cool » l. hemmings

ii.

"I..." he messed with his hair a bit, looking to his brother. "Alright, but mum is going to kill me because of you."

'It's worth it,' Ethan told Luke. Luke rolled his eyes, looking to me to have me lead the way to our house.

We passed dead rose bushes, houses with old vines growing up the sides of them, and the old abandoned, beat up park only a few minutes from where we lived. It was a scenic walk to and from the school - an unpleasant and ugly one to most people - and Grady and I enjoyed it. It was different, unique. On unusually cloudy days it looked even cooler, almost gloomier.

My family's lived here since right after Grady was born and before my parents had divorced, about thirteen years ago. Honestly, I never expected to be all the way in Sydney from Vancouver. It was nice, though. Change is nice.

I walked infront of everyone as we walked in silence, leading to where Grady and I lived. "Here you go." Like every normal day, I unlocked the door, opened it, and waited for Grady to get inside. The only difference today was the fact that Grady had made a friend.

My mother called out from where she was in the house. I could never pick up where she'd be when I got home with Grady. "Michelle! Is that you?" Obviously.

"Yes, mom. Grady and I have people over, so we'll be in the basement!" Quickly, trying to avoid the part where she'd come in to give an awkward (for me, at least) hello to whoever it was.

Too late.

She came into the front room, almost at lightning speed, when she heard me say the words 'Grady and I have people over.'

Yeah, we don't really know many people to invite over. This is rare. Very rare.

Grady knew better than to stay back and be embarrassed, so he took Ethan downstairs and sent me a look as if to say 'yeah, good luck with that.' I, on the other hand, knew better than to even try to get away from mother when I brought a potential friend over. This wasn't even an aquaintance, much less a friend.

Luke stood still next to me, again with his hand in his pocket. I looked over to him and then back at my mother. "Mom, I said we're going downstairs." I grabbed Luke's arm gently, catching him off guard a bit and almost, almost getting away from her.

She stops me just as I'm about to cross the walkway to the kitchen, which connected to the living area. "No, no! I just want the boy's name, sweetie," she smiled. Oh god, she never calls me sweetie. That's quite possibly the grossest thing I've heard come out of my mother's mouth, and that's saying a lot.

"Luke, this is Luke. Grady's friend's brother," I tell her, rushing so she doesn't make me more uncomfortable, or Luke, for that matter.

Finally, I got away from her. I had let go of the tall boy's arm by now, letting his own long legs follow me down the stairs to the small area that we call our basement. This is where Michael used to come over before my mom actually met him.

It was nothing special, the walls were a plain, chipping, dirty white color with a few multi-color scribbles on the wall where the television sat from when Grady was around two, and he would look at my mother before turning to the wall with his crayons and coloring on it. It took her until he started laughing to figure out what he was doing.

Hey, at least he wasn't one of those weird kids who ate their crayons. He put them to good use.

I spotted Ethan and my brother on the brown couch we had found at an old bargain furniture store. It looked like it was about ready to fall apart from how much it's been through over the years. I used to play the classic game of 'the-floor-is-lava-dont-touch-it' when I was younger, so the couch cushions were quite uncomfortable to sit on due to how worn down they were.

On the television across from them, we always had the closed captions on the screen. They both watched intently as a random show they'd caught interest in played.

"So, this is the basement. It's pretty boring, but this is where Grady hangs out most of the time," I turn to look at Luke, who's already preoccupied with the lighter I'd noticed sticking out of his pocket before. He twirled it between his fingers, only seeming to focus on what he was doing, though he still nodded at what I said.

His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration and he was still standing, the red flannel he was wearing perfectly on his shoulders. "What school do you go to?" he finally speaks, looking up from the black lighter, staying still in his hand now.

"Riddlewood, why?"

"That's where I go now. I didn't see you today, though."

I coughed, giving me time to try and come up with a reason. I couldn't really find one. "I, uh...I wasn't there today," I mumbled truthfully.

"Oh yeah? Why?" He moved to the front of me, turning around to face me with a smirk placed on his slightly chewed-at lips.

I moved my head to look back at my brother, who was asking Ethan questions about anything and everything. His curly brown hair looked just like my fathers, always in his face and never any attempts to move it away from his eyes.

"A girl can't be sick?"

"I mean, you can. But I doubt a girl who looks like you is just sick. Especially if you're perfectly fine the next day."

"What do I look like? Some druggie?" I look down at myself, I certainly don't dress like one. I think.

"No. It's just that, from my experience, most girls who wear doc martens and t-shirts with a band from the 90s don't exactly skip school to stay in bed all day."

"Is that right?" We were sitting against the back of the couch now, our legs spread out in front of us. "What about guys that wear ripped skinny jeans and are obsessed with the lighter in their pocket?"

He had put the lighter back in his pocket, paying full attention to the current conversation we were having. "I'd say that guy's got a nasty habit."

"So you've got a bad habit, huh?"

"I don't have bad habits. Maybe to other people, but they're right for me."

Before I could reply, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Grady had turned around and gotten my attention. 'Is he okay with Ethan over?' Seeing as that's the whole reason Luke was over here, too, I turned my head to him, raising an eyebrow for him to answer Grady's question.

"Yeah, it's okay," he answered, first to my brother and then looking at me. "Your sister's pretty cool, isn't she?"

Grady nodded, signing back to him. 'I think so.'

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idk if any of you have had any experience with someone who was born deaf, or has become deaf, but the concept of name signs is pretty cool

anyway i hope you're enjoying so far, and it's amazing how i've already got a few votes and i appreciate it a lot aw