IncuBUST

Sissy Meets Octavia

Octavia was waiting outside her front door with the two reusable grocery bags over her shoulders filled with the items she bought earlier today.

"You ready?" I asked walking up to her. She signed, "Yes," around the bags and then looked down at the keys in her hand.

"Should I return these to the landlord or just leave them here?" she asked. I glanced at the keys and then replied, "We'll return them later." She nodded and then followed me towards the elevator.

We arrived on the sixth floor and I knocked on the door to make sure Sissy was decent...though her idea of decent was usually a lot different from mine. The door opened almost as soon as I knocked and I was happy to see that Sissy was wearing undergarments beneath her clean crop top and jean shorts, the paint had been scrubbed off her skin and she had showered. The only sign she had been at Veg Fest were the braids of gold thread in her hair and the faint aroma of patchouli.

Her green eyes fell to Octavia's face and sudden recognition crossed her expression.

"Hey, I know you!" she exclaimed and Octavia blushed. Octavia shoved the grocery bags at me and immediately began thanking Sissy profusely in sign language. She glanced at Octavia and then at me in confusion. She didn't understand ASL.

"She is thanking you for letting her move in with us," I said and she nodded and then started again.

"Wait is she deaf?" she asked and then turned to Octavia shouting, "Are you deaf?"Octavia took a step back and blinked at the loud noise. She gestured, "Now I might be." I laughed and Sissy looked back at me in confusion.

"She's not deaf. She can't speak," I said and Octavia nodded in consensus. Sissy nodded as well and then said, "That must suck." Octavia shrugged as if it were no big deal.

Sissy then glanced at the bags of groceries in my arms and asked, "When did you get those?" I smiled and replied, "I didn't. Octavia went shopping this morning before I had the idea to let her move in and she didn't want to leave the groceries to rot so I suggested bringing them here." Sissy glanced back and forth between Octavia and I almost suspiciously and then as if she just realized she was blocking the doorway she moved aside and gestured for us to come inside.

I took the groceries to the kitchen and put everything up where it belonged, adding Octavia's fruit tea sampler to my extensive collection. I returned to the living room where Octavia was looking around in awe.

"I put your stuff by the couch," I said pointing at her bags. "We don't have a spare bedroom, but the pull-out is pretty comfy. I hope you don't mind." She shook her head violently and signed, "I don't mind at all." She looked around again and continued, "Your place is so nice and clean. Are you rich?" I almost laughed and Sissy just looked on in confusion, for the first time in her life feeling left out.

"Hardly, I just know how to budget and I like to clean." She gave me a sarcastically incredulous look and repeated in sign, "You like to clean?" I shrugged a little self-consciously and said, "We have company a lot so I like to keep things tidy." Octavia let out a stuttering gasping sound that I soon realized was laughter and she fingerspelled 'tidy' as if it were the funniest word in the world. I smiled softly and Sissy stared at the both of us like she was watching some strange wildlife documentary and didn't know how to respond.

It was true. I didn't really interact with people. Seeing me converse and laugh with another person was probably strange to Sissy. Good. Let her be in awe of me for once.