Or Forever Hold Your Peace

It might have been from the moment he could read that the truth had slipped it’s way into the back of his mind and remained there ever since. His eyes would trace the titles of the books on the bookshelf and compare them against his parents smiles, questioning. At some point, though unspoken, they knew that he knew.

Noel finishes his move into the dorms, as much as he wants to for now anyway. There’s still boxes left to unpack but he feels too anxious and uneasy to continue. Now alone, a deep, quiet, emptiness that feels like it could stretch on forever settles into him. He glances out of the window at the empty grounds below, set by evening.

Conflicted, there’s two sides of himself struggle against each other. One, is that the story is as he’d said it was to his parents, he just wanted more independence now that he was fifteen. The other, feelings he’d kept secret, was that this was a farewell and now he was truly on his own. From the moment he was born is a long road of inevitable separations set up for him, he’s sure.

For now, his life would be school and little else but the future that awaited him was like an unknowable void with no light to be found. It’s a fear he’s never expressed to anyone.

It’s always hard to sleep in an unfamiliar place.