Page 12 of Unspoken Words
I shrugged, and this time it was me avoiding her gaze. “Well, they did.”
An awkward silence settled between us, but it was quickly interrupted by more chirping birds. Or maybe they made the awkwardness worse, I wasn’t sure, so I kept talking. “And you didn’t force me to say anything. I chose to tell you.”
Ellie lowered herself to the ground next to me. “What was your friend’s name?”
“Aaron,” I breathed out, the word barely escaping my mouth.
“How long were you friends?”
“Since kindergarten.”
She started gathering random things that were lying around her: stones, twigs, leaves, and began to arrange them in a pattern. I flicked a few strings of my guitar, which was when I noticed the corners of her mouth curve into a small smile.
It made me smile,again.
“How long have you been playing guitar?”
“Since I was six.”
“Are you in a band?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I never thought about being in one.”
“Why not?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
Ellie glanced up at me, her green eyes a forest of mockery. “Well, yeah! How am I supposed to find things out if I don’t ask?”
“I don’t know … listen?”
“To what? The birds and water? What will they tell me about you?”
I thought I’d be a smartarse and didn’t answer for a few seconds. “There … did you hear that?” I asked, my excitement overly deliberate.
Her shoulders straightened, her eyes wide. “Hear what?”
“The bird. It said something.”
“What—” She threw a stone at my leg. “Very funny, Jokey McJokester.”
I snorted. “Jokey McJokester?”
“Would you prefer Birdy McBullcrap?”
Laughter burst from my mouth, my shoulders bouncing, my chest vibrating a happy hum. It felt good, so good that I’d almost forgotten how simple laughing was, how easy and … fun, and for a split second I enjoyed it, but only for a second. Laughing still felt weird. I couldn’t explain why, it just did.
Closing my mouth, I shifted uncomfortably on the rock, silence creeping in between us once again.
“You’re allowed to laugh, Connor. Aaron would want you to, you know.”
“How would you know what Aaron would want?” I snapped, straightening my back. “You didn’t even know him.”
Ellie hung her head and focussed on her pattern of twigs, and I instantly felt bad. She was only trying to make me feel better with her words, that’s what she’d said.
