unconditional || graser [on hiatus]

one

e l i s e ' s p o v

I woke up to the usual gentle shake from Liam. I'd be asleep until 12PM everyday if it weren't for him. I took my pillow from under my head and threw it at him. I looked up to see him laughing and joined in. I slowly got out of bed and and walked out of my room with Liam by my side.

We walked into the kitchen and I looked at the time on the oven. 10:27AM, he let me sleep in. Liam looked at me, then his hands, and tried to use sign language. He's been learning for around four months now, and he's getting the hang of it. He's still a bit rusty, though, and I rarely understand big, long sentences.

He said something about breakfast, but I couldn't understand the rest. I gave him a confused look and laughed (or at least I thought I laughed, I'm not too sure). I grabbed a nearby sheet of paper and a pencil and wrote.

'Something about breakfast? :)'

He glanced at the paper and smiled. He took the pencil and wrote a reply.

'Yes, what do you want?'

I looked at the paper. I guess this is a good time to talk. I placed my hand over my throat so that I could feel the vibrations when I talk. This is how my mom taught me to talk when I was 16. She taught me how different words emit different vibrations and breaths. I also gradually caught on to how some words look when someone talks, so I know what people say if it's short and common.

"IHop." I said, and I guess I said it right because Liam smiled and said "Okay."

Like I said, I know simple things like "hello", "goodbye", "no", "yes", "okay", "Elise", "Mom", "Dad", and so on.

I grinned widely and ran back to my room. I shut the door and walked into my bathroom. I turned on the shower and let it heat up. I picked out a white tee shirt, a red jacket, and a pair of denim skinnies and threw them on the bed. I got out my new pair of black Vans and set them by the bathroom door.

I took my shower and got dressed. I brushed my hair and threw it up in a high ponytail. I walked out of my room and into the living room where Liam was watching a show.

Using sign language, I asked him if he was ready to go. He said yes and turned off the TV. We walked out the door and got into the elevator. On the way down, Liam was tapping his foot and gently bobbing his head up and down. I guess he was listening to music being played.

Music sounds like a beautiful thing, but it also a hard topic for me to understand. Every time Liam tries to describe music to me, I just fall deeper into a big black hole of misunderstanding.

Liam drove us to IHop and we were soon sitting in a booth. Liam handed me a menu and I looked through it. I pulled out a small notepad and two pens from my purse. I always have little journals on me for when Liam and I want to write to each other. I gave him a pen and let him write first.

'What would you like? I'm paying btw'

'Strawberry Cheesecake Pancakes, extra whipped cream, and no, you aren't paying :-)'

'I am paying because I'm a man'

I looked at what we wrote, scratched out the word 'man', and wrote 'dork'. He looked at me and crinkled his nose, and I just laughed at him.

"What do you want to drink?" Liam asked me in sign language. He's getting very good at common little phrases like that.

I placed my cold fingers on my throat and articulated the words "Orange juice".

"Okay." He said and returned to looking at his own menu. After around 5 minutes later, a pretty red-haired lady named Grace (according to her nametag) came to our table and began talking. She said something I couldn't understand and looked at me. She patiently waited for a few moments before I realized what was going on.

"I'm deaf." I said. I have to say that phrase so often that I don't even have to feel my neck to make sure that I'm saying it right. I'm just always worried that I'm screaming when I talk. Liam's explained to me that noises come in different volumes, but that's just another concept I can't wrap my head around.

She gave me a surprised look and began talking to Liam. I assume he ordered for the both of us because she gave me a small smile and rushed away right after he finished talking.

After around 15 minutes of mindless doodling and throwing straw wrapper balls at each other, our food arrived. I ate the pumpkin pancakes quickly and probably looked like a pig doing so.

We finished our meal and fought about who was paying. Eventually, I gave up and Liam payed. We exited our respective sides of the booth and left the resteraunt. Once we got outside, Liam bowed and held out one arm. I took up on his offer and linked our arms together. We walked to the car where he opened the passenger door for me.

This is why Liam is my best friend. We will be "mean" to each other and call each other names, but he still does these sweet little things for me. We will joke and have fun all day long, but I know I can tell him anything and that we could have the most serious conversation if we needed to. He's stuck with me for such a long time, and he even learned sign language just for me.

Our friendship is strong;

it's unconditional.

__________________________

Yay, chapter 1!

Sorry if this chapter was boring, it was just an introduction so that you could kind of understand what she's going through.

I've also never done a story with hardly any real dialogue, so bear with me as I get more comfortable with it.

Please vote if you enjoyed, it's greatly appreciated and it spreads the story!

Thanks <3

-lina