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“I can’t teach you sign language, if that’s what you’re asking,” he told her flatly.
She rolled her eyes. “Dude. No.Ew. But did you hear—oh shit. Sorry,” she said.
Bodhi blinked in confusion, and it took him a good several seconds to realize what she thought was a faux pas. He waved her off. “It’s fine.”
Her cheeks were faintly tinged pink, but she nodded and squared her shoulders like she was about to give a speech to the UN. “Cool. So, did you hear about that video that went viral? Someone shot it last night at that café with all the…” She waved her hand in a mockery of ASL which he’d long-since grown used to seeing.
It took him another second to process what she was saying again, then horror stole over him because he realized she was talking about the other night at BrewBiz. And Caleb’s break-up. Bodhi had seen the people by their cars taking video on their phones when Caleb and Cameron had their confrontation outside, but he hadn’t really thought about it at the time.
He was more focused on getting Caleb the hell out of there because Bodhi recognized a raging panic attack when he saw one, considering he had them at least twice a day. Cameron had swaggered into the lobby and had made a scene until Caleb agreed to go out front with him, and ten minutes later, all hell had broken loose.
It was possible no one would have even known what was going on, but Wren had been watching out the window and Bodhi had seen it when the younger brother’s face went pale. Then red andpissed.
Bodhi was the newest employee at BrewBiz, but he’d been there long enough to witness Wren’s temper at least half a dozen times. It was never aimed at the employees, but whenever shitty hearing people came in, acting like their sign menu was some kind of joke, Wren unleashed his passive aggressive hell on them.
And sometimes—in rarer cases—he’d drop the passive part.
Swallowing thickly, Bodhi looked up at the blonde. “Do you have it? Can I see it?”
“Yeah. Um. We were actually kind of hoping you could tell us what they were saying. It’s like super rude that no one even captioned it, you know? You know how that is, right?”
He ignored that comment in favor of staring down at her phone screen, and sure enough, there was Caleb looking like he wanted to be sick all over his shoes, and Cameron looking like he was taking actual joy in hurting the other man.
Bodhi felt more rage welling up in him.
He’d wanted to punch Cameron last night. Now he wanted to set his face on fire.
“Could…for…please?”
Bodhi looked up at the woman in front of him. “What?”
“I asked if you could translate it for us,” she said, sounding annoyed and impatient now.
Bodhi took a step back, debated about a snarky answer before he decided no answer was better, and he walked off. He was pretty sure they called a couple insults after him, but the sound blended into the other formless noises that just compiled into his ever-growing headache.
His bag felt too heavy and all he wanted was to escape to his dorm and rock quietly on his bed until all the badness went away. Instead, he took a turn and headed into the tunnel, slipping past the automatic doors and into the bookstore where his brother was working.
Ravi always worked the coffee bar, and Bodhi could see the edge of his bun, which was tied up at the back of his head, bobbing slightly as he steamed milk in a metal pitcher. Not for the first time, Bodhi thought about how much better Ravi would have been at BrewBiz than he was, but there had only been one opening and Ravi had all-but threatened Bodhi until he applied.
He still had no idea why. Logic told him it was because Ravi wanted him to connect better with Deaf people, but if that was the case, it was clear that even his twin didn’t understand him.
His anxiety wasn’t not being around enough Deaf people and didn’t know how to make a connection with them.
It was the fact that Bodhi just didn’t connect with anyone at all. And he never had.
Ravi seemed to think there would be this one moment—this, like, lightbulb moment that would change everything and suddenly he’d be socially normal. Whatever the fuck that was, because being like Ravi sounded like a nightmare to him. But it hurt to know Ravi wanted to fix him so damn badly. He just wanted to be himself and he didn’t understand why his own brother didn’t get that.
Ravi spotted him a few second later and waved, then signed over the counter, “Sit down. You want a tea?”
Bodhi glanced around him before lifting his fist and nodding it, and he ignored Ravi’s eyeroll. Bodhi wasn’t the best at understanding subtle facial expressions, but luckily Ravi had never been subtle a day in his life. He glanced around before selecting a table in the very back of the café area where there was only one guy nearby working on his laptop.
The quiet settled around him like a soft blanket, the shop noise muted by the stacks of textbooks. He rested his head against the wall, closing his eyes until he felt a sharp tap on his arm. It took him a second to force his eyes back open, and he saw his brother’s face looking almost as tired as he felt.
“What’s wrong?” Ravi signed, tapping his hand on his chin.
Bodhi glanced around and although the café was relatively empty, discomfort clawed at him, making his headache worse. He hooked his finger over his ear. “Please,” he added aloud. He didn’t necessarily mind asking Ravi to go voice-on since Ravi could physically hear better than he could. He just knew that Ravi hated it.
But Ravi never told him no, even when it pissed him off. He fished his hearing aid box out of his apron, then took the tall chair next to him. “You have to get over this shit, Bodhi. It’s embarrassing.”
