The Silent Song

Chapter 14

I stand outside Ashton's house waiting for him to open up. We had to start with the documentary today.

I never got a chance to confront Ashton about my feelings as he never showed up at the school for the whole week so I had plan on getting that done today as well.

I am greeted by a lady when the door opens. I am guessing that this must be Ashton's mother. "Hello, I'm Callie, Ashton's friend. We are doing a German project together. Is he here?"

I know that I showed up unannounced but Ashton rarely goes anywhere so I had assumed that he'd be home. Only now does it dawns on me what a bad idea it was.

Ashton's mother breaks me from my reverie. "He will be here soon. I just send him out to do something for me. Till then why don't you sit and wait."

"If that is not a problem with you." I reply. I really did not want to disturb her or cause her any cause of trouble.

"Not at all. I actually wanted to meet you." She seems almost appalled by the idea that I might cause her any trouble. But the words that come out of my mouth are this.

"You wanted to meet me?" I don't know why she'd want to meet me.

"Yeah," she says making herself comfortable on the couch and I follow suit' "of course. Ashton talks so much about you that even if I get amnesia I wouldn't be able to forget your name."

I am sure that I'd be blushing like a maniac by now. I mean I did like Ashton that was obvious by now. The way that I gape at him. The way his eyes crinkle when he is giving a big grin. OK back to the point, so his mom was basically saying that there was a chance that he also liked me.

"He does that?" I have to make sure that isn't some bad joke.

"Yeah, everywhere right from the dinner table to the shower. Ok, maybe not the shower but I tell you it would be wise to not go near his right now. He bites her head off asking her what does a girl like and I believe that she really irritated." She warns me.

"Oh..." is all I can manage.

"But seriously Callie, thank you so much, he was such an outgoing kid right from the beginning and then when he dropped out of school it just broke my heart."

My head snaps up at this. "He dropped out of school." I knew that he was home schooled but I'd assumed the either it was from the beginning or something might have happened like him getting expelled or maybe something mild.

"Yeah, you didn't know?" I shake my head.

"Well, he was a really bright child and then he came to know about the disease and then from there it was just a downward spiral. First his grades started slipping and then he stopped answering his calls and eventually stopped talking to everyone beside his family." I was sure that my head was spinning now. But Mrs. didn't seem to notice. She kept on speaking. "The only person he still spoke to was Ed. I don't know why but he did. And then that day he went to that concert and asked me to enroll him. I was the happiest that day."

I try to make sense of what she just said. One word that I can seem to hold onto was disease. So I ask her, "what disease?"

A look of confusion and uncertainty crosses her face. "You didn't know?"

My stomach is doing weird flip-flops now. I think of the times that Ashton randomly pain, tripped over. "What disease?" I repeat.

"Well, I'm not sure that I'm the person to tell you that." She is mumbling under her breath. I'm sure that Ashton wouldn't tell me about it. I am also sure that his mother thought I knew about it. My mind is reeling with the worst case scenarios and I'm so engrossed I my thoughts that I don't heat the door opening.