My Undercover Life | ✓

Chapter 12

After staring at Bradlee for a good five minute, I realized that he was trying to talk to me. He was fingerspelling super slowly, probably hoping I at least knew the ASL alphabet. But, I didn’t. Though, when I was younger, I remember doing a movie where my character was hard-of hearing so I had to learn some sign language to prepare for that role. That was also years ago, so I attain little to nothing. I mean, I still knew the easy letters like a, b, c, j, l, x, y and z and I think I caught a few ‘a’s in there but I wasn’t positive.

 

        “I’m sorry, but I don’t know the alphabet . . .”

 

        He let out an audible sigh, his electrifying eyes drifting down, glancing at his phone. I watched as he quickly tapped some buttons before showing me the screen. Notes was opened, and in clear black letters it read:

 

        Please don’t tell anyone I’m hard of hearing.

 

        “Why?” I couldn’t help but asked. It wasn’t like anyone will start making fun of him just because he needed hearing aids to hear. He’s one of their ‘Gods’ according to Megan. In my opinion I think that will make the girls fall for him even more.

 

        He bit his lips, concentrating on his typing before he showed me his phone again.

 

        I don’t need anyone treating me differently. I like my space, and I certainly don’t need pity.

 

        Pity. Even though I personally never experienced pity from anyone before, I got where he’s coming from. All my life my family sheltered me because I was this innocent child star. Sometimes you just need to explore life on your own—just like everyone else.

 

        “Alright.” I nodded, giving him a thumbs up. His eyes moved from my lips to my thumb. “My lips are sealed.” I made a small motion with my hands, demonstrating the zipping action causing him to chuckle the tiniest bit. It was super soft, but I couldn’t help but appreciate how his eyes lit up, looking like he actually enjoyed my company, unlike yesterday where he didn’t acknowledge me at all.

 

        Thanks.  

 

        This time he actually mouthed the words, and even though I’m a horrible at ASL, I could at least read lips. Plus, the word ‘thanks’ was an easy word to read. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.

        “No problem,” I voiced, knowing that if he didn’t quite hear that, he would’ve read it. His eyes were perfectly focused on my lips whenever I spoke, so I doubt he missed what I’d said. I’m guessing that’s how he was able to understand the teacher yesterday during class. He had read his lips. “So, um . . . forgive me if this is insensitive,” I started off saying, chewing on my bottom lip in nervousness, “but can you talk if you wanted to? I know that some hard of hearing people can speak orally and sign, or strictly one over the other.”

 

        Instead of typing his answer on his phone, he lowered his head in a nod, and when I saw the corners of his lips lifting up, I knew he wasn’t offended by my question.