EASY SILENCE

Chapter 1. Welcome.

Snow... small crystals of ice that adopt geometric shapes and get grouped on flakes while they fall slowly. Cold. I hate cold.

"Winter" I thought to myself. A chill ran through my body. "What is it good for?" I thought while I kept away from the window, guided by the warmth of the heater and getting closer to it. I had never been a great fan of the cold winter, it brought me too many memories... painful memories. Trying to wash those memories of my mind I shook my head and prepared myself to go down for breakfast.

Once downstairs, I met my cousin and my aunt. Both of them were humming a certain song that was unknown to me while they prepared breakfast with ear to ear smiles on their faces. So much happiness made me sick.

"Good morning..." I growled when approaching the table.

"Good morning Vaughn," hummed my cousin Julia, overflowing happiness, while she offered me a dish with some pancakes and a glass of hot milk.

"Have you slept well?" asked aunt Mirabelle from the kitchen.

"Hmm..." I said without giving great importance to what she said.

"Remember you have to go to introduce yourself to the new farmer, you shouldn't be late." Oh yes... I had forgotten, the new person who would take care of the island's farm arrived today, and I, as the animal trader, had to go to welcome him to the island and offer our services. Damn it...

I took my time to eat. The simple idea of going outside and having to face the cold made me want to shoot myself in the head and end quickly with so much suffering. Once I had finished with breakfast, with no choice, I went to meet that new farmer.

"I'm sure it will be another old, bald-headed, chubby man who won't hold this job and will end up leaving as all the others did..." I thought to myself as I shuffled down the cold, heavy snow. As I continued my way, I watched how the snow covered the roofs of the houses in the village. How Chen cleared the shop's entrance with his son. How the clumsy Elliot slipped of because of the ice and fell to the ground while his sister Natalie laughed at him. How the little Eliza rushed around escaping from her father who was chasing her with a scarf in his hands. Anyone would think this was an adorable scene. However, I found it unpleasant. "Why do I have to do all these things?" I growled while I broke through between such whiteness.

When I arrived to the farm, I approached the house and knocked at the door. Who would have imagined what was going to happen. The person who opened the door wasn't an old, bald-headed, chubby man. No, it was a young girl, with long, brown, straight hair and big blue eyes that resembled sapphires. I was perplexed by such surprise.

"Yes?" asked the brunette with a sweet but irritating voice, as she saw I wasn't able to speak.

"Is your father at home?" I asked, still astonished.

"M-my father? Uh, I live alone..." she responded with a confused expression.

"So... are you the person who will take care of this?".

"That's right," she said looking pleased.

Great, instead of an old man, a little weak girl was going to be in charge of the farm, I could not say which of the two options was worse.

"And... you are?" she asked staring closely at me.

"Oh... yeah. My name is Vaughn, I'm the animal trader in this island. Usually, I'm only here on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but this winter I'm staying here with my aunt and cousin at the animal shop to help them. So, if you need something you know where to find me." Then, I turned around to leave, but she stopped me.

"My name is Chelsea. I'm here disposed to revive this farm no matter what," she said determined.

After a few seconds of an awkward silence without knowing how to respond to such affirmation, I managed to get the words out of my mouth.

"Good for you," I said coldly as I walked away. I could feel how she stared at me from a distance. It was getting colder and it was starting to snow. I wanted to get away quickly from that place. Her smile was etched in my mind. Maybe I had been too cold with her, but, as before, so much happiness made me sick.

AUTHOR NOTE: Hello everybody! This was the first chapter of my first story, I hope you have liked it.

I want to apologise for the possible grammatical mistakes, I'm spanish and English is not my native language. So, if there's a really HORRIBLE mistake at some part, please, point it out to me so I can fix it.

Also, thank you so much for reading it and I would be happy if you guys took the time to review this. That's all for now, see you in the next chapter!