Silence

C.1. No More Fairytales

Let me tell you a story. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was four and my parents had just gotten enough money to move out of my grandmas house into a small house on East Street. To little ol' me the house was big, unlike it feels now. The house was my castle and the yard was my magic fairy forest. And in every story that holds a castle, fairy forest, and a princess (who was obviously me of course) there had to be a knight in shinning armor to come rescue me.

I was running around chasing the dog, Pickles, and wasn't watching where I was going. And four year old me tripped over a small boulder laying in the middle of the grass. I would have face planted but out comes my knight in shinning armor to catch me before that happened. I looked up into the most gorgeous eyes I have ever seen still to this day and smiled. Then my knight spoke.

"Watch where you're going, Cricket. You almost hurt that rock." My brows furrowed as I didn't like being called names and at the lack of concern for the actual human this small boy had shown.

"Cricket? That's not my name. It's Gale." I said sternly to this small boy with beautiful eyes and dark as night hair.

"You're dressed like a cricket, Cricket. My name's Owen." I looked down at my outfit and sure enough I was dressed in all green. It is my favorite color and when I was four my mother decided to allow me to dress myself.

"Well, Owen, its not nice to call people names."

"I could have said booger." Owen grinned wide at my disgusted look and then continued to piss four year old me off. "Next time don't be so clumsy."

"Princesses have to be clumsy. How else are they supposed to get all the Knights and Princes to catch them?" My logic was good but not good enough to sway Owen.

"They shouldn't have to catch you if you didn't fall. And plus, there is no Princes and Knights in the real world Cricket. You'll learn that soon enough."

And from that day forward, I never called myself a princess again. Baby Owen had broken me and made all the magic in me fade out. As I grew up I realized all his magic had faded out before he even turned four and I didn't know why. That was the first and the last time I ever really heard Owen Fox speak.

**

Flash foward about 13 years later, same small house, same quiet neighbors and getting ready to start my senior year I was in a great place in my life. I had a college picked out that was only about 30 minutes away from my home town and I had had a great start to my summer but like Owen had told me the very first day we met, fairy tales weren't real.

Owen's parents and mine had gone to some comedy club about an hour away for my mothers birthday. They had told us before they left that we could order a pizza and watch a movie while they were gone so we took advantage and spent the money they had left us. Owen was sitting on the couch, as mute as he always was, and I put the movie in and sat down next to him.

I remember saying things that I thought were funny through out the movie and Owen would nod his head or shake it if he agreed or disagreed. It was like having a one sided conversation or like talking to yourself but I was used to it. I was used to him.

The door bell rang and I jumped up to answer it thinking it was the pizza. When I opened the door there were two policemen standing on my front porch with concerned looks on their faces.

"Hello. Is Gale Hastings here?"

"Um, that's me. Is there a problem?" I felt Owen come up behind me and I could feel his body heat radiating off him and hitting my back.

"Who is this?" One officer pointed behind me and with out looking I told them Owen's name.

"Can we come in? There's something we'd like to talk to the two of you about. Is there any family member one of you can call?"