The Cry of Silence

1 - The News

TW: scars

                               - M A E V E -

It may have been a normal Australian 30°C summer day but to me I was dying in my long sleeves. Leah thinks I'm crazy for constantly wearing full covering clothes but if she saw my scars, I think she would change her mind.

"Maeve! I truly don't understand how you are still living under those clothes but you do you, I suppose. Anyway, guess what! Kai Ashton comes back to school tomorrow!" Leah said excitedly to me.

I gave her a blank look back. I had only been in Australia for a year and had no idea who this Kai was.

"Ohh, you weren't here when it happened. He got time in juvie last year and has been on good behaviour patrol for the last two months," she said as we started to walk to homeroom.

"What did he do?" I asked curiously.

I'm not one who gets sucked into gossip but I was surprisingly interested in what this boy had done to get himself in juvie.

"Well, no one really knows. There was a lot of rumours and all of them were different. Some said he killed someone. Others said he broke into a house and robbed them. There was more so we don't know what one is real," she paused long enough for me to cut in.

"Well, it must have been bad enough for him to end up in juvie though, right?" I said as we took our usual seats at the back of the classroom. Leah nodded in reply as the teacher started to take the roll.

School was easy for me, especially now. I had already done most of the work back in the UK and so I knew how to do everything.

Leah would be the one to take the notes while I would sit in the back corner and draw in my notepad. The teachers always tried to get me to participate more but I never would.

I had changed a lot since the accident. I was no longer quiet and reserved. I would talk back to the teachers, never in a unrespectful way and was more confident in myself. It was a mask for the pain and hate of myself that I held inside of me.

Since the accident I hated how I looked, and so did Dad. I couldn't bear to look at mirrors, scared I would see Serenity instead of myself.

We looked too similar and Dad couldn't stand to look at me. I would wear long pants and hoodies to hide how I looked. They would hide the shape of my body, the scars, the fact I looked like my dead twin. I would wear my hoodie up to try and cover my face, especially at home.

Most teachers had given up trying to get me to take it off but a few of them were persistent and it ended up with me spending a lot of time in detention, which I never complained about. I liked detention.

Weird I know but it got me away from Dad and the depressing place I call home. Sometimes I'm lucky and Dad would be at the bar all night and would pass out for hours when he would get home.

Leah has never been to my house, I'm too scared of what Dad would do to her.

The day passed slowly with the scorching heat and boring classes. By the time it was 3pm and we could finally leave, I was dripping with sweat.

"Hey wanna get ice cream?" I asked Leah as we were packing our books up.

She looked up and nodded gratefully.

"Yess, I need something to beat this heat," she groaned, grabbing her bag and headed to the door.

Going to the Waffle Bowl is a weekly tradition for Leah and I ever since we became friends last year. It had been such a long going ritual that the staff knew our orders.

The walk to the shop was short but hot. The sun beat down onto the pair and when a cold blast of air shot out of the ice cream shop door onto both of the girls, they gratefully accepted it.

"The regulars please Julie!" Leah called out and received a quick 'You got it!' and smile from Julie.

I sank down into our regular table which was right next to a massive front window. It had a view of the sparkling blue ocean which was wildly busy with people trying to escape the heat.