sing // irwin

fifteen

January 12th, 2018

Aries walked out of her second sign language class, proud of herself for retaining all of the information she had learned in the session. Today they had extended on the basic greetings they had learned last lesson, and could now sign more advanced, yet common phrases.

She was by herself today –after Lena had obtained the instructors number last week, she had no desire to attend the classes anymore. Aries didn't mind –she preferred to go alone anyway. She looked at her phone, checking for any messages from Ashton, who still had yet to unblock her. She felt terrible for pushing him to tell her something when he clearly didn't want to, yet she also felt somewhat betrayed that Ashton didn't trust her enough to tell her. How could she, though? They'd known each other for not even a fortnight. Aries often neglected to remember this, as when she talked to Ashton, she felt as if she'd known him forever.

Lost in her thoughts, Aries bumped into a stranger who was exiting the advanced ASL class. The force sent her flying towards the ground, causing the stranger to rapidly apologise.

"Oh my goodness, are you okay? I'm so sorry", a masculine voice sounded. Aries looked up, scanning the face of a very apologetic boy who seemed to be not much older than herself. He helped her to her feet, for which she thanked him.

"It was my fault, really. I wasn't paying any attention", she smiled, subtly admiring the stranger's appearance. He was taller than her by a good few inches, with pale skin and unruly red hair that stuck up in all directions. His green irises made contact with Aries' own, which were a dull shade of blue. He chuckled at her response.

"Well still, I'm sorry for knocking you over. I'm Michael", he grinned.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Aries", she smiled, holding her hand out for Michael to shake. Her eyes caught sight of another boy who stood beside Michael, paying no attention to the encounter. Michael made no effort to introduce him, but that didn't stop Aries from surveying his appearance. She couldn't see much of his face due to the way it was turned to the ground, however she could tell he was attractive. Dark blonde hair hung from his head in loose curls –he'd clearly made no effort to style it this morning. He was toned, and despite being hunched over, Aries could tel he was taller than Michael.

"So, you're learning sign language?", Michael asked, pulling Aries out of her thoughts. Aries nodded.

"Yeah. I've only been to two lessons, but I'm really enjoying it. Have you been learning for long?", she asked.

"Yeah, for a few years now. I'm pretty good now", he replied, nodding his head. Aries didn't quite understand why Michael would invest so much time into learning, especially when he quite obviously wasn't deaf. Still, she admired his persistence. She wasn't sure how long she'd be able to attend these lessons –sure, she was interested in learning, but she couldn't imagine doing so for multiple years.

"Wow, that's dedication", she said, a tone of admiration lining her words.

"Not really, I mean, it's all for this guy", Michael said, finally addressing his friend. He nudged his arm, causing him to look up. Aries smiled at him, before signing.

"Hi, my name is Aries", she tried her best to ensure her signals were precise so not to accidentally say the wrong thing and offend anyone, especially when the two boys knew more about ASL than she did. She was relived when Michael's smile widened. His friend, however, seemed to be slightly taken aback.

"Wow, that's great!", Michael praised, "I was way worse when I first started."

The red haired boy turned to his friend, signalling a few things Aries had yet to understand. From what she had gathered from the conversation, the friend was deaf, or at least somewhat hearing impaired. Regardless. whatever Michael had signalled caused the friend to smile at Aries, before signing.

"Hi, my name is Ashton."

+

this is the part where you go back and read all the previous chapters and suddenly everything makes sense.