Most kids spend the days after their birthday happy and celebrating and other such things. Ritchie spent his in a haze. The house was eerily quiet. Not a word was said. No goodbyes or good nights, no what’s for dinner or how are yous. It was a weightful silence. The kind of silence that is given in respect for the dead only it seemed it would go on forever. Ritchie went back to school Monday and there wasn’t one person who didnt want to know what was going on with him. There had been too many messages to count on the machine at his house, but he had not wished to speak to anyone. His girlfriend called his cell phone 5 times before Ritchie turned it off. No one could get through to him. And getting on the bus after a long weekend and being mobbed by people who wanted you to tell them all about the most painful experience of your life was something Ritchie was not up for. Of course he didnt know this was going to happen until he was already on the bus.