mute » tomlinson ON HOLD

ten; bonding

"First, I need your phone number," I pulled down on my index finger then my middle, counting off. "Second, I studied the basics of sign language, you know, from my laptop," I smiled sheepishly.

She nodded, a lopsided grin hanging from her lips.

My eyes quickly flicked across her face, taking in the glow that seemed to illuminate her porcelain skin. Recovering from my quick awe-filled daze, I continued, "Saying that, I have something to show you."

My eyes shifted to my fingers as I tried to contort them into the correct signs. If all were right, it should have successfully spelt out 'hello sunshine'. Oddly, her smile dropped and she formed her hands in the sign for sunshine, a questioning look settling across her face.

"Sunshine," I said quietly. The tips of my fingers tingled and my palms started to sweat. Looking at everything in the room except her captivating eyes, I struggled with the words to explain myself, "Because, like, your name is Rainy and I find that quite ironic because, like, you make," I swallowed roughly, "the people around you happy, kind of like sunshine. So it's funny how everyone calls you Rainy yet you're more like sunshine. And maybe you should be called Sunny instead because, like, Rainy doesn't really suit you. It's a great name, but–,"

And I'm sure if she could, I would hear a laugh escape her lips. Her eyes were crinkled, and the ends of her thin, pale lips turned upward at my ridiculous rambling.

"Well, isn't that cute," a voice resonated, nearly causing me to snap my neck at how fast I turned my head. Eli stood in the archway to the kitchen, a smirk dancing along his lips, with his hand rested on top Owen's head. The youngest scrunched his nose at us, looking up to Eli.

"I think he could use a bit of work," Owen whispered (if it could be called that) to Eli, glancing back at me.

Of course, my face became redder than it already was from the original embarassment of stumbling over my words.

I watched as Rainy turned to her brother, twisting her fingers in a symbol before sending him an icy glare. From my little research on the subject, I could catch the last sign as the gesture for 'up'. I put two and two together, guessing she had said, "Shut up."

Rainy smiled up at me and nodded her head over to the living room, where I sat myself on the couch. My eyes followed her as she walked gracefully to the kitchen to grab what looked like from my position, a piece of paper and pen.

Her head turned to her brothers only to flick her wrist at them, shooing them up the stairs. Eli cocked his head before placing both his hands on Owen's shoulders, leading him away.

Tucking her legs underneath her petite body as she sat down, she started to contort her hands into different signs – the only one I recognized being for the word 'I'. When I gave her a puzzled look, she bit onto the pen's cap and jerked her head back in order for it to come off.

The action alone had me mesmerized when I caught myself staring at her lips for a second too long.

Rainy scribbled down on the blank sheet of paper. The letters spelt out, "I like it."

Upon seeing my eyebrows pull together, a smile tugged at the corner of her lips before she started to write again. "Sunshine," she drew an arrow, pointing to her previous message. My eyes flicked from the paper to her flushed face. She offered a small smile which I sloppily returned.

"Good," my voice was low as if I spoke too loud, the atmosphere would be broken. 

We stared at each other momentarily. I allowed my eyes to drift across her features, letting them linger on her own eyes. I could never get used to the exotic color of her eyes; the blue dominated over the slight green-ness that outlined the iris. Nevertheless, the combination never failed to oddly cause every breath to escape my lungs.