Louder Than Words Read Online Free PDF

muttered.
    We kept walking.
    ‘Hey, Josieee,’ he called, ‘the boys were wondering when they get to see it all for real.’
    She couldn’t help herself. She stopped, her hands shaking with rage, embarrassment or both. ‘Go to hell, Lloyd.’
    He clapped a hand to his chest, faking a wound, while his mates laughed. ‘Damaged goods, babe, that’s what you are.’ I could have imagined it, but I thought he cast a sly glance at Silas when he said it. ‘And the whole world knows it now!’
    ‘You’re sick in the head,’ she shouted, but her eyes were filling with tears again and I willed her not to cry in front of him.
    I looked at Silas, uncertain what to do. I wanted to shout hurtful things at Lloyd myself, but a) I couldn’t think of anything and b) well, b was obvious, wasn’t it? Silas’s face was utterly blank. He was staring straight at Lloyd, but with no discernible expression.
    One of Lloyd’s mates lifted his T-shirt up. ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,’ he called as they all burst out laughing again.
    Silas’s face didn’t even flicker so I jumped when he actually spoke. ‘You want me to get back at him for you?’ he said quietly, in a conversational tone.
    From Josie’s expression, she wondered if he was winding her up. I tugged her sleeve to say, Let’s go . We weren’t going to win anything here.
    ‘I’m serious,’ Silas said as she walked off quickly in response, followed by a load of jeering, and veered off into the first of the phone shops.
    She stopped in front of one of the displays. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Just what I said.’
    ‘Why would you do that?’
    Silas wore what I called his ‘on a high horse’ expression and I knew he wasn’t going to let go of this. ‘I don’t like him.’
    ‘I didn’t think you knew Lloyd,’ Josie said, puzzled.
    ‘I don’t, and I don’t need to. I don’t like him. End of.’ He smiled coldly, a far remove from his normal half-lazy grin. ‘And I can make him sorry he ever started this.’

CHAPTER 4
    I chose a white phone in the end and Josie dragged me into Starbucks to set it up and show me how to text. It wasn’t difficult because it wasn’t as if I hadn’t seen everyone else in the known universe texting.
    Josie sent me my first text message.
    
    
    
    
    Silas watched me with anxious eyes, but said nothing. I loved him in that second for letting me try without interference. Unfair, he would tell me later, because before I’d always wanted him to interfere. Unfair, but also kind of great – he’d bolted a grin on the end as he added that last part.
     Josie added.
    I felt a lump in my throat. I stared at the device in my hand with its pretty screensaver that Josie had just loaded for me and now it was here and I was holding it, it didn’t seem so awful. It didn’t seem to be laughing at me at all. It felt friendly . . . like Josie.
    How had I been so scared of this?
     I asked.
    I just started a conversation.
    I. Started. A. Conversation.
    Me.
    I felt like I was flying through clouds on a magic carpet or some craziness like that. Euphoric. That was the word. I’d never had any use for it before now. I felt like the bravest, cleverest person in the world for a moment.
    ‘I’ll go and buy a muffin and then I’ll tell you, I promise.’ She avoided Silas’s eyes as if she’d rather he wasn’t there. ‘I just need chocolate to get through this. You want one?’
    ‘I’ll get them.’ Silas got up hastily, still guilting from having to let Josie buy my phone as she wouldn’t take no for an answer. He’d argued with her in the shop to let him pay or go halves, but she wasn’t having any of it. She hadn’t spent her allowance for two months, she said, and she was flush and we were going to be friends with this, so it was