you can hear it in the silence

chapter three

**tw**
mention of alcoholism, abuse and abandonment
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Wes

It's the fourth day of classes and I'm already over it.
School has never came hard to me, but it's still the effort that it takes.

I'm exhausted and hungry and so fucking ready to be out of my Philosophy class.

My gosh, if I have to hear this guy ramble anymore nonsense about morals and the trolley problem I'm going to lose my mind.
Three hour lectures are not for the faint of heart.

The girl sitting next to me obviously is feeling the same way because she leans over to say, "oh my gosh I'm so tired of his voice."
I just take a breath and nod my head in agreement.

I hear a crinkle of a bag and see a guy a couple rows down pull out a bag of chips.

Fuck, now my stomach is growling.

I didn't get to eat before this class because I was caught taking care of my drunk father who called me this morning needing help.

Seven in the morning and he's drunk off his ass. Real classy, dad.

My dad's always been a sorry piece of shit drunk, but once my mom finally stuck to her word and left him, he really took a turn for the worse.

Part of me hates him so much that I tell myself that I need to get a new phone and destroy any evidence that I ever knew him but the other, better, half of me still feels some remorse for the piece of shit.

You know, 'he's still your family' and all that honorable bullshit.

At least I know now I can take him.
He used to scare me when my mom first left and took a trip to visit her sisters two states away for a month.

I guess she figured that he was just a sorry drunk who wasn't ever going to pick up anything in his life but he would never do anything to actually hurt me, which is why she left me with him for that month.

It's not her fault.
What kind of person would ever think that their husband, the father of your kid, would ever do anything to hurt them?

He first hit me when I was 15 and that kept going until I was 17 when I finally realized that I wasn't scrawny kid anymore.

I was 6'3" and could fight back.

Coward never touched me again, but he does still call.
When he's too drunk to have any coherent thoughts and can't even make it to the couch.

My stomach growling again pulls me away from my thoughts and I silently thank them.

I would go by the dining hall and grab a bite to eat, but I have exactly enough time to walk to my next class before lecture starts.

I could skip, but no way am I missing a chance to annoy the hell out of Adare.

After the longest, most excruciating three hours of my life, my Philosophy lecture is finally over.
As I'm gathering my things, the girl beside me says, "I'm Cass, by the way, nice to meet you."

I turn my head as I stand up and give a slight smile, "Wes, listen I gotta run but I'll see you on Wednesday?" I question.
"Yeah," she smiles, "yeah see you then."

Walking to Oceanography, I feel a slight fall breeze, I love the North so much.

When I get to my next lecture I scan the room and find Adare preoccupied with her laptop already out.

Making my way over to my seat, I toss my bag down and turn to Adare who still hasn't acknowledged me yet, but I know she's annoyed already.

I lean over in a hushed voice, "I don't know if you realized this or not, but the lecture hasn't started yet, Wellsy. You don't have to take notes until the Professor actually starts teaching."

She just rolls her eyes and shakes her head, finally looking up at me.
"Wes do you literally ever shut up? And for the last time, stop calling me that."

Man, I love pissing her off.
It may be the best part of my day.

I've been tormenting Adare since she had pigtails in the first grade. She's probably one of the most quiet, goodey two shoes you'll ever meet.

She's so introverted on top of being shy and won't ever speak up for herself, I've noticed it my whole life.

She gets so fucking annoyed with my presence and I love it.
It's the only time she sheds this quiet, reserved little mouse exterior and actually snap back at me.

Of course I'm never actually going to stop calling her that, but I like that she tries.

I've never seen her do that with anyone else, and a small part of me enjoys that fact.

The Professor starts class and we're learning about latitude and longitude lines, something we learned in the 7th fucking grade. I don't bother taking notes, so I just listen to Professor McClain talk.

The silence between me and Adare is broken when she leans over to whisper, "did you not eat this morning?"

"Why do you care?"
She snaps rights back. "Because your stomach is making so much fucking noise you could wake the dead."

Looking over I see Adare reach over into her backpack and because these lecture seats are so close together, her arm slightly brushes my leg.

She pulls out something small and hands it over to me.

A granola bar.

"Here, eat this," she whispers.
Instead of taking the granola bar, I just stare at her while she speaks again.

"Wes I can't focus listening to your fucking stomach growl anymore."
"I'm not eating your granola bar."

She has a stern, but obviously annoyed look on her face, "Wes," she says while grabbing the granola bar and pushing it to my chest, "eat it," she demands.

I just roll my eyes and take the damn granola bar.

༉‧₊˚✧.*
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