That Mute

-11-

Zayne POV

After a long while of thinking about what to say, a nurse slyly glides over to me.

"The patient you're visiting is in the first room to the right, but I heard you could have more fun with me in the room to the left." She giggles and winks, pushing her chest out.

Whore.

"Ok, thank you." I stand up from my chair and make my way down to Katye's room. I see her under the covers of the hospital bed completely. I gently peel the covers off of her, and see her in a ball shaking. Carefully, I grab her wrist. She turns her face to me, and instantly I see the cut on her neck. Oh god, why did we do this. Pissed off to no end, I guess I didn't realize that I was squeezing her wrist awful tight until she tried to pull out, tears in her eyes.

"Shit, sorry."

She opens her mouth, but a tear escapes her eyes and she just nods.

Dammit.

Of course she can't reply, I muted her. Well, I accidentally let a friend do it, but it's the same thing. I did lead him on that we were gonna mess with her.

Katye POV

I wanted to storm right out the freakin' hospital. I understand my voice is ugly, but you know what, he lied to me. Zayne acted all nice and led me on so he could take me to his house and cut my voice box. I was so stupid. So, so insanely stupid. I snatched a piece of paper up from a table and scribbled,

Why me, huh? Why did you lead me on?

I shoved it in Zayne's face and he read it. His eyes widened.

"Y-you think I led you on?"

That's exactly what you did, I wrote furiously. I ran out of the room and to the front desk, where I signed a few papers and left.

Zayne POV

That is what it seems like, isn't it. Dammit. I have to find her and explain. I take off running and dash to the parking lot, looking around. I spot her near the exit and sprint, not even bothering to get in my beautiful car. When I reach her, I grab her arm. She stumbles and falls onto me, but hurriedly jumps off. I looked at her and saw tear-stained cheeks, and puffy eyes. Quickly, she grabs a pen from her back pocket and writes on my arm. What she wrote devastated me.

I Trusted You.

In shaky, bold letters.

"Le-Please let me explain." I beg. She shakes her head and a tear falls. She tries to yank her wrist out of my hand, but fails.

"I'm not letting go until I explain. Everything. Not just the other night."

And with that, she wrote.

I Think It's Too Late.

"No, it's not. I promise, just, let me explain."

She sighs and I pull her down to sit on the sidewalk with me.

"S-so, back in the beginning of high school, me and Carter, we were bullied, all of freshman year, then luckily our bully moved, and that's where you come in. Carter and I saw you, and we had all this, this anger built up in us. Carter always had more because his home life was never healthy, but that doesn't matter. That's why we started bullying you at first, but then that translated to staying at the top of everything, and that, that felt good. It feels good to know that no one could hurt you, but this past week, I realized that all we've been doing is hurting you, and putting you down. I think about that picture I, I stole from you a while back, and I think about how real it looked, and the face being beaten, your face. And I guess I assumed it wasn't me, because the body structure of whoever is beating you was bigger. But onward, I looked at you then and I saw you as a residue of my bullying, a human shell, too skinny to be normal, with so many scars. Scars from me, maybe someone else, and yourself. But now I know that those scars, are battle wounds, from a war too big for you, yet look at you now. Still here, still alive, right?" I chuckle a little bit at the last part and look over to her face. It's covered in tears. She plucked some leaves from a nearby plant and wrote, Sometimes, I wish I were dead. On one of them. Dammit, look at the damage you've done, I whisper to myself.

"Now, I am glad you aren't." I reply.

She grabs one of the other leaves she plucked and writes again,

Why, after the eternity that you put me through hell, why do you open your eyes now?

I sigh. I honestly don't know, and that bothers me.

"That doesn't matter." I murmur.

It matters to me, when I'm thinking that this is just some sick joke.

Oh. That's how she felt.

"I don't know. I guess it's because when I saw what I did to you, I took pity?" I said, hoping I said the right thing.

No such luck.

So when you stop feeling the pity, you're just gonna drop me like a block of cement?

A tear blotted the last word. Then it came to me.

"Ok. No, that's not what I meant. I realized that you did nothing to me ever. And I realized how stupid I was, and how much I changed your life from a normal one to hell. I realized that I have broken you. And I didn't want to do that. I realized that, that I, I... ruined you. I ruined a masterpiece. I took a beautiful sculpture and molded it until it shattered. And I want to fix you. I want to glue, mold, and shape a sculpture back togeth-"

But I was cut off by two thin arms wrapping around my body tentatively, afraid but grateful.

"Th...th...t....tha-" she tried to speak but then she grasped her throat and wheezed. She collapsed in frustration.

I may have ruined her beyond repair.