Cut Off

Chapter 12

The door opens and in walks my dad.

I don't notice him until he clears his throat.

"Um..." I say after I pull away from Zach, blushing a deep red.

"Sorry," Dad says at the same time I do.

"I'll go," he says. "But we need to talk later."

Then he leaves the room and I turn toward Zach, and I see that he is blushing slightly too. I've never seen him blush. It's cute.

"Oops?" I say. He laughs.

I grab the notebook from beside me on the couch and start writing.

I should probably go talk to him.

You should.

I chuckle and then get off the couch and go into the kitchen where my dad is sitting at the table waiting for me.

"Sorry," I say again as I sit next to him.

"It's fine. You have a boyfriend. I may not like it, but I'll get over it. That's not what I wanted to talk to you about" he says.

"Okay. What is it then?" I ask confused.

"Why did I get a notification that your bank account got a giant income of money? The bank thinks something went wrong."

"Nothing went wrong. I actually wanted to talk to you about this. Zach raised some money so I could buy a running leg."

"He did that?" my dad asks, pointing to the living room where Zach was sitting on his phone.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I just didn't know you two were so serious. That's a lot of money."

"I know it is. I told him to take it back. He wouldn't let me."

"Well, that's very kind of him. And I will look into the running legs, but you just got this one. It might be some time before you can get it. Like, after we move."

"I know that. And thank you. For looking into it. I love you, Dad."

"Love you too, sweetheart," he says. "And tell Zach thank you for me. For making you so happy."

"Will do."

I go back to the living room and sit next to Zach. He was texting someone and didn't notice me so I tapped his shoulder.

He looks up and starts signing.

"HOW'D IT GO?"

"Good. My dad says thank you."

"For?"

"Being you."

Then I lean in and kiss him again.

Just as I was about to deepen it, my dad walks in again.

He clears his throat.

"Take it somewhere else please," he says to me.

"Sorry," I say. Then I grab Zach's hand and pull him with me upstairs.

Once we get to my room, I close the door and then sit on my bed, Zach following suit.

"SORRY" I sign to him.

"STOP APOLOGIZING" he signs back.

I'm really glad that I'm getting better at sign language. I haven't been at it long, but it isn't as hard as I thought. It's also way easier to do than write everything out. There are still quite a lot of words that I don't know, but it's nice to be able to have a conversation, even if it is with our hands. That makes me think of a question for Zach.