Page 49 of When The Noise Stops

She was quiet for a minute.

"You remember when we were thirteen? And my daddy socked me in the mouth because he said I was disrespectful for eating the big piece of chicken?"

I remembered. I remembered everything about that night. There was so much blood, and her daddy looked so evil to me.

"And you ran in from next door with that big butcher knife. And you put it to his stomach. And you told him you'd gut him if he ever touched me again."

I remembered the look on his face. The way he'd gone still. The way his hands had dropped to his sides.

"He was so scared he didn't beat my ass for weeks after that," Ronny laughed, quietly.

"You were my fucking hero, Lila. You became my sister that night."

I didn't say anything. I let her talk.

"It hurt me so bad that you let Archie hurt you for ten years and you didn't say anything."

She stopped.

"No. That's not right. You didn't let him do shit."

She breathed.

"But you let me lose you. That's the part I'm still mad about. You should have called me. Wrote me. Sent a fucking carrier pigeon. You just—" she stopped. Breathed out hard.

"I would have gutted him for you. And got off. You didn't have to survive that alone."

I opened my mouth. To explain. To tell her it wasn't that simple. That I was ashamed. That I didn't want her to see me like that. That I thought I deserved it.

"I don't want you to justify it," Ronny said.

"I don't want the explanation. I just wanted to get that off my chest."

I closed my mouth.

"Tomorrow we're going to wake up, and we're going to go to the flea market. And we're blowing however much money I got from this bonus from work. And we're going to eat junk food and buy stupid shit and not think about what I said tonight. You know me. If I didn't say it, it might fester."

I felt the tears coming.

"Okay," I whispered.

"Okay."

She reached across the space between our bunks. Found my hand. Squeezed once.

Then she turned over. Face to the wall.

Brent Faiyaz was singing about fucking up somebody's mind.

"This is some toxic-ass sleeping music."

Ronny didn't turn around.

"Go to sleep, Lila."

I closed my eyes. For a second then opened them. “We actually got into a bar fight with fucking bikers. We both laughed.

Chapter 20