Silent Souls (Wattys 2014)

Chapter Two

Him

I know it’s stupid, but I can’t stop thinking about her smile. I can’t stop thinking about how it was me that made her smile. Every time I think about it, I get this nice warm feeling inside me, and then I start smiling, and then—

I know it’s stupid, but I can’t stop thinking about her.

Her

It’s been driving me crazy. That book. That quote.

Was it him – the mysterious boy with the gorgeous, stormy grey eyes? Or was it Kyle?

It’s been almost a week, now, and I still don’t know. I asked Kyle about it, but all he did was smile and leave. I haven’t had a chance to talk to the other boy. But I want to. Every time I tell myself I’ll say something to him, I’ll start making my way over, but then he’ll look up from his book and I’ll see his eyes and then my heart will just stop and I won’t be able to say anything…

…and then I’ll start blushing like crazy and I’ll feel him smiling behind me. And I won’t have to see him smiling to know that he will be; I’ll just know.

Him

She does this thing that drives me crazy. She’ll start walking towards me like she wants to say something to me, and I’ll start forming all the words in my head that I’ll say, and then I realise that I can’t, and then I’ll look up at her and she’ll freeze for a split second, lips parted, eyes wide, with that blush creeping up her neck and tinting her cheeks, and then she’ll walk straight past me or back away, and then I’ll start smiling like mad.

God, everything about her makes me smile.

Her

‘Tell me your name,’ Kyle says, handing me yet another book to take out.

I bite back a smile and shake my head. I catch sight of the boy in the corner, and whatever words I was planning to reply with disappear, and I—

‘You like him, don’t you?’

*

‘Has he said anything to you?’

‘Well, no.’

Kyle takes his book from my hands, frowning a little. ‘Ignorant guys just aren’t worth it. If he cared even one bit about you, he would’ve said something by now.’ And as a little piece of me inside breaks, Kyle leaves.

But his words stay. And they hurt.

Him

Something changes in her during the day. I can see in her eyes that she’s sad.

I notice that this happened around two hours ago, which was when Kyle left.

Kyle.

And, suddenly, it all makes sense.

Her

It’s been a week since the book – since the quote that had me smiling myself to sleep.