My Deaf World

13 - My Cousin Liam

A tap on my head drew my attention away from my homework.

"Are we going to talk? " He asked once I looked up.

There was too much to talk about. We could talk about us. How we technically aren't together anymore if you count the labels as anything to go off of. Or maybe Chace told him about Scott and expected me to already tell him.

It could be any of those or maybe something I can't even think of right now.

So in all honesty I asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

"The guy a few rooms down who you ignored."

I had hoped that after thirty minutes in to doing homework he would suddenly forget that encounter.

I sighed, "He's my cousin." I closed my textbook, really just wasting time and avoiding this but he deserved to know.

"He got in trouble and my aunt kicked him out so now he's here for the school year."

"Sounds like he could use some friends right now, so why are you ignoring him?"

This is so like Fritz, "He yelled at me the last time we spent time together. I don't want a repeat so I avoid him but we'll have to finally talk at dinner tonight."

He nodded, "Your mom invited me but I see you guys need to catch up."

I looked at him, taking in his sincere smile, "You know you can have dinner with us tonight."

"I know but I still won't" He gave me one of his breathtaking smiles before pulling out a folded sheet of paper.

"Look over this when I leave." He said, handing me the paper.

I stared at him curious of its content.

"It's just a list of activities to do. Like a bucket list. You can decide what things you want to do just us or with the whole group."

"Thank you." I place the paper on my nightstand, "I'll read it before I sleep."

"I figure our deadline should be before we graduate and we all go in different directions."

We hadn't really talked about it but I knew once we graduated the group was splitting up.

Fritz and I haven't even talked about what we are going to do.

"Don't think too much about it. Everyone will keep in touch and there will always be holidays to get together."

I nodded, besides we still have a semester and a half to go. I looked over at the folded paper, at least we now had a list to do before we graduate.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked back at Fritz.

"Val?"

I looked at him, taking in all the signs that he's nervous. Continuous swallowing and having a really hard time looking me in the eyes.

"I was wondering if maybe an hour a day you could talk to me without signing?"

I stared at him for a good second but before I could ask my question he went on.

"Everyone is trying to learn how to sign for me so I thought I could at least try to read lip for them. For you."

He looked at me with hope in his eyes and a small hue tinting his cheeks.