She's Oh So Quiet.

I hid under the stairs listening to the fighting and screaming of my mom and dad. There was a wail as skin hit skin, the sound made me cringe.
"Why are you doing this?!" My mom screamed coming into view. She was crying.
"You! And.. and that kid!" Her face contorted into a mask of pain and more tears flowed.
"Get out."
"What?"
"Get. Out. Of. My. House." Dad looked like he was kicked in the stomach, he got down on his knees. Begging and pleading to stay. He caught sight of me then smiled crawling to my hiding spot.
"Hi baby, how are you?" He didn't hear but mom was coming up behind him. She grabbed a fistfull of his hair and pulled as hard as she could.
"Get away from "that kid,"" mom snarled, "you don't touch her anymore. She's no longer your child. She hasn't been yours for a while."
"What?"
"She hasn't been your child since you started to hate her, since she started to hate you." He winced at her words.
"She's retarded." He whispered under under his breath. She wound up and slapped him across the face. There was a red hand print on his cheek as she pulled away.
"Get out." He hung his head and started for the stairs for their room. She sighed then grasped his shoulder. "Do you not understand the concept of out ?"
"But I ne-"
She shook her head. "Out."



9 YEARS LATER.

The door to my room opened slightly and a dark figure entered my room. I sat up and stared. The figure slipped into my closet. I raised my eyebrow. I hopped out of bed and opened the closet then flicked the light on. It was my sister, Kayla. She's two years younger then me.
"Can I sleep in your room tonight?" I sighed then nodded. Kayla smiled then jumped into my bed. We lay there in bed staring at the ceiling.
"How come you don't talk any more Taylor?" I looked at Kayla, her face scrunched up looking at her toes moving under the blanket. I sighed then shrugged finally.
"I know that your an elective mute, but... why? There's no point. I haven't heard you talk since you were ten." I inhaled deeply then shrugged again. "Could you talk? just with me. No one else. Unless you want to talk to other poeple. But I miss you." I longed to say that I missed speaking as much as she missed hearing me speak. But I wouldn't talk. It didn't feel right. I did feel like a freak sometimes, everyone staring when a teacher said something to me in the hall and I would ignore them and walk by. I was a freakish outcast. I touched her arm then kissed her cheek. I would talk again, just not now.

"Kayla, honey. Wake up." My eyes fluttered open as I heard my aunt Lauren's voice in Kayla's room. Mom was gone. She hated me as much as dad did. Did she ever think of us? I hoped so. I hoped she missed us, I hoped she wanted to come back. Tears stung my eyes as I thought of her, then my aunt gasped and the springs on Kayla's bed squeeled.
"Kayla? Kayla, where are you?!" I opened my mouth to say she was with me. I wasn't going to break my silence just for that though. Aunt Lauren would eventually figure it out, she wasn't dumb. My door creaked open and Aunt Lauren slipped through the door.
"Oh, Kayla, thank goodness. I thought she was gone." Aunt Lauren kissed my forhead then shook Kayla's shoulders. I looked at her, she knew that look. I wanted to know what she was doing.
"She has an exam to finish today, last one, the she's off for sumer vacation. Ok?" She wanted me to say yes, to say ANYTHING. But instead, I just nodded.
"Kayla, wake up." I sighed when she didn't answer my aunt and punched her in the back.
"What the hell?!"
"Kayla!"
"I meant heck! What the heck Taylor?!" I giggled as Kayla blushed. Aunt Lauren didn't like swearing. Even minor words like "hell".
"You have your exam to finish." Kayla yawned and stepped out of my bed and went into her room to change. WHen she was down in the kitchen her waffles popped out of the toaster and I handed them to her. Her hair was in a perfect high pony tail, her blond hair shining perfectly, her makeup was done presicly making her blue eyes sparkle. She was wearing a form fitting tank top and short shorts, we all knew what shoes she would wear. Her DC's that her boyfriend David bought her on Spring break. In many ways, she was prettier then me. Her blond hair and blue eyes were my mom's. My brown hair and green eyes were, unfortunatly, my father's. She ahd bigger boobs then me, and was taller, but I was stronger. People often thought she was older then me. But you could see in my face that I was older then her, even if it was only by two years. She scarfed her waffles then slipped on her shoes and waited for Aunt Lauren.
"Ok, you ate breakfest?"
I nodded.
"Did your chores?"
I shook my head.
"Do them, then you can watch TV or ride."
I sighed.
"Do the chores and you can do whatever. Just don't leave."
I nodded then went to the sink to do the dishes from the night before.
"Don't leave."
I groaned and nodded again. I had no where to go!
I quickly finished off the dishes then ran out to the barn and took out Uley. My horse. Aunt Lauren was gone for at least two and a half hours while Kayla did her exams. I was going out.


"Okay, hands in your exams now." I looked up and scribbled one more word before handing in my test to Mr. Fat Face. We all know it's immature and stupid, but if you looked at the guy, you'd call him that too. I pulled my back pack over my shoulder and sauntered over to my locker to empty it for summer vacation.
"Hey," I smiled at the familiar male voice that whispered a hello in my ear. I spun around and wrapped my arms around David's neck and stepped on my tip-toes.
"Hello." I pressed my lips to his and he lifted me up carefully, slowly.
"So on the weeked, your coming to the party?"
"Babe, it's not the weekend coming up, it's two after that."
"What? Oh, yeah, right." I giggled and he set me down with a farewell kiss on the cheek he left down the hallway to his own locker. I sgihed and began shoving things into my bag.
"Kayla?" I sighed but turned around to face one of Taylor's friends, Brady.
"Hey Brady, what's up?"
"Where's your sister?"
I smied at him. "At home, she's finished exams."
"Oh. Is she coming to Austyn's party?" I laughed to myself and he looked confused.
"I really doubt that Brady." I turned around again and put more things in my bag, several books, my pencil case, and other decorative things off the door of my locker.
"Oh, tell her I say hi."
"Will do." I shut the locker door and zipped up my bag then turned again, her looked like he wanted to sya something else, but could tell I wasn't interested in our conversation. I sighed. "Anything else, Brady?"
"Yeah, giver her my number. Kay?"
"Sure, what is it?" I took out a pen and passed it to him. He looked confused because I didn't pass him anything to write on. I giggled again and shoved my hand in his direction. Once he was finished I pulled my hand back and looked at his messy scrawl. He tossed the pen back and turned to leave. I shrugged and headed in the opposite direction.

Faster, come on! Go Uley. I smiled as Uley urged on, moving faster through our trail that we'd gone on more then a thousand times before. He whined as we faced a fallen log that wasn't there the week before. I dig my heels into his side and he went faster. I smiled and pet his neck as he sailed through the air over the log.
Good boy Uley, you can have some carrots when we get back. Go FASTER. Uley pressed it in geer and I could see the opening to our yard. I hopped off as we stopped in front of the barn. Dust was following a car down the road and I quickly brought Uley inside of the old, lived in, barn. I took off his gear as fast as I could then took off my boots and slipped my feet into flip flops. i threw my helmet into its spot and pulled my hair up, then grabbed Uley's brushe's and began grooming him. The trucked screetched to a stop and I sighed in relif as Aunt Lauren opened the front door of the house.
"So," Kayla smiled as she hopped onto a bale of hay, "where'd ya go?" I sniffed and she went over to where'd I'd thrown my helmet. She spun it on ehr hands then turned back to me. "It's disgustingly dirty, smelly, sweaty, and hot. Where'd ya go?" I snatched back the helmet and hung it up. She didn't need and answer to know that I had gone somewhere. I wasn't just going to stay home, it was beautifully sunny and warm out. I went to the lake with Uley, he enjoyed it. I went to the little fridge we hid in the corner and reached in for a carrot. There wasn't any left.
"Be right back." Kayla sighed leaving the barn, she entered not five minutes later with a bag of carrots. I smiled and she hugged me. "Brady wants you to text him." I was blushing. My back was heating and a big smile was growing on my face. "Where's your phone? I'll add his number." I snored and she nodded, she knew I meant in my room.

"So how did the exams go honey?"
"Good I guess, they were kind of hard though." Aunt Lauren placed a burger on both of our plates and put a bowl of salad on the table.
"And what did you do while we were out Taylor?" I took a big bite of my burger then pointed to the barn.
"Did you have fun?"
I nodded.
"Did you just stay in the yard?"
Kayla glanced at me.
I nodded.
"Good, did Uley have fun?"
I nodded again, taking another bite of my burger.
"Good, good." We all ate our lunch in silence, then went our seperate way. I went upstairs and into my closet. My closet is a huge walk in, there's a sunlight and one of the walls is made of glass. I sat on the beanbag chair next to the wall and looked out into the field. Aunt Lauren was letting the horses out of the barn, why did I groom Uley so througholy?! I sighed as he went straight for the mud. Jeez. I grabbed my open my book from the door and flipped through the pages. I had no clue what it was about. I kept thinking about Brady. He didn't even say good bye to me on the last day of school, I thought he was one of my best friends. The sound from the music drifted up through the floor, Kayla was watching the music channel. I gasped and remembered Kayla added Brady's number into my phone. I scrambled out of my closet and to my bedside table. Before even daring to check the messages I went back to the closet and sat down again. I inhaled deeply and clicked the middle button.

4 NEW TEXT MESSAGES

I inhaled again and checked them. All from Brady. I smiled happily and checked them.
Hey, Taylor, it's Brady. What's up?
Taylor? Hello? It's Brady. Are you there?
Helloooooo?
Sorry, if I'm annoying you, you don't need to text back if you really don't want to.

I giggled and clicked the reply button.
Hey, sorry Brady. I was outside, and I left my phone inside. I flipped through the book again but gave up and glanced out the window wasting as much time as I could.
Rofl, what's up?
Nm, wby?
Nothin, hey, do you want to go that party with me? I smiled hugley and typed as fast as I could, making as few mistakes as possible.
Yeah, uhmmm, suure, why not?
Lolz, ok, but i gtg. seeya.
Biiee.

I eventually went down to the living room to listen to Kayla's screeching, which, she somehow, called singing. I cringed as she tried to hit a high note. I wondered quickly if I could sing. If I ever talked. Finally the song ended and Kayla started texting to preocuppied to listen to the song that was now playing. Firework, by Katy Perry. I would have died if Kayla tried to sing that. After a half hour I couldn't take her "singing" and went out onto the porch and soaked up the sun. I was humming Firework. Stupid music channel! The huming didn't sound to bad actually, I wanted to open my mouth and try to sing, to talk. I opened my mouth, inhaled, but shut my mouth as fast as I could. I didn't want to, not yet.

"Taylor? Wake up." Kayla was in my room opening my curtains. I groaned and glanced at the clock. It was ten thirty. I shrugged and sat up. What was she doing up this early? I didn't even want to be awake this early.
"Can you pleeeeeaaaaassseee, drive me to get a new outfit for the party this weekend?" It'd been two weeks since Brady had asked me to the party, I hadn't even thought of what I was going to wear. Maybe going out to get some new clothes wasn't a bad idea. I nodded and she threw a pair of shorts and a tank top at me. "Hurry up and get dressed." I sighed and she fled the room, Her stereo turned up and her shrieking flooded through my walls. I cringed and got ready in five minutes. I banged on her door and the shrieking stopped, the CD being turned off. Her footsteps raced to the door and she pushed passed me making it down the stairs and out to the truck. I rolled my eyes and followed. I plopped into the truck and started i then wondered if she'd asked Aunt Lauren if she could go. I shrgged then tore out of the driveway and sped down the highway into town.