Silenced by the Night

It's the end

His hand was colder than usual, it was the middle of summer and we were still doing the same thing we do every night. In the middle of the night he goes by my house and picks me up and we go to the beach, the park or maybe my school. Then he would take me home at the time of four o’clock in the morning. I didn’t care if I didn’t get some sleep; I just want to be with him. This was our connection every night, somehow I felt like I wasn’t friends with him. I was in a different level; we would talk about our future, college and also a bit more difference from the real-world.

We sat down on the beach and looked at the waves forming in the water; his hair was being blown by the wind while mine was tied in a ponytail.

“Ellie, you need to do something about what Caroline is doing to you”

I remained silence for a minute to think through what he just said.

“Like what”

“I don’t know; runaway maybe”

“Who am I running to?”

There suddenly was silence for fifteen minutes. I was staring at the purple sky waiting for his answer.

“I don’t know El; this is more complicated than anything that I’ve done before”

I was sitting at the corner of my room, while staring at a photo of Nathan on my phone. It’s been peaceful ever since last night, well I felt a lot of tiredness while every day has been passing by. We both just needed to know something friends never even solved, neither even us. Other people say that it was a bit awkward when a girl would be friends with a boy. I think it’s normal, right? Caroline went in my room bursting the door.

“What do you need?”

“Come with me now, someone’s waiting for you”

“Who are waiting for me?”

She pulled my arm and sat me down on her loveseat in the middle of the living room.

“Who’s waiting for me?”

“Them”

A family went in the living room, I looked over to Caroline who pulling my luggage to the living room. I stood up and ran to my room locking the door behind me. Pounding rang outside; I didn’t wanna open the door. There was no way I was being sent away.

“Eleanor, get out of this room now!” 

“Try me”

Someone tapped on my window; I opened it and went out. I climb down the ladder quickly and on his motorcycle.

“Why are you in a hurry?”

“The family’s here”

“We were caught?”

I shrugged as he sat down in front of me and started it. The front door opened revealing Caroline looking at me with madness in her eyes. He drove faster while we drove further from the house. It was too dangerous for me to show up to her by now.

“What was that about?”

“She wanted to send me away, with that family. I couldn’t be sent away in a family of boys”

“A family of boys, your best friend is a boy”

“I’m gonna live with three individual boys”

Nathan covered my mouth to stop me from gasping that loud. We were behind the rock in the beach hiding from Caroline. Someone pulled me by the waist making Nathan let go of me and also making him gasp and scream my name.

“Be quiet. It’s Paige. El, my friend is staying in a hotel here and I called her. She agreed that the two of you can stay with her until the family gives up looking for you. Her car is waiting outside the beach. In thirty seconds you need to run”

“Thanks Paige”

She gave me a hug before running back to Caroline. A mini-van was waiting out from the beach, I ran towards it with Nathan behind me. Still I didn’t feel secure and safe; Nathan wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

“It’s gonna be alright”

I rested my head on his shoulder and fell asleep while staring at his cool green eyes. Our friendship was in danger, it was too difficult for us to see each other when Caroline would be around. I felt Nathan kiss the top of my head and whispering into my ear:

“I promise I’ll do my best for you not to be sent away”

Tears rolled down my face as I was thinking through my thoughts deeper. He was doing his best to do something that might take me away from trouble

I couldn’t believe that we were staying in the presidential suite with Paige’s friend Asteria. Strange name though. It was still a bit hard for me and Nathan to go out, we needed to watch out for Caroline. Teri was talking to Paige on the phone. Nathan and I were both playing poker on the balcony.

Teri went in the balcony making me lose count of his lost.

“Paige told me that you’re not aloud to go home yet. If you do, she’ll send you away immediately. They’re still waiting for you but they don’t know where you are”

“I hope they won’t find out”

Nathan embraced me in a hug while brushing my hair behind me.

Everything turned out to be a nightmare; Nathan and I had a dangerous friendship. Still, I can remember the time when every student in our school would whisper about us dating. Now, it was obvious. We were both best friends escaping my step-mother from tearing us apart; it was too hard for two normal sixteen year olds to do.

I could feel his cold breath through my brown hair. He was about an inch or two higher than me, even more. You can already think we were dating by this kind of situation.

Our friendship was like a cliffhanger in our school. You don’t know what will happen next or what the truth is. But with different school as freshmen, we were doing our best to communicate and still keep our friendship.

Teri was sitting at the end of the couch while we both were sitting on the loveseat in the middle of the room. She was talking to Paige on the phone while we both were talking about the past; the moments that have already been passing by, the rare moments. It was that simple to happen, but it was hard to reach.

There was an awkward silence that filled the atmosphere; we were just staring out the balcony, the view of Abbeydale at night. He held my hand tightly before sitting down on the beach chair and looking back out on the balcony.

“Nate, how if we’re gonna be found? What will you do if they make me go with them?”

He remained quiet for a minute and looked over to me.

“That wouldn’t happen”

“Yeah but what if it does? Will you be able to stop it?”

“I’ll look for you everywhere, any place I’ll have a chance to go. Even around the world”

I sat down beside him to calm myself down, I was so afraid from losing him. But what did my nightmare mean? The nightmare about him and Caylah actually dating, it was just a nightmare. They know my weakness. Everyone knows we’re friends but no one in our school bothered to think that we were even dating. At least they know the truth.