The Mute

Forget About Her

We sat there like that for a while, Max got up, held out his hand towards me I looked up and put my hand in his, he helped me up and he pulled me close as he wrapped his arms around me as he puts his face in the crook of my neck. I look at the bathroom door in front of me as I just stand there feeling empty. Max says as his words are muffled "I'm sorry that happened, I wish she can just leave me alone" I just continued to stare at the door. He pulls away from me and looks into my eyes, I shifted my gaze to the left. He puts his fingers on my chin and gently moves it so i'm looking at him as he says to me softly "hey, you know we got a whole day ahead of us how about we go for a walk" as I feel his hand move down to mine and brushes his fingers against my fingers I grab his hand as he smiles softly and leads me out of the small bathroom. As we walk out of his room, down the hallway and down the stairs and in hand we reach the large open concept front hallway toward the giant front door he lifts his arm up with mine following he spins me once and opens the door.

We walk down the grey pavement path in silence in the park a few blocks away from the house listening to different birds chirping to each other and the gentle breeze rustling the leaves on the trees and the sound of pebbles and tiny rocks scrape and move under our feet against the concrete. I see Max look into the distance and look at me from the corner of my eye. I don't know how to feel Max saved me from the person who hurts me the most, my dad. He has no knowledge of my past or who I am but he just opened his arms and home to me, he did something I couldn't do for the longest time and that was stand up to my dad he did what I dreamed of for years...to put him behind bars. "Blake, look at this" I snap out of my thoughts and look up and there was a pond it was beautiful. The water was a deep blue and it had gentle ripples moving the surface of the water and ducks were gracefully swimming in the water with ducklings following right behind them and dragonflies zipping by nearly flying into each other right in front of me. I look at the scenery in awe and I just take it all in. Max pulls me gently as we walk on the grass as we sit and observe. "I haven't been here in ages, my grandparents used to take me here with me and my brother around this time and have lunch in front of this pond" I look at him with my eyebrows almost touching as he laughs a little under his breath "yea I have a brother, a twin actually. He is doing treatment for drug addiction because he got into drugs when his girlfriend cheated on him and broke his heart into a million pieces so he turned to drugs, he said it felt like he was just a second option to her, a last resort. It was puppy love he came crawling back when ever she called. He thought she just needed space so he respectfully waited for her to come to him and text him and talk to him but he didn't wait just a few hours, he waited days most of the time weeks to hear from her. My parents weren't around much my dad on business trips away from home for months at a time and my mom worked two jobs so she was never home so my grandparents took care of us. Until they passed away and I was alone since. I learned how to cook for myself and clean and everything else that comes with the responsibilities of being alone" max picks at the grass as he talks and thinks to himself for a second "I'm sorry this is so depressing" He laughs nervously. I move closer to him and lean my head on his shoulder to comfort him as he leans his head on mine.

        I hear the ice cream truck! Oh my gosh ice cream, ice cream, ice cream "you want some ice cream? I can tell you are excited" he smiles at me and my eyes go wide as I nod my head up and down. He gets up and pulls me up and holds my hand as we run to the sound of the ice cream truck. We finally caught up to the ice cream truck panting and the young man in the truck has a white and blue uniform on with a little hat says "what can I get you?" and max says " can I get a chocolate swirl" he looks at me while I point at the vanilla swirl with dipped in chocolate as Max continues the order "also with a vanilla swirl dipped in chocolate please" a moment later max slides a ten dollar bill on the small metal counter as we are handed our treats. "That looks really good" Max says and I look at him and I take a bite of my ice cream on the cone as I hear the little cracks of the chocolate shell around my two scoop  treat. Max licks his ice cream as we walk past the pond "how about we finish these delicious ice creams and head home" he says with a smile and I nod as I enjoy this moment with him.