"Jason. Remind me again why I'm doing this?" I asked my older brother as I got out of his car.
"Jordan, quit bitching. I really like Patty and she needs someone to look after her brother."
"So, I'm supposed to somehow entertain him while you go get laid?"
"Exactly. Besides, she says he's a fag, so you maybe you can get laid, too," he chuckled.
"Remind me again why I'm not supposed to hate you."
Jason grinned. "Because I'm the only brother you got."
Jason grabbed my neck in a headlock and ruffled my hair.
It was hard to stay mad at Jason. We were always close growing up. We grew up with a single mom who worked a lot, so I really relied on him for everything. Even now, we were still close and shared an apartment.
Jason is 28 years old. He was always very athletic. He has a nice muscular build and played hockey and baseball in high school. He's slightly taller than me at 6'1". We both have dark blond hair and blue eyes and it's very obvious when you look at us that we're brothers.
I'm 25 years old. I'm not at all athletic, but I have a nicely toned body from my regular workouts on the treadmill we have at home. I was a total nerd in high school, but I became a lot less socially awkward in my college years. That was mostly due to Dan. He was my boyfriend for three years, up until we graduated and he moved across the country.
We stepped up onto the porch and Jason rang the doorbell. Then Jason turned to me and said, "Oh, I forgot to mention that he's deaf."
My mouth fell open. Great. How am I supposed to communicate with him?
Patty opened the door and grinned. She was cute and athletic looking with long strawberry blond hair and sparkling green eyes. Exactly Jason's type.
"Hi, Jason," she said with a coy smile before turning to me. "You must be Jordan. Your brother's told me all about you."
"Hey, babe," Jason greeted her and then leaned in and gave her a quick kiss.
"Hi. It's nice to meet you," I offered.
"Come on in," Patty said.
Jason and I followed her inside and she gave us a quick tour of the small ranch house. We followed her down the hall into one of the two bedrooms, obviously her brother's bedroom. He was sitting at his laptop computer with his back to us. It looked like he was working on a web site. His monitor had a little mirror on top of it and when he saw us, he swiveled around in his chair.
"Kevin. This is Jason and Jordan," she told him, pointing to each of us in turn. She looked directly at him and signed our names while speaking.
Kevin held his hand up in a wave. He looked at me and gave me a bashful smile before looking back down.
Kevin's red hair looks like he just got out of bed. His beard looks like it could really use some shaping up, but at least it wasn't long and bushy. He's got a few extra pounds on him, but I wouldn't put him into the 'fat' category. His cheeks were a little red like he had been blushing. He has the same sparkling green eyes as his sister. I smiled to myself. This wasn't going to be so bad. He's very cute.
"Kevin can read lips, so just speak normally, directly to him, and he'll understand you," Patty said while moving her hands for Kevin.
Jason and I both nodded.
"Okay, I just need to finish getting ready and then we can go to dinner," Patty said while signing.
I thought it was really cool how she automatically moved her hands while she spoke.
"Jason?" she asked quietly, without signing this time. "Can you help me get a purse down from my closet?"
"Sure, babe," he grinned.
Jason followed Patty out of the room like a puppy dog, leaving me standing there in front of Kevin. I shoved my hands in my pockets and gave him an awkward smile.
"Um... So... What are you working on?" I asked him, nodding towards his laptop.
He got up and moved a chair next to his and motioned for me to sit. He had Dreamweaver open on his MacBook Pro and was working on a web design. I was really impressed with the design of the page.
"Wow," I said. "You're really good. Is that what you work on professionally?"
He nodded.
"I work as a developer, but I'm no good at design."
He smiled and nodded slowly. I'm sure he had guys like me where he worked. Tell me what to do and I can do it, but ask me to draw an icon and you'll get a stick figure in a box. And don't even think about asking me to come up with color schemes.
There was more awkward silence. I didn't know what to say. Or, uh, whatever.
"So... How old are you?" I asked.
He held up his fingers in a 2 and a 7.
"I'm 25," I said, holding up my fingers like he did.
He rolled his eyes at me, but he smiled, so I didn't feel completely stupid.
"Um... We learned the sign language alphabet in sixth grade. I don't remember a lot of it, but...."
I spelled out J-O-R-D-A-N with my fingers.
Kevin made a noise like a laugh and I turned red in embarrassment and dropped my hands into my lap.
He then made a hand motion like he wanted me to do it again.
I took a breath and spelled: J-O-R-D-A-
When I got to the "N", he reached out and moved my thumb into the correct place.
He grinned really big and I grinned back.
"Thanks," I said. "Can you show me the whole alphabet?" I asked.
He spent the next fifteen minutes giving me a refresher on the alphabet. At one point, he grabbed my wrist and held it tight while I moved my fingers. I quickly realized he wanted me to keep my hand still, but I liked his hand on me, so I pretended for another minute to not understand.
When I got everything perfect a few times in a row, we were both smiling and I spelled out: T-H-A-N-K-S.
He brought his hand to his mouth and then moved it like he was blowing me a kiss, but without puckering his lips. I looked at him confused. He slowly spelled 'T-H-A-N-K-S' with his fingers and then repeated the motion.
"Oh!" I nodded. "I get it. Thanks," I said, while repeating his sign.
"Can you teach me more?" I asked.
He held up his fist and moved it kind of like he was knocking on a door.
"Is that 'yes'?" I asked while I spelled Y-E-S.
He repeated the motion and nodded his head.
"Are you guys ready to go?" I turned to see Patty and Jason standing in the doorway.
I looked at Jason, who had a smug smile on his face, and shook my head at him. They obviously had been making out in there.
I looked at Kevin and spelled: R-E-A-D-Y.
Kevin stood and made both hands into an "R" letter in front of his chest and then spread them apart. He then moved his hands in another sign.
"I'm ready. Let's go," Patty translated.
I repeated it and Kevin 'said' YES.
Jason raised an eyebrow at me as we followed them out and I ignored him.
We walked to Jason's car and Kevin pointed at the car and made a motion like he was driving.
I asked "Car?" and repeated the movement, and he said YES.
Kevin and I rode in the back seat together and I caught him looking at me a couple times. He also caught me looking at him a couple times. We both started grinning and then giggled.
Throughout dinner, Kevin continued to show me signs as things came up. I had a really good time and I really liked Kevin. He was really sweet and I could tell he had a good sense of humor. I was really eager to learn new things and I was grinning the whole meal.
While Kevin was using the restroom, Patty thanked me for being so nice to her little brother.
I shrugged and tried to act casual. "He's a nice guy."
As we were walking out of the restaurant, Patty and Kevin were signing between themselves. He cut his eyes to me briefly and brought his two fingers to his chin and folded them in and smiled. Patty smiled back at him and nodded. I guessed whatever that sign meant was about me and I filed it in the back of my mind. They were smiling, so I was hoping that it wasn't bad.
We drove back to their house and while Patty and Jason 'said goodbye' in the other room, Kevin and I sat in the living room.
He looked at me and made a sign like a letter 'C' and swiped his other finger through the hole, then spelled E-M-A-I-L. He grabbed a piece of scrap paper and a pen and gave it to me. I wrote my name and email address on it and gave it to him.