Read My Lips: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“So, are you ready to go?” Zach asked. It was the end of the school day and I was waiting where Zach and I had agreed to meet for our tutoring session.

“Yes, are you?” I replied standing up from my seat on the bench. I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder.

Tonight I was helping Zach with his maths. I don’t know why he even asked me. Sure, I was in the highest maths class and I guess I was good at it but wasn’t their prettier, non-deaf girls who could tutor him? Did he even know I was deaf?

He had to know I was. Everyone knew I was deaf; that was the main reason people bullied me. If he didn’t know then I wasn’t going to tell him. Not yet anyway. What was the point in telling him and risking the chance of possible having a friend?

“So, where should we go for you to tutor me?”

To be honest, my house was probably the best place. If his parents were there then I wouldn’t know if they were talking to me unless I could see their faces. Also, if they came into the house and said ‘hello’ or something then I’d never know. Obviously my parents knew so there’d be no trouble there and he wouldn’t figure it out… Well, not this soon anyway.

“We go to mine?” I asked as we walked out of the school gates. I tried my best to keep my eyes on his lips so I could see his reply.

“Sure. Lead the way.” He smiled holding his arm out.

As soon as I opened the door to my house, like every other day, a little body slammed into my legs. I bent over and pulled my little brother into my arms.

“Hi little bro,” I grinned, hugging him tight. I could feel his chin moving against my shoulder meaning Austin was either talking to me or talking to Zach who was stood beside me. I pulled out of the hug and looked at his little face. “Did you say something?”

“Yeah. Who’s that?” He pointed over my shoulder and I turned around to face Zach.

“This Zach. I tutoring him maths. Say hi.”

“Hi!” Austin grinned waving his little hand at Zach.

“Hi there little guy. What’s your name?” I moved my eyes from Zach’s face and back to Austin’s to see his reply.

“My name is Austin.” He grinned almost as if he was proud. He was so cute.

I motioned for Zach to come in the house then closed the door behind me. “Is mum in kitchen?” I asked Austin.

“Yep!” He said, still grinning.

“Follow me.” I smiled at Zach and walked off in the direction of the kitchen.

My mum was sat at the island in the middle of the kitchen on her laptop. When she heard us enter she shut the lid and stood up. “Oh good your home…” She trailed off looking behind me at Zach. “Who’s this?”

“This Zach. I tutoring him maths.” I smiled turning to Zach. “Zach, mum. Mum, Zach.”

“Nice to meet you Zach.” My mum smiled politely.

“It’s nice to meet you to.”

My mum smiled once more at him before returning her look to me. “Um, Maisie, why don’t you show Zach to your room then come back here. I need to talk to you.”

I nodded my head in reply and sat Austin down in his seat before leading Zach back out the room. It was silent the whole walk there. Well, I was silent; I had no idea if he was talking. My room wasn’t really something I wanted him to see, I was planning on just using the dining room.

“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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