Disclaimer- I don't own anything. The idea came to me one day in English a couple months ago, when Scott Perry said something about silence being louder than any words could ever be. So I recently remembered it and decided to write on it.
It's been said that silence speaks louder than words; that silence displays your thoughts better than words ever could.
That, however, only works if you've got something to say.
Zack Mooneyham sat on the floor, leaning against the wall with his guitar in his lap. He watched his roommate Freddy Jones bustle around and put away groceries. Zack sat in total silence. Freddy, however, couldn't shut up.
"I wasn't sure if you wanted toppings on the pizza," he said gesturing at the pizza boxes stacked on the counter. "So I got a slice of everything." Freddy put away the last of the groceries and turned to look at Zack, who just stared back. Freddy sighed. "Zack you haven't moved all day."
To this Zack lifted his arm. Freddy glared at him.
"That's not what I mean. Zack it's been three months. You haven't spoken a word since the accident and you haven't left the apartment either. You hardly eat anything anymore and you've lost a lot of weight…"
Zack saw Freddy's mouth keep moving, but he turned his friend out. He began to mindlessly strum his guitar, not realizing that the sounds he was making were not melodious in the least. He kept strumming until it was grabbed out of his hands.
"Zack! Listen to me, please. I know that it hurts but you have to move on. I refuse to just let you sit here wasting away," Freddy declared angrily.
Zack narrowed his eyes. Grabbing his guitar from Freddy, he silently walked into his room and closed the door. He stood in the middle of the room, looking around, his guitar dangling lifelessly from his hands.
Why couldn't Freddy just leave him alone? He didn't want to be saved.
He stared at his reflection in the mirror. He took off his shirt and looked at himself closely. What stared back at him was a once strong, good looking young man, who now seemed close to death. He could see some of the bones sticking out where his ribcage was. His face was pale and his skin just seemed to be stretched over his cheekbones. His eyes seemed permanently glazed over, and his hair was a matted mess. He looked like the living dead. He smirked and put his shirt back on.
He sat on the floor and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders. He was always cold now. He hadn't slept in the bed in a long time; he slept on the floor now. The bed reminded him too much of her.
He heard a knock at the door and a minute later Freddy pushed it open. Damn. He'd forgotten to lock it.
"Come on man, I just want to help you," Freddy said. "You haven'thad anysun since Sarah died." Zack shot him a glare that could melt lava. "Yes, I said died. You didn't kill anyone Zack. It's not your fault. It was an accident."
Zack wrapped the blanket tighter around himself; he only succeeded in getting colder. He squeezed his eyes shut and began to rock back and forth against the memories that were threatening to surface.
He had hands on his back; Freddy was saying something. But he wasn't really thinking or listening.
Sarah. Beautiful, sweet, fun loving Sarah. She was so shy when she came to him for an autograph after one of the bands concerts. She lacked self confidence, and it took quite a bit of hedging on Zack's part to get her phone number. She was stunning gorgeous even if she didn't realize it; thin and athletic with thick curly dirty blonde hair and big blue eyes. It was love at first sight for the dark haired guitarist.
They dated steadily for a little over two years. After Sarah turned 19, she moved in with Zack and Freddy. Zack wanted to ask her to marry him, and he had been taking her to dinner at her favorite restaurant where he'd rented out one of the party rooms and covered it in flowers. It was there that he was going to pop the question. Or so he planned.
He hadn't bet on the rain.
Sarah had wanted to stay home…she said that the roads weren't safe. If only he'd have listened.
The other man had been driving drunk, Zack was told. He had been told by just about everyone that it wasn't his fault. But everyone else wasn't there, just himself and…Sarah. Unfortunately dead women don't tell tales.
He'd seen the car coming and swerved to avoid it. His brakes gave out on the wet pavement and the car began to spin. Zack's head was pounding and all he heard was Sarah's screaming echoing in his head. The car's spinning had been stopped by a crash into a tree on the passengers side.
Sarah had been killed instantly.
Her screams still invaded the shivering boys head.
"…come on. She wouldn't want you to waste away for the rest of your life. She'd want you to eat, and play your guitar, and live. She'd want you to talk," the blonde drummer deadpanned. Zack just looked at him through dead eyes. Freddy sighed again for what seemed like theseventh time that night. "All right. Well I'll be back later if you need anything. I brought you some cereal, dry. Just the way you like it. Try to eat some." As Freddy left, Zack noticed a bowl of Cocoa Krispies, his favorite, sitting next to him for the first time.
He waited until Freddy's footsteps had disappeared down the hallway and he'd heard the door close to go digging under his pillow on the makeshift bed.
He pulled out a square velvet box. He popped the top and set it on his guitar case and laid on his stomach, admiring it's simple yet exquisite beauty.
Sarah.
They didn't know the whole story. Whoever said that Sarah would forgive him didn't know the whole story.
They didn't know about the third person that had been in Zack's car that night.
He pulled out a picture that the hospital had gave him from inside his pillow case and stared at it. A third potentially beautiful person, he thought.
Oh Sarah…
END OF CHAPTER ONE
I hope you paid attention this chapter. Things will be explained later.
It's really hard to make Zack not talk!
Anyway, review pleeeeeeease?