Page 70 of The Silent Waters (Elements 3)

“I’m just saying, Maggie. You’re educated. You’re beautiful. And—”

And I live with my parents.

“Yeah, but not in the basement. You live upstairs. That’s different.”

There’s also the issue with me being mute and never leaving home.

“Are you kidding me? Men adore it when women shut up. Plus, if you never leave home, it means you’re a super cheap date. Men love not spending money! You should add those things under your s

trong characteristics on a dating site.” She winked.

I smirked, and she kept pushing the subject until I asked if she’d spoken to Calvin.

“I Skyped with him earlier, and he was telling me how he stumbled across a band on YouTube called Romeo’s Quest. Total indie underground brilliant vibe. He sent me a link to their music, and I literally fell backward, so I’m passing it on now because I know it was made for you. I’ll link it below. And get this: all their songs are based on Shakespeare plays!”

You don’t know anything about Shakespeare.

“I know, Maggie, but that’s not the point! The point is that it’s different and raw and…” She paused. “To be or not to be, that is the question! See! I know some Shakespeare! I’m a college graduate, missy.”

What play is that from?

“Ohmygosh, what is this? Twenty questions? Get off my invisible dick, sister! Anyway, after our call listen to their music. I think Calvin is trying to set something up for the band—some kind of pay-it-forward deal, seeing how they were discovered online.”

Very cool.

“I spoke to Brooks, too,” Cheryl said, making me tilt my head. I tried to ignore the flipping in my stomach.

Is he well?

“Yeah. He looks really good. Happy, ya know? Just tired. He has this crazy facial hair thing going on, as if he hasn’t shaved in years, or something. It turns out it’s only been a few months, but it looks good on him. He looks grown up.”

And happy?

She nodded. “And happy.”

Good. Good. I wanted him to be happy. He deserved to be happy.

After I’d found out he was with Sasha, I couldn’t keep writing him. It hurt too much to know that when he received my books, she could’ve been sitting right beside him. And that wouldn’t have been fair to her, either.

I closed my eyes, trying to envision his new look. The last time I’d seen him was when I watched the Grammys and the band won the Album of the Year award. He looked happy there, too, almost as if his dreams were fully unlocked and achieved.

“Are you happy, Maggie?” my sister asked.

I smiled and nodded, yet she didn’t notice me knock once on my leg beneath the table.

Happiness was hard to find alone in my bedroom, especially when the one you loved was out loving someone else.

As Cheryl and I spoke, Mama started shouting. “I didn’t break it, Eric! I was trying to fix it. You said you would weeks ago and never got around to it.”

“I told you not to mess with it. Now you screwed it up more,” Daddy barked back.

Cheryl frowned. “What is it they are fighting about this time?”

The dishwasher.

She didn’t ask any more questions. Mama and Daddy only had two versions of their relationship: the silent version, and the angered version.

If they weren’t mute, they were screaming.