Hollow Breaths|✔️ (Unspoken Words book 3)

23. Better Days

Maya had texted me yesterday too, but I didn't answer. Cayden had tried to talk to me at school a few times. I ignored them both as much as I could.

If this happened before I started hanging out with Hope, I would've replied to Maya and talked to Cayden immediately, hoping to win them back. However, I didn't want that anymore. Their presence only reminded me of what a horrible person I was, and all the terrible things I had done to them. I didn't want to be around people like that anymore. I wanted to be around people like Hope, who made me feel like I was just an ordinary guy, and who understood exactly what I was going through.

If I knew I would end up being understood this much by the town's local legend, I would've befriended her ages ago.

Suddenly, Hope snapped her fingers before my eyes, cutting me out of my daze. Blinking, I looked up from my screen and met her curious eyes. "Who is it?"

"Uh, nothing. Just the boys joking around in our group chat," I said, deleting the text from my lock screen before tossing my phone aside.

"Let's start reading. Wanna read the first chapter out loud?" I asked, flipping through pages while my mind was still hung up on Maya's text.

After a moment of silence, she nodded. "Okay, sure."

I told her to read the first page and while she started reading, my stupid mind was still stuck on the text. What was Maya's reaction when I didn't reply this time either? Had she realized I was ignoring her? Was she upset? Why did I care? Why did I care too much about her? Why was my mind so hung up on her? Why?

I had been lost in one thought for so long, I had to shake my head to get rid of them before steering my attention back towards Hope. When I realized she had only read the first two sentences and was slowly making it through the third with lots of breaks, uncertainty and by narrowing her gaze, the realization hit me.

I was making her read out loud.

Most people with dyslexia despised that because the letters always got jumbled up for them.

When she was trying to finish the third sentence, I rapidly stuck my palms out and slapped them over the page.

Hope's gaze darted up and her cheeks flushed the lightest shade of red. She bit down her lip, mumbling, "Shit. That sounded horrible, didn't it?"

It was genuinely so weird to see her get vulnerable about her dyslexia. Hope Lance wasn't the type to show her vulnerable sides to anyone. She was usually so confident and cheerful.

"Uh, I can't that read well. The words always confuse me and it takes me longer to read and understand them. So I might take longer to finish the book. Maybe we should read separately," she said, quietly.

"No, Lance. It's fine. I'm really sorry. I just started thinking about something else that I completely forgot that a lot of people with dyslexia don't like reading out loud, or that reading, in general, takes time for them."

"Oh, no it's fine. What were you thinking about?"

"That you need to cut your bangs," I lied, grinning as I reached my head out to push them out of her eyes. "They're all crooked and it won't be long before you'll fall off your skateboard because you can't see a shit."

Amused, Hope chuckled. "I kind of like it this way. Why does everything have to be so perfect? Crooked bangs give my face character. I love it."

I raised my brows. "Damn, I wish could think like that."

She smiled that humble smile of hers. "You can. It might take time, but you can."

Just like that, she earned another genuine smile from me.