Tuesday, February 11th

Eden somehow made it through Public Speaking after work, but there was no way he could add on Biology then lab. He had enough difficulty following along on a normal day.

Maybe I should just drop now. There’s no way I’m going to pass.

He wasn't the best student in high school, barely graduating, and it had been six years since then. But he had to do something with his life and he promised Em he would go to college. It took him this long to save up enough money to live on his own – also barely – yet still be needy enough to qualify for aid. So now he was old, broke, and behind everyone else in almost everything.

Kicking a rock out of his path, he cursed under his breath. He had no skills, so in this world, a degree was really the only way to get a decent job. At least one that didn't involve manual labor or some form of waste disposal. He was too delicate for those things. And a decent job was the only way to take care of himself and his sister.

His sister. He huffed out an aggravated laugh, not looking forward to the discussion he was slowly meandering toward. Without thinking, he had wandered a long route home and his pace continued to slow the closer he came to the apartment.

Finally staring up at the building, he took a deep breath, then pushed the heavy metal door open and jogged up the steps. After one last exhale, he went in and found Auggie curled up next to Justin on the couch. Both had a pint of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. She didn’t move, but she grinned as he shut the door behind him. Excitedly lifting the carton - her gesture for “Look, Justin gave me an entire pint of Ben and Jerry’s!” - her grin widened.

“Really Justin?" he asked with a frown. "It’s only two in the afternoon.”

His friend shrugged, happily shoving his own creamy, frozen rush of sugar into his mouth. Eden shook his head but left it. The whole situation was already so far beyond his control, this one thing hardly mattered.

Ignoring the two, he searched the kitchen for something to eat, settling on a family-size bag of Doritos. With a chip hanging half out of his mouth, he shuffled over to crash beside his sister. She rolled, snuggling up to him instead, then raised her carton as a peace offering. As if secondhand ice cream could make up for her craziness. Pushing it away, he stuffed a few more chips into his mouth, absentmindedly chewing. They were watching a documentary on strange bird mating rituals, a colorful bird performing a wild courting dance on the screen, and exhaustion suddenly hit him. His life up until this point had been, by design, simple and boring. The amount of mental, social, and physical energy he'd expended in just the past two weeks was more than he could handle. Dropping the bag onto his lap, Eden focused on the monotonous voice of the narrator and the repetitive movements of the bird. Within moments, he was out.

A hard punch to the shoulder startled Eden awake and he almost cursed until he caught Auggie’s glaring blue eyes. She shoved her phone into his face, pointing at the time.

Shit.

He'd slept over three hours, which meant Justin had already left for his night class and Alex was at work.

Groaning, he pushed himself up, then stretched out his back.

“Hungry?” he asked her. She just smacked a peace sign “V” against her forehead to call him stupid, then strolled to the kitchen, hopping up onto a stool.

Wise ass, he thought, but he smiled at her anyway. His stomach growled as he stood. No one had bought any groceries, so there was nothing for either of them to eat. Passing over the trash, he saw the pint containers from earlier. They were both empty and he glanced at her.

“You ate all of that ice cream and you’re still hungry?”

She nodded and smiled sweetly. “I’m growing.”

“BS. You’re just a pig.”

Eden grabbed his phone off the counter, calling for a pizza as she shot various vulgar signs his way. Then he took her hands in his and led her back to the couch. Twenty minutes was at least enough time to start this conversation.

“I told Em you're here and I would let you stay for one week,” he began, getting a twisted brow and mouth from Auggie. She wasn't sure if she should be angry or glad. “You’re still in school. You can’t be out any longer than that.”

Her arms immediately folded over her chest and she huffed, then she gruffly signed, “FUCK school.”

“You seriously have the worst language.” He signed it for her, but he had to say it out loud for himself, just to emphasize the point. It was common to be blunt when signing, but Auggie and her friend Maddie, also Deaf, were by far the most vulgar. He wasn’t sure who taught whom, but his sister had never been particularly innocent.

“Thankfully most hearing people don’t understand what you’re saying.” That comment was only for himself and he waved off Auggie’s question. “Aug, you have to go to school. Do you want to end up like your stupid brother?”

She frowned at him but uncrossed her arms and slumped into the couch. “You’re not stupid.”

“Why don’t you want to go to school?” he asked, bypassing that side discussion. “Maddie’s there and you have some other new friends.”

She jolted up. “But the teachers are awful! And we’re the only deafies. They don’t know what we need. Other students are mean. They make fun of us or just talk slow. Why should deafies have to read lips when hearies won't learn to sign? I don’t understand what anyone says and this woman has to follow us around to interpret, but she's always spelling out words." She fingerspelled the end of that to prove how annoying it was, as if he didn't already know. "No one wants to be friends because it’s too much work and they already have friends, and Maddie and I get separated into a resource class like we’re special or stupid, and-”

“Okay, okay, stop, stop.” He pulled her hands down, the movements getting quicker and wilder as she continued, her eyes brimming with tears. She started to sniff, so he wrapped his arms around her, letting her bury herself into his chest as she cried. Squeezing her tight while she shook, he stared at the ceiling, doing his best not to fall apart.

He had switched schools at age twelve and it was hard. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to move and all of sudden be completely different from everyone around you. To not be able to talk to the other kids or understand what they were saying... And there was a difference between meeting disability requirements and actually knowing what a student needs. Auggie was used to being part of a community, a culture, and now she was in a foreign world. Of course it would be a shock and nothing could change that.

She stayed pressed to him even after the tears stopped and her breathing calmed. At the knock on the door, he gave her a soft kiss on the head, then gently pried her loose to get the delivery. The two sat in quiet, eating slice after slice, until they managed to devour an entire large pizza.

After a much needed belch, Eden dropped his head over the back of the couch. Auggie grunted and smacked him, putting a hand over her nose. He just chuckled. She dramatically waved his stench away, then sighed, collapsing onto her back, laying her legs over his thighs, and reaching for the remote. He took it from her instead and when he had her attention, he signed, “We’re not done.”