Page 6 of The Love Duet
“Only friends and family sit in the players’ section,” Pepper signed.“Oh, my God, Roxie, he must like you.”
I shook my head.Though my crush on Royce was very real, I didn’t want to get too presumptuous.“Or that was his way of apologizing,” I signed back.
“No way,” she blurted, and I had to laugh.An enthusiastic Pepper could be hard to follow sometimes.
Just then, my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I knew that the first warning bell for our next class was going off.I had an alarm on my phone that matched the school’s warning bells, so that I wouldn’t lose track of time.While it wasn’t a huge deal because Pepper was with me most of the time, the girl did have her sick days every so often, leaving me to wait out the day by myself.Pepper was such a huge help that I often wondered what going to college without her would be like.Even though she had insisted on applying to all the same colleges that I’d had, there was no guarantee that we’d be accepted to the same ones.One of these days, I was going to have to maneuver life without Pepper as my crutch.
Deciding to be honest with her, I signed, “I don’t want to get my hopes up.”I shrugged.“What if he’s just being nice?I don’t want to let my crush on him see something that’s not really there.”
Her face automatically softened.“He’d be crazy not to like you, Roxie,” she signed back, finally getting control of her excitement.“You’re beautiful.”
“Thanks,” I mouthed.When my phone buzzed again, I quickly signed, “We need to get to class.We can talk about this more at lunch.”
“You’re right.”Pepper’s grin was huge when she added, “Besides, we don’t need you getting in trouble and grounded.We need to be at that game tonight, no matter what.”
I laughed, then followed her to our next class.Doing my best to keep it together, I made the effort to pay attention in this class while last period had been a total loss.Crush or not, I couldn’t let Royce Cameron turn me stupid with just one conversation.While I wasn’t one to let my condition turn me into a victim, I knew that I had to work harder to pay attention than the other students at Yosemite High.The school district had accommodated me enough that I didn’t want to let everyone down now.Especially, over a boy, no matter how sexy and gorgeous he was.
Once we’d been let out for lunch, Pepper and I had put our stuff away, then had made our way to the cafeteria as always.Now, while we did have a traditional cafeteria, ours was more of a food court design.In addition to the standard required cafeteria, we had four other food options to choose from.We had a pizzeria kiosk, a deli kiosk, a burger kiosk, and a taco kiosk, and the taco kiosk line was always so long that Pepper and I usually just grabbed sandwiches and salads from the deli kiosk.They were already prepackaged, so the line went fairly fast.
After grabbing our usual, we headed towards the courtyard to eat our lunch.Not that I was ashamed of my deafness, but Pepper and I always sat in the farthest northern corner, surrounded by two huge oak trees.While I’d gone to school with most of these people all my life, we still got those random stares every now and again, whenever we were signing.Whether curious or judgmental, it happened, and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling to be stared at.
Sitting down, we began eating our lunch, talking with our mouths full not being an issue.“I wonder if we can get you a jersey at the student store,” Pepper signed, wondering.Sports were such a huge thing in this town that our school had a student store where we could buy stuff to show off our school spirit.
“No,” I voiced, showing her that I was serious.Then, switching back to signing, I added, “I draw the line at acting like a groupie.The last thing that I want to do is start lying to him about who I really am.”
Pepper smiled softly at that.“You’re right,” she signed back.“If Royce Cameron was interested in groupies, he’d be dating one of the many that stalk him on the regular.”
I huffed out a laugh, trying not to choke on my food.“You’re terrible.”
“I’m not terrible,” she denied, her hands flying like crazy.“It’s true.”
Shaking my head at her, I went back to eating my lunch.While I had no doubt that Royce was followed around by a hoard of stalkers, it wasn’t anything that I wanted to think about.I did not want to ruin this for myself before anyone else had the chance to.
Chapter 3
Roxanne~
