Page 12 of We Were Something
“How are you already taller than me?” I say, watching as her eyes drop to my mouth to read my lips. “13-year-olds are supposed to be short and awkward. It’s a rite of passage.”
Ivy giggles and shrugs a shoulder.
I brought you a present, I sign, tilting my head toward the door.
Ivy’s attention catches on movement behind me, her smile growing even wider at the sight of Lennon and Hannah. She lunges toward them, giving each of the girls a hug in turn, staying glued to Hannah’s side for a bit longer than Lennon’s.
Then, like a true teenager, she spins around and prances back to her bed, hopping up on it and tucking a pillow into her lap like we’re at a slumber party. I take the chair next to Ivy’s bed as Hannah crawls up and sits cross-legged at the foot of it, and Lennon scoots another chair across the floor and settles in at her other side.
I didn’t know you guys were coming, she signs, her smile still stretched across her face as her head rotates between the three of us.
“We decided to surprise you,” Hannah says out loud, her hands moving expertly in time with her spoken words. “Figured you could use some girl time tonight.”
Ivy gives us the face of exasperation.
You have no idea. I love my brothers, but they…She signs a few words I don’t recognize.
“She called the boys overbearing and obnoxious,” Hannah says, catching the confusion on my face.
Lennon giggles. “So true.”
I shift in my chair, crossing one leg over the other and settling more comfortably as the four of us launch into a conversation that is as adorable as it is awkward.
Awkward because Hannah still does a significant amount of the work by translating almost everything for me and Lennon, but adorable because I can tell Ivy doesn’t even care about how poorly the two of us know how to sign. She just needs a little TLC.
Lucas told me you’re finding time to do some schoolwork, I say a bit later.Do you have a favorite subject?
Ivy rolls her eyes and gestures at a stack of workbooks on a table a few feet from her bed.
I guess I don’t mind history. But everything is just so boring.
I smile at her, and when her eyes meet mine, I switch to speaking because I don’t know all the words I need to say, though I still try to sign a few here and there.
“Honey, it’s just a part of being a teenager to hate your schoolwork. I pretty much loathed every moment of my time walking the halls of Roth Prep.”
“Except when you were sneaking around this weekend,” Lennon mumbles.
My head whips to the side and I glare at her, and the girl doesn’t even try to look apologetic. She just bites her lower lips and gives me a grin.
“Okay, we donotneed to be talking about that in front of Ivy.”
Talking about what?Ivy signs, reminding me that she is an absolute expert at lip reading since she caught my words even though my head was slightly turned away.
When I turn back to look at her, I take a breath, preparing to tell her my foolish adult decisions don’t need to be repeated for her youthful ears.
But then she gives me this face…one that begs me to share.
I’m stuck in here all day, every day, and there aren’t even any cute boys down the hall. The least you can do is tell me whatever happened.
It’s Hannah’s voice but Ivy’s words, and when I purse my lips and glance at my friend, she holds her hands up as if to sayDon’t look at me for answers.
I turn to look at Lennon. “This is all your fault,” I tell her, then I look back at Ivy. “Okay, but if I tell you what happened, you cannottell your mother. Got it?”
Ivy does across my heartmotion before she tucks her legs underneath her and grabs one of her pillows, her eyes wide and eager, looking so much like a normal teenager ready for some gossip rather than a patient with a life-threatening disease stuck in a hospital bed.
Determined to make her smile, I launch into a slightly modified story about my interactions with the attractive man at the gala this weekend.
I sign when I can, enjoying Ivy’s little laughs when I mess up and she helps correct me. The kid is incredibly innocent in so many ways, likely from the years she spent secluded away from others her age, receiving medical treatments or tutoring from home because she was too sick. But she still has an old soul, a kind of awareness of the world that I’d wager only comes when you think you’re going to die much younger than you should.
