Silenced 2: The Overtaking (Silenced Series) (6 page)

“
Amber, we don’t need to get into this now.” Patrick says trying to stop me before I say anything else. Boy is he wrong!

“
Actually, I think we need to talk now. Quite frankly, I’m tired of being in the middle, and my work name is not cupid. I no longer want to be the person who sits back and listens to how much you two miss each other. I’m not a shrink, and I will not listen to either of you again. Now, talk.” I demand with a bit of detestation.

A
s I finish, Casey looks back at Patrick with surprise on her face. “You still care for me?”

I c
an tell Patrick didn’t know what to say. All of this came as a surprise, because he looks totally clueless. I honestly think he should tell her the truth. I don’t want it to be going on during this trip. My main concern is clearing the so called air between them, so they can focus on the cause of this trip, and not them.

“
Yes, I care for you, but I care for Stacey too. I don’t usually broadcast what’s going on in my life, but I guess it’s all in the open now.” Patrick says and glances at me. I can tell he’s pissed I started this, but I don’t care.

I c
an see that Casey’s touched. I know she thinks Patrick doesn’t think of her as a friend. She told me the last time we talked. I know his accident made him realize life could be over in an instant, and all the things that should’ve been said, may not be said. When you have something to say, do it. Do it at that moment, and not a moment later. The time is always right, and waiting for the right moment is overrated. If only he would follow his own words of advice.

Landon and I listen while Patrick weigh
s his pros and cons out loud. Casey sits in the front seat with surprise and hurt in her eyes. This isn’t the way I meant for him to do it. Gosh, guys are so stupid when it comes to love. I know what I have to do before Casey starts crying.

“
I think by the way this conversation is going it’s best to take a break on it. I’m hungry, and these snacks aren’t doing it for me. I need something warm.” I blurt out, cutting Patrick off.

“
Where do you want to eat?” Landon asks.

It
takes me a few minutes to think of a place. I take the next exit off the interstate. Fast food doesn’t sound very good. I don’t agree with it, because the food normally doesn’t agree with me. I decide to eat at a restaurant none of us had eaten at before.

“
We’ll order when we come back.” Casey says, grabbing my arm and pulling me in the direction of the woman’s restroom.“I can’t believe he said that in the open. He was never like that when we were together.” I see a tear fall down her cheek.

“
He’s changed a lot, since you were with him.”

“
I see that. I just can’t believe the change. It’s like a completely different person. He didn’t care if he hurt my feelings.”

As
Casey comes out of the stall, she hears me breathing hard. “Are you alright?”

“
Yeah, I’m really stressed with all this shit going on. I didn’t want to talk about Pat or his love life. I honestly don’t think it’s the time and place. But then again, I started the
“talk”
between you two. I guess I’m just having mixed feelings.” I say, even though she knows I’m lying.

My foot
’s bothering me. The cut’s healing but the redness around the cut is hurting me. When I cut on purpose, it doesn’t seem to bother me. But this time it is.

I want to keep the cut a secret. If Landon f
inds out, he’d know how it got there. He’d start questioning me. I don’t want him to go looking in the closet for the razor when we get back. I’ll just replace it with a different one. This way he’ll think he still has it. I’ll have the razor he took, the one I have so many fond memories with.

Once I’m
done, we wash our hands and make our way to the table. We order food and wait.

Chapter Eight

The food’s
really good. This gives me time to stretch my legs and relax a little. The conversation goes in a variety of directions. The one talk that hurts me the most is the questions about Sarah. I don’t want to talk about her.

Why do
they keep bringing her up? Can’t a person grieve in silence? People have to be so dumb when they feel someone needs help. They’re friends of mine; I get that. They want to help me; I get that. What I don’t get is why I have to keep telling them I don’t want to talk about her.

After we’
re done, I call Donna to let her know our whereabouts. “It’s me. We’re leaving Oscar’s now. We stopped to get something to eat and stretch our legs!” I say excitedly.

“
Okay dear, is everything going okay?” She asks in a shaky voice. She’s still crying.

“
Everything’s going as planned. Traffic isn’t too bad. It gets really busy in some places, especially around the major cities of West Virginia. The car is fine and we’re good on gas. I plan to fill up before we leave, so we don’t have to stop again for a while.” I say, trying to reassure her.

“
Good idea. Do me a favor, so I know I don’t have to worry about it,” Donna suggests.

“
What’s that?” I ask bemused.

“
When you stop at rest stops, make sure you girls don’t go far from the guys. I don’t trust anyone nowadays. I don’t want you to just trust anyone. Amber, you can’t be too careful.” Donna says, reminding me of my grandmother.

“
I promise…. Oh, Donna…”

“
Yeah.”

“
You have enough on your mind. You don’t need to worry about us.”

I wrap up the call, head out to the car, and pull out onto
Interstate 79, South
.

***

The last part of the trip feels like it’s taking forever. We’re held up for half an hour because of an accident. The anticipation is growing stronger as we come closer to Jacksonville. My heart beats faster, because seeing my home town again reminds me of all the fun times.

When I was forced to leave, I had so much hatred towards my mom and Dave. Deep down inside, I r
eally didn’t want to leave, but my mother thought she knew what was best. If only we didn’t, then maybe Sarah would be here, and I wouldn’t have to see her lying in a casket.

Sarah always told me everything. It bothers me she didn’t call
to let me know she was having a hard time. Pills weren’t her thing. They scared us. Pills are unpredictable, and no one really knows how they’ll interact with your body. Sarah said she didn’t want to take the chance with a bad reaction, and having it end up killing her.

But the next thing I hear
is she died from an overdose. It doesn’t sound right, but the autopsy revealed that’s what had happened.

As we dr
ive downtown to Donna’s house, memories start flooding my mind. Tears come and I don’t have the strength to hold them back. Surprisingly, no one asks what’s wrong. They seem mesmerized by the surroundings. Casey’s surprised to see military officials. This is normal for me.

Seeing trees
is weird for me at first. I mean, we have trees back home, but not nearly as many in West Virginia. Stores line each street, and what I consider hills are just bumps in the ground compared to West Virginia. It’s kind of funny. I can’t believe I managed to adapt to what I now call home. Actually, it isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

“
We’re here.” I announce to everyone.

Knowing the area, I g
et out of the car and open the trunk. Instead of staying at Donna’s, we agree to stay at a hotel. Landon doesn’t like staying in someone’s house when he doesn’t know them. I told him Donna’s very loving and wouldn’t mind, but now that I think about it, I don’t think I can stay either.

“
So...where does Donna live?” Casey asks.

“
Oh, it’s like two minutes that way.” I say, pointing down the street that’s diagonally to the left of us. “I want to check into the hotel first, and then we can go.” I add.

No one object
s. The hotel checks us in quickly and before I know it we’re pulling into Donnas’ drive. This is harder than what I thought. Tears flow like a turbulent river that’s thawing after a cold, freezing winter.

“
I can’t do this. I can’t drive down this driveway knowing when I reach the door, Sarah won’t be there. I just can’t.” I reveal through tears.

Casey and Patrick look a
t Landon at the same time. It’s like they are silently asking him what they should do. I already made it a point to tell them on several parts of our trip not to mention Sarah anymore. Now, here I am crying over her. I can feel that Landon wants to help but doesn’t know how.

“
I know it’s easy for me to say, but everything will get easier.” Casey says gently.

I kn
ow who Casey’s talking about. Her mother passed away when she was younger. It makes her feel better that someone here knows how she feels. I didn’t think of Betty, Landon’s mother who’s on her death bed. He knows what it’s like to be losing someone but he hasn’t lost her yet.

“
Thank you.” I say, addressing Casey.

“
We need to do this, Amber.” Landon says trying to help. “I can drive the rest of the way, or you can. Just take it slow.”

“
I want to drive. It’s going to be hard, but it’s something I need to do.” I say, putting my car in gear.

I slowly push on
the gas. A few minutes later, I’m putting the car in park and trying to get out. It’s hard to see because of all the tears. As I step out of the car, I look up at the house, and close my car door. I see Donna come out onto her porch.

“
Amber, you’re here. Honey, you didn’t call and tell me you made it into town.” She says trying to smile.

“
I’m sorry. It’s just with seeing my old stomping grounds and the reason why I’m here it’s getting to me. I’m so used to coming up to the porch and Sarah coming out. That’s never going to happen again.” I cry, starting one of those hiccupping, snot cries.

“
I understand. I keep telling myself whatever she was going through, she doesn’t have to anymore. She’s not in pain. She’s free, happy. We’re all going to miss her terribly………but… let’s stop this. Introduce me to your friends.” Donna says trying to be strong.

“
Okay...” I say, walking over to Landon. “This is my boyfriend, Landon. That’s Casey and Patrick.” I motion in each of their directions, “Nothing here has changed.” I finish as I look around.

“
No, you know we really don’t like change. Allen thinks it’s too much work. You know how long it took him to change the pipes underneath the kitchen sink. I don’t want to give him a project that’d take him years to complete.” Donna laughs.

“
True. Aw, the tree house is still up and looks strong. Do you think Allen will destroy it now that…..Sarah isn’t….here?” I ask.

“
Probably not, it’s one of the things we have very good memories of. I thought it was a good idea to tear it down because it’d be way too hard on him to look at, but he disagrees.” Donna says.             

“
I agree.”

“
Why don’t we all go inside and you can introduce your friends to Allen. The family won’t be here today. They figure it’d be too much on you and your friends. I told them it’s up to them.” Donna informs us.

Donna motion
s for us to go in the house. My heart beats faster as I walk closer to the house. As I get to the porch, I look over at the swing that sits to the left of the front door. I turn around to take one more look at the yard. My car sits at the end of the sidewalk which leads to the road. The sidewalk’s lined with small, round black lights that give just enough light to see where we need to go to get to the porch.

The tree house’
s visible from the porch swing. Donna thought it’d be best if Allen built it there, so she could watch Sarah while she played. She hated letting Sarah out of her sight. There weren’t a lot of trees around but they bought a few acres of land on the outside of town, giving them the feel of being in the country. Allen hated the country, but he didn’t want to have a small yard. The property fits him well.

Donna planted
a garden along the porch. She always dreamed of having a small town house with a beautiful garden wrapping around it. Her vegetable garden sits to the left of the house and has a small white picketed fence surrounding it. Allen said it added class to the yard, but Donna would rather the fence go all the way around the property. Needless to say, the backyard is all fenced in. Allen did this before Sarah was born.

“
Amber, are you ok?” Donna questions.

“
Yeah, I’m coming in now.” I say, as I wipe my tears away.

I turn around, grab the white screen door
handle, and open the door. Stepping inside, feelings hit me at once. The sounds of Sarah laughing in the kitchen, like old times, run through my ears. I try to shake them from my mind but it isn’t working. I look around. Everything’s still the same from the last time I was in the house. I noticed Landon looking at me as he walks over.

“
Honey? You okay?”

“
It’s just so ha…hard for m…me to do this.” I sob, trying to suppress the urge to cry harder.

“
I know. It’s all right. Take your time. Do you need something to drink?” He asks with his loving voice and his eyes filled with concern.

“
Not yet. I’ll join you in a few minutes. Just give me some time alone…please.”

I watch Landon walk away
, and take another look around. The oak steps to my left line the wall, which leads upstairs. Allen replaced the dark orange carpet in the hallway to the kitchen with hardwood flooring. That looks really nice. It’s a while lot better than the old ugly orange carpet.

I
saunter into the sitting room to my right and glimpse around to see most of the pictures are new. There are baby pictures of Sarah hung in the same spots I remember. The walls are painted a soft sand color and the furniture accents the walls in a darker shade. On the far side of the room is a fire place with a mantle which holds several pictures of Sarah with friends. I am one of them, which makes me cry harder.

I
amble over to the pictures, staring at them through the tears. The pictures that catch my attention are the ones that mean the most to me. It’s when Sarah and I went to Kingmont Amusement Park. This was our first time going somewhere like that without our parents. I remember Sarah and I were so excited because this was our first taste of freedom...our first feeling of being adults. The memories flood into my mind.

I turn
away from the picture, not able to look at them any longer. I continue looking around and see pictures of Sarah with various family members. The pictures sit around on end tables, and they are hung in various places on the walls.

I walk out of the sitting room and down the hallway
, making my way to the kitchen. As I’m walking, I notice a painting hanging on the wall of Sarah. This must’ve been done after I moved, because I don’t remember it.

Looking into her eyes, she looks sad. When I left, her eyes were happy and she didn’t have a worry in the world. I wonder what happened to make her
experiment with pills. I decide that I’ve been alone long enough and join everyone in the kitchen. As I walked into the kitchen, everyone turns and looks at me.

“
I’m all right. Sorry to keep you all waiting.” I say making eye contact with each person.

Donna introduced Landon, Casey, and Patrick before I had the chance. But that’s ok
ay with me. I’m not good with introductions anyway. I feel weird being in Sarah’s house without her. There’s only one thing that I want to do before I go home. I have to look one last time into Sarah’s room.

“
Donna, can I ask you a question?” I ask, noticing I’m already asking her a question.

“
Sure, anything.” Donna replies in concern.

“
Do you mind if I take a look around Sarah’s room? I need to see it. I think it’ll make it easier for me to get through this.”

“
Sure, dear. If you think it’ll help.”

“
I think it will.”

“
No problem. You know this is the quietest I have seen my house in the past couple days.” Donna states.

“
Really?” Casey asks.

“
Yeah.” Donna replies.

“
What...from family and close friends paying their respects to the loved ones or something like that?” Casey asks.

Damn, you’d think she wasn’t familiar with this. I could only think of one word…duh!

Donna replies. “It’s been busy because of all the cops and investigators coming in and out. I’ll tell you what they think happened. I’m sure you want to know. Just bear with me, it’s still hard for me. My psychologist told me it’s easier to get over something as hard as this if I talk about it. I have been. I’ve told this same story over and over again. At first it all seemed like a really bad dream that I wanted to wake up from.”