Silent by Sara Alva Read Free Book Online Page A

Loretta’s yelling…’cause if you can, I’m fucking jealous.”
    “What the fuck,” I grumbled. “What time is it?”
    “Dinner time.”
    “I don’t fucking care.” Why should I play house with these people?
    “She wasn’t kidding about no food later. The fridge and the cabinets have locks.” Brandon smirked at me, one dimple showing in the hallway light.
    Well, maybe one meal wouldn’t hurt.
     
     
    Dwayne, Ms. Cecily, Ms. Loretta and the younger boys were already seated around plates of chicken thighs and green beans. The table had a red cloth over it and it was fully set, with real silverware and glasses.
    I stood back for a moment to take in the scene. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d sat at a table for a meal—at home we ate in front of the TV, and our food tended to come out of a box. Definitely no fine china for us.
    “Have a seat, Alex,” Ms. Cecily said. She was a lot less brisk than her sister, but I still hesitated, feeling like an intruder in their foreign family ritual.
    The food smelled good, though, and my stomach flipped, reminding me I’d had nothing all day but a bottle of water and some aspirin. I eventually slid into a chair next to Brandon and picked up a fork so I could nervously shove the green beans about.
    “Those are for eating,” Ms. Loretta said. “We don’t waste food in this house.”
    I looked up at her round face just in time to see the last member of the household enter the room.
    Seb the retard came in carrying a pitcher of water. His thin figure, strangely pale for the neighborhood, surprised me…though he had a kind of brownish undertone to his skin, so I didn’t think he was straight-up White. Definitely not with eyes like those—huge and almond-shaped, and so dark they looked black.
    Ms. Loretta caught my staring. “You haven’t met Sebastian?”
    “Seb was sleeping,” Brandon answered for me. “As usual.”
    Seb—or Sebastian—poured water in everyone’s glasses, then sat down and silently began eating.
    “Did you finish all your homework?” Ms. Cecily asked, of no one in particular.
    “Yup.” Ryan slurped in a green bean through crooked teeth. “Me and Andrew finished everything, and Brandon checked it.”
    “And you, Dwayne?”
    Dwayne mumbled something with a piece of chicken in his mouth, and Ms. Loretta slapped his wrist. “Finish chewing first.”
    He swallowed. “Yeah, I’m done.”
    “What about that paper that’s due Monday? Have you started?”
    “Um…“ Dwayne rubbed the back of his head. “I was gonna start tomorrow.”
    “And if I hear that excuse one more time, no TV until it’s done.”
    The taller of the two boys—Andrew, if I remembered right—snickered. “Good, ’cause Dwayne never lets me watch what I want.”
    Brandon served himself a second helping of green beans. “Too much TV will rot your brain, boy!” he said, and I got the distinct impression he was mimicking Ms. Loretta.
    Ms. Loretta must have, also, because she gave him a glare. “Watch yourself, boy.”
    I finally raised my fork to my mouth and pushed in a bite of chicken. I felt like I’d stepped into some kind of wholesome family TV show: a meal of veggies and proteins, two parent-types, and their annoying but loving family.
    It was freaking me out.
    I was definitely the which-one-of-these-things-does-not-belong , with my complete silence. Well, me and Seb, ’cause he hadn’t said a word to anyone, either. He just kept shoveling food into his mouth, black eyes lost and unfocused.
    When we’d finished the meal, each one of us took our dishes to the sink, washed them, dried them, and then replaced them in tidy cabinets. Ms. Loretta watched me do mine with her hawk-eyes, like she was afraid I’d do it wrong without supervision. Maybe she thought I wouldn’t know how, growing up in whatever shithole she’d imagined for me.
    But unwashed dishes meant roaches, so I’d done a fair share of cleaning in my day.
    Ms. Loretta nodded