Page 21 of Resilience

She laughed in her silent, wholehearted way and punched him lightly in the arm. “Fine. I’ll take a burger for Hunter and a dog for me.”

He scraped the most burned patty up and dropped it on a bun for Hunter.

When Athena and her dog walked away, Sam went for another beer. He really wanted to get wasted tonight, but that was probably a terrible idea.

CHAPTER SIX

Athena made her way back to the beach, where she found Hunter standing under the canopy, drinking another beer. He’d been drinking a lot today, and his mood darkened with each one.

The day had started off great, but now everything was sliding sideways. Lark had dumped Sam, so he was depressed. Hunter was annoyed that she was worried about Sam, and he also hated being here with so many hearing people.

The last one, she understood. She’d grown up in the chaos of the Bulls family, so it was natural to her, but it was certainly isolating, even when the hearing people were mostly fluent in ASL, as her family was. Still, most of them weren’t signing unless they were conversing with one of the Deaf guests, and ... that wasn’t happening very often. The only Deaf person most of Athena’s family were engaging with was her.

The party had fallen out into two obvious groups, and the hearing people, the larger group, were hogging the boats and jet skis. Hunter was salty about it. He was salty about a lot today, and growing saltier by the gulp.

He stood under the canopy, separated from James, Delilah, and Quentin, who were engaged in conversation and maybe hadn’t noticed he was there. Hunter had his back to them and was frowning at the lake. Out there Jake, Petra, Monty, Duncan, and a couple sweetbutts had the boat anchored and were swimming in the deep water. Athena didn’t know who’d last taken the jet skis out, but they were nowhere to be seen.

She brought Hunter the plate she’d made him, with a burger and a mound of chips. When he thanked her and took the plate, she used her free hand to ask if he wanted to sit on the dock and eat. She took his answering shrug as a yes, opened the soda cooler—bummer, somebody had filled it with cheap-ass Vess sodas—and grabbed a can of strawberry. Then she led Hunter and Blanche onto the dock, where they plotzed and dangled their feet over the side.

“I’m sorry you’re not having a good time,” Athena signed.

Hunter shrugged again and opened another beer before he replied, “It’s not my birthday.” He gave his burger an irritated glare. “This is burned.”

“Sorry. You want me to get you another?”

“It’s fine.” He bit off about half of it and chewed petulantly.

Athena didn’t know what to do about his mood, so she focused on her hot dog and soda. Hunter sat beside her and ate his food and didn’t try to hold a conversation. He could get a good sulk going when he wanted, and he was obviously working on one now.

After a few minutes, she tried again. “We could play volleyball. Or horseshoes. Or there’s a bocce game we didn’t get out yet. Or we could go back in the water. There are floats in the boathouse.”

Another fucking shrug. “I’m good.”

Athena gave up. She finished her food and got his attention. “I’m going to go find something fun to do. Want to come?”

When he shook his head, she climbed to her feet and left him to his sulk.

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