered that he knew about her dad. She didn't want him to tell Danny and she really didn't want him to tell the police. In fact, part of the reason she didn't want to tell Danny, or Tom to tell Danny, was in fear that he'd call the police. She knew what her father was capable of and that's what scared her.

"Tom, can you do me a favor?" Alexis said timidly.

"Yeah?" Tom said filling his plate.

"Could you not tell anyone about, you know, my dad?" She asked, pleading on the inside. "And when I say 'anyone' I mean don't tell the police, or Danny,or...Tom just promise me you won't tell anyone."

"Yeah...yeah I promise." he said looking at her sympathetically.

"Oh, thank you so much, Tom." she walked over to him and hugged him.

Ashlynn went over to the stove. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tom looking for something.

"You're phone is on the table next to the couch." she said, never turning around to meet his glance.

Tom spun around on the spot and picked up his phone. He gave her a weird look, she just smiled and continued cooking.

"Can you read my mind or something." he asked, obviously messing with her. She shook her head and laughed. "Four messages, jeez!" he said as Ashlynn put a lid over the pan of sizzling sausages (haha that's fun to say!!! sizzling sausages! sizzling sausages! sizzling sausages!) and leaned with her back against. She looked at Tom, who was in the sitting room. He kept looking at her then at his phone. He did this several times before Ashlynn finally said something.

"Uh, is there something wrong?" she asked him as she rolled the rest of the sausage links onto a plate.

"No, it's just that Danny just sent me a message. It's about you." He said smiling.

"Well are you going to tell me what it says, or am I going to have to beg?" she asked, walking over to him after putting the last of the dishes in the dish washer.

"Well I was gonna make you beg, but I decided it'd be better if I just didn't tell you."

Ashlynn's jaw dropped. "So you're just not gonna tell me what it says."

"Nope." He said smiling.

"Well then you shouldn't have told me at all! Now it's going to bother me forever! Come on just let me see it!" she said snatching at the phone, but Tom held it in the air so that she couldn't reach it because she was so short.

"Well aren't we just the nosy one?" he said teasing her.

"Come on, give me the bloody phone!" she said jumping and reaching for the mobile that he was dangling above her head. "Ow!" she squealed, instantly putting her hands over her ribs.

"You okay?" Tom asked taking his hand out of the air.

"Yeah, my side still hurts a bit." she said quietly, as if speaking loud would make it hurt worse.

"Well lets just say, hypothetically, I just so happened to 'accidentally' leave my phone out here while I went to the toilet and you, just by chance, somehow, I don't know, took a small look at the message, then it would really be no one's fault. Hypothetically, of course." He said.

Ashlynn looked up and smiled. Tom set his mobile on the table next to the couch and tip toed away into the bathroom.

"He's mental." she said quietly, smiling as she walked over and picked up the phone off the table. She went to the menu and to the little envelope icon that said messages. The first message was from Danny. She clicked on it and read,

" Ashlynn is really awesome. You think I should ask her out?"

Ashlynn smiled when she saw that Tom hadn't replied. She clicked the button that said "reply" and wrote,

"Yeah mate, I really think you should."

Ashlynn smiled. She couldn't help herself. She really liked Danny and really didn't see the problem in just moving the process along a little faster. It's not like she'd ever had a boyfriend, not a serious one at least. She was always fancied Danny, especially after the first time she met him. It would make her so happy if Danny was her boyfriend. He was kind, cute, funny, and not intimidating to her at all. In short he was her idea of perfect. Another plus was that she'd actually have a reason to wake up in the morning.

Just as Ashlynn finished her thoughts Gio walked out of her room.

"You doing okay Ash? You seemed really wound up last night." She asked, then she turned and saw all of the food on the counter. "You made all of this?"

"Danny wants to ask me out." she said in a small voice.

"I'm sorry, what?" she said. She didn't know about them meeting at "A Cafe".

"We were talking at this coffee shop and he texted Tom saying that he wanted to go out with me." Ashlynn explained.

"Why are you looking in Tom's mobile?" she asked, laughing.

"He gave me permission. In his own way I guess." she said shaking her head and smiling as she remembered their conversation.

"So did you find anything interesting?" Tom asked, walking back into the sitting room.

"You know, you could have just told me that Danny was going to ask me out. You didn't have to torture me." Ashlynn said tossing the phone to Tom.

"Well that's no fun at all. Is it?" He said after giving Gio a short kiss.

Now that Ashlynn knew Danny wanted to ask her out, waiting was going to be the worst part.