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"No one knows," he continued "I can’t tell theery and is on disability now He doesn’t work any" He laughed again, a hard, brutal sound that held no humor "These woot any friends to talk to except your aunt, and I don’t think she’s even told Coralee When Dad’s goneI’ll be it How do I do that? How can I be enough?"

Nothing I could do would ease this pain Nothing anyone could do would make it better So I reached over withI knew to do Other than speak, and he didn’t need that I wasn’t sure I could anyway

He started to turn his hand over to hold mine when he stopped and pulled away Then he stood up as if he were going to leave I didn’t want him to leave like this He had opened up toHe had laid his secrets bare He would go hoain until it was over He didn’t want to tell anyone, yet he’d told me Had he seen in ret and suffering?

"I have nightht," I said "I seeQuiet Is How I Survive

CHAPTER 10

WEST

She hadn’t whispered this time The sweet Southern drawl in her voice was beautiful It wasn’t high-pitched, just a touch deeper

The words she’d spoken were so incredibly revealing, it hurt to think about her reliving soht I didn’t knohat to say to her My dad was dying of cancer It was ripping me apart But she’d seen her fatherI could iine

She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath I watched her closely, unable to take aze off her I was afraid she’d ht now at least, I needed someone to know my pain Someone to understand it

"It never leaves youthe hurt," she said as she opened her eyes to look at me "But you learn to live and you learn to deal with the loss You do what you have to survive"

I understood now Why she didn’t talkwhy she re thatto herself Until now With aze flicked over my shoulder, and I could see the sorrow in her eyes "Because you needed h pain like yours"

I took a step toward her "When you lost yourshe said yes I didn’t like the idea of her battling this kind of horror alone

She looked back at me "No No one understood No one sahat I did No one lived through what I had I would have talked to the quiet is how I survived"

I kept quiet too Just not the way she did I kept my father’s illness a secret I didn’t have friends over, and I didn’t tell the My dad had still been fine last year when I’d had a party atThen this su downhill The last three weeks they had gone from bad to worse

Eventually everyone would find out, I knew that This wasn’t a secret I could keep forever But I didn’t want to tell them I didn’t want to see the sy to console ie!" Brady’s voice caivetoward her cousin’s voice She hadn’t wanted him to catch o

All weekend I found et sick, I reh to handle this I would be there for ie could survive what she had seen, I needed toI left my mother tucked in beside ie onI had to learn to deal with I had totesta at the locker beside mine was a relief I had needed to see her We had talked all of ten rown attached to her She understood I hadn’t realized how badly I needed that So," I said as I lanced atmore No words No smooth, warm voice to calm me Just a sonna talk toher in case she whispered and I ot out a notebook then closed it before glancing back atto talk, but she si me there

I had focused on her words and her voice all weekend to overcome my demons and face them head on And she acts like we never spoke Like she doesn’t know rabbed my first-period books and slammed my locker, and then I went after her Just before I reached her, a hand wrapped around lare at Brady He didn’t look happy