Silence //A Carl Gallagher story

Chapter 5

And today's forecast predicts it will be cloudy with a chance of rain....

I internally sighed. Today has been such a boring day without any of the Gallaghers home, besides Liam. I woke up to an empty bed and came home from school to an empty house.

Carl actually woke up early and left before 6:00am to probably some God-forsaken place, Debbie left with one of her flings, Lip went to work, Ian went with Mick, Fiona went to to work, and Frank... pub? Poor Liam was supposed to be picked up at 3:45pm, but I arrived at 5:50 to get him.

To add to this horrible day, don't even get me started on the two idiots who work the front desk. If a girl cannot talk and is using her hands to communicate, wouldn't that ring a bell?

The front door unlocking followed by a loud ripping sound snapped me out of my thoughts. "God dammit!" I turned around along with Liam. Debbie stood in the doorway, clutching her now ripped dress.

"I payed $15 for this freaking dress!" The red head looked at us, our slightly interested eyes peeking over the couch, and scowled. "What?"

Liam and I just looked at each other before turning back to the teen. "Talk." I signed after a minute. She rolled her eyes. "I hate it when you do that. He's like three but you guys can communicate so well. "

I rolled my eyes in a playful manner before beckoning the red head to the empty couch seat next to me.

"I hate boys!" Debbie yelled as soon as she sat on the couch, collapsing into my arms on contact. "Except for you Liam."

I laughed. The only thing showing that I was laughing were my shoulders that shook. I patted the red head motioning for her to continue.

"I tried to do everything that the bastard wanted me to do but I saw him kissing the slut behind the bleachers. What a bitch!" She ranted into my shoulder, her voice muffled by my long sleeve shirt.

"But that's not even the best part! When he looked up, he saw me looking at him but he just went back to kissing the f*cking whore! I hate him!" She broke down into tears and started sobbing louder.

I tried to comfort her by rubbing her back but she started crying more. I looked at Liam but he was slowly climbing down the couch, away from the hormonal teenager. I rolled my eyes at him. "Come on, I'll make something to eat." I signed to Debbie. She nodded, still sniffling. I led the way into the kitchen with Liam on my hip.

It wasn't easy in the house. It always seemed like the Gallaghers were living double lives. Whenever Debbie is here, she's always funny and caring but in school, she chases after boys and hangs out with the wrong crowd but she enjoys it. I tried to talk (through sign language, duh) her out of it but she didn't listen.

Now Carl is a different story. He leaves home earlier than any of us and comes back home late at night. He tries to hide it but I can tell that he's tired. At night, I can feel his back muscles tense up at the slightest creak of the stairs. Don't think that we're doing anything nasty in the bedroom. I only sleep with him when it thunders at night or when I'm cold.

And speaking of muscles, he's been getting pretty lean lately. When I first met Carl, he was the skinny type but I have seen more muscle in his arms and legs. I find this weird mostly because I have never seen him work out.

With Carl on my mind, I guess I must have spaced out because when I came to, Debbie was snapping her finger to get my attention.

"Hey," she said when I finally snapped out of my trance. "You okay? I called your name like five times. "

"I'm okay," I signed. "I was just thinking."

"Was it about Chucky and the drugs?" She asked. "Or Sammy and her big mouth because, trust me, I've been thinking about that a lot too."