He nods. “Yes. My mother home schooled me for about two years before she finally gave in to my badgering. I wouldn’t stop asking her to enroll me in a school. Any school. Eventually, she signed me up in Simon’s school in third grade. Being in a mainstream school as a hard of hearing student was not easy. My parents couldn’t afford an interpreter, especially with the extra lip reading classes and speech therapy they were already paying for. I learned to rely on myself. I would ask the teachers for reading materials in advance. That is how I survived elementary through high school.” He slants his head to the side, one side of his mouth tipping up. “I usually don’t talk about this, mainly because not many people are interested in my life.”
Wow. I can’t believe that this quiet boy trusted me enough to open up to me. Why was I feeling weird about it?
“I’ve heard there is an electronic device that helps with the sense of sound. I can’t remember the name—”
“Cochlear implant,” he says, and that breathy, soft rounding in some syllables tickles my sense. “They cost a lot. We couldn’t afford it.”
We continue to chat about my life in Ohio, the reason we moved here, my new school which I’ll be attending in fall, his family—which sounds amazing and very different from mine. Before we realize it, we are somehow sitting one inch from each other. Conversation fades as tension takes up the space around us. His hand moves from his side and takes mine, turning it as he looks at my arms. He brushes his thumb across the raised skin, the tip of his finger lingering there.
“Does it hurt?”
I shake my head. The visible wounds don’t hurt as much as the invisible ones do.
Cole lifts his hand again as if he can’t help himself and hovers it around my cheek. I hold my breath and wait. Wait to feel his touch send that thrill all through my body. His head dips a little, his eyes never leaving mine and he wets his lips before he exhales.
Kiss me, I beg silently. Kiss me.
He tucks the hair behind my ear instead then pulls back and I feel like someone dumped a bucket of ice down my shirt. Thunder rolls in the distance and my entire body stiffens.
“I need to go home,” I shoot to my feet and dash toward the entrance and begin my descent down the tree.
The sound of Cole’s footsteps reach me as soon as my feet hit the ground. I straighten and when I look up, Cole is standing beside me, looking perplexed. He searches my face for answers, I think. But I’m not ready to give them to him. Taking a deep breath, he looks at the sky before returning his confused stare to me, taking my hand and beginning our dash through the trees, toward home.
We reach the clearing just as fat drops of rain begin to hit my head. Cole tugs me forward to the fence, leaps over and circles my waist with his hands, lifting me up as he did before. I halt at the bottom of the ladder and whirl around to face Cole, our chests heaving with exertion.
I tilt my head up, blinking as the raindrops fall down faster and faster. “Thank you.” He continues to stare down at me, and I’m not sure if he caught the words from my lips. It’s too dark to see anything. I grab his hand and place his palm against my lips, and do the only thing I can think of that might make him understand what I’m saying. I mouth the words, “Thank you.”
His thumb brushes my cheek before he slides his hands to my hips and spins me around to face the ladder. His fingers dig into my skin as if he doesn’t want to let go before loosening and giving me a gentle push toward the ladder. I scramble up and when I reach the top, I swing one leg over the roof followed by the next, then glance down at him.
After a quick nod, he spins around and jogs across the lawn, does his usual leap-over-the-fence thing and strides toward his front door. Only then do I turn around and crawl through my window as thunder rolls and lightning strikes across the sky. I pull the window down and walk to the dresser to change my wet clothing, while contemplating my evening to keep my fear at bay. After years of feeling invisible, it feels great knowing that someone sees me, even when I think they aren’t looking.
I NEED TO GET A JOB. My savings have run low. Maybe Megs knows where I can get a part-time job. I’ll be meeting her as soon as I drop Mom at my grandma’s house. Elon is over at Cole’s house, playing video games with Nick. She and Nick are the same age and they seem to be getting along quite well. I’ve seen how he looks at her. The poor boy is crushing on my sister. Elise went to visit a girl she met at the community swimming pool. Three days ago, she and I drove to the local animal shelter to drop off the cat she’d rescued. Apparently, Elise had been hiding the poor thing in her room for nearly two days before Elon mentioned it. The cat didn’t have a collar so we had no choice but to take it there. My dad would have hit the roof if he’d found out about it. I’d seen that happen so many times when we were in Ohio.
Honestly, I’m not sure there is a single thing in this world that would make my dad happy. I can’t even remember the last time I saw him smile, or saw him hug my sisters or me.