With Eyes to Hear and Hands to Speak

Chapter 29: Of Libraries and Sloppy Makeouts

                  

Near the end of the chapter, John and Dave are communicating by passing Dave's phone back and forth, so just know that Dave is regular font and John is italics. [EDIT] wattpad's being dumb rn, and italics aren't working, so I apologize.

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Dave's POV

I went to John's house after school that day to check in on him. (I would've skipped school to make sure that he was okay, but he managed to convince me not to.) I couldn't stay long, however, because I had to get to work.

Working at a library didn't sound very interesting at first. Shelve books, help pushy people, issue library cards, etc. but it turned out to be more enjoyable that I had initially believed it to be. Not many people came in, and most of them were college kids who didn't want to be disturbed.

I had made a few friends, too. There was Ella, who had been there for years, and her boyfriend Tyson. Nico, a mute college student, who came in nearly every day, and Jojo, another coworker, who brought in her girlfriend, Lil, sometimes.

Those five were really the only people that I communicated with during work.

"You're late!" Jojo sang, stacking books in the biography section.

I waved at her with one hand while I got out my phone with the other.

'I was checking in on my boyfriend.' I typed.

"Ah, of course. This infamous boyfriend we all keep hearing about." She replied.

'Oh shut it, will you?'

"Ah ah ah, looks like someone needs to learn his manners."

'Any time now.'

Jojo stuck out her tongue at me before asking, "Why were you checking in on him? Is he sick or something?"

'Nah, he broke his hand.' I answered.

"How?" she asked, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

'He punched a hole in his wall.'

"That's... a bit aggressive, isn't it? And worrying." Jojo replied, looking alarmed.

'He was asleep. And having a nightmare. It's not the first time this has happened.'

"You mean to tell me that he's repeatedly broken his hand by punching holes in the wall in his sleep? You'd think by know they'd know to move his bed away from the wall." She said, moving on to the nonfiction section.

'Well, this is the first time that he's broken his hand. Or punched an actual hole in the wall. But I meant he punches the wall when he has nightmares. But he broke his left hand and he's left-handed. He also needs that hand to sign properly.' I explained. She read over the words and looked back up at me, once again confused.

"Why would he need to sign?"

'I never did mention that he's deaf, did I?'

"Nope."

Just then, Ella interrupted our conversation by squawking that Jojo was speaking too loudly, and that she could hear her from six shelves over.

"Sorry El." Jojo said apologetically.

Ella patted her on the side of the head and walked away.

"Don't you have a job to be doing?" Jojo said once Ella was out of sight. "Stop interrupting mine! Go work!" she waved me off and I backed up to go to the front desk. I greeted the woman sitting in the other chair and she nodded back at me.