The Rockstar and Deaf Batman Who: Eva and Patrick What: Making a connection When: Wednesday Afternoon, 01/02/13 Where: Music store Warning: Only for cuteness
Patrick had to admit that he preferred Duskwood when school was out. It would never be home. There would never be enough people around who would understand him, where he was coming from, who he was, what life was like for him, but when school was out of session he at least didn’t have to put up with the damn interpreter. Not only was he trapped in a world where no one signed, but most people couldn’t even be bothered to slow down when they were speaking or take the time to look at him, which made it impossible to read their lips. School was a nightmare. During holiday break, though, he could just wander around town, in his own world, watching lips where he wanted to and just not being bothered just the clash of people. As long as they stayed out of his way. It was a small enough town that most people knew that he and his mom were “those deaf people” and treated them accordingly, like they had some disease that was catching. Patrick had no way to tell when he wasn’t with the interpreter, but he would have bet money on the fact that the idiots were raising their voices when they spoke to him as though if they were just loud enough his ears would start working.
His mother and Victor had shooed him out the door, giving him money and telling him to buy school supplies. Instead Patrick had ended up at the music store, wandering the aisles and eying the drum sticks. Everyone left him alone, though they kept giving him strange looks as though they didn’t understand how the boy who couldn’t hear anything could even know what music was. This small town was insane. Danville had been small, but at least people there had understood. Maybe not everyone but enough people. There had been community. Here there was just isolation and continual glances that melted away whenever he turned his head.
Eva had seen Patrick in school before. She'd never really gone up to him because for the most part she let people come up to her. When she entered the music store and saw the redheaded boy making his way down the aisle and eventually stopping at the drumsticks, her interest was piqued. She knew he was deaf. While Duskwood wasn't a one horse town it was small enough that everyone knew everyone else's business fairly quickly. That didn't bother her. It was no different than being a medium or being black or being any sort of the million things that made people different. In all honesty it was sort of interesting. Even more so now that she saw him in a music store.
She decided to go up to him, though she wasn't entirely sure why. It just felt right so she opened up her messenger bag and sifted through it for a notebook and a pen and opened it to a blank sheet of paper before approaching the boy. She reached out to gently tap him with her free hand and once he'd turned to look at him she smiled and made sure his eyes were on her. Most deaf people read lips right? "Hi," she said first. "I'm Eva. I think we go to school together." Then she held up the pen and paper. "I don't know ASL so next best thing?"
He turned at the gentle touch, taking a step back, arms crossing over his chest instinctively even as he smiled in greeting. He'd seen the girl at school. She was gorgeous; it was hard not to notice her. And he thought he had seen people talking about the fact that she lived at the funeral home, but trying to read lips from a distance was difficult so it was possible that wasn't what he thought it was. As she talked, he watched her lips and nodded.
I know, he signed in answer to both her name and the fact that they went to school together. When she held up the pen and paper, he shook his head and reached for his phone. Unlocking it, he held up a finger and then started to type. When he was done, he arched his brows and turned the phone around so she could see it. "I know your name. I'm Patrick, but I'm sure you know that. You're the girl with the hearse, aren't you? And your family runs the funeral home?" the message read.
She watched what he signed, finding it pretty amazing. It was like a whole secret language that only certain people were privy to. In a way it made her jealous because she didn't know how to sign. Yet. She might have to change that. When he declined the paper and pen, she tucked it away again and let him type into the phone. She was a little surprised when he talked about knowing her name and that her family ran the funeral home. Okay, no she wasn't. Small town. Everyone is famous in a small town.
She smiled again and nodded. "Yes," she said. "I do drive a hearse. And my family does run the funeral home." He didn't seem creeped out by that fact but maybe he was just being nice. "I hear that deaf people can actually feel music," she commented, eyes flicking up to the drumsticks and back to him again. "Is that why you play drums? Kind of like Beethoven writing his symphonies with the piano legs cut off so he could feel the sound?" She wondered if the term 'deaf people' would annoy him since she wasn't entirely sure what they preferred to be called, 'hearing impaired' perhaps, but it was already said now.
Maybe not everyone was famous, but they had something a little more out of the ordinary than normal. And Patrick had learned a long time ago that normal people were normally pretty good about noticing and talking about anything that didn't fit into their world. When she confirmed what he thought, he smiled a little more and signed Cool even though he knew she wouldn't know what it meant. The smile would put the gesture into context, though. At least if she was the smallest bit observant.
He frowned. Most of that had come through but not all of it. "You have to slow down," he typed, flipping the screen to show her and then making the sign for slow down, pointing to the screen and then making the gesture again. As long as she was talking to him, he might as well show her a few signs.
Then he started typing again before flipping it back to her. "You can feel music, too. Ever turn the speakers up and just let the bass thrum through you? Or been to a concert where the vibrations makes your heartbeat change? I bet you have." She looked like the type.
Eva was a pretty observant girl and she was fairly certain of what the sign had meant. Maybe she'd ask him later. Right now it was more important to 'listen' to what he was saying. She watched him make that sign and decided it meant slow down and then tried to mimic him as she spoke again. "Sorry," she said. "I'll try to... slow down?" she asked, making the sign and looking at him as if to ask if she'd gotten it right.
As for the rest of what he had to say, she nodded. She had felt music before, the vibrations of bass in the speakers, especially when you were really close to them. "Yeah," she told him. "Or if I have my headphones up too loud and I press my fingers against them. I can feel it thumping." Which, now that she thought about it, made music even more awesome because even people who couldn't hear it could feel it and appreciate it.
The attempt at the sign made him beam and nod, giving her a thumbs up. It was nice for someone to even try. Most of the kids at the school just looked at him like he was a freak when he started signing to the interpreter. Some of the others would even try to make up their own signs, which normally made them look like idiots seals flapping their flippers around.
As she talked, he nodded, continuing to smile, not even bothering to take note of who was looking at them. It was pretty inevitable that someone would be. Someone here always seemed to be looking at him. Not that he minded Eva looking at him. "Right," he typed, "it's like another heartbeat. Or lots of heartbeats really. And there are music videos, ASL videos, where someone signs the words to the song with the music. They're really cool. Do you play?" He shook the drumsticks in his hand slightly when he turned the phone around to her.
Eva beamed when she got the sign right. It was like getting a gold star or something and she couldn't help but be excited that she managed to do something right the first time. She shook her head a little at his question. "I don't play drums. I can play a little guitar though. And I sing," she explained. She made sure to speak slowly enough that he could understand what she was saying, keeping her face towards him. "It's really... cool?... that you can read lips," she said, trying that sign out that he'd used earlier and hoping she got it right and hadn't assumed that it meant something it didn't. "I'm probably making a jackass out of myself aren't I?" she laughed.
She was doing a good job of speaking slowly enough and keeping her lips clear enough that he could following along with her. It was also nice to have an actual conversation with someone other than his mom, Victor or the interpreter. At least in person. He'd been video chatting with his friends from home, but that wasn't the same thing. And it was cute to see how excited she was about getting the sign right.
"You're a rockstar then?" he typed, making the sign for rockstar as well. Cool, he signed again, which she seemed to have picked up.
"Cool," he typed, showed her the phone and made the sign again, nodding at her.
It was a long, strange way to have a conversation, but it wasn't too bad all things considered. He shook his head. "No, you're not making a jackass out of yourself. This is the most a townie has talked to me since I moved here. Thank you, Eva."
Sure it wasn't as quick as a regular conversation, at least when she wasn't fluent in ASL, but she wasn't complaining. He seemed pretty interesting, didn't care that she drove a hearse or lived where dead people were a constant fixture. It was nice to not feel judged for once. Usually she ignored it but to not feel it at all was amazing.
"I wish I was a rockstar," she said, parroting back the sign to him and grinning. "Maybe one day I will be. I hope so." She mentally committed those few signs to memory as he typed and when he turned the phone again so she could see, she grinned. "You're welcome," she told him. "I would have talked to you before but I usually don't approach people," she admitted. "I'm too creepy. Might have scared you away," she teased, flashing him a grin.
Patrick didn't see why anyone would care that she drove a hearse and lived in a house where people took care of dead people. He wondered how many of those jerks who wanted to judge her had once had family pass through her house. How could they be mean to someone whose family had taken care of their loved ones? It was inane.
"You're beautiful enough to be a rockstar," he typed, making the signs for beautiful and rockstar. Repetition helped when it came to learning things, he knew, so he was trying to repeat the same signs over without throwing in too many new ones along the way. She hadn't asked him to stop yet, and she seemed to be interested. At least a little.
When she talking about being scared, he shook his head and started typing rapidly. "I'm not one of these sissy boys you have around here who are creeped out by a few dead bodies. I'm deaf. We're superheroes. You wouldn't have scared me," it said when he flipped it around for her to read. "I'm the deaf Batman."
She couldn't help but flush as she read what he had to say. She bit her bottom lip through a tiny smile before making the sign as she spoke. "You think I'm beautiful?" she asked. She knew she wasn't unattractive but hearing - or in this case reading - that someone thought you were beautiful, especially someone hot, was a whole different thing. She didn't mind the new signs. He was patient with her and that she appreciated.
When he talked about not being a sissy boy or how he wouldn't have been afraid of her, she had to grin. "Well now I feel like a jackass," she told him. "I should have talked to you a long time ago. If I'd known you were going to be this cool I would have totally come up to you," she murmured, signing the word again and smiling. "So if I'm a rockstar and you're Batman, we're totally going to have to hang out sometime. Really give people something to talk about."
Patrick nodded and repeated the sign for beautiful and then spelled out her name in finger spelling, doing each letter slowly, pointing at her, going through the letters again and then following it with beautiful. It was too early for him to give her a name sign of her own, but he was certainly starting to think about what it should be. Maybe something to do with rockstar or hearse or beautiful. And she was really pretty when she blushed.
When he shrugged, he made the gesture very big and shook his head as he typed a response back. "It's alright. At school there's the interpreter, and he crushes my game. Makes him Alfred and me Bruce. No one wants to hang out with Alfred and Bruce. That's creepy. You and me in your hearse, though, will make them all stare." The grin he gave her when he turned the phone around was bright.
Eva grinned at him. She memorized the letters he gave her and nodded, letting him know that she understood. "I think you're beautiful too," she told him. "You know, in the manliest form of the world but beautiful will have to do until I can figure out how to say totally hot," she smirked. She was getting just a little more secure talking to him and he'd already told her she was beautiful so he had the right to know what she thought too. It was only fair. Even if it did keep that flush on her cheeks.
"I'm sure Alfred isn't that bad," she told him with a grin. "But you can ditch him sometime and I'll show you the hearse." No doubt that would get people talking for sure. Not that she really gave a damn. They could talk if they wanted, it wouldn't change her mind that Patrick was pretty damn fun to be around. In the short while they'd been talking she was already feeling like she had just had the most awesome conversation in months.
Making sure to keep a grip on the phone, he shook both his head and his hands pretty empathetically no at the idea of being beautiful. Then he repeated her name and beautiful before hooking a thumb at himself and then showed her his name sign, which was a p and the sign for fire, which he followed up with hot. Knowing that might be a little much, he made himself slow down and go through it again, first her name and the descriptor and then his name and the descriptor followed by an arch of one eyebrow to indicate a question. Typing took so damn long, and Eva seemed to be willing and able to catch onto the signs as long as he was slow with them and didn't try anything too elaborate. She was doing really well for her first try.
"Alfred is awful. I never had an Alfred at home. People signed there. But Alfred goes away after school so I can be Batman. You show me your hearse, and I'll take you on my motorcycle. I have an extra helmet at my house." He couldn't really bring himself to call Duskwood home yet. Talking to Eva was making things seem a little less dismal, though.
"Okay, okay," she said, holding her hands up apologetically. "You're not beautiful," she laughed. "I'm beautiful and you're hot," she repeated back to him. "Like... what's that? Fire? Yeah, pretty much what I was going for. Hot like fire." Sign language was becoming a little more awesome with each new word she was taught. She was already thinking about videoing herself doing the signs so she'd remember them. Practice would make perfect after all.
"I bet it sucks to have him follow you around all the time," she admitted, frowning a little. "Cramping your style." Really cramping his style apparently. "You have a motorcycle?" she asked. "That's hot." Super hot really. Now she was really kicking herself for not talking to this guy before. Totally easy on the eyes, not a douche canoe and he had a motorcycle and didn't give a damn that she drove a hearse. If he got any better she might just be smitten. "I've never been on a motorcycle before," she told him. "Is it worth the helmet hair?" she grinned.
This might take some explanation so Patrick went to the phone. "My name sign is P and FIRE. You don't have a name sign yet so you're just E-V-A. It's confusing. I'm sorry." Once she had read that, he typed a new message, grinning when he showed it to her. "But I am hot like fire." It was teasing more than anything, but it felt good to know that the beautiful rockstar hearse girl thought he was hot. His ego sort of needed the boost after living here for a few months.
The way that Eva was throwing the signs in with the talking only made her all the more attractive. Smart, musically inclined, already a little outside the box and willing to talk to him with his own language. Maybe tonight he wouldn't give his mom and Victor grief about moving him here. "It wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't so lame. Although if he has hotter than me, that would also be an issue. I do have a motorcycle," he made the sign motorcycle arching his eyebrows at her again. "And it's totally worth the hair to ride. A little cold for it now though. Maybe when it's warmer."
She read what he wrote and repeated it back to him in the way she thought he meant. "Okay, so Patrick is P plus fire?" she asked. "Do you get to pick your name sign?" she questioned. That was pretty interesting. "So... if you don't have a name sign then you just get the letters? Not too complicated. I'm just not on the inside yet," she smiled. "I'll get V.I.P. access eventually. I am a rockstar after all." She was amused that he was teasing her though, as adorable as it was. "So I get the P part, but why fire?" she questioned.
Eva wanted him to feel a little less like he was an outcast. She knew how it felt to be the weird one and she'd been in Duskwood her whole life. She could only imagine what he was feeling being uprooted from a place where he could communicate and being tossed into the mess that was Duskwood High. She laughed at his thoughts on poor Alfred and how he'd be even worse if he was hotter than him. "I don't think you could find an interpreter hotter than you," she told him. "And you've got a motorcycle so that ups the hot points. Alfred wouldn't look good on a motorcycle." It was definitely too cold for a ride on a motorcycle at current. nearly freezing really. "I'm going to hold you to that," she smiled.
If Eva kept hanging out with him, she would learn how empathetically he could shake his head and hands when something was wrong. Eventually he would just teach her no as it was simple enough, but this worked better for the moment. "A deaf person has to give you your name sign. My name sign is P and FIRE. Another Patrick might be P and DOLPHIN." It was ridiculous but possible. "Stick with me. I'll find one for you."
He hesitated when she asked about the fire. It would be easy to claim it was because of his hair or his temper. Eva hadn't judged him on anything so far, though, but the hesitation was still clear in his face. Finally he typed it out, and flipped the phone at her, a finger pressed against his lips. "Fire elemental."
If anything this was a good test for what the rest of the world could be like. Patrick wasn't his parents, and he had never wanted to stay in Danville his whole life. Not every community was as deaf friendly as home had been. It was better to learn it now, but it still sucked. "Alfred would fall off, and then my mom would yell. Please hold me to that." There was a winky face between that and the next sentence. "How many more points does the leather jacket get me?" he tugged at his jacket when he turned the phone around.
It made her smile to think that he might want to be around her long enough to give her a sign for her name. "So someone gave you yours then?" she asked. But he was typing a response to her other question so she watched him, reading all that hesitation as he turned his phone and pressed his finger to his lips. Well, that explained a lot. "Jealous," she told him. She was after all. Her family had mediums and a few of her friends were special too and she was just a plain old human. "Human," she told him. "Boring right?"
She had to grin at his words and the little winky face. "Tons of points," she told him. "So does the hair," she admitted. "I have a thing for redheads," she said, flushing slightly and winking at him. "Alfred probably would fall off," she agreed. "And I wouldn't want your mom yelling at you. Think that my car would creep her out?" she asked, slightly curious if his family was as cool as he seemed to be.
Yeah, he'd been preoccupied, but he had seen the question regardless, and it was necessary to circle back around to it. "No one interesting," he typed, "just my parents. They're both deaf, too. My step-dad is hearing, but my mom got to give him his name sign. I've not had the chance to name someone yet." Which would be pretty cool.
When she admitted she was a human and asked if it was boring, he just shook his head and signed beautiful again. Then he made the sign for fire by itself followed by the common pantomime that everyone used for crazy. He would see if she could make out the basic jist of the message before writing it out. Being a fire elemental? Not all it was cracked up to be.
That got another broad grin from him. "Really? It's natural. I promise. I'm pretty fond of brunettes." Another winky face followed by a shrug. "Who knows with my mom. She's also a crazy fire elemental, but she's also a nurse so probably not too weird. We'll have to wait and see." Yeah, he had basically just offered to introduce her to his mom. Potentially weird.
It was pretty interesting that his step-dad was hearing. She wondered if it was weird for him living in the same house with two people who couldn't hear when he could. Apparently not so much that he hadn't fallen in love with Patrick's mom regardless. Which was sweet. "Well you'll just have to come up with a good one for me," she told him. "Make sure it's cool," she added, grinning at him.
He went on to call her beautiful again and it was just as sweet as the first time. "I don't think you're crazy," she told him. "But if it's a secret, it's safe with me," she added. She wanted him to at least know that he could trust her with the information. Just because the new president was a supernatural didn't mean that everyone wanted their personal information blabbed around town.
"Really," she told him, nodding. She smiled when he commented about being fond of brunettes. "Well that's natural too. The colors aren't," she laughed, tugging at the blue tied in extensions. "But everyone has to have a little fun. I do it with colors in my hair." She grinned when he sort of invited her to meet his mother at some point which was pretty awesome because no one ever really wanted to introduce her to their parents. She wasn't exactly the sort of girl that people liked to bring home because she was so eclectic and strange. "Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll like me."
"Maybe," he typed in, waving the phone at her, grinning like an idiot. It was fun to tease pretty girls, and Patrick hadn't really had the opportunity in entirely too long. It wasn't as though he could chat up anyone through his interpreter. That would have been entirely too strange for everyone involved. "You'll have to wait and see." Beautiful. Repetition all in the name of learning. Right.
There was the exaggerated shrug again. "Not so much a secret, but it's just another thing to set me apart. One thing at a time." Being supernatural might not be the biggest deal to everyone, but Patrick didn't want to take chances by heaping more potential "weirdness" on himself. "I won't tell anyone you're human," he typed then, winking for real.
Patrick reached out to touch the blue strand and signed beautiful again before going back to the phone. "Maybe one for me? Would it look good? Would I still be as hot?" Another shrug. "With my mom, who knows. She'll be happy I have a friend, I think. They've been on me about that." Probably just a parent thing, though.
He was such a flirt. She was getting to really like being called beautiful though and would have sat there and watched him sign that word a billion times if he let her. "Keep calling me beautiful and I'm going to start believing it," she grinned.
"I like being set apart," she admitted. "I think it makes you special." She laughed when he promised not to tell anyone she was human. "Oh thank goodness. I was worried that my deepest, darkest secret would be revealed," she said.
She flushed a little when he reached out and touched her hair. Then she was laughing again. "I dunno, maybe," she smiled. "I think you'd probably still be just as hot." She doubted there was much that he could do to make himself less hot. The smile flickered out a little when he talked about his mother being happy he had a friend. "You should have lots of friends," she told him. "You're cool. And you taught me like a bunch of stuff already. People are dumb if they don't want to be your friend."
That just encouraged him so he started signing beautiful repeatedly, eyebrows quirked at her. Occasionally he would also toss in her name to give it a little bit of variety. After about a minute, he went for the phone again. "Do you believe it yet? Because it's true." Girls could be so silly sometimes, but he wouldn't mind continuing to tell her if she smiled like that when he did it.
"People don't always see different as special. Sometimes they see it as limited, incapable, stupid. So you have to look to find the good ones." Then he pointed a finger at her. That shouldn't need much explanation.
All this talk about him being hot made him straighten up a little bit, smiling and making a face at her that was supposed to be Hollywood-esque. "Like I said, it takes awhile to find the good ones. Hopefully I'll find some more. We should start a band. Then we can be awesome. Everyone will want to be friends with us." Hey. His mom wanted him to be more involved in extracurricular activities.
By the time he went for his phone, she was blushing. "I believe it," she told him. "I'm beautiful. Either that or you're just a sweet talker," she teased, flashing him a wide grin. She didn't have incredibly low self esteem or anything but her ego was certainly boosted after this conversation with the hot redhead.
"I don't think you're limited, incapable or stupid. Especially not stupid," she assured him. She didn't doubt that he was probably way smarter than those stupid jocks that paraded around school like they were god's gift to women, dated slutty cheerleaders and still propositioned her in the hallways. Please. Like she'd stoop so low. She'd much rather spend time with someone like Patrick who was different. Unique.
"Well we're already awesome," she told him. The idea of a band, however, piqued her interested and she grinned. "We should," she agreed, nodding enthusiastically. She really didn't care if people wanted to be friends with them or not, so long as they were friends with each other the rest of the world could butt out. "What kind of music do you like?" she asked.
When she made the comment about the sweet talker, he shrugged again, holding his hands out in a gesture of confusion. "How about both?" he typed on the screen for her with another real life wink. He needed to remember to thank his mother for sending him school supply shopping on his own later.
"Thank you," he typed, signing it for her as well so she would have another one to pick up. He probably should have started with something that simple, but it wasn't as though he knew what he was doing when it came to teaching someone sign language. Maybe his mother would have a better idea considering that she had helped Victor. Of course Victor had been able to take real classes as well. "I don't think you're any of those things either. We can be terribly underestimated by everyone together. They'll never suspect us. We'll take over the world." He mimed an evil laugh.
The thing about being awesome made him nod in agreement. "What kind of music you got?" he asked with a grin and then signed rockstar at her again before adding. "I can handle anything you can throw at me."
"Both," she agreed, nodding. He was most definitely both. Sweet talking for sure. Those cute little winks were going to drive her crazy in the best of ways, of that she was sure. Eva didn't think she'd smiled so much in ages. Her sister probably would think she'd lost her mind or something if she could see her at that moment grinning and blushing like a fool.
The words 'thank you' were a very easy sign and she knew she'd be able to pick it up. She didn't mind how he taught her, the fact of the matter was that he was actually taking the time to do so. It was sweet and it was something that he didn't have to do but did anyway which made it even more wonderful in Eva's eyes. "I like that idea," she smiled. "Taking over the world." If anyone could do it, Eva could, especially with Patrick's help.
"I listen to everything," she told him, grinning at the word 'rockstar'. "I like things with a good beat though," she admitted. "Really think you've got the skills to keep up with me?" she teased, winking at him and gently reaching out to touch his fingertips. "So are you as skilled with these fingers at playing as you are at typing?"
If he kept her smiling and blushing like that it would only make the day better, and today was pretty much already the best day he'd had in Duskwood. He'd have to tell his mom that she'd been right. All he'd needed to do was give it a little time. He hated it when his mom was right, but considering the circumstances this wasn't so bad.
Patrick nodded and typed out, "So what are we going to do with the world once we have it? Running it seems like it would be boring. All those people. No one's going to listen. I think the fun might be the challenge and then what do you do with it once you win?"
When she asked if he had the skills, Patrick just glanced at her again, cocky self-importance on his face, eyebrow quirked again. When she touched his fingers, he smiled broadly, giving her hand a slight caress before turning back to the phone. "You're the one who will need to keep up with me. My hands can do just about anything." Yeah, that was suggestive, and he followed it with a wink.
"Give it back?" she laughed. She wasn't much for running the world because she agreed with him, it wouldn't be fun once they ruled it. Just knowing they could do so would be the fun part. Besides, running the world would probably involve some stuffy desk and suits and yeah, not something Eva would be comfortable in.
That cocky little look that crossed his face made her grin. How could she not grin when he looked at her like that? It was both sexy and adorable and she hadn't even known that the combination of those two things existed. "Oh yeah?" she said, grinning even as the words came out of her mouth. "Someone's a little cocky."
Patrick nodded. Yeah, giving it back sounded like the right plan for sure. "I like the way you think. We can give it back and then take it over again. No one will expect that." Yep. She was beautiful and smart and a musician. Total package. Yeah, he could definitely be happy spending some more time with this girl.
He made the common motion to indicate a little bit and shrugged. "I earned it. Promise. And you did call me hot earlier so you'll have to forgive me if my ego is a bit swelled." More along the lines of being slightly suggestive.
"Our diabolical plan will never be expected," she agreed with a wide smile. He might have been thinking she was the total package but she was starting to feel the same about him. He was gorgeous, she couldn't deny that, and smart and he liked music as much as she did. And he was different. Unique. That she liked the most.
"I think your ego deserves to be a little swelled," she told him. "So what are your plans for today?" she asked. Might as well see what he was up to and if they could keep this conversation going. Eva wasn't in any rush to leave the boy just yet and was hoping he wasn't ready to run away from her.
"It's the quiet ones they never suspect," he typed, "which puts me in the clear. Although I bet people might think you have the potential to be diabolical. After all, you drive a hearse and have blue in your hair. Those are sure signs of a nefarious mastermind." She was unique, too, and Patrick already felt pretty at home talking to her. That was strange in and of itself. He'd never really had hearing friends before. His step-dad didn't really count.
Thank you he signed in response to the comment about his ego and then shrugged, gesturing toward the drumsticks. "My mom told me to buy school supplies. She should have known I would end up here. So nothing. You?" No, he was not in any hurry to get away from her. What would he do? Go home and wait for his mom and Victor? That didn't sound like fun.
"Yeah, I think you're in the clear," she smiled. "I'll have to be more quiet I guess so people don't suspect me so easily," she told him. "You'll have to teach me to sign faster so we can still communicate. Or, ya know, give me your number so I can text you everything," she said. No she wasn't asking for his number. Not really. Okay, so maybe she was, but it was sort of disguised. Maybe.
"Hey, those can be school supplies," she told him, smiling. "Especially if we start up a band for real. We could get other people at school involved and before you know it, we're playing at prom." Okay, maybe not. "Or not. I'd probably look silly on stage at prom. Not that I particularly care but then I'd have to buy a dress. Blah, what am I even talking about?" she laughed, shaking her head a little. "I didn't really have any plans. Came to get some strings for my guitar and figured I'd end up back home trying to write something meaningful and end up watching horror movies all afternoon," she admitted, chewing on her lower lip. "Wanna keep me company instead?"
He didn't miss the sly way she had asked for his number. She got points for that as well. Not that she needed more points. "I'm up for it if you're up for it although I don't know what I'm doing. I doubt this tiny town has real ASL classes." Of course it wouldn't. Then he added his number below the words so she would have it if she wanted it. Her choice. Next to the number was, "Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's my number so text me maybe." Cause, yeah, that was too good to pass up.
Okay. That had been a lot of information in a short span of time, and Patrick hated to do it, but he signed slowly at her again. He knew how easy it was to get overly excited, but it still made things difficult for him. He had caught the bit about prom and the guitar strings, though. "You wouldn't look silly playing at prom, and we could certainly bring them the best music they ever heard. But we might be too intense for them. I would like to keep you company, though."
"You were doing a pretty good job before," she told him. "Besides, I think you're a pretty good teacher and the student is always right." And he was correct in thinking the town didn't have any real ASL classes. Maybe in Boston but not in Duskwood. Unfortunately. She grinned when he gave her his number. Taking out her phone, she punched in the number and saved it under her contacts as 'P-Fire' because she couldn't resist. "You get points for being adorable," she told him with a laugh.
"Sorry," she said. "Slowly. Sometimes I just get excited. And talk too fast. Just tell me to stop if I start going too fast for you." She smiled again at his words, more at his agreement to keep her company. "Awesome," she said. "Want me to help you shop for supplies first? Might get me points with your mom if you come home with more than drumsticks," she teased.
"In the absence of an actual class, I guess I can be the next best thing as far as teaching goes." Assuming that Eva wanted to continue learning, which he certainly hoped was the case, but he wouldn't hold his breath. Nothing against her, but sometimes the cool factor petered out pretty quickly. No matter how hot he was.
"Adorable? I thought I was hot. Am I losing points?" That would be a travesty.
Patrick nodded and smiled to indicate that it was alright. "Don't worry about it. It happens. When you know enough to sign a conversation, you'll have to stop me because I'll forget and go too fast. It's normal."
At the suggestion of shopping for supplies, he grimaced. "Boring. Fun first. Your call."
"I think you're the first best thing. Probably a lot better looking and more fun to be around than any ASL teacher I could find," she pointed out. She wasn't so much in it for the cool factor but because she wanted to be able to more easily communicate with Patrick. She thought he was fun and wanted to make things easier for him and thus easier for herself as well. It helped that he was hot, sure, but he seemed like the sort of person she'd like to get to know and befriend.
"You're still hot," she told him. "Not losing points."
She smiled. "I look forward to telling you that you're a motormouth," she told him. She could already tell that he was going to be a quick talker once she was able to sign enough to communicate easily with him.
She laughed at his little grimace. "Fun first," she agreed. "You've still got days before school starts up," she pointed out. "We could go to my place and watch a movie," she suggested. "Maybe order a pizza? If you're not too chicken to go into the big scary funeral home," she smirked.
When she said that, Patrick just grinned and pulled at the collar of his leather jacket, popping it up a bit in an attempt to be both silly and hotter at the same time. It would be worth it if she kept smiling anyway. "First best thing, huh? I could get used to that."
Patrick nodded. "Victor used to tell me to go slow all the time. With signing. When he was learning. Of course half of that was me doing it on purpose." He and his step father had hit some rocky points over the years to say the least. "I'll try to remember not to do that when we're talking."
When she teased him about being scared, he made an exaggerated hurt face and folded his hands over his heart before beginning to type. "You wound me. I'm the deaf Batman. I'm not scared of anything, especially not a little, old funeral home. Plus it's pink, isn't it? Who can be afraid of something that's pink?" Least menacing color ever invented.
She had to grin at him and that wounded face he made. "Peach," she told him with a laugh. "But no, it's not scary. Just to people who don't know how interesting it can be. To me it's just home." She shrugged a little then moved to grab the strings she'd come into the shop for in the first place before turning to face him again so she could speak to him. "Did you walk here or get a taxi?" she asked. "I can take you for that ride in the hearse if you want."
Cool, he signed, watching her as she turned around because, yeah, she was beautiful but she was hot, too. And sexy. And a few other choice words that he wouldn't teach her just yet.
By the time she turned back toward him, he was just smiling, tapping the drumsticks in his hand. "I rode my motorcycle. Too cold for most people but not for me." An advantage to running so hot all the time. "I can follow you. Raincheck on the ride?"
"It's because you're hot," she told him with a grin. "Let me pay for this and then you can follow me over. It's not too far," she assured him. Paying didn't take long and once they were outside of the store she made her way towards the hearse parked close to the front of the building. "I'm glad I ran into you," she told him, smiling again. "Just when I start to think the whole town is boring, I find a reason to think otherwise."
Nodding, Patrick followed her to the cash register. Was he still checking our her ass? Definitely. He might be deaf, but that didn't mean he wasn't a teenage boy with fully functioning hormones. Once she had paid for the strings, he paid for the drumsticks and then followed her out, this time keeping his eyes on her mouth.
When he saw the hearse, he signed cool again. "Ditto. And I haven't even been here that long. How you've managed to stand it for so long is beyond me." Then he nodded in the direction of where his motorcycle was. "That one's mine. So now you know how to spot me around town, and I can totally spot you."
She could almost feel his eyes on her, but she was trying not to pay attention or read too much in on it. Maybe she just had something on her pants. Lint maybe. Which made her a little paranoid. Great, he was probably looking at her ass and thinking about how ridiculous she looked but not wanting to tell her. She pushed the thought away and focused on the matter at hand.
When he pointed to his bike, she was impressed. "Cool," she signed, pointing at his bike and then turning her attention to him again. "That's hot. Cool points just went up," she teased, flashing him a smile. "I think I'll definitely be on the lookout for you," she admitted. "Wouldn't want to lose the only person with a fully functioning brain. Now that I've met you, you're going to get tired of me."
It was a good thing that she hadn't called him on it because Patrick didn't have a ready excuse, and he knew that it wasn't always a good idea to tell a girl that you were checking her out because she had a great ass. Girls tended to get angry about that because they thought they were supposed to or something. It was strange. It was best to just look and then try to act as though you didn't know what they were talking about if they cornered you. He had probably misused the deaf excuse a few times since moving here since he could get away with it when it came to hearing girls.
"At this rate, my cool points seem to be approaching the sky," he typed, but he was smiling to go along with the teasing. "I don't know about fully but mostly functioning at least. And how could I ever get tired of..." he signed the last bit beautiful E-V-A.
"They definitely are," she told him with a nod. "Well, you're a boy, I can't say that any boy's brain is entirely functioning," she admitted teasingly, winking at him. "You know, you're going to spoil me if you keep calling me beautiful," she told him. "But I'm really starting to like it. Come on, let's get out of here." Before he could respond, she moved towards her car, backing away and grinning at him, not wanting to give up eye contact until the last moment when she turned and climbed into the hearse.
He returned the wink with a grin. Eva was fun and smart and beautiful and hot and interesting. Not to mention that she was willing and eager to let him teach her some sign language. And now the pretty, interesting, fun girl wanted to spend more time with him. Telling his mom she had been right was going to be painful. Maybe he could work up to it.
"I'm not going to stop because it's true," he texted to her as she walked away since she wasn't close enough to read the words on his screen. Then he hopped onto his bike, secured his helmet and gave her a thumbs up. He was ready to go anytime she was.