Love is Silent

Chapter 6

The cafeteria was crowded when Chase and I entered it on Tuesday afternoon. Cindy had saved seats for us like she usually did, so we headed in that direction. When I spotted Adam sitting by himself, staring out the window, I hesitated for a moment. After my talk with Justice on Sunday, I’d done some thinking about Adam.

            Chase turned to see why I had paused, and he followed my gaze. Something flickered in his eyes, but it was gone too quickly for me to identify what the emotion had been. He looked back at me, clearly waiting for me to decide what to do.

            I was torn. I felt bad about how I’d been treating Adam, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to talk to him about it. Reaching a decision, I headed over to where he was sitting, aware that Chase was following behind me. Adam glanced up when I stopped near him and surprise registered on his face. “Dana?”

            I couldn’t look at him, so I stared at my hands as I spoke. “I’m sorry,” I muttered quietly.

            I heard him get to his feet, and I scooted back a few steps, colliding into Chase. He placed his hands on my hips for a moment to keep me from falling and then he released me. I raised my head to look at Adam and saw that he was watching me closely. “What are you sorry for?” he asked.

            I blew out a shuddering breath and closed my eyes briefly. “Everything,” I replied, and then turned and made my way out of the cafeteria as quickly as I could, ignoring Adam as he called after me. I wasn’t capable of saying anything else to him; those three words had been hard enough.

            For some reason, I went up the stairs that were close to the cafeteria. I hadn’t been on the second floor of the school since I’d come back; all my classes were on the first floor to make it easier on my leg. The hallway was silent, with only the tapping of my crutches breaking the stillness as I moved forward. When I saw the decorated locker, I came to an abrupt halt. In my preoccupation with getting away from Adam, I’d inadvertently ended up in front of Luke’s old locker.

            I stared at the paper that covered the door. There were hundreds of little messages and signatures covering it, along with photos of my brother. Someone had taped a flower to it, and it was fresh so I knew someone had done it recently. I hobbled a few steps closer to look at the photos and my breath hitched when I saw one of Luke and I that had been taken only a few days before the accident.

            In the picture, Luke had his arm slung around my shoulders with a big grin on his face. We both had our faces painted in the school colors of royal blue and silver, since it was the day of the pep rally. I was laughing as I looked into the camera, but I couldn’t remember what had been so funny.

            I sensed rather than heard someone behind me. I didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Chase. “That’s my brother,” I murmured.

            Chase moved to stand beside me. “He looks happy,” he replied.

            A small smile touched my lips. “He was always happy. It used to annoy me that he always had a smile on his face and nothing bothered him. Nothing I did would make him mad.”