Unspoken

Forest deep, silent bells
There’s a secret no one tells
Valley quiet, water still
Lynburns watching on the hill
Apples red, corn gold
Almost everyone grows old.

“If I wasn't going to be a world-famous journalist and if I didn't have such respect for truth and justice, I could be an amazing master criminal.”

“Honestly, Jared, one thing at a time. Why are you in the well with me? This is a really bad rescue!”
“You lost consciousness and slipped under the surface of the water!” Jared pointed out. “There was no time.”
“But now we’re both trapped! Now we’re both going to die!”
“No, we’re not,” said Jared. “I called the police as I was running to the well. I’m sure they’re coming.”
“Did they say they were coming?” Kami asked suspiciously. “Or did you shout ‘Kami’s in the well!’ and then jump in the well too, thus losing your phone and making sure that the police think it was some kids playing a dumb joke?”
Jared paused. He was breathing quickly, the dreamy part of Kami noticed, his chest rising and falling hard. She wasn’t sure if it was because he’d had to run so fast, because he’d had to dive to grab her, or if it was panic.
“Alternate plan,” Jared said. “Do you have a very intelligent collie who might communicate through a system of barks to your parents that little Kami is in the well?”
Kami closed her eyes and leaned her cheek against the wet planes of Jared’s collarbone.
“We’re going to die.” Something else dawned on her. “And where is your shirt?”
“Let me explain,” said Jared. “I had just gone to bed, like a reasonable person, when you decided to get tossed into a well like a crazy person. And then it was a matter of some urgency to reach you. You’re lucky I tripped over my jeans on the way out the door.”

“Listen to me. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what any of this means. But I know this much. It doesn’t matter. You’re not one of them. You never were. You’re not theirs. You’re mine.”

There was a wall between them, but the wall of silence in Jared’s head wasn’t there anymore. Kami still did not quite dare to come to the place where their minds met, for fear of being shut out again. She skirted the edge of what he was feeling, and stretched out her hand so he could see it on his side of the stone wall.
After a moment, she felt the brush of Jared’s fingers against hers. The light touch of skin on skin made electricity crackle through her blood so that it burned and stung in her veins.
She had never been so aware of anyone in her life, or so uncomfortable.
Jared’s hand closed around hers, their fingers linking. From a careful touch of fingertips,they were suddenly both clinging as if the other had fallen off a cliff and they had to keep hold or risk them slipping away. Jared’s hand was a lot bigger than Kami’s, fingers callused.
It was just a boy’s hand, blood and flesh and bone, she told herself fiercely. It wasn’t such a big deal.