Read My Lips

Read My Lips: Chapter 5

“Just wait here.” I smiled, nodding my head to my room then making my way back to the kitchen to see what my mum wanted. Nothing came to mind of what she could want.

When I entered the kitchen again, Austin was talking to my mum. I didn’t bother trying to catch what he was saying; the only thing that was on my mind was what my mum wanted to talk to me about. There wasn’t a deadline for anything and I didn’t have a hospital appointment.

My mum led me through to the living room where my dad was sat. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad.” She reassured. “Should I tell her or do you want to?”

“You do it. It’s nothing bad.” My dad smiled.

“Ok, so we were wondering. You’re 17 now, almost 18, and we thought that maybe, you’d want to get speech therapy. Just to help your speech more so sentences are easier for you.”

Speech therapy. That didn’t sound too bad. People at school wouldn’t have an excuse to bully me, my sentences would be clearer; it wouldn’t be as obvious that I was deaf. It wasn’t a bad idea at all. A grin made its way onto my face as I thought about the bullying hopefully coming to a stop.

“Yeah, ok. I do it.”

“Good, we’ll sign you up for it.” Mum grinned. My dad grinned along with her.

“I going back up.” I smiled at my parents. They returned the smile before I turned my back on them and headed back upstairs to my room where I had left Zach.

         Zach was stood with his back to me when I entered my room. He was stood in front of my set of drawers, most likely looking at what was on top of them. I didn’t really have anything special on them beside a few family pictures, jewellery, make up and what not.

“What looking at?” I asked making him jump. I laughed slightly at his reaction and walked further into the room.

“I was just looking at your photos. You were a cute kid.” He smirked holding up a picture frame.

“Oh my god!” I laughed, running over to him and grabbing the picture.      

It was a picture from a beach trip my mum and dad took me on when I was about 6. My hair was up in bunches and my front two teeth were missing making my huge grin toothless. I was only in a bather and my dad was helping me build my sandcastle.

“Those two missing teeth make that whole picture.” He laughed.

“Shut up. Study.” I demanded pointing towards the bed where his bag was chucked.

He mock saluted me. “Yes miss!”

I sat down on my bed with my legs crossed facing Zach. He grabbed his maths book from his bag and set it down in front of him.

“Ok, so where should we start?” He asked running his hand through his hair and letting out a sigh.

I kept my eyes on his face as I replied. “Start with homework. I help you when stuck.”

He nodded his head in reply and began his first maths question. I grabbed my phone from my own bag and logged into Facebook to pass time.

After a while of scrolling through Facebook and Twitter to pass time, something nudged my shoulder. I looked up to see Zach staring at me confused.

“What?”

I watched his lips closely as he replied. “I’ve been saying your name for ages and you haven’t replied.”

“Oh, sorry.” I grimaced. This was the main thing I hated about being deaf. If someone called me, I didn’t know.

“Never mind. As I was saying, I don’t understand question 5.” He said pointing to the question on the page.

I looked down at the algebra question. Algebra actually wasn’t that hard once you understand it. Picking up my own pencil, I corrected where he’d gone wrong and told him how to figure out the question himself.

When I was half way through explaining question 13 to Zach, my mum came into the room with her cooking apron on.

“I’ve almost finished the dinner. Zach, would you like to stay?” Mum asked whilst tying her hair up to get it out of her face.

I looked at Zach who looked at me before returning his gaze to my mum. “If that’s ok with you, Mrs Evans.”

My mum shook her head and laughed slightly- Well, I’m guessing she was laughing, her shoulders shook slightly and a smile was on her face. “Don’t call me that, it makes me feel older than I am. Call me Sarah.”

“Sure, I will do.” He smiled.

I felt incredibly stupid during their conversation. My head kept snapping from each of their faces to make sure I didn’t miss any of their conversation. At times like this I really wished there was some sort of operation that could be carried out to make me hear everything again.

My mum nodded and walked back out of the room. I looked back at Zach who was sat looking at me. “Do you want to pack up here and head downstairs for dinner?” I asked, placing my own pencil and phone on my bedside table.

“Yeah, so we continue next Thursday?” He questioned whilst packing up his books and pencils.

“Yep. Let go.” I stood up from my bed and waited for Zach to stand before leading him downstairs and into the dining room which was part of the kitchen.

Austin was sat already sat at the table colouring in, my mum was bent down in front of the oven getting out the dinner. My dad walked into the kitchen folding up his newspaper.

“Hi daddy.” I grinned hugging him. Nothing beats a hug off your dad.

He pulled away from our hug and looked down at me so I could see what he was saying. “Who’s this?”

I followed where he was pointing, my gaze landed on Zach who was stood there awkwardly. “That Zach. I tutoring him.”

He nodded his head in reply. “Call me Rob.”

After their brief greeting, we all sat down at the table. My dad sat at the head, my mum sat to his left with Austin beside her and I sat to my dad’s left with Zach beside me.

In the middle of the table my mum had set down some of her famous lasagne along with a bowl of salad. Austin, Zach and I had a glass of coke whilst my parents had wine. After dishing out the food onto everyone’s plates, we all began to tuck in.

         “Thank you for letting me stay for dinner.” Zach smiled politely at my mum after we’d finished dinner.

“It’s no problem, you’re welcome anytime.” My mum smiled back.

I was currently stood at the door with Zach whilst my mum stood opposite us. And once again my head was snapping from each of their faces as they spoke.

“I have to go sort Austin out so I’ll see you later, Zach. Nice meeting you.”

My mum and Zach said their goodbyes before my mum walked off and Zach turned to face me.

“Thank you for tutoring me, I really appreciate it. You have no idea how bad I am at maths.” Zach chuckled. He bent over and put his shoes on before returning to his full height in front of me.

“It no problem. We come here again next week?” I asked, fiddling with my bracelet. I don’t know why but he made me nervous. Not in a bad way though.

“Yep. Only if that’s ok with you and your parents though.”

I nodded. “It totally fine.”

“Ok, well I better head home now,” He smiled. “Thank you again.”

“It no problem. Really,” I replied as I opened the door for him. “See you tomorrow.”

He grinned at me once more before walking out the door and heading down the path. When he got half way, he turned back around to face me. “See you at school tomorrow.”

And then he walked the rest of the way and made his way home leaving me standing at the door with a stupid grin on my face.

Picture of Ryan

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