The mute witness

Chapter Four

Avalon (Harley)'s POV

I wake up with a jolt, these nightmare memories are getting out of control, its 3 AM, and I can't sleep anymore, so I get out of my bed, careful not to wake up Zsolt and just walk around the house quietly, then about a half-hour later I remember about his bruises, so I look for foundation powder and concealer and find it, so I put it on the counter for him to use when he wakes up.

I end up sitting on my floor and reading until I hear him stir awake.

"Morning," he says, his morning voice prominent.

"Morning," I say.

"How long have you been up?" he asks.

"Couldn't sleep"

"Oh, well, anyway, I need to use the bathroom, I'll be right back," he says putting a stray strand of hair off my face. I give him a smile in return.

I get back into my book after our interaction, my heart feeling lighter after the nightmare already.

It takes a while for him to come back out, I think he was covering up his bruises, which I don't blame him for doing, I was the only one who knew about them and that they were even there...I think.

"It's not exactly the right shade, but I made it work, thank you hummingbird" he said walking into my room and hugging me from behind.

"Hummingbird?" I ask.

"The nickname I thought of for you," He said, "I think it's perfect for you and very inside, just me, and you understand why you're called it."

"And why is that?" I look at him.

"Your voice is beautiful, and you are as graceful as a bird," he said grabbing me by my waist.

I giggle, why is he doing this to me, I never giggle "That is a bit too cheesy for my taste"

Then I realize what we're doing, and my face goes blank, and I get out of his hands at my waist, my mind is remembering what I never want to remember again.

"What's wrong" he asked, his voice concerned.

I shake my head as though I'm coming back to reality and go to grab clothes and stuff to shower.

The shower doesn't do what I want it to and what was supposed to be one of my long showers, ends up being a short one. When I get out, I'm rushing to get clothes on and I'm trying to not look in the mirror, I don't want to see my body, but curiosity gets the better of me.

I look at my stomach and I can almost tell something is there and I just sit against the sink and silent tears fall down my face.

God, I'm such a baby. I cry too much, and I can't do this, I can't-I my thoughts get interrupted when I hear a knock at the door, and I wipe my face of the tears.

"You alright" I hear Zsolt say through the bathroom door.

I get off the floor and get out of the bathroom.

I nod to him to say, "I'm alright."

"Well, anyway, it's like 6, so do you want to finish that tour of the town before school?"

I nod and start walking toward the window

"Let me put my number in your phone so we can just text at school," I write in my notebook

He hands me his phone and I punch in my number and send him a simple "Hi" so that I knew that I put in the right number and then we started walking again.

The town tour was great, I take pictures of some scenes that I think are pretty, we text talk a bit and at 7:45 we head to school. And when we're walking and I'm looking at his features, his Ice blue eyes, his strong jawline, and soft face, I can't help but smile. 

My train of thought left the track it was on when we got to school, and stares were coming my way and I didn't know why.

"Hey, it's ok, new kids always get stared at their first few days at the school until something more "gossipy" happens" Zsolt explained in an almost mocking voice. It's obvious he doesn't like school or the kids in it.

I nod as a weak smile stretches at my lips.

He holds my hand until we get into the school, and we go our separate ways to get to our lockers and then class, in which we had the same classes most of the day.

School is boring like always, but Zsolt and I text most of the day.

Photography was the best class of the day and my last, so I was really excited for that class.

I got my first project for the class, "new beginnings". I had thought of so many ideas for it too.

I could do photos of the town.

The school

A new year's party.

Sunsets

And more than my brain was working too fast to remember, but I was going to go with the sunset idea.

I met up with Zsolt At the courtyard in front of the school and we started text talking again

"Are you going to come to Hadley's, or what are you going to do?"

"Probably just set up camp at the rooftop and sneak in at night to shower."

"No, you are going to ask Hadley to let you stay, I may not know a lot there yet, but I know she'd let you stay."

"I'll be fine," he says, shoving his phone into his pocket.

I don't know what to do, so I just put my phone away and make sure my hair is up and start to walk back to the house.

The walk is sort of peaceful, but my eyes are going everywhere to make sure there's not a monster in the bushes and my mind is running a thousand miles an hour.

When I get back, I feel sick again, so I sit in the bathroom until the bile comes out.