Soft Silence | ✓ | unedited

Chapter Three ⌔ Pity Party

Chapter Three ⌔ Pity Party

"Are you going to skip breakfast?"

The deep and unfamiliar voice made me pause in turning the door knob. Taking in deep breaths through my nose, I slowly turned my head and saw Eric's son leaning against the kitchen doorway, arms crossed over his chest. His blue eyes flickered to my backpack in my hand and then to my hand on the door knob and finally, to my eyes. Then, slowly and purposely, he raised an eyebrow.

I just looked at him. How was I supposed to tell him that it wasn't any of his business? Did he normally inquire if people went about eating their breakfast?

"Well?"

Apparently, he did.

I clenched my jaw and then let out a breath through my nose, forcing myself to keep a blank expression. What I really would have loved to do was flash him the middle finger and throw curse words at him.

Unfortunately, I hadn't a voice to curse him with.

Instead, I nodded slowly, turned the door knob and made to go out.

"Wait!" The boy suddenly said, making me stop in my tracks and give him a glance over my shoulder.

What did he want? And why on earth did I stop?

I supposed that curiosity to what Lisa's son wanted was what made me stop. The boy -I could not remember his name even though I was sure it was mentioned a few times yesterday- disappeared into the kitchen for a few moments. There was a lot of clanging sounds and then soft curses before there was one last bang and the boy came rushing out, with a toast in his mouth and another in his hand while he struggled to slip on his backpack at the same time. I blinked at him and mentally scolded myself for even bothering to wait for him. The boy gave me a smile as he hitched his backpack firmly onto his back. I rolled my eyes at him and then walked ahead, not bothering to wait for him.

I waited for him enough. What really got to me was the fact that I even waited. I shouldn't have done that; I've now doomed myself to the undesired company of another human being in my rather miserable presence.

"Hey, wait! Sierra!"

Instead of slowing down, I walked faster in little hopes of losing him. Seeing how empty the path we took to school was, it wouldn't be possible to lose him anyway. I gritted my teeth.

I would have to spend fifteen minutes with a boy I didn't know or even want to affiliate myself with. The knowledge made me cringe.

"Chick, can you just wait?" The boy's voice was suddenly too close for comfort, scaring me and effectively making me jerk to a sharp stop. The boy let out a gasp as he tried to skid to a halt but ended up tripping over his own shoelaces and thus, making him fall towards the ground.

"Woah!"

It was almost funny seeing him on the ground, flat on his face with a toast in his hand and his bag flopped beside him. The books and stationery from his bag spilled all over the pavement. Amongst the various notebooks, I noticed a funny object that had... feathers? Were those feathers?

"What's your problem?"

The boy's groan and obviously annoyed comment snapped me out of my mini fascination with the strange brown-feathered object, startling me into looking down at him. I just looked at him, blinking several times.