Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 47

Miriam paused mid-chew and stared at her friend for a moment. “What do you mean?” She said around the food in her mouth. Swallowing, she continued. “Like, what context was it said in?”

“At practice this morning, Theo offered to give me pointers and said we could do some runs together. When I said no thanks, he said maybe he was coming on too strong.”

“Hold up,” Miriam said, voice rising in volume as her hands slammed down on the table. Everyone in their immediate vicinity stopped and looked over at the two girls, silencing her as a blush rushed to her cheeks. Lowering her voice, she said, “Theo said that to you?”

“That’s what I said,” Vivian nodded, not understanding her friend’s reaction.

Miriam glanced around them and let out a huff. “Come on,” she told Vivian, grabbing her hand and tugging the confused girl to her feet. “We need privacy for this discussion.”

“Privacy? Why?” More confused than ever, Vivian allowed herself to be pulled out of the cafeteria, down the hall and into an empty classroom. Once inside, Miriam closed the door before turning to face Vivian.

“I need every detail of that conversation,” she began before moving to stand in front of Vivian. “From start to finish.”

It’d been a short exchange between Theo and Vivian that morning so it barely took two minutes to fill the auburn-haired girl in on the details.

“Oh my god,” Miriam laughed as she placed her hands on Vivian’s shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “Vivian! I knew it!”

“Knew what? What am I missing here?”

“Theo *likes* you!”

Vivian rolled her eyes. “That’s a bit of a leap. He was being nice.”

“Okay, fair. Theo is a friendly guy, sure, but you don’t understand.” Miriam was practically glowing, her excited energy making her almost vibrate as she spoke. “Theodore McCullough is… If a girl asks him out he’ll accept. Sometimes he goes on second dates but never third dates.”

“…uh huh…” None of this explained her reaction to the events of that morning, so Vivian waited before saying anything else.

“You don’t get it. Girls ask *him* out; he *never* asks them.”

The looked Miriam was giving Vivian said she should understand the implications but she was drawing a blank. “Okay…”

Groaning, Miriam gave her shoulders a bit of a shake. “Girl. Him asking if you wanted pointers and to run together was him asking you out. Theodore McCullough never asks girls out but he asked *you* out!”

Vivian frowned, now more confused than before. “How is offering to give me pointers and going for a run asking me out on a date? Those are very different things — even I know that much.”

“Usually you’d be right, however…” Miriam trailed off as a wicked smile crossed her face, “him making the comment about coming on too strong means he was hoping it would end up as something *more*.”

“More? How does pointers and running end up as something more?” *Where did people get these strange ideas from*, Vivian wondered silently as she listened to her friend burst into laughter.

“You and I need a movie night,” Miriam finally said once she’d calmed down. Removing her hands from Vivian’s shoulders, she pulled out her phone and began tapping at the screen. “Are you busy Saturday?”

“Not that I know about,” Vivian replied after taking a second to think about it. Weekends at the Devreaux’s were quiet affairs and without hobbies she never really *did* anything. It was possible Gabriel might want to hang out again, but other than that chances were good she was free.

“Perfect. Why don’t you come to my place after lunch and we’ll have a movie marathon so you’ll understand why asking for pointers and going on runs together can equal asking someone out.”

Vivian rolled her eyes again but nodded all the same. “Sounds fun.”

It did sound fun. When was the last time she’d gone to a friend’s house and hung out? She couldn’t remember having ever done so.

“Awesome! I’ll text you my address and you can come by whenever you want on Saturday. Mom wants to meet you anyway.”

“Your mom?”

Miriam looked up, startled, but then smiled. “She… she kind of demanded I invite you over last weekend but…”

“Why?”

“Well…” Miriam trailed off, her cheeks beginning to colour a little as she averted her gaze. “She’s excited I have a friend in school…”

“My… family…” Vivian hesitated on the word, feeling uncomfortable having spoken it out loud, “Seemed happy when I told them about you. I’m sure they’ll want to meet you eventually, too.” Except that would reveal she was a Devreaux and Vivian was enjoying flying under the radar and didn’t want that to change.

“Well, maybe next time we can go to your place?” Miriam offered with a wide grin. “I’m pretty sure Mom would let me go even if it took time from my studies. Well, maybe not a lot of time but a couple hours wouldn’t make her freak out.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Vivian promised with a curt nod, side stepping the question as best she could. How would Miriam react knowing Vivian’s family was funding her education?

*Maybe I should’ve just told everyone I was the long lost Devreaux sister from the start?*

“Now that that’s out of the way,” Miriam began, slipping her phone back into a pocket. “How do you feel about Theo? Do you like him?”

“Uh. I guess he’s okay,” Vivian stuttered a little. “Seems nice enough.”

“But do you *like* him?”

Vivian huffed a little. “I don’t know. I’ve never liked anyone before so how would I know if I did or not? As a person he seems nice enough, if not a bit… everywhere. I’ve only talked to him maybe twice so he’s still practically a stranger.”

From the look on her face, Miriam wasn’t happy with the answer she’d been given and Vivian couldn’t help but let out a bit of a sigh. Fortunately, the bell signalling the end of lunch went off and ended the conversation for them.

“We aren’t done talking about this,” Miriam warned before running off to her locker.

Vivian watched her disappear into the rush of students and couldn’t help but feel like the world was tilting underfoot.

Learning Theo’s offer of help had somehow been a way of asking her out — though she still didn’t understand how that conclusion was made — had left her feeling… odd. Not uncomfortable, but warm and unsettled in a way that felt almost pleasant.

Which begged the question; how did she feel about the boy?