Collision Course

Chapter 13: Serious Issues

"How long have you known?" I asked quietly, almost afraid of her answer. They hadn't said anything since they revealed they knew. Quite honestly, the silence was starting to get to me.

Normally silence is nice. It's peaceful and serene without intrusion and reality. But this, this was the type of silence that made you want to scream just to get rid of it. In my opinion, there's two types of silence. The nice silence and the awful, ear-splitting silence that made you crave noise. It just had to be the awful silence.

"Well I don't know about her but I just found out," He said without taking his eyes off me.

"No really? I thought you'd known for days and were just pretending shock," I said with sarcasm that dripped and filled up buckets upon buckets. He scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"I had a guess the first time we met but I only confirmed it this evening," She said and leaned back against the black leather of the seat.

Of course she's known since that party. That stupid party. And Elliot. Stupid Elliot.

"And you didn't tell me?" He accused and put his focus on her. I was thankful the attention was off of me for at least a little bit. I guess I couldn't blame him for accusing his sister for not telling him. That's what siblings do, they don't keep secrets. Or most don't.

"It wasn't my place to tell," She replied quietly, training her eyes on me. He looked back at me and I saw the sorrow in his features.

"It's fine, guys. I'm not some porcelain doll that's going to break if you lay a finger on it." Yes I am. Just one small press sent cracks along my skin and broke my chest into glass shards. But they don't know that.

"I would be," He said and looked down. It was obvious that he wasn't the most comfortable with the subject.

"Too bad I'm not you then," I tried to joke but they looked at me like I was crazy. I sighed. "Guys, come on. I'm not as fragile as you think. Just because you know doesn't mean you should treat me like I need to be handled with bubble wrap and extra tissue. I'm still me, just... a little different."

"You're crazy," She said with a light chuckle. I could see the liquid gathering underneath her eyes. How is it that someone that was indirectly affected was more distraught than someone directly affected?

"You have no idea," I chuckled back.

Suddenly, I wasn't still sitting in that car having an emotional conversation with two people who would probably become a lot more than just my friends. Instead, I was in the room. The God-for-saken black room. The black walls, the midnight floor, the stale air, no escape.

I'd visited this room several times in my life, each time was different than the last. Sometimes I'd just sit there and stare at the walls until my eyes watered from the stale air. Other times I'd walk around running my hands along the walls, hitting a ninety degree angle every fifteen feet. Then there were times where I'd run at the walls screaming and yelling for something to happen, for someone to get me out of this prison. Unfortunately, that wasn't even the worst part.

The worst thing was when people showed up. When he showed up and would yell or scream or just cry in front of me and there was nothing I could do. Or when she would come and ask me why. Then she would disappear before my eyes, before I could scream. This time was definitely not the best.