Page 16 of The Love Duet
As for Roxie’s parents, we got along great.At least, as of yet, no one had said anything to the contrary.Her parents always spoke to me respectfully, and they invited me to dinner often, to which I accepted just as often.Being around her family also helped me with my signing, and I had come a long way in these past few months.While I still had a long way to go, I’d made some incredible strides.
Life was going along smoothly, and I had even managed to outsmart homecoming.Roxie had wanted us to go because it’d been kind of assumed that I was going to win homecoming king, but there’d also been a good chance that Kaley could have won homecoming queen, and there was no way in hell that I would have been okay with that.
So, when it’d gotten around that I was going to play in the homecoming game but not attend the rest of the festivities, Coach had pulled me aside to tell me that I was going to win, and that I had to show up.I had politely declined, and me and Roxie had spent the rest of the night watching movies at her place.It hadn’t been until Hudson had texted, informing me that Kaley had won homecoming queen, that I had thanked God for my common sense.
At any rate, the past three months had been perfect, and with New Year’s Eve being tomorrow, I saw great things for the year to come.
Right now, Roxie was sprawled across the couch, her head in my lap, my fingers twirling her curls around.Her parents were out on a date night, and we were watching Deadly Women, some program that she liked to watch on Investigation Discovery.
Tugging on one of her curls, she looked up at me, and I asked, “Have you already applied to colleges?”I signed it the best that I could, but I couldn’t remember the sign for college.
“Of course,” she signed back, her eyes narrowing a bit.
“Where to?”
Roxie sat up, and I knew that we were going to have to sign at a snail’s pace for me to understand her answer.“Grandstone University,” she ended up spelling out.“It has a good hearing impairment program.”She smiled sheepishly, as if she were embarrassed, and I hated that.“It’s a small college, but it’ll work out fine for what I need.”
While sports had always been a bit of a factor, Roxie wanted to go into special-ed teaching, and she had the patience and kind heart for it.I had no doubt that she was going to be successful if her plans panned out.
“Do they have a football program?”
Her beautiful hazel eyes widened right before she started shaking her head.“No,” she whispered, and I felt like my entire world had just been knocked on its ass.
Roxie could speak.
“What did you just say?”I asked, stunned beyond belief.
“I-” She immediately stopped, and her eyes slid away, and I’d never seen someone look so crushed.Though I was shocked as fuck, when I saw her lower lip tremble, panic set in like I was on the goddamn Titanic.
Quickly grabbing her face, I forced her to look my way.“Baby, what is it?”
Her eyes were glossy, but tears weren’t falling just yet.“I’m sorry,” she signed.“It only happens with my parents and Pepper, or when I’m really serious.”
“But...you can talk?”I signed after removing my hands from her face.
Roxie nodded.“I can,” she signed back.“I just don’t know how I sound, so it’s...scary to test it with strangers.”
That got my back up.
I leaned back, and I couldn’t recall a time that I’d ever felt this...shredded.“So, I’m a stranger?”I signed.“Really?”
I was in love with this girl and have probably been in love with her since I first saw her, but she still had me in the category of a stranger.
Christ, that felt brutal.
Roxie started shaking her head, her eyes wide.“No,” she voiced.“No...you’re not a stranger.”
I just stared at her as I listened to her speak, and her voice sounded thick, but lyrical.She also sounded clear enough that a vocal conversation shouldn’t be a problem.If Roxie was able to read lips and speak, I hated to think about where her preference for signing must have come from.The girl was confident enough from what I could tell, but she just admitted to the fear of putting herself out there, so it was obvious that I still had a lot to learn about deafness.
“But you just said-”
“It’s not that,” she repeated, but I wasn’t entirely sure that I believed her.“You wanted to learn to sign, so it was easier this way.I feel more comfortable signing, and you wanted to learn, so why speak?”She must have seen the doubt in my eyes because she quickly climbed into my lap, straddling me, her hands cradling my face.“Royce, you arenota stranger,” she said.“You’re everything to me.”
My chest felt like it’d just been kicked in.That’s how powerful her statement had been.It wasn’t a profession of love, but it might as well have been.Telling someone that they were your everything was big.At least, to me, it was a big deal.
“Then why don’t you want me going to college with you?”I asked, my hands finding her hips to hold her prisoner on my lap.
“Because going to a non-football college might change your future,” she said.“There’s no way that I’m letting you do that.”
