Between Us Was Silence

Prologue

I step onto the spacious porch. A bench in front of the window and a hanging pot sitting beside it. I can smell the grass, which makes sense because, in the distance, I can hear someone mowing their lawn. The breeze makes me cold, but the sun makes me warm. Clouds soar over me as I look up. My mom said a while back that anything with light blue in the sky was a good day.

"Con, say hello to Vianna," my mom impatiently said to me.

"Hello," I say.

The girl in front of me stood to the left next to her mother. My mom and I were visiting her because she wanted to celebrate the girl's mother's new job position.

"You're so adorable, Andrew! Ah, come in! Come in!" Her mom ushered me and my mom into her house. It was quite small, but it felt like a typical Asian household, with incense, those Asian New Year's calendars, and stuff like that.

"Your son, he's so tall for his age and quite handsome!" Her Vietnamese accent was quite strong speaking English. He has blue eyes like the Americans!"

My mom grinned. "He's a bit of a rowdy boy. But that's just kids these days, right?"

My mom and Vianna just stood there while our moms kept talking about their personal lives and whatnot. I looked at Vianna, and she was staring at me blankly. She didn't seem like she had the courage to talk to me; she must be an introvert or something like that.

Her brown eyes kept staring at me; black, shining hair was styled into pigtails. She was shorter than me, and her head was just enough to reach above my shoulders.

Her mom quickly takes a glance at us. "Oh, you two can sit on that couch right there in the living room! I'll get you some fruits for you guys to eat." She and my mom left to the kitchen, cutting up fruits while talking more about their work life.

I headed to the couch. Vianna followed suit. We sat next to each other, and I pulled out my 3DS. I brought it over in case I got bored. Vianna's eyes shimmered, looking at the 3DS. She quickly ran off to somewhere and came back with her 3DS in hand.

"What games do you play?" she asked.

"This new shooter game. You shoot a bunch of zombies and stuff. It's called Zombie Run and Gun. Here, I'll show you." I turned my screen over to her so she could take a glance at it.

"Wait, I have that game too! Let's play it together." She created a multiplayer game for the two of us. I joined her room party, and she started the match.

We repeatedly clicked on the buttons, slaying all the zombies that came up in our path. Soon, we reached a level where it took a while to defeat the boss. "Where are you from?" I asked, breaking the silence we had completely focused on the game.

"Topeka. My mom got a new job here," she replied.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. That's why I'm here in the first place," I said.

We became silent for a moment. I could feel her pressing the buttons a bit more harshly.

The boss is defeated, and we move on to the next level. "Geez, you don't have to be mean about it."

Another moment of silence ensued.

She looked up at me. "You know we're going to the same school, right?"

"Yeah, I guess. Doesn't mean we're gonna be in the same class."

"Well, I hope we have the same homeroom teacher."

"Sure. Whatever you say," I murmured.

Vianna told me her parents split up and her dad is working overseas. Occasionally, she receives gifts from her father, but she doesn't bother with them. Boring stuff that I didn't understand much.

"The gifts felt empty," she said. "There's no fun when it means nothing. Oh, uh, sorry for saying a lot of this stuff to you. Don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," I replied. I didn't know what to say about this as it was so out of the blue. I stayed silent. I heard footsteps coming toward us.

Vianna's mom came over. "You two look like you're having a lot of fun."

"Yeah," we both said.

"We both are," Vianna added.

My mom walked into the living room with the fruits. "Con, would you like to come back here again?"

I took a glance at Vianna. She smiled.

I then looked over to my mom. "Yeah, I think this place is cool."

From that day on, every Friday, my mom brings me back here. Vianna turns out to be more than cool. She becomes the person I tell everything to, the person who somehow understands me without needing words.

That's the story of how we met.