Silent Souls (Wattys 2014)

Chapter Four

Him

I’m such a shitty person. Every time she looks over at Kyle, I’ll start feeling jealous. I’ll have to turn away, gripping the sides of my book, hard. I’ll look up again and see him smiling at her, and then I’ll see her smiling back at him, and I’ll wonder to myself why on earth why I thought she could ever feel anything for me, the guy who’s so useless because he can’t even talk.

It’s round about this point when she’ll look over at me…

And her eyes…the look in her eyes…

It’ll have me wondering why I ever thought what I did in the first place.

Her

Sometimes, when there’s no one around to take out any books and it’s Silent, I’ll watch him.

I’ll watch the way he shuffles in his corner every few minutes. The way he’ll frown a little in confusion at something he reads; the way the corners of his thin lips will imperceptibly turn up in what you could barely call a smile; the way he’ll finger the top corner of a page as he’s almost finished reading it, finger slowly trailing down the side as he turns it over; the way he’ll brush away the hair from his eyes as he continues to read…

It’s kind of cute.

Him

 

I’m drawing on the window again, just like I did on the first day I saw her.

The doodle looks worse than the first time.

I bite back a smile.

A hand appears in my peripheral vision, a slender finger moving against the condensed glass, drawing wobbly lines that come together to make a face…

Mine.

I look up at her. That devilish blush is creeping up her cheeks again. Averting her gaze, she ducks her head shyly, hair falling over her face as she sits beside me.

Hi, she writes on the window.

It’s been a week since I last saw her. I can’t help but write the words I so desperately want to say: I missed you.

She glances at me, her warm brown eyes locking with mine for one, beautifully, heart-shattering moment. A shy smile breaks the mask of her previous expression and she looks away, brushing the hair away from her face and shoulder, exposing a spot on her neck that, for a split second, I wonder what it would be like to kiss.

And then, leaning her head against my shoulder, she reaches out again, writing four words that, I swear, actually make my heart skip a beat.

I missed you, too.

 

Her

Sometimes I’ll hide by the door when I see him coming in. I’ll wait until he’s walked past, tap him on one shoulder, and quickly dart over to his other side. A look of confusion will cross over his face – his stormy grey eyes will narrow, eyebrows knitting together, and his nose will wrinkle slightly in a way that’s so cute it has an involuntary smile tugging at the side of my mouth.

Him

And then that’s when I’ll see her, standing, smiling at my side.