Page 10 of Unspoken Words
His sleeping bag ruffled again. “Suit yourself.”
Argh!He was so stupid and annoying.
“Fine. It says,‘What’s gone isn’t gone until you let it slip away. Hold on to your memories. Hold on. Always.’”
Chris made a scoffing sound.
“It sucks. I knew it.” I tore the note from my book and went to scrunch it up.
“Wait! Don’t. It’s really good, Elliephant.”
I paused, shocked. “You think so? It’s not”—I pointed two fingers at my mouth and made a gagging gesture—“it’s not vomit material?”
“A little, but it’s good. Now turn the flashlight off and go to sleep.”
I smiled to myself and smoothed the creases of my note then wiggled out of my sleeping bag. “Be right back.”
“Where are you going?”
“Nowhere.”
I unzipped our tent as quietly as possible then stepped out into the campsite, the moonlight illuminating a visible pathway to Connor’s tent.
“Ellie!” Chris whisper-shouted, his head poking through the open flap of our tent. “Come back!”
I placed my finger against my lips and shushed him then waved him off and stepped up to Connor’s tent. “Connor?” I whispered.
Silence.
“Connor, are you awake? It’s me, Ellie.”
“Ellie?”
Excitement buzzed through my body at his response. “Yeah. Open up. I want to give you something.”
The sound of material ruffled, his tent wobbled, and the zip slowly screeched and pierced the still night air as he slowly undid it. I stepped back when he pushed aside the canvas door, revealing him hunched over like a giant wearing only a pair of basketball shorts. He was holding a battery-powered lantern, and his hair was a matted mess.
I smiled.
He scrubbed his sleepy face and squinted at the light. “What’s wrong? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry I woke you, I just …” I looked down at the note clenched tight within my fingers, its presence unmistakable. “I just … um … wanted to give you this,” I blurted, shoving the note at him before spinning on my heel and rushing back to my tent.
I didn’t wait around for his response. My note was for him to read in his own time. I just hoped he liked it. I hoped it helped. But, most of all, I hoped he didn’t think I was stupid and never talk to me again.
Chapter Four
Connor
I’d read Ellie’s note maybe tentimes before finally switching my lantern off, but thoughts of wavy red hair, hazel eyes, and the words ‘What’s gone isn’t gone until you let it slip away. Hold on to your memories. Hold on. Always’kept me from drifting to sleep after she’d fled back to her tent. So did the persistent sound of a bouncing basketball and Aaron’s voice calling for me to ‘take the shot’. That sound, those words, they were always there in my head—loud in the quiet and even louder in the dark. I just wanted them to stop, and the only time they did was when I played my guitar.
Humming a riff, I pressed my eyes shut and willed myself back to sleep.
To a place of dreams.
To a place of lies.
Where we pretended things were different.
