Silence

Chapter 7 - Little Heart

We go through second and third period exactly the same as first. I sit in my desk in the back and Carter follows me. He introduces himself to the class and the class stares. Crazy that someone's sitting with the mute.

Once we leave third period Carter follows me to the cafeteria. I sit at a table and Carter sits across from me. I pull out my lunch bag from my backpack.

"You don't eat school food either?" he asks me.

I shake my head no as he reaches over and grabs his lunch bag. He lifts it up to show me.

"What about Lauren, does she sit here with you?"

I nod and point to her in line. He looks around for a minute and spits her. She gets her food, walks over to us, and sits down.

"Hey Emma. So how's the first day, Carter?" she asks him.

"Fantastic," he answers.

"Oh wow, it won't be fantastic for long though I can assure you that," Lauren mumbles.

"They don't seem that bad. What's the problem with them?" he asks.

"Well, it may seem all calm and quiet right now but they gossip a lot. They say that I starve myself, cut myself, and that I'd hook up with any guy at this school just to 'fit in'," Lauren makes quotes with her fingers when she says "fit in". I can tell she still feels hurt thinking about it. He looks a little shocked as she goes on, "For Emma, it's worse. They say that her mother cut out her tongue. Or that I am only her friend on purpose just to have the attention drawn to me, they don't think I am her just to use her. That's all lies. I'm her best friend. I know everything about her. She actually talks to me and no one else. Emma is amazing just the way she is." He still looks shocked, but we sit there in silence for a while, my cheeks probably blushing.

"Well, I'm going to go to the guidance counselor because my teacher claims that I was late to his class again. It's not my fault my mascara smeared and I had to go to the bathroom to fix it." She waves goodbye as she grabs her designer bag and food tray and then walks out of the doors.

"She's a handful, isn't she?" he asks me with a smirk.

I nod my head and grin back at him. I don't have Lauren to talk for me anymore so I feel a little awkward.

As if he reads my mind he says, "I have another way I can talk to you."

I smile at him when he curves his eyebrows up like he has an idea.

"If it's alright with you, we can text each other, that way you don't have to talk out loud but I still get to talk to you. What's your number," he says while pulling his phone from his pocket.

I look down when I pull my phone out because I feel my cheek flush. Did he just ask for my number? I go to my contacts and scroll up to my number. I hold it out to him and he takes it. He types in my number and then he puts his number in my phone. I don't think that I've ever used my phone to call anyone, or talk to anyone on it besides texting.

He hands it back to me and then looks back down at his phone. My phone vibrates a minute later when he looks up at me.

I check the message. It says from Carter but he added a little heart by his name.

CARTER: Hey:)

ME: Hi.

CARTER: so you talk to Lauren like actually talk?

ME: yes, but not much.

CARTER: you are so interesting. okay here is another one, do you run everyday?

I can tell that he is waiting for my response because he's absently tapping his fingers on his phone screen.

ME: yep everyday.

I catch a glimpse of his smile when he reads it.

CARTER: where do you start from?

ME: the bench in the front of the school.

The bell rings and we both stand up.

"Well, I'll see you in sixth right?" he asks.

I nod and he heads to the opposite doors of the cafeteria. Our next classes are in two separate halls.

I make a slight wave and manage to leave the cafeteria before the crowd of people starts pouring out.