Cute Love Stories

Mute

Silence. That was all anyone got out of me was silence. I hadn't spoken a word for nearly eight years now. When I was 11 one of my friend's moms was carpooling me & four of my friends back home from a gymnastics meet. We were all tired from the days stressful events. My friends & I were asleep in the back seats while Mrs. Fiona was driving us back from out of town. We were an hour & forty-five minutes from home when a drunk driver ran Mrs. Fiona's van off the road. It flipped numerous times before stopping. When the van landed it was right side up again, but nothing would ever be the same. Two of my friends & Mrs. Fiona died in the crash. Three of us survived, myself & my friend Rene had critical wounds while our other friend Stacy got out with a few bruises & a concussion. That day my voice left & never came back. I learnt to adapt rather quickly, learning sign language & how to deal with people's reactions in public. It wasn't easy, that's for sure, but I learned.

Freshman year of high school when I was only 15 I met a sophomore named Kobe Reynolds. When I first started going to high school I was nervous because of my disability & just hid in the back of my classes. In fourth period Biology I sat beside Kobe who had happened to have lost his pen before class. He asked me if he could borrow one from me. I instantly pulled a spare from my bag & handed it over with a nervous smile. He thanked me, but when I didn't respond he thought it was a little odd. After our teacher's first day speech the students were left with some free time before the class was over. That was when Kobe tried again to rise a response out of me. He asked how my day was going, what class did I have next, & what my favorite subject was. After a minute of listening to him talk I nervously took out my note book & started writing my answers on a piece of paper before handing it to him.

I waited for him to laugh at me for not being able to speak, but instead he set the piece of paper down on the table, turned to me with a smile, & started signing another question.

'Do you want to hang out after school?'

Excited to see someone else talking to me in sign language I eagerly replied using my hands.

'Yes, please!'

We ended up spending lunch together & had our last class together. We went to the town square after school going straight to a small cozy café that we both loved. That was where it all began. About a month later Kobe asked me out to the school dance & from then on, we were an inseparable couple. Since we both knew sign language we had our own inside jokes that no one else in school could understand. It was our own little way of communicating.

A week after graduating high school we had already made plans to move into an apartment in Atlanta, Georgia. We were both going to be taking online classes to get our college degrees. We were walking around the park hand & hand on our last day in our hometown when Kobe suddenly stopped. Confused I looked to him to see he was nervous about something. Abruptly he got down on one knee pulling out a little velvet box & opening it to reveal a delicate rose quartz ring.

"Madilyn Taylor, I have loved you since the day we met in ninth grade. I gave you that promise ring in eleventh & you know I never break my promises. So, please make me the happiest man in the universe & be my little rose forever," he spoke sincerely with a smile on his face & pleading eyes.

Shock was an understatement to how I was feeling in that moment. Without even thinking about it my answer came out of my mouth shocking both of us.

"Yes!"

Kobe was so happy that he stood up, picked me up off the ground, & spun us around.

"You have a beautiful voice Maddie," he laughed in glee before kissing me passionately.

Soon he was sliding the engagement ring on next to my promise ring making me the happiest girl I could ever be. Once more that day I spoke.

"I love you," I cried tears of happiness as I kissed him.

KobeReynolds, the man who can love a girl without a voice so effortlessly. He gaveme my voice, I gave him my life, he gave me his last name, & I gave him myheart.