The silence

May 4th 2020

14:03

"Rescue services are still pulling lifeless bodies from collapsed buildings and rubble piles days after the 7.0 earthquake..."

I sighed to myself, the earthquake was the only thing on the news and in the newspapers right now. I just needed a break, I came down here to for a change, not to relive the past. I opened my phone to see no new messages or notifications but only another BBC news alert. I was just hoping my friends were doing okay back home. I decided to go up to my room and change out of my usual attire of track suit bottoms and a crop top and actually go outside for the first time in about, maybe three days. My aunt's house was actually seeming more dreadful than I first thought.

My friends were all about 400 miles away, and there was nothing to do in plain sight. The only thing I could think of to do was go on a walk and maybe take some pictures. I grabbed my camera from the shelf and a good lens and put it in my tote bag along with my cigs and phone charger. I then went and pulled on my doc martens and took my denim jacket from the rack and went back downstairs and walked out of the glass front door. Once I locked the door, I got to the end of the drive and decided to walk towards the main town instead of the mountain route, which didn't really look appealing right now with all the fog, and I'd rather not walk alone.

As I walked through the quite alleys and country roads in the town, I realized I really didn't fit in here. Having dyed hair and piercings was nothing out of the ordinary back home, but here, I guess it was. I turned down another alley in the town centre, walking past another coffee and cake shop, groups of old women looking down their noses at me, as if I were scum. I shrugged it off, they were nothing to worry about. I continued walking round, occasionally getting out my camera if I saw something that caught my eye. I wondered past a little shop on a corner, what was it called, "Sam's". Original, I thought. I took a look inside, seeing row after row of checkered shirts and denim clothes and it looked like I had just walked into my closet. I was actually amazed something like this existed somewhere as plain as this town. "Hi, can I help you" I was shocked out of my thoughts, by a burly man with long hair behind the register staring in my direction.

"Oh, um, no, I'm fine, just looking" I replied quietly, trying my hardest to stop my cheeks from heating up".

"Just looking'. You don't come in here to just look. We only get a few people come in here, and I can't say I've ever seen you here before, darling." he replied, looking me up and down smiling.

"I-I've just moved here; I was just looking round the town and stuff." I said back anxiously, not that I felt uncomfortable or anything, I just wasn't sure what to say and whether he was scouting me out.

"I thought so, you come down here from the storm or something" he asked, shifting on his stall.

"Yeah" I mumbled. He hummed back in response and carried on jotting something down on a clipboard behind the register. I decided I'd spent long enough in here and walked back outside. I looked around me, and there didn't seem to be anywhere else to go to, so I started to walk back home, once again ignoring the eyes burning into the back of my skull.

I arrived back to an empty house as per usual. It was eerily quiet, which I really didn't like. I never coped well with silence. I connected my phone to the speaker bar that was by the TV in the living room to fill the emptiness and I went to retrieve my guitar which I only bought here to encourage me to play it more. I walked out onto the front porch and left the door open to allow the music to flow out, overlooking the nearby village and had a beautiful view of the miles and miles of forest and fields.

I sat on the edge of the steps and began to strum along to the tune of 'Daylily' by Movements, which I'd learned only a few weeks ago. I slowly began to get lost in the rhythm of the song and I was soon enough belting out the lyrics. I was suddenly interrupted out of my little daydream when I heard a male voice humming along with me. I instantly stopped and nearly threw my guitar across the porch when I looked up. There was a man, maybe 20 or so? He had this crazy, messy hair that was stood up all over the place and a fluffy-ish slight ginger beard. He was leant against the railings of the porch, and he had a lopsided smile plastered onto his face. I let out a little scream at his surprising presence which made him flinch. We stared at each other for what felt like an eternity but was actually about 20 seconds before either of us spoke. They say you have to look at a person for roughly 7 seconds, to call it love at first sight. Like any of that was real though. I could not fall for someone again. Not after last time.