Listen With Your Heart [May Continue in Future]

Chapter 9

The next morning as I walked out of the shower and heading into our room to get dressed, I saw Tom dressed but wearing my outfit. "Do I have too?" I whined. Tommy nodded "I have to summer skill assessment in math so I need you to take it for me so I'm not swamped in homework for the next three months" he said as he pinned the flower over his chest. I poked Ollie in the cheek until he woke up "Do you want to be Tommy today?" I signed as he finally opened his eyes

"Sure why not" he yawned. I nodded and went over to Ollie's dresser to put on his clothes. Picking up his hearing aids from his nightstand and making sure they were turned off, I placed them over my ears before I walking out into the kitchen to grab some breakfast. "Henry why are you wearing Oliver's hearing aids?" I heard Pops ask behind me "We're going to play a prank on our classmates" I lied as Pops walked next to me and started making a pot of coffee.

Pops nodded "So I'm planning on taking your dad out for a date night, will you three be ok for a while after school? And by ok I mean will the house still be standing when we come back?" I chuckled "You can trust us Pops". Tom walked out and gave Pops a small foil square, a condom, from his wallet " Just in case" he said with a grin. Pops calmly poured two cups of coffee as he said "I don't need it. I got a vasectomy years ago, not long after you guys were born, I'm shooting blanks".

I blink as Pops said that; why would he need a vasectomy? Usually men got them when they didn't want anymore children since there wouldn't be any sperm inside of the...climax. He probably didn't like using a condom when they...never mind let's think of something else instead of my parents doing the dirty. But seriously, why would he need that operation? It's not like Dad could get pregnant, men can't get pregnant.

Wait a second...Did Pops just admit to cheating on Dad for the last eighteen years? No that wouldn't make any sense...what if...were our parents swingers? In a poly relationship? Is that where Tom got his sex drive from? But...our parents never had any guests or friends over though; especially overnight, except when Uncle Zayn and Uncle Liam came over but they stayed in separate rooms.

"Have a good day at school lads" Pops said as he took the two cups of coffee into his and Dad's bedroom. Oliver came into the living room a split second later wearing Tom's suspenders "Let's go?" He asked and we all nodded before grabbing our backpacks and walking out the door. I was still racking my brain over what Pops said though

Oliver's POV

It was easy enough to be Tommy, I just had to act grumpy and pissed off to explain why I was "ignoring" everyone and why I wasn't talking. Tommy got a B on his test so he crushed my spine and ribs in a tight bear hug after school and laughed when I asked him how the deaf classes were. "Romeo wasn't there if that's what you're asking" Tom signed. Tom glanced over at Henry who was putting on his roller blades, he has been strangely quiet all day.

"Henry?" Tom said but Henry didn't look at us, just stood up and checked that his blades were laced up properly. Tom smacked Henry's ass and Henry finally looked over with a raised eyebrow. "You ok?" Tom asked Henry nodded and said "Yeah...so our parents won't be home until later what do you guys want to do?" he signed. "Movie?" I offered. "Scary movie!" Tom smiled. "No, please, I hate scary movies" Henry whined. Tom just smiled "I'm thinking Friday the 13th?" Henry sighed "Fine, but we got to watch it my way".

We were back home, all us crowded on Tom's bed with Henry in the middle. We had the curtains of our room fully drawn so it was dark inside even though it was only four in the afternoon. Henry cradled the popcorn bowl in his lap as the opening credits started playing on the tv in our bedroom. Scary movies didn't affect me as much as my brothers; this was one of the perks of being deaf since so much of what scary movies were, were based on music and noises which I couldn't hear. Jump scares were the worst for me though.

We watched the movie with the subtitles on and about halfway through the movie Henry had already "noped" out and was in the backyard playing with the dogs. Tommy wasn't in much better shape; for some reason Tommy loved scary movies but was almost as scared as Henry was, the difference was that Henry could walk away and Tommy couldn't. Tom held me in a weird cuddling embrace where he tried to hide behind me but not block the tv screen and maintain a distance between us since "he wasn't scared" but still wanted the comfort of physical contact.

Tommy flew out of the bed and into the bathroom with a scream so loud and so close to my ear that I could actually, very faintly, hear it even without my hearing aids, I actually flinched and after a moment; pulled back the curtain where I saw Henry in the front yard, doubled over since he was laughing so hard. I sighed and turned off the movie, just another day in the Tomlinson household.

Tom came out of the bathroom a little while later after he realized he wasn't going to get brutally murdered. "Screw your guys I'm going out" he signed as he got his sweater. On the whiteboard near the door Tom picked up a marker and beside his name he wrote "Teen Center" before grabbing his set of house keys and walking out the door. Our parents let us come and go whenever we wanted but they still wanted to know where we were so Dad came up with the idea when our parents weren't home. I went inside my room and changed into my speedos before putting on some sweatpants and grabbing my gym bag "Are you going to stay here by yourself?" I asked as I uncapped the marker. "I usually do" Henry shrugged.

"You should come to the gym with me, I'm going to use their pool and swim, you can join me or if want to do weights or something you want; I can bring a guest" I said as I wrote "Jim" next to my name on the whiteboard. Henry shook his head and got his guitar from the closet before sitting on the couch and playing it. I shrugged and walk out of the house after getting my skateboard.

-

I loved the water, whenever I swam it was just so peaceful; as if I was swimming away from the chaos at home. I loved my brothers but they can be so tiring at times; I really wanted to finish that movie. Plus there was so much testosterone at home that everything became a contest or competitive sooner or later. After swimming a few laps I clung to the wall of the pool trying to catch my breath; I looked over as I felt eyes on me.

"Hi!" that deaf guy from school said to me, I've completely forgotten his name; wearing the uniform of the gym employees. I nodded in greeting as he placed some fresh towels on the rack beside the door. "I just got hired today and I completely forgot, that's why I wasn't at school today; I thought we started school next week" he explained. "It's fine" I answered. The guy stood there awkwardly for a moment so I just signed "Nice seeing you again" before I curled my legs from under me and pushed against the wall to resume swimming without waiting for a response.

I swam for another hour, my limbs were burning when I was done; I would be sore tomorrow but once I got into the water I just couldn't stop. I walked passed the fresh towels and toward the showers; I'd take another shower when I got home but I hated the smell of chlorine on my skin.

Using some dollar store body wash I gave myself a quick scrub while keeping my speedos on, I never understood why people got completely naked in showers. I was glad I was wearing speedos cause that guy came in with a mop and bucket; I chuckled as he turned a bright red, as he tried not to stare, despite his brown skin. Tommy would have probably just "accidentally" taken off his speedo in this situation, but I wasn't Tom so I just pretended that I didn't notice him there; basking in the attention. He stood there for a solid thirty seconds before he just turned on his heel and walked out of the bathroom.

I ran into him him again in the locker room when I was going to get dressed and he started to focus intently on cleaning the lockers. I went into the bathroom stall to get dressed into my sweatpants and black t shirt. When I walked out of the bathroom that guy was still hanging around "So I know that your cat was sick yesterday...I'm off of work in fifteen minutes do you want to go grab some food or something?" I thought about for a moment but couldn't think of a single reason why not so I just shrugged and signed "Sure".