PROLOGUE:
How to fix me.

8 years ago. . .

"Will she ever talk again?"

"It's all up to her, Mrs. Moore. In cases like this, the victim will more than often only speak to family they trust or never speak again. I strongly recommend not attempting to force her to speak, many do better when they go at their own pace."

"Okay, but. . .but is there anyone I can speak to? Someone who spoke again?"

Mr. Rowen sighed, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Moore, but that goes against patient confidentiality."

"No, no please, just someone who-"

"There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry, but what's best for her is therapy and-" My mom stood up out of anger, and grabbed me roughly by my hand.

"What's best for her is to meet someone who was able to speak again! Fucking asshole," She hissed, practically dragging my tiny body out of the office as I still tried to process everything.

I no longer had a dad.

I couldn't speak anymore, or I didn't want to.

And my mom just wanted me to be better, but my throat keeps me from speaking and wants me to stay quiet.

She slammed the door shut and started violently sobbing as I crawled into the passengers seat, fiddling with my fingers.

I'm sorry, mommy.

But I don't want to talk.

It hurts.

I slowly reached over and grabbed her sleeve of her jacket, holding it out of comfort and she snifled.

"Are you sure you don't want to say anything, baby?" I nodded no.

"Okay, okay," She wiped her face, "sorry for stomping out like that, mommy is just really upset that he won't help us."

It's okay.

"How about McDonald's? Do you want that for dinner?" I nodded yes and she took in a breath before quickly pushing it back out and driving off to McDonald's.

I know things will be different, now that I didn't want to speak, and the therapy man told my mom about this thing called Sign Language.

I know I'll miss talking to my friends, but it hurts too much to do that.

It hurts too much to tell them what happened.

From then on, each teacher in my class made the announcement that I was mute, meaning I was no longer going to talk. A lot of kids thought it was just a grab for attention, and tried getting me to talk multiple times, but it never worked.

Yasmine thought she could use me as her puppet and tried getting me to talk "just for her", but she's not that special. Moon tried getting her to stop, but she was complacent. They decided they didn't like me because I wouldn't be their toy, and I thought I would always be alone.

Was it my fault? Was it my fault that that happened to me? That I can't talk anymore because of it? Is that why Yasmine turned on me?

As my doubts started to turn darker, some boys decided they wanted to be friends with me. Their names are Eli and Demetri, and they're my best friends.

Eli actually knew some Sign Language and we both took classes together, so that atleast he could understand me. But Eli mainly did it so that we could communicate in secret, and say what we wanted without being bullied by Kyler or Yasmine. They still bullied us, but it was fun knowing that we could talk shit without them having a single clue as to what we were saying.

It was fun, and I loved my friends, but I found out in middle school that I liked Eli more than a regular friend.

And I tried to tell him, but. . .

That's where it all started to fall apart.

[Hey! Hope you're enjoying the book so far. I really want to go into depth about what happened to Quinn and why she doesn't talk, but that's going to be a while. Like, season 2. Vote, comment, and I'll post the next chapter soon!]