Mute || ✔️

Chapter 6- Tara

            When I woke up, it was to Christian shaking me gently...again. I yawned as he pulled me out of the van. But due to the elevated height of vehicle, I wasn't expecting the impact of ground. Luckily, Christian had seen it coming and had a good grip on my arms when my knees buckled. Even though my mouth banged into his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Christian's friend asked from behind me. With my hand covering my mouth, I nodded. But I think the tears filling my eyes, gave me away to Christian. I watched as his eyes, visibly softened and pulled me to his chest, before wrapping me in a tight hug.

            What I couldn't understand was, why. He shouldn't be trying to make me feel better about my hurt. He should be yelling at me for hurting his shoulder. But here he was, trying to make sure I felt better.

            "We'll go to Dr. Wicks before we leave and get an official opinion. But I think it looks fine. What do you think Sammy?" Christian asked, after he had looked me over. Christian's friend-Sammy, looked me over the same way Christian had done just a few minutes ago, before he also nodded, "Yeah, she should be fine. There's no bleeding or a busted lip or anything, but just to be safe you should take her to Dr. Wicks later."

"You be sure to let me know if it starts to hurt though and we'll go sooner, okay?" Christian said. I barely had time to nod my head, then a kid on a skateboard skated pass me at an alarming speed. Before I knew what I was doing, I had launched myself into myself his arms. It only took a minute for me to realize what I doing, and then with red cheeks, I let go of him.  But another person laughing a little too loudly had me back into his arms. Christian chuckled softly as he unwounded my arms from around his neck. He slid his own arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. Then he looked behind him, "You coming Sammy?"

            By the time the sun emerged from the dark sky, the boys had given me the full tour of The National Academy. It was only when we were exiting one of the many studios that we heard Christian and Sammy's names being called. I looked up to see two blonde girls heading our way.  I watched as they latched on to Sammy at full force, wincing silently a little when he stumbled into the wall. But then he was laughing. Now I was confused...A minute later, the two blonde speed racers let go of Sammy and turned to Christian.  They started to lunge toward him too, until they saw me. They looked at me and blinked. I blinked back.

            Although they were both blonde, one was taller, had hair that reached down to the middle of her back. She had curves too. The good kind of curves. The kind of curves a girl would want to have. The kind of curves I wished I had, but didn't. Then there was the shorter blonde, who had hair to her shoulders. She didn't have much curves, but what she lacked in curves, she made up for with her slender body. Only unlike me, her skinny body looked natural. Suddenly, I felt even more out of place than I already knew I was.

            "Who's this?" The taller blonde asked. With a sideway glance at me, Christian introduced me with a protective hand placed upon my shoulder. I felt grateful for it. Meeting new people always made me nervous, "This is Tara Webster. A very old friend of mine who just recently moved in with Drew, Molly, and, I. Tara, this is Kat Karamakov," he gestured to the taller blonde and then the shorter one, "And, Grace Whitney."

            I lifted my hand in greeting to the two girls. They smiled and waved back. A silence weaved through our bodies. I fidgeted. Silences made me anxious too; they made feel like something bad was coming. Yet everyone except for me, seemed comfortable with it.

“So where’s Abigail?” Sammy asked, breaking the silence. Exhaling silently, I shot him a grateful, small smile. It was Grace who answered, “Abi’s getting her I.D. made for the upcoming year.”