Speechless (GRETHAN)

Chapter 4: Game On

Grayson Bailey

All through the rest of that day, I was unable to wipe off the smile that'd find its way to my lips. In the matter of an 8 hour school day, I had been stood up for in front of my bullies, I made a new friend and I was also humiliated by a careless waitress but I tried my best to ignore and forget the latter. It'd be surprising how often people mistook me to be deaf.....some even dumb.

I stepped through the door of my dimly-lit apartment to be greeted by the turned on television. The volume was low but the light from its screen was enough to light up the figure's salt and pepper hair, sticking up in all possible directions. He had passed out in front of the idiot box but it was nothing new; it had somehow became part of his usual routine—my father.....stepfather.

I entered my room and placed my sack in a corner. My little table lamp was enough to illuminate my tiny room. I reached for my dresser and grabbed a clean pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. Gathering my bare necessities, I went to take a quick shower.

I was rubbing my damp hair with my towel after stepping out of the shower to hear my father call out my name. "Grayson! I want dinner!" Great, he's awake.

I dumped my towel on my bed and ran to him. "Give me my dinner.",he repeated, switching between television channels. I nodded and ran to the kitchen where I had placed the take-out food. My shift at Target ran late and thus, I didn't have time to cook dinner. A takeaway burger from Denny's Diner would work miracles. I placed the warm burger and French fries on a plate and handed it to my father. He took it and hungrily bit into it. "Hang on lad, fill it up!",he scowled and handed me his glass. Using the remote control in his hand, he pointed to the whiskey bottle perched on the tiny dining table. Whiskey on the rocks, just how he liked it. Doing as told, I filled up his glass and placed it on the stool beside his armchair.

'I'm going downstairs to do laundry.',I typed in my phone and displayed the words to him. His simple response was a nod.

Taking my laundry basket, I left the apartment and went two floors down to the common laundry room of the building. It was nearing 8pm and there was no one at this time. Choosing the machine I usually use, I loaded it with the clothes and took a seat beside it. I usually read a book while doing laundry but the usual light above my habitual spot was non-functional today. The laundry room was darker than usual, making it difficult for me to go about my usual pastime. I began to think of the day once more of all that I had experienced.

Sometimes I felt my life had been remodelled to some awful and absolutely clichéd teenage movie. Almost everything was relatable. I, of course, was the inexplicable nerd, the mute who'd get beaten up by the jocks, made fun of, and hated on because I was different. Hatred fuelled the minds of everyone in this school for an uncontrolled factor that made me different, something that couldn't be changed but that's just how the world behaves. Simply put, humans are losing their humanity. We see and hear terrible injustice happening to animals on the television and the print media but it's long been a trait of humans to terrorise one of their own kind. As Charles Darwin said,'Only the fittest survive'.

Students and teachers in this school were experts at minding their own business and it seemed to derive unknown pleasure to others seeing me getting beaten up, day after day, week after week. Nothing ever made them speak up unless it directly affected them. All this until Ethan walked in and saved me today. Again, I don't know why he did what he did but it made me happy to see someone having their humanity preserved.

Ethan was a beautiful man. His tanned complexion with streaks of light purple dye in his chestnut hair made him look mystical. Black bead earrings in each ear. He was perfected by Jesus. I couldn't wipe off the smirk, the little grin that was on my face as his face appeared in my mind. That sweet face. Out of the blue, my phone went 'ting' in my pocket and I pulled it out, only to smile wider—remembering we had exchanged numbers earlier that day.