The Silence by Katerina Diamond

Author:Katerina Diamond [Diamond, Katerina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2023-04-11T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

Going back to sleep is not going to happen so I text Martha. She is the only other human being on the planet I can stand being around at the moment. I wait anxiously for her to reciprocate, worried that she will have tired of our connection already and that I will be alone again, alone with only you to talk to. She texts me back and asks me to meet in half an hour by the harbour. I am almost grateful that you brought us together, even though I know that without you we would not need to be friends. I am not the sort of person someone like Martha hangs around with.

I am so tired, but sleep hasn’t come easy since the night we met. I wonder what you lie awake at night thinking about. Do you ever think about me? Your memories of that night will be so different to mine and part of me wishes I could see it through your eyes. I have a hunger to know why you do what you do, what it is that drives you. And why us? Is it just so that you will get away with it? Is the only special thing about me that I was already ruined? I’m wounded. What voices lurk in your head, I wonder. All I hear is you.

As I approach the harbour I can see Martha’s silhouette in the distance. She is holding onto the railings her gaze fixed on the horizon, a slight wind curling the edges of her long skirt. Today she is all in purple and she looks so regal, a long violet chiffon cardigan draped around her shoulders like a cape, billowing in the warm gentle breeze that is sweeping in from the sea. I see people glancing at her as they walk past. She has a magnetism about her, something not even you could destroy.

She turns her head and sees me. I see the moment she finds me with her eyes and the genuine look of warmth she sends my way. She is my friend. A part of me wants to embrace her, to feel her against me, longing for that closeness that I haven’t felt in so long, but I just smile awkwardly and lean against the metal rail.

‘I thought you would be sleeping.’

‘I should be, but I couldn’t. No plans today?’

‘I want to go shopping tomorrow. I need to take some things back so I was just getting some work done so I could take a few hours off in the morning. Sundays are always a slow day. What an exciting life I lead.’

We both start to walk towards the beach; it’s a lovely day even though the sun is hurting my tired eyes. I wish I had brought my sunglasses with me. We stop at an ice cream kiosk and I purchase a pair of neon pink ones from a rack as well as a couple of Mr Whippys for me and Martha. Breakfast of champions.

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