The Mute

Chapter five

Ash P.O.V

"Lucas!" Beth shouted down the long hallway as she dragged me towards him. I saw Lucas at his locker with his messenger bag slung over his shoulder.

He wore a red polo shirt and khaki pants. Which was ironic since he worked at Target. His black framed glasses hid his bright blue eyes and his blonde hair was shaggy and unmaintained. He look exhausted with bags under his eyes from lack of sleep.

When he met my gaze, he smiled. We stared deep into each other's eyes. Beth and I reached his side and he said softly for only me to hear, "Ashley..."

I whispered, "Lucas...I'm..I'm..so sorry. I didn't know what to-,"

My eyes welled up with tears and I was trying not to release them.

Soon, I felt Lucas crouch down to me and give me a warm tight embrace for a moment. His arms were wrapped around me and I put my arms around his neck.

He pulled away slowly and I wiped my eyes. I said, "I should of-" and I trailed off. Then I said, "I was afraid. The rumors. They're not true." I trailed in and out speaking everything on my mind.

Lucas looked at me and said, "Why couldn't you trust us? Why couldn't you tell the truth then?" He questioned and sounded hurt.

I thought for awhile and we stood together in silence. I struggled to find the words.

How could I say he was going to hurt you if I told? I looked to Beth and she thought.

"If you just hear her out maybe you'll understand Luke," Beth explained looking at him with piercing eyes.

"Fine then are you finally going to tell me? After two years,?" He questioned with anger in his voice.

I looked at his face and I was searching for the words. In my heart, I wanted to tell him the reason why. The reason why I was so afraid and why I couldn't tell them the truth after all this time. What makes this time so different?

I thought out loud and I said exactly what I was thinking, "You won't understand until I tell you."

"Then educate me please? What reason gives any right to justify what you did?" Lucas said raising his voice with anger. He crossed his arms across his chest and looked down on me.

Beth took his hand and said, "She wants to tell us at her house Friday right? Like we talked about right Ash?"

I don't remember saying this. I was confused on what she wanted me to elaborate with.

I looked to Lucas and nodded. He smiled a little grin. The anger leaving his face.

Beth said demandingly, "She invited us to a sleepover Friday. I'm going and so are you Luke."

I guess she was trying figure out a way to fix this. She knew we couldn't talk about this in school nor around him. She also knew we needed to get our friendship back on track.

Lucas said still grinning, "Fine. Friday it is."

Beth smiled and jumped up and down in place and clapped her hands. She cheered as if her favorite team won the Super Bowl.

Lucas slammed his locker shut and slung his messenger bag over his shoulder.

He turned away and started walking towards the end of the school hall. He almost looked like he was walking toward his future.

Walking ahead and staring up in front of him. That behind him was the past, and it was a past he didn't wanna look back at.

The saddening thing is he never looked back at me.

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Beth and I walked together for the next three periods. She walked along side me and she talked to me like nothing's changed. She spoke to me like everything was normal.

I usually listened to her problems or her stories. It just felt good for her to talk things out.

This time it was how annoying her brother has been lately and how she has to take over the youth group bible reading at her church.

She seemed happy. Her smile and the light in her eyes gave her an angelic quality about her. Although behind that smile, I could tell something wasn't right.

She had three classes with me in a row: Algebra II, Chemistry, and English.

In each class we got to pick our seats, so we sat in the back. We didn't get others harsh eyes staring at us if we were talking in class. We didn't have to hear the caddy gossip and rumors they spoke about others.

When Beth had I were walking to English Beth asked,"You're sitting with us at lunch right? Please say yes?" She looked excited and I could tell the "us" was her and Lucas.

I nodded and smiled giggling.

We kept walking and turned the hall. The hallway was packed like it normally was but the English wing was less packed. There wasn't any lockers in this hall, so there was no reason for people to be in here except to go to English.

I heard a deep voice call out Beth's name and foots pounding from the owner of the voice.

We stopped.

We turned our heads to see Beth's twin brother Gabe Turner running to catch up to us.

He stopped running when he reached Beth's side and looked at us to smile.

He hardly broke a sweat nor did his heart rate change at all. He walked along side us and said to Beth, "You look lovely today. Really really beautiful sis. You know your always beautiful.."

Beth sighed and rolled her eyes. "What do you want now?"

"Can I borrow your car tonight?"

"No. We all know what happened last time you borrowed my car."

"Hey hey. That scratch was there when you gave me the keys."

"What scratch?! I'm talking about the dent you left on my car door."

"Oh yeah that too,"he said guiltily.

She groaned. And looked at Gabe, "Where are you even going to go?"

"Never mind,"he said defeated. "How's your classes so far both of you?"

I said, "Good." And Beth replied, "There's a new kid I guess. Did you hear about it?"

New kid?

Gabe said, "Oh yeah he's from Blakely across the state."

Blakely is a little farm country. I used to go spend summers there with my dad at the county fair.

When the sun was hot, and the sun warmed the grass. When I used to wear my dad's baseball cap to keep the sun out of my eyes. My dad and I used to be really close during those summers.

We'd spend a week there.

We'd ride rides and go on hay rides. It was such a peaceful place than West Falls.

Here you get tourists, who want to go to our town park and see the falls. They have tours, and bus rides all around the town. In the center and heart of town, there's cafés and bakeries. There's everything in town.

A new doctors office opened up too, and a new café.

Beth said, "Anything else about him?"

I asked Gabe, "What does he look like? Like hair color? Height? I think I met him today."

Gabe said looking straight ahead, "He's right there." Gabe turned around and walked back the way he came.

Looking in front of me was him. He was at the end of the hall talking into his cellphone. He leaned against the wall with his backpack on the floor next to him.

I got lost staring at him.

Then I felt his gaze meet mine. He smiled at me, and I returned the gesture.

Beth and I kept walking to English and closer to him. As we turned into the classroom, I couldn't help but smile.