Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 11

It was the first time in a while that Vivian acted like a temperamental teen, locking her bedroom door and refusing to open it no matter who knocked.

The first to arrive had been Samuel, who hadn’t sounded happy at finding her door locked after failing to receive a response to his query of if he could come in to talk.

Next came Laurent, who seemed only somewhat guilty, giving an apology of sorts through the door before retreating.

After an hour, Sebastian gave it a shot, only to receive the same treatment.

Gabriel had been the only one to find a way to get an answer of any sort out of his sister: through text message.

Their father had given Vivian everyone’s contact details after she’d agreed to live with them, so she assumed he had given them hers in return.

“It’s Gabe,” the message began as she opened it to read in full, a little curious what he had to say. “About the conversation earlier… THIS is a Thunderbird. Seriously, girl, you gotta get your shit together. Not knowing what a THUNDERBIRD is. Christ.”

There was a photo attached of a convertible that had to date back to the sixties or seventies, with a shiny red paint job. She had to admit it looked pretty neat for a car, though the paint colour wasn’t her favourite. “It should be pink,” she texted back, sending it before realizing she broke her silence after shouting at the dinner table.

Grimacing, she tried not to think about her outburst. What did it matter what Laurent, or any of them, thought of what happened? They didn’t know, so it was all their opinions on the matter and not the truth.

It had been years since Vivian cared about the opinion of others, but this had felt too personal to ignore even though it was about her mother and not herself.

Her mother couldn’t defend herself against those horrible words, but Vivian could and she’d spoken up without meaning to. Would this cause them to think she was ready to tell them things about the past? It had been nice when none of them bothered her about the life she’d obviously led with their mother, but it couldn’t last forever before they broke down and began hounding her for information.

Now that the seal had been broken it would only be a matter of time before more questions came her way, which she would refuse to answer and cause turmoil within what felt like a close knit family.

By the third month Vivian wouldn’t be surprised if she was sent back into the system if this kept up.

Ding.

Vivian looked down at her phone to read Gabriel’s follow up text.

“Could we agree on another colour instead? Pink really isn’t my jam.”

Thinking it over, Vivian typed out, “Pink is just light red.”

“Look here, smart ass,” his reply came in almost immediately, “I never said red was what I was going for. The picture is just for reference.”

“Ahhh,” Vivian said out loud, feeling stupid for thinking it had been exactly what he’d wanted and not just to show her what a Thunderbird was. If she wanted to paint it any colour, which one would she choose?

Probably something in a shade that would attract the least amount of attention. But if she didn’t take that into account?

“What about sky blue?”

It took a minute for his response to come through, and it was five thumbs up followed by a party popper.

“Guess that means he likes the colour?” She murmured. Feeling like he wouldn’t be waiting for her to respond to the text, Vivian let her phone fall onto the bed as she lay back, wondering how to deal with things the next day.

Ignoring the issue in the present was all fine and good until she was forced to deal with it later. Maybe they would let her just pretend nothing had happened?

Probably not. Samuel didn’t seem the type to just let things go, no matter how laid back he appeared to be. Something in how she’d caught him watching her during their shopping trip had her wondering what he saw, what he thought.

Vivian was used to using silence to keep her secrets, but it was possible her father used it for other reasons. Her mom had used silence a lot over the years and Vivian had learned to imitate her in that regard — it was possible she’d learned it from her husband, or her husband had learned it from her.

Who’s to know which way it went. It didn’t matter in the end as Vivian chose not to comment on it, to let Samuel do as he pleased so long as it wasn’t bothering her in the moment.

Looking around her room, Vivian let out a loud sigh. The purchases from earlier were all neatly stacked in a corner, waiting for her to put them away.

Might as well get it over with since I’m not leaving my room tonight, she told herself with a groan as she rolled out of bed.

——

Vivian timed breakfast perfectly, entering the empty kitchen with great relief. The thought of facing anyone after last night’s outburst made her heart race.

Deciding on something simple, she put some bread in the toaster and grabbed a banana — there was nothing better than peanut butter and banana on a slice of toast.

She was halfway through slicing the banana when Laurent entered the kitchen.

Body tensing, Vivian pretended he wasn’t there. In return, he seemed to do the same as he passed by on the way to the fridge.

The toast finished as he closed the fridge door and he grabbed both slices, putting one in his mouth and setting the other in front of Vivian. “Thanks for breakfast,” he said as he left the room.

He just stole a slice of my toast, she thought to herself, unsure how to feel about the entire exchange. Did she actually care that he’d taken half her breakfast? Not really — she wasn’t feeling too hungry and it was possible she wouldn’t have been able to finish the second slice.

She wondered what it all meant. It was obvious — at least to Vivian — that he didn’t like her very much from the previous conversation at the dinner table, but his tone this morning was back to what it had been: bored, nonchalant.

Biting into her toast, Vivian decided however he felt about her was not her problem. He would learn to deal with it one way or another.

Besides, there was always the possibility that after three months they’d decide she shouldn’t stay and part ways forever.

This thought made her lose what little appetite she’d woken up with. Setting down the piece of toast, Vivian was confused why any of this mattered to her when it never had before. Was it because they were biologically related?