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There was little regret to be had by Meagan as she slammed her door shut. God, she hated her parents so much. Selfish, sadistic human beings. At least to her. Of course her brother loved them. He got everything handed to him. But god forbid she wants one thing. It was just a cell phone. And they bought Ryan one. Who cares if he had a job?
She screamed and slammed her fist into her pillow. Over and over again.
"I hate you!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. The effort struck her and she choked. Then began to cry. Tears streamed down her face in thick rivulets, causing her mascara to run. She didn't care. They'd know how unreasonable they were being when they saw how upset she was...
"Who do you hate?" The voice was so quiet she almost didn't hear it. Meagan wiped her mouth and looked around.
"Who's there?" She was startled. She curled up on her bed.
"I'm sorry. I didn't meant to startle you. I'm next door." The voice was soft and calming. Curious, she got up and approached her window. The night air felt good on her raged skin. She took deep breaths and poked her head out.
Outside, immediately across, the window to the neighbor's house stood open. But it was dark. Very dark.
"Who are you?" The question was apprehensive. She wasn't sure she should ask it. This was a complete stranger after all.
"My name is Terrance Arthur. What's yours?"
"Meagan." The voice was quiet on the other side.
"I like that. 'Meagan'. Means pearl doesn't it?"
She looked back over her shoulder at her door. It seemed a good distance away but she wasn't sure why she was looking. Terrance seemed nice. And there were two windows between them.
"I...I don't know."
"I believe it does. What's wrong?"
And she couldn't hold it in any longer. Nobody had asked her that question before. Nobody! So she let it all out.
"My parent's won't buy me a cell phone. They won't teach me how to drive. They won't let me get a job, they say 'I need to stay in school'. They won't let me get my tongue pierced. They won't let me go out on a date..." And she kept going. It wasn't too long before she realized how long she had been talking and stopped. Almost mid sentence.
"I'm sorry Terrance."
"No. It's ok. Feel better?" And she had to think to herself before answering.
"I do a little bit. Thanks Terrance."
"You're welcome. I'm going to head to bed. You have sweet dreams. Ok Meagan?"
"Ok. Thank you. Good night." Meagan strained to see if she could catch a glimpse of him moving, to see what he looked like. But there was nothing but darkness. How could he see in there? It was no matter. Shrugging, she pulled open the closet to get to her PJ's. It was her bedtime too.
The next day at the bus stop Meagan strained to look into the windows of the house next door. But the shades were drawn. The three other girls that shared the stop kept side glancing her as if she were doing something unnatural but Meagan as usual ignored them. They often talked behind her back and passed nasty notes in class. Being a reject at school was something she thought to talk to Terrance again tonight, if he were there. Yes, she smiled despite the giggles behind closed hands, she'd talk to Terrance tonight and it'd all be better.
"Terrance?"
"Yes Meagan."
"How are you tonight?" It had occurred to her that she hadn't asked him a single question about himself.
"I'm good. How are you?"
"I could be better."
"What's wrong?"
And she broke down. All of it poured out. The girls. The rumors. The back stabbing. The lying. The boys. The sneaking around. The kissing. The cheating. All of her problems and why her life at school sucked.
"Stop Meagan."
She almost choked on her words. Terrance had said it in such a calm voice that it was almost a wonderment he was telling her to knock it off.
"But..."
"No. I want you to do something."
"Um...ok. What is it?"
"Listen."
Meagan waited for him to talk. But he didn't. Instead she heard chirping. A cricket. She pictured it on the ground, using it's legs to create it's tell tale noise. A bird chimed in too. Subtle. She had no clue what kind of bird made such a noise so she had trouble picturing that one too. A breeze wafted in a fresh scent of roses. She breathed it in deep.
"Listen to what?"
"The world. Just listen."
Normally she would have thought this was a stupid idea. But for some reason coming from Terrance, this was not a bad idea. She closed her eyes and listened. Off in the distance a car drove by. It backfired and rattled off. A plane was going by in the distance, probably coming in for a landing. Ryan's music filtered from the upstairs window and played lightly on the air, so as to not disturb the crickets and the birds. Again she breathed in and caught pine in the scents. The act brought a smile to her lips.
"That helps. Thank you."
"Good night Meagan. Sweet Dreams. "
"Good night Terrance."
That was the final straw! An F? How could she get an F? She studied and studied and studied. Maybe because she didn't have a computer in her room, she didn't get current enough information. Or maybe because Ryan distracted her with his stupid music. Maybe because her parents had her living in such an inhospitable environment that she couldn't concentrate. It didn't matter now. She had an F in Social Studies and the lecture from her parents would be enough to kill her. God she hated her life. So much.
"Terrance. You there?"
"Yes. How are you tonight Meagan?"
"Not good."
"Then just listen."
She tried doing that for a few minutes before she gave up. Obviously Terrance didn't want to talk tonight so she told him good night. He sighed, and bid her the same. He skipped the sweet dreams this time though. Meagan thought that maybe it was a little weird, but it had only been three days. Shrugging it off she went to sleep.
Days became weeks and weeks became months. Every night though, Terrance was there to talk to Meagan. Recently she had a group of guys and girls befriend her on Facebook as a cute senior at her high school. When she found out they were pranking she got really depressed. Terrance told her to breath and listen. And while she did, it again didn't help. Terrance stayed and talked to her when that didn't help. This time he gave some advice.
"They're just words. Negative sounds. Just listen to them. But give them no heed."
And the more she thought about that the better she felt. The talks still continued into the night. And every day she felt better about everything.
The lights hadn't startled her at first, until she realized where they were coming from. Meagan jumped off the bus, cutting the sniveling, conniving girls out of her way as she barrelled outside. The ambulance sat in front of Terrance's house. She wanted to go over there. To see if he was ok. But her mom stopped her.
"Listen Meagan." The words startled Meagan that she looked up wide eyed at her mother. "Terrance Arthur passed away last night."
"What? No. He was ok. I talked to him. He was ok."
"Honey listen. He had a lot of medical problems. He was in pain all the time. He couldn't leave his house..."
"He what?" The idea startled her. He couldn't leave his house?
"He was bedridden Meagan. He was paralyzed from the neck down. He had a live in nurse, that's who found him." Meagan's mother turned back to the house. But Meagan couldn't hold it in any longer. She ran. Into the house. Past the paramedics. Past the nurse. Into Terrance's room.
There was nothing in his room but his bed. There wasn't a single decoration on the wall. Not a single thing of his in the room. He had almost nothing.
Every night she'd listen to his voice. Every night she'd talk to him. Every night she'd unload on him and he would tell her to just listen to the sounds outside.
The tears and sobs broke through loudly as guilt ran through her. She was so selfish! So stupid! Here she was with an able body. Here she was 100 percent in her faculties. She had her health, her parents, her brother. She had a house and decorations and stuff and was well fed and taken care of. She screamed loudly at the top of her lungs as the final thought struck home.
She had all of these problems that were nothing. They meant nothing. Cause she had everything in life you could want.
And all he had was the sound outside their two windows.
And he had shared it with her.
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