Me and Julian both of glare at each other. I look away breaking our eye contact. I couldn't believe after two years I talked.
"Mattias. I didn't know you could talk." Julian said not surprised this time. "I didn't know I could talk either" I said in a deep and shallow voice. "Yeah, you should drink some water and a lot of it. It'll help your voice get better." Julian says with a smile on the left side of his face.
-
Julian pulls over in front of my house.
He sighs. "Well, this is your stop. But before you go, you gotta answer my question." He says looking serious. I decide to stop getting ready to get out the car and focus all my attention towards him. "Yeah, what is it?" I said struggling. "Why did you stop talking?" Julian asks. I wanted to tell him, truly but it was too much for him to handle, for me to handle reliving that again. So of course, I lied. "Uh, I just stopped all of a sudden. Asthma made it hard already and when I had a major attack, I stop being able to talk and I could only talk from time to time..." I lied so hard, and I felt so bad for lying. I don't even have asthma. "Oh, okay then. I was just asking." Julian looked relieved. I'm sure his caring heart was expecting a trauma. "Uh, yeah so see you at school tomorrow." Julian said unlocking the doors to the car. I nod my head in response. I get out his car and walk to my door. When I open it and get inside, I hear his car slowly drives off. I close the door and turn around to see all of the lights off. I thought everyone was asleep but when I walked into the living room since that was one of the ways where the stairs I saw my dad sitting on the couch.
"Where have you been?" My dad asked. I could tell he's drunk, he looks like it and smells like it. "Answer me!" My dad yells. I tried to speak but I exhausted my voice. I had to drink water if I wanted to speak. I point to my throat trying to give him a signal that I can't speak at the moment. His face frowns and his eyes become wider. He gets up and he quickly walks to me. I walk back and I hit the wall. I turn my face to my right out of fear because I know he was gonna do something. He grab me by my collar and throw me onto the floor. He looked down at me on the floor infuriated all because I couldn't speak. "Speak! I know you can fucking speak, Mattias." He says. He starts to control his breathing. "Dad, stop." I said in a raspy voice. I glanced at him with fear.
My Mom comes running down the stairs in her robe and a bonnet on her head. "What the hell is going on?" My mom yells. "Our son came home late, too late. Do you even care about his safety?" My dad wobbles back his way back onto the couch. "I care about his safety but violence just for something as staying out to late isn't necessary." My mom said. Dad sits on the couch and focus on the tv and continue to drink a bottle of liquor. My mom helps me up and we both go upstairs.
"Go to sleep. I'll deal with your dad later." My mom said while we stand in front of my room door. I turn around to enter my room but she grabs my wrist. When I turn back around she's holding a bottle of pills in her other hand. "It's time to get your voice back." I look down at the bottle she held in her hand as she stood in front of me. I didn't wanna grab it but, I did.