“Of course I didn’t. But did you forget this disabled chick can lipread?”

A bright red flush started to creep up Jackson’s neck and into his face as everyone stared at us—Beau and Nina included. This wasn’t the kind of attention he was used to.

“Sorry . . .” Jackson started to say, not even meeting my gaze. “Just thought . . .”

“No, I don’t want your apology,” I snapped. “I want you to understand I’m not disabled. Literally the only thing I can’t do that you can is hear.”

Jackson shifted awkwardly in his seat, pointedly staring at a spot above my head. All he said in response was, “Okay.”

“And I’d appreciate it if you’d quit talking about me and Beau,” I added, on a roll here and ready to keep going just to make sure Jackson really understood. “Whatever’s going on between us is none of your business.”

I refused to believe the utter crap Jackson just spouted off, that Beau was only pursuing something with me to get brownie points for dating a disabled chick. No matter this rut we were in, Beau would never be that cruel. He had too much heart for that.

I twisted around in my seat to face forward, crossing my arms tightly over my chest.

“What . . . that about?” Nina asked, putting a hand to my forearm as she leaned toward me.

NOTHING, I signed back. FINE.

Sneaking a glance over at Beau—he was pretending to be engrossed in his textbook, but I knew his mind was far from here—I realized I wasn’t fine. I wouldn’t be fine until we talked.

Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

Tuesday morning, Kathleen was running late and wasn’t waiting by the front office like she normally did each morning. This worked perfectly for me. All I needed was a handful of minutes alone with Beau so we could talk. It would have been too awkward to have this kind of conversation in front of an interpreter.

Beau was shoving things into his backpack at his locker just like I knew he would be. His movements were sluggish, like he was running on no sleep or was completely distracted. He looked how I’d felt.

When I approached, I rapped my knuckles on the locker beside him to get his attention. I wasn’t going to be using my voice for this.

Beau’s green eyes went wide when he slammed his locker shut and saw me standing there. He blurted out, “You’re here.”

HELLO, I signed back. READY T-O TALK.

That’s all I could think of to say. I was already having trouble recalling all the signs I had planned by being this close to him.

Beau’s lips were parted and one hand was raised like he was about to start signing, which I was convinced would be an apology, but it wasn’t. Instead he said, “I got . . . boulder.”