Silence {EDITED & COMPLETED}

Chapter 15

 Her eyes are shining with unshed tears.

 Today- according to her parents- is the anniversary of the day she went mute. I'm upset.I'm angry.

 I take her to a hill that overlooks our town.

She's looking straight ahead, staring at something in the distance. 

But I'm enamored with the view right next to me. 

 I can only hold so much in, so I take a deep breath "Aiko," she doesn't look at me, eyes glued to the skyline "Aiko, please tell me why." She knows what I'm asking.She pretends not to hear me."Aiko." She ignores me."Aiko, please." I'm begging her now. She just looks at me and back at the landscape.Tears are welling in my eyes now; I just want to understand."Aiko." My voice comes out a broken whisper.

She looks at me, and shakes her head.

 "Aiko, why can't you see it! Why don't you get it!" I lower my voice "I love you, Aiko. I want to understand you. I want you to see all the reasons why I love you. I don't care if you're blind, deaf, mute, or all three. I just want to know what happened." 

A few tears have fallen.

I don't cry, I'm not supposed to cry.

 I'm supposed to be a man.

 Men don't cry.

 My father's harsh reminders are ringing in my head. 

But I don't care.

Selective mutism.

She scrawled on a small notepad.I quickly looked up the term.

I refused to go to therapy.

I tried to comfort her. She shied away

I never talked much, kids already thought I was a freak. I didn't have any friends.They bullied me, they called me all sorts of names. I became painfully shy, I developed some early signs of selective mutism. One day in my Junior year had forgotten to grab something at the store. It was late.As I was walking back some of the guys from the college up the road dragged me into an alley.They made me do things I didn't want to do. They raped me.I couldn't even bring myself to scream. I'm embarrassing, I'm a freak. I'm disgusting. People said it must've been something about me, they said that somehow it must be my fault that those men couldn't control themselves. They blamed me, my parents, the restaurants by the alley, but never once did they blame the people that did it to me. I haven't spoken since then.

She asked to go home after that, so I took her. She didn't wave goodbye.