Listen With Your Heart [May Continue in Future]

Chapter 4

Oliver's POV

I sat on a towel at the beach next to Tommy since he wasn't allowed to leave, he was still grounded; Tommy and Henry were playing cards together. My brothers decided to spend the last day of our summer vacation at the beach.

I was drawing my parents as they laid on their towel, talking and sunbathing; I didn't have any idea what they were talking about since I was too focused on my drawing to even bother trying to read lips. I was drawing them since I wanted more practice drawing people and I personally thought it weird to draw strangers; my brothers wouldn't sit still long enough to me to draw them so my parents became my subjects. My parents kept most of the drawings I did of them, since they were so proud and loved my drawings; plus I wouldn't think of selling anything that featured my family, that'll be weird.

My brothers would usually tease our parents after I was finished with a drawing since the love they shared was so obvious and apparently I captured it very well in my drawings; the running joke was that Pop's last name should have been Fondlinson instead of Tomlinson. The jokes were good natured though, my brothers and I admitted that we wanted to find someone that looked at us the way that Pops looked at Dad or vice versa.

Tommy, however, had a more cynical view on love; saying that most of what "love" was, was just based on sex. In his mind: love followed sex, maybe that's why he was so promiscuous; Tommy always scoffed at our parent's love-at-first-sight stories and countered that our parents just wanted to smash and then fell in love afterwards.

I added a few final details and finished up my drawing; as I was closing my notebook to put it back in my backpack, Henry tapped my knee and did the "give it to me" gesture. He took my notebook and held it so Tommy could see as well "Another Tomlinson master piece" Tommy signed as he passed my notebook to our parents.

"I'm going to get an ice cream" I signed as I stood up, Henry and Tommy also stood up also before Pops snapped his fingers. When Tommy turned around, Pops pointed down with his index finger and Tommy sat back down; glaring at our parents who went back to talking about my drawing. When Tommy was grounded he literally wasn't allowed to do anything out of fear that he would just vanish like he has so many times before.

"Do you want your usual cookies n' cream?" I signed to Tommy who just nodded since he was annoyed. "Do you want anything?" I asked my parents who just shook their heads; as we started to walk away I turned as Dad was waving his hand to get my attention "Thomas doesn't get any ice cream, he's grounded". Henry winced and Thomas stared as Dad with pure rage in his face before falling backward on the towel and covering his face with his hands.

"So, why don't you ever take your shirt off?" I asked Henry as we walked down the beach toward the nearby ice cream cart. "I'm not as built as you or Tommy, I have a tummy" he signed "I don't have Tommy's six pack or v line and I don't have the tight, flat stomach that you have". "Henry shut the hell up you're not fat; freaking look around you, I can see like eleven people that are like double your weight without even turning my head" I signed "Plus one time I was talking to this girl and she said I was too skinny so you'd probably have better luck with her than I did".

"So what do you want?" Henry signed to me when we arrived at the cart, ignoring everything I just said. "Just strawberry" I signed back to my brother, over Henry's shoulder though I made eye contact with a guy who smiled at me as he and his friends were walking toward the cart as well. I smiled back and turned around as Henry started ordering all of our ice creams, it was easier for my brother to order since he could just speak.

The guy walked up to me "You're deaf? You're wearing hearing aids and I saw you singing" he signed fluently. I nodded and he smiled "I'm Alejandro" he said became he gave me his name-sign which was the letter A over thumped over the heart which was also the sign for "brave" but could also mean "gangster" or "tough guy".

Alejandro was cute; his brown skin spoke of hispanic descent, he wore a plain white shirt that was two sized too big and his jeans hung loosely around his hips, almost sagging. His snapback was worn crookedly, the bill was high and pointed toward slightly the right. "Don't worry about my name sign, it's a joke, ironic" he said.

"I'm Oliver" I signed, he waited for a moment and when I didn't say anything else he asked "You don't have a name sign?" I shook my head "Not outside my family". "So your family signs also? Are they deaf?" he asked as he looked to Henry who was debating whether or not he wanted a cone. I shook my head again and Alejandro gave a sad smile and signed "Sorry, I have friends that are from hearing families too" I instantly became offended because of the assumptions he had to have made to apologize.

"What do you mean you're sorry for me?" I asked, knowing full well what he meant but wanting to see it for myself. "Well, you know, hearing families just see the deaf as broken or in need of fixing. Hearing families don't love you guys, meaning deaf kids, enough to learn how to sign; you guys grow up alone. It's even worse that you have a twin that doesn't love you enough to learn how to sign" he said as he glanced over to Henry who was asking for extra napkins, speaking his request. I couldn't blame him since that's what usually happens to deaf kids in hearing families, but when he started insulting my family and my brothers; I couldn't tolerate that.

Henry turned back to me, holding two ice creams and a little pile of napkins "I'll see you later" I signed to Alejandro as I took my ice cream from Henry. "Wait, did I upset you?" he asked. "Who's this?" Henry signed. "Oh he signs?" Alejandro asked, surprised. "Yes, my entire family does; next time you should get the entire story before you jump to assumptions" I said before stomping away.

Henry followed me "What was all that about?" he asked. I rolled my eyes and signed "Do you remember how our parents tried to get me involved with the deaf community since they thought I needed more deaf friends? How they signed me up to various clubs and stuff at the Riverside school for the Deaf? He was one of those types of people that made me hate it; aggressively deaf with a strong...grudge against hearing people and who instantly assumes the worse. He insulted our entire family in like six seconds"

Henry looked at me, not really understanding since he was never in that situation but he shook his head anyway "It's a shame he's an asshole, he was super cute" Henry signed which made me chuckle.