The Silent Brute

Chapter 10: It's Saturday, My Dudes

Miriam

"It's Wednesday, my dudes," I said in unison with the man in his spiderman suit. A guttural scream left my mouth just as he did.

Whenever I felt in a slump, I watched old Vine compilations. I could recite a lot of them word for word. It interested a part of my brain that enjoyed forgetting about death and repressing all memories of my dead twin sister. A part that also wanted to be so unbothered about Cassius Lucas who was equally if not more so unbothered by me.

"That was an interesting sound." I looked up at the voice. Cassius cleared his throat. He was dressed out of our typical school uniform with a very fitting shirt that showed off his pectorals. Let's not forget about his very charming yet ungodly triceps and biceps.

I was almost swooning when I realized that he was a dick. 

A very appealing dick.

"Fuck off, Janet. I'm not going to your fucking baby shower." I repeated this one with a mouth filled with chips.  

 He shuffled in the doorway, looking very nervous.

"Welcome to chili's." The voice on my computer said and I harmonized. Cassius stood in the doorway confused at that point.

"She's been like this all day." My mom yelled from down the hall.

"I'm a bad bitch you can't kill-"I trailed off as he pulled a bouquet of flowers from behind his back. "Are you confessing your love to me?" I raised an eyebrow at him and he let out a deep chuckle. His body relaxed and he took a few steps into the room.

"If I was then I'd do more than bring you flowers."His voice had a flirtatious twist to it and honestly, was too much for me to handle. It made it hard for me to be mad at him. Then it was my turn to clear my throat and chuckle.

"What are you doing here then?" It came out just as rude as I wanted it to. I closed my laptop to make the very distracting noises stop. A small voice in my head was yelling because I was embarrassed about sleeping in bunk beds and the room had a ton of preteen posters everywhere from when I was in middle school. Not to mention, I was in my comfy clothes with no makeup and my hair was a mess.

"Well," He started off almost in a sigh. "I realized that I verbally couldn't say what I mean so I brought some flowers." 

 I stood up with my blanket still wrapped around me and took the flowers from him. I examined the flowers. "You know that light pink carnations mean an apology for missing a romantic date, right?" 

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. If the lighting in my room was better then I would have sworn I saw a blush on his face.

"The flower shop dude was talking too fast, so I just grabbed it."

"Oh, where'd you go."

He shrugged, "Some shop on Main Street."

"Bogart Flowers? I love it there. Stellan is so cute." I squealed. Stellan was the owner of Bogart Flowers and wasn't too bad to look at. He reminded me of the KPOP boybands that Mary-Anne used listened to. 

A brown eyebrow raised almost questioning me. He watched me before dropping the brow and whatever was on his mind. I pushed the flowers to his chest carefully and Cassius quickly took them back. I let the blanket fall to the floor. The forget-me-nots had died and withered many days before making the room a little more depressing. 

"Follow me." I slid past him with the vase in my hand. The sound of his footsteps told me he was trailing behind me. Cassius returned to his normally mute self. "I like you better when you don't talk." I turned around abruptly only to see those honey eyes jump up from my lower half to my face. Apart of me wanted to say something really smart and I planned on it to be that way but that didn't come out.

"Did you hear me?"

Cassius let out a grunt and we continued on our merry way. Both of us ignoring what we both knew just happened.

Once were in the kitchen, I took my time trashing the old flowers and putting the pink carnations in the vase. I always felt bad about throwing them away but fought the urge to keep the brittle petals. Cassius stood idly by the counter. He was partially watching me and partially analyzing the kitchen.

"So, Miriam."  He interrupted my flower fluffing.

"Cassius." I knitted my fingers together and sat them on the island between us.

"You never said anything about my apology." Cassius' shoulders straightened and he seemed to get more serious.

I groaned at him. Two thing I hated was tension and teenage angst. They both seemed to be very fond of me though.  

He didn't move or say a word at my groan. Although there was a chunk of counter between us, it definitely didn't feel like it. Cassius was four feet away and yet I felt he was invading my personal space. He made me uncomfortable and comfortable in the same instance.

Realizing this, I laughed. It was a hard laugh. A laugh that made me double over and eyes water. When I finally got my composure back, Cassius was staring with his head tilted like a dog.

"I'm sorry," I said it and I meant it.

"Wha-" I didn't get a chance to let him finish.

"I want to apologize too because I have this thing where I become a bitch anytime I feel like I'm being crossed and I didn't give you any time to explain yourself. If you want to not talk at school anymore I'm fine with it." I was partially honest.  

"You shouldn't be the one apologizing." He looked so astonished. A totally different person from the guy who wouldn't even speak to me on the day we met. 

"Well I am and I wish you luck on the football team." I started ushering him out of the kitchen. There was a laptop in my room calling me to finish those videos.  He got the forgiveness he wanted and we were fine. Everything was settled. We wouldn't associate at school.

"I'm not on the football team anymore ." We both stopped in the living room. My arms dangled in the air because they stopped mid-wave.

"Why?"

"They don't take it well when you get into a fight with the quarterback." He chuckled." and you were right. They are dicks."

"Oh." I really couldn't fathom any words.There was a pregnant pause as we both didn't know what to say from there. 

"I should get going." He made a move for the door but I got in front of him and planted my feet. 

"You don't have to go." I was really starting sick of getting late responses from him. "that is if you want to. I'm sure my mom wouldn't care." I put my hands in the pockets of my short-shorts which didn't fit them. Women's pockets never seemed to be able to hold anything more than lip balm.

He grinned before speaking. "I have to go to the graveyard today to-" His phone rang and he fished it out, answering with a simple grunt.  I took some steps away letting him have his privacy. He muttered stuff into the phone before cupping the bottom. 

"She wants to know if you want to come over for dinner tonight."

"No thanks. I have a ton of stuff to do." Those viral videos weren't gonna finish themselves.

Cassius didn't take another second before he removed his hand and said: "She said she would love to."