Whispers that Scream

Chapter Ten

Adam

Adam gazed into the fridge absentmindedly, looking directly at the Dr. Pepper that he had come here for, but didn't move to grab it. His thoughts were occupied by the woman that he had seen with Jane yesterday. He hadn't seen anyone visit her before yesterday, so of course, his curiosity was peaked. Judging by the woman's age and familiarity with Jane, he assumed it was her mother. Assumptions had gotten him into a lot of trouble in the past, so he'd hold back his conclusion until he could be sure.

He grabbed the can of soda from the fridge and headed back to the only chair he sat on in his house, the rocking recliner. It was just after 5:00 pm, and Adam had finished his work for the day. He had been about to get dinner started but had gotten sidetracked thinking of yesterday. Should he have gone down and introduced himself? Did he and Jane know each other well enough to do that? He didn't know. He wished he had a cheat sheet he could refer to so that he would know how to react in all of these situations.

The buzz of his phone broke him out of his deep thinking, making him jump. He grabbed his phone from the table and saw Max's name displayed on the screen.

"Hello?" he answered with his normal greeting.

"Adam, what you up to? I'm just heading home from work," Max answered, his slight Cajun accent leaking through the blue tooth of his car. 

Adam had told him multiple times that he didn't need to shout for it to be picked up through the car's microphone, but Max still felt the need to blow out his eardrums every time they talked. Max called often on his way home from work. He was busy with his wife and son when he got home, so this was the best time to check in on him, not that Adam felt it was necessary to check up on him.

"Not much, just finished work and about to start dinner," Adam replied, offering up no more information. There was a pause where both brothers were waiting for the other to speak.

"Jesus Adam, don't leave me hanging. Did you go talk to Jane? How did it go?" He could hear the exasperation in Max's voice and pictured him throwing up his hands in frustration.

"Max," he said excitedly. "I did it! I went over to her house and told her about my autism, and that I hoped we could be friends. She seemed okay with it, but we'll see." He didn't want to put too much hope into his interactions with Jane so far and disappoint his brother and himself if it didn't work out.

Max gave a triumphant cheer that rang his ears due to the volume. "I told you. Didn't I tell you it would be okay? You have to put yourself out there more. So, what have y'all done so far?"

Adam froze his rocking. "Done?"

Max sighed, letting out a frustrated growl. "Yes, Adam. What have y'all done? Have y'all gone out to do something, hung out, or visited? What have y'all done?"

Adam swallowed. He didn't know they were supposed to go do activities together. His pride at having talked to her a few times disintegrated. Of course, randomly talking to her for a few minutes wasn't the normal thing friends did together. Dammit.

"I've walked over a few times to say hi." As soon as the words came out of his mouth, embarrassment flooded him at how stupid that sounded out loud.

He took a long gulp of his Dr. Pepper and considered his situation. His brother was the most social person he had ever met, well, other than Abby, and no way was he running headlong into that train. Max could make friends with a wall if you gave him a few beers and enough time. "Can you give me some ideas on what to do with her?"

Max snorted at his lack of progress over the week. "Hell Adam, just pick anything. Why don't you take her into town for lunch one day this week?"

That wouldn't be bad. A couple of hours' time commitment and somewhere he was familiar with? Plus, eating would consume a lot of the time they'd spend together and would limit the amount of social interactions he'd have to navigate.