The Other Side of Silence

The Introduction

Rome sweet Rome.

We just landed in Italy and boy was the sight beautiful. The cold breeze danced with my hair, as I rubbed my hand against my eyes in an attempt to keep me awake.

Slowly, I felt myself being picked up from the ground and being carried on something hard.

I opened my eyes and found my self staring at someone's neck.

"Put me down." I whined at the random stranger who held me tightly against his back as I tried to jump off.

"Baby, it's me." I suddenly heard Wyatt's deep voice vibrate in my ear.

I both mentally and physically relaxed, yawned, still feeling sleepy as fuck, and wrapped my arms round his neck and he made me wrap my legs round his hips.

I could feel Wyatt moving. I opened my eyes as his brown locks tickled my neck. My hands found their way to his hair and I heard him let out a groan of satisfaction. I wanted to smack his head so bad, but I don't really know how he'll react, I love being pampered and babied and carried, and I'd rather not be put down to walk as a punishment.

But suddenly, he stopped walking. My eyes flew from his hair to the possible reason why he stopped walking. In front of us, was none other than Zander, hand in hand with a pretty blonde girl.

Wyatt's body tensed immediately and his jaw clenched. Why? I don't know, but I didn't like it.

I rubbed my palm against his arm to try and calm him down, luckily it worked.

Zander hadn't noticed us, so Wyatt took that as an advantage and started to walk back in the direction we were coming from.

"Oh hey, Ava. It's been a while." Wyatt stopped walking and growled.

He actually growled. I stared at him as he started mumbling some incoherent words under his breath as he slowly and obviously painfully turned around.

His jaw literally ticked as he stared at Zander.

"How may I help you?" Wyatt beat me to it and spoke on my behalf, seeing as I was still very much sleepy.

"Um, I would love to talk with Ava, that's if you don't mind..." Zander trailed off nervously.

Although this is the second time I'm meeting him, he seems different from before, nervousness isn't a trait Zander had on the plane that day, so why does he have it now?

Suspicious

"Oh I mind, very much." Wyatt said through gritted teeth, probably looking Zander straight in the eye.

"Well, I just wanted to clear something up with her-" Wyatt cut him off.

"What don't you understand by I mind? I mean I don't want you talking to her." He was very much fuming at this point, but why? That's still unknown to me.

"That's okay." I cooed into Wyatt's ear as I played with his hair in an attempt to calm him down, which worked.

I jumped off Wyatt's back and faced Zander properly. I could hear Wyatt complaining about me getting off him, but I didn't react to that.

Sometimes I wonder who the baby of this relationship is.

"I'm all ears." I finally answered Zander.

He looked relieved that I didn't have Wyatt answering him anymore.

Wyatt suddenly wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back towards his chest, then placed his chin on my head.

Yes, he's that tall.

Or maybe I'm just short.

"Okay good." He started.

"Firstly, quick question, has Drake talked to you since you guys' date?" Wyatt tensed. His grip on my waist tightened, but not enough to hurt.

That's still a sore topic right now, kinda.

"Um, no. Why are you asking anyways?" I asked.

"No reason in particular, well... He told me what happened, he also told me how he left while you were in the bathroom... And how deeply he regrets not leaving you a note." He said, pain and regret reeking off his words.

"How would a note make up for his absence?" I snapped, anger filling my veins.

"I thought you might be mad about it, that's why I'm here. To clear the misunderstanding." Zander suddenly stepped forward and raised his hands in the air in mock surrender.

Out of all places my eyes could've fixated on, it happened to be his right wrist. He had the same tattoo that Drake and Luke had. The exact same.

I'm starting to think they belong to a secret community or some sort of cult.

Wyatt must have noticed it too because what he whispered into my ears was something related.

"Did you say Drake and Luke had a snake tattoo on their right wrist?" I just nodded in response.

He exhaled deeply at my response.

"According to Drake, while you were in the bathroom, he got a call from a family friend that our mom had suddenly collapsed on her way down the stairs. Meaning, she was walking down the stairs, lost consciousness and rolled all the way down the end of the stairs. When they found our mom, she was bleeding from her head and was unconscious. Drake rushed home as soon as he could because, the sooner he got home the sooner he could attend to our mom." My expression suddenly softened.

He left because of his mom.

"Is your mom doing okay now?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, she's doing better. Drake is still with her, that's why he isn't in Italy with me and my class." He finished, getting an uninterested 'okay' out of me.

"Ehem." The blonde beside him finally reminded us of her existence.

"Oh, my apologies, this is Hazel, My girlfriend." He said gingerly, as if excited to talk about her.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet the girl my boyfriend feels comfortable to talk about all the time with me." She gave Zander a silent glare because giggling at me.

I smiled at her, but I wasn't comfortable around her.

I don't know why, but I can just feel peoples aura. It's like my gut feeling telling me who to trust and who not to trust.

I felt this way with Drake and Zander too, heck, I still do but I'm trying to shun that weird feeling I get whenever I'm around them.

"Let me guess Ava, that's your boyfriend right?" Hazel asked me, and I nodded at her.

"Perfect then. I just had this brilliant idea, Why don't we go on a double date then?" She proposed.

I was just about to decline when Wyatt opened his mouth and said the exact opposite of what I wanted to say,

"Yeah sure, we're down. Right baby?" Wyatt brought his lips to my ear and brought my earlobe between his teeth playfully. I couldn't help but giggle.

"Yeah." I responded.

"Sweet. I'll text you the details. Later then." Zander said before walking away.

"Why aren't you as romantic as Ava's boyfriend?" I heard Hazel whine as she walked away with Zander.

I watched him kiss her, and saw her blush.

"Let's go, so we can check into the hotel." Wyatt picked me on his back again and ran off.