Silent Scream

Zoe

Zoe clamped her hands over her ears trying to drown out the sound of banging and yelling, she just wanted everything to be normal. When the noise died down she climbed out of bed and got dressed, her dark braids hung over her shoulders as she pulled her hat on. She stared at the long white scars on her wrists before pulling her gloves on to hide them from the rest of the world.

When she got downstairs her parents were in the kitchen acting as if they hadn't just had a major fight, Zoe grabbed her bag and walked out the door without a word to either of them. The sun was out much to her displeasure, she picked up the pace hoping to get out of the sun as soon as possible. As she turned a corner she heard yelling and saw a boy her age arguing with a woman. He stormed off and Zoe followed him, he stopped at the entrance to the local park.

"You alright?" Zoe asked her boyfriend. Henry turned and met her eyes.

"No." Was all he said. She took in his dark pink Mohawk and all black attire similar to her own. She slipped her hand into his but he looked away from her, they walked together to school splitting off to their own classes. Henry being a senior and Zoe being a junior they almost never saw each other in the day.

Zoe spent the day going through the motions, math, English and history. It was her last two classes where something even mildly interesting happened. First writing, her teacher held her back telling her how disturbing her writing was but Zoe didn't care. She wrote what she felt, and she rarely felt anything good.

After that was art, they were given the assignment to draw the subject of a flower. Zoe didn't see the point but figured she' have to turn something in the next day. When the final bell rang she got out of there as fast as she possibly could and got to her locker. Unfortunately her locker was in between a couple of girls who enjoyed pointing out her flaws. They always called her names, freak, cutter and other things. They weren't wrong but it wasn't nice hearing people confirm what you already know.

Zoe got her things tuning out the insults being thrown at her, slamming the door of her locker she almost ran right into one of the girls. They made up insults about her being clumsy while she walked quickly away. When Zoe finally got out of the school she spotted her friends immediately waiting for her.

Anna and Damian were the only people other than Henry she trusted at all, they were her friends and her soul friends. Henry had already left for their usual spot and the three of them headed over to the park. Anna and Damian were holding hands, just like Henry and herself both of them wore mostly dark colors. Anna had bits of pink here and there otherwise she was just like the rest of them.

When they arrived at the park Henry was sitting beneath a tree strumming his guitar, the three of them joined him settling beneath in the grass and just listening to Henry play. Nobody said anything, they were silent which suited each of them perfectly. All of them had problems at home, lots of yelling and banging and these moments with each other they didn't need to speak to know that all four of them just wanted a bit of peace.

When Henry's song finished they just sat in their comfortable silence before Damian's cell phone rang. When he picked it up all of them could hear his step father yelling on the other side, he hung up and said he had to go. That was their cue to go their separate ways. Holding hands Anna and Damian headed off in one direction, also holding hands Zoe and Henry headed home.

When they reached Henry's house she kissed him on the cheek and he kissed her forehead before heading in to face his mother again. Zoe returned to her own house, her mother was there but her father was not which meant a little peace.

"Do you have homework?" Her mother asked shortly.

"Yes." Zoe said waiting for her mother to dismiss her.

"Well get it done before dinner." She snapped which sent Zoe up to her room in a flash. She settled on her bed and pulled out some white paper thinking of what to draw for art. She drew a cemetery, in order to keep with the assignment she drew a cluster of wilting flowers around the grave in the for front of her drawing. She figured that would be enough and put it in her back before taking her gloves off and walking into the bathroom. 

Zoe stared at herself in the mirror as the cold metal slid across her skin, she looked down at the red beading up from the new line on her arm. She took deep breaths at the stinging in her arm turned the tap on. She put the razor under the hot water before placing her bleeding arm under the scalding water and gasped at the pain. She turned the water off and wrapped some new gauze around her arm and pulled her gloves back on.

When her parents called her down for dinner she joined them at the dining room table and ate silently while the argued about everything, small thing, big things even the stupidest things they had to fight about. Zoe couldn't understand why they didn't just get a divorce and save themselves the pain, but she thought it wasn't her place to say that. She caused herself pain all the time, maybe her parents enjoyed the pain they inflicted on themselves.

When Zoe woke up the next morning they were fighting still, she got dressed and left as fast as possible. Like yesterday and most mornings she got to Henry's while he was fighting with his mom. Zoe walked past knowing he would catch up with her eventually. Sure enough when she reached the top of the stairs entering the park he caught up with her.

"You alright?" She asked.

"No." He answered, the same as every day. She took his hand and he looked away from her and they walked to school. This part of the routine Zoe liked, when it was just her and Henry but it always had to end. Again Zoe went through the motions of her day. Then art class came. She handed her drawing to the teacher who stared at it then looked at Zoe.

"You were supposed to draw a flower." She said.

"There's a flower." Zoe said looking at her feet. The teacher sighed and before she knew it Zoe was sitting outside the principals office with her mother inside talking to the principal. She walked out and didn't look at Zoe.

"Come on, we're going." She snapped. A couple of seconds that felt like an eternity to Zoe passed when she made her decision.

"No." She said causing her mother to pause. She turned to look at Zoe and...

SMACK! 

Zoe's head snapped to the side with a stinging in her cheek. She looked at her mother shocked that she would slap her in such a public place. At home was different, but in the middle of her school hallway where anybody could see?

"We're leaving." Her mother stated and started walking. Zoe felt tears prick at her eyes, for once she just couldn't hold back and she broke into a run brushing past her mother and out the doors. She ran down the steps of the school and straight to the gates.

"ZOE!" She heard Anna's voice from behind her but didn't stop, she ran to the park without stopping and finally DID stop when she saw him. Sitting on the back of a bench strumming away at his guitar.

"Henry!" Zoe called tears falling freely. He looked up taking her in.

"Zoe!" He set his guitar down and walked towards her, she rushed into his arms and clung to him as he held her. She cried into his chest and he just held her. Eventually she calmed down and they sat together on the bench talking about nothing.

"Hi Zoe." She looked up to see Anna and Damian walking up to them.

"Anna!" Zoe jumped up and hugged her best friend. The four of them laid down in the grass thier heads together in a circle.

"What a shitty day." Henry said.

"And on top, it's sunny." Damian complained.

"Damian!" Anna said chastising him. Zoe simply laughed. She stared up at the blue sky and knew that her life was far from perfect, her home life sucked, her school life was almost as bad but as long as she had those three people in her life....

Everything was fine.