The Silence

Chapter Five

Saint:

I was just putting out my cigarette on the stone fountain when I spotted Julian and his curly hair heading towards class. He was walking slowly so I slung my bag over my shoulder and made my way over to him. He startled when I tapped him on the arm.

"Saint."

"Hi." I gave him a small smile and he stopped walking, fiddling around with his bag.

"I forgot to give you your glasses back." He muttered. "I'm sorry." I took them when he handed them to me and tucked them into the inner pocket of my leather jacket.

"It's OK. I don't usually use them." I shrugged and he blinked his big blue eyes at me. "Are you on your way to class?" I asked stupidly. I was doing that a lot lately. Asking stupid questions.

"Yeah, the bell will ring soon." He said, shifting his bag on his back.

"Cool. We can go together then." I said and started walking. It took a while, but eventually I could hear his footsteps as he followed me.

"Why do you always wear that leather jacket?" He asked me and I spun around, walking backwards down the hall.

"Do I need a reason?"

"I would have thought the teachers would have said something about it by now." He shrugged and tilted his head. I snorted and stumbled to a stop.

"The teachers here won't ever say anything to me." I said and he opened his mouth again, but the bell rang before he could get anything out.

Register was boring so I sat in my new seat, two places behind Julian, and watched him as he clenched his fists again throughout the whole of roll-call and morning notices. Why was he always doing that?

It wasn't until I met up with him in another class a period later that I understood. After his incident in the sick bay yesterday, I'd gone home and tried to figure out how the hell Julian didn't go stir crazy not being able to hear anything. I had lasted 35 minutes with my ear plugs in and spent the rest of the day thanking whoever the hell was up there that I could hear. During that time though, with the ear plugs, Evelyn had come in to my room to speak to me. I had been about to take my earplugs out when I realised I could see exactly what she was trying to tell me even though I could barely hear her. If Julian relied in lip reading to get through classes...

I glared at Mr Johnston's back as he rambled on while he wrote his notes on the board.

"And the metaphor for rain in this case is - "

"Sir." I called out loud. Mr Johnston sighed heavily and he took his time turning around so he could see who had called him.

"Yes, Mr Colton."

"Julian can't hear you." I said and the whole class went quiet.

"Yes, I'm aware of...Julian's disability, Mr Colton." He blinked at me and I rolled my eyes.

"He's not..." I let it go and got to the point. "He lip reads. How is he supposed to see what you're saying if you're facing the board?" I asked and he flushed bright red.

"Mr Colton, I would appreciate it if you didn't interrupt my lessons unnecessarily again."

"It's not unnecessary, though. You only write half of what you say on the board. Is Julian's exam going to be out of 50, not 100?" Someone snickered behind me and Mr Johnston sighed again.

"Very well." He said tersely and for the rest of the lesson, he faced the class any time he spoke.