Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 23

The first day of school came to an end with Vivian feeling decent about it. Nothing major had happened and, except for being the new kid, she’d been pretty much ignored except for the incident at lunch with Abby and the tag-a-long who’d never given her name.

Gilbert was waiting for her outside the school with the same polite smile, and in no time Vivian was home, changing out of the school’s uniform and into jeans and a tank top.

Checking the time, she debated on what to do that evening. Dinner would be ready soon but it was the hours after that she needed to fill. She could be the good student and start going through the text books she’d brought home to get ahead, but it felt wrong to do that when she lived in such an expensive house.

When she’d lived with foster families and the houses were small and sometimes quite cramped, whenever she studied Vivian was given the space to do so without much fuss, so she did it as often as possible for the personal space. Now that she had all the space she could want and more, studying felt like a waste of time, but she also didn’t know what to do with herself either.

The past two weeks had been a struggle with how she spent her free time. They were far enough from the city proper that going for a walk wasn’t really an adventure — and she would be asked why she didn’t just get a drive in to town; that was without including the fact she still felt uncomfortable spending Samuel’s money even though he’d given her a copy of his credit card to use as she saw fit; meaning it had no limit.

If she bought a sports car it would probably go through with room for a decent tip; at least, that’s how she’d understood it when explained.

It felt like a lead weight in her pocket just knowing it existed.

*I should find a hobby*, she thought to herself. In previous years she spent a lot of time out of doors, exploring the areas where she lived when studying became too boring. Pushing aside the curtain to look out over the drive, she watched an expensive looking car pull up. She watched Laurent park and leave the vehicle, the redhead she’d seen at lunch also jumping out to follow her brother into the house.

Samuel hadn’t let any of them bring friends over since Vivian had moved in, to give her time to settle he’d said, but now that school had started it seemed the rule was no longer in effect.

This worried her, as she didn’t want the students at the school to learn of her identity just yet, but if Reagan saw her and blabbed…

*Does it really matter though?* She wondered, letting the curtain fall back over the window. *They’ll know about it eventually, one way or another. What does it matter?*

“Because I want to be invisible,” she muttered to herself, running her fingers through her thick hair until she had every strand pulled back into a ponytail before letting it fall loose around her shoulders again. *And I can’t be invisible if I’m the rich, popular guy’s little sister who appeared without warning.*

A knock on her door brought Vivian’s attention back to the present and she strolled over to see who it was.

Gabriel stood at the door, a cocky grin on his face. “Yo, sis, wanna learn something tonight?”

This caused Vivian to raise a brow. Learn something? “Such as?”

“Well, I’m restoring that car I was talking about, and I want your opinion on some of the things I wanna do.”

“…I don’t know anything about cars…”

Shrugging his shoulders, Gabriel waved away her concern. “Like I said, wanna learn something tonight? I got time to talk you through what I’m doing.”

Pursing her lips, Vivian shifted from foot to foot before trying to get her point across. “I mean… I’m not… really interested in cars.”

“No shit,” he laughed, hands now in his pockets. “I’m not surprised. Just come with me after supper and I’ll show you what I mean. What’s the harm spending one evening with me? You can see where I work, what I do, and I can show off the fact I got a sister to the people still working.”

It sounded like he was getting all the benefits from her spending time with him, and Vivian wondered how far she could push her luck. “What’s in it for me then?”

This question had Gabriel grinning wickedly. “Oh, I like that sass. Okay, why don’t you think of something you want in return for humouring me.”

“You have to paint it pink.”

For a moment, his grin slipped as he processed what she was talking about before letting out another laugh. “Yeah… try something else.”

Vivian figured as much, undaunted by this snag; knowing where the boundaries were was good, and not pushing them was important. He also seemed to enjoy when she said things like that and it helped her feel comfortable in his presence.

Unlike Laurent, who’d had his outburst at supper that one night, none of the others had raised their voices at her. Having spent more time chatting with Gabriel, over text more than in person, they’d developed a teasing relationship, where they could poke fun at one another without hurting feelings.

It would be nice to see if he was the same in person as he was over text.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Sweet! Alright, Dad said supper is almost ready and to get the table set. You’re helping me.”

“Set the table?”

“Yeah. It’s a big job.”

Vivian stared at him for a moment before letting out a sigh. Pointing out how easy the task was would only make him try and have her do the entire thing — at least that’s what she suspected would happen — and she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction by correcting his statement.

“You’ll have to remind me where everything is,” she trailed off as they made their way downstairs and began the chore of getting the table set up.

“Ah, Vivian, how was your first day of school?” Samuel asked when she entered the kitchen behind her brother.

“It was fine,” she replied, watching Gabriel take out five plates and put them in her hands.

Samuel raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment on his son sharing the chore. “Only fine? Did your teachers seem alright? Meet any interesting students?”