Mute Songbird (boyxboy) -Complete-

Glitter

The meeting with Mr. Rodriguez was pretty much what I expected from my reading. He was going to have Mrs. Maldonado handle most of it, especially the preliminary work which he wanted to start oh, two years ago. Lucky me got to spend my 'free' office period, lunch, and an hour after school every day except Tuesday and Friday with her doing my level best to make thoughts turn into sounds. Once school was over in a few weeks, I'd see one of them four hours a day, depending on their schedules. Oh, and did I mention no talking or signing or even gesturing. AT ALL?

So the next morning I could not have been happier that it was Tuesday. No play rehearsal for Dan or speech therapy for me. It was our one day a week that we were completely free and I was REALLY looking forward to it after yesterday. As soon as the bus had pulled away he knocked his arm into my shoulder.

"What do you want to do today?" He rearranged his book bag so it would be on his opposite side and we could walk closer together.

It didn't matter at all. I just wanted to be with him and relax; the details didn't matter. I pinched a bit of his pant leg between my fingers. They were new, and looked good on him.

"Yep, new ones. Mom had a bonfire last night and burned my old ones. Man, I'm really tired today. Why am I so tired?"

Well bonfires will keep one up at night, won't they? I just shrugged my shoulders.

"But seriously, I want you to pick. I always pick what we do cause I'm pushy and loud and you're really easygoing. What are you in the mood for?" He stopped, giving me a chance to think and type without risking death.

Parasailing

"Funny Asher, funny. We could make paper boats or throw sticks into the river; that's about as close as we can get this afternoon." He rubbed his hand on his chin, thinking. "Unless we tie a sheet to your hands and feet and you jump off a roof. Hey, what's the craziest thing you've ever done?"

That's one of those questions that seems like a normal one, but does anyone really have an answer? Crazy people, maybe. I hadn't done anything crazy. My early teenage years had been spent just trying to get up to speed and back to my old self. My old self had been a fairly quiet, shy kid. I did the normal stuff; bikes, theatre, video games, watching waaaay too much Pokémon.

Stole once

"Tell me! Like a little candy bar or something from a store or did you mug somebody? Or oooh, a bank? Did you wear a mask?"

I tilted my head to the side and gave him my best 'are you serious right now? REALLY?' face which made him laugh.

"I was hoping for a really good story. Okay, so what was it? What lured you to the dark side?"

Sparkly pens

He had to stop and put one hand on my shoulder for support. He kept mumbling 'pens.... glitter pens...' between bouts of laughter and eventually I pushed his hand off my shoulder and kept walking.

"Wait! I'm sorry.... no I'm really not but wait for me anyway!" He caught up to me within four or five steps and grabbed my book bag strap as he detoured towards the river. "Come with me a sec?" He stopped then and faced me. "Wait, is that okay? Will you come down here with me?"

I nodded and happily followed him down the path. We didn't come out at our normal rock and it was actually nicer here, I thought. The water was very spread out making a large pool.

He read my mind, like he did so often. "Really pretty here, but there are too many bugs usually but I just... can I have a kiss? Before we go and do whatever it is you decide to do today?"

Oh yeah. I looked around to make sure we were alone before tilting my head up towards him. He, and I like to think I had too, had gotten really, really good at this. Kissing him was pretty much the highlight of my life. Not that it had much competition, but still. I would do it about 16 hours a day if I could and I was pretty sure he felt the same way.

"And Asher, just in case you've been carrying that heavy load of guilt around with you, you're forgiven. You are absolved of your sin."

I flipped him off and he kissed me again, his lips turned up in a smile. We didn't part until his phone had chirped twice.

He opened it, then got excited. "Want to go swimming at Kevin's?"

It was hot, and I hadn't been yet this spring. As much as I wanted to be alone with Dan, swimming sounded great.