Undying Echo {1}

34 | Something Like Hope

Ethan opens his eyes to the sight of Camilla sleeping next to him, a sleepy smile taking over his face. He'd insisted last night on sleeping on the floor so she wouldn't feel pressured into anything she didn't want. Even if they were forced to sleep in the same room by Kaylee.

He'd laid down on the comforter she's put for him and looked up at her as she lied on her bed, gazing down at him as she slept on her side. She'd then reached her pinky finger down to him, and he put his in hers silently, staying like that even when his hand ached from hanging in mid-air. Until he'd nearly fallen asleep, when Camilla suddenly got down on the floor and crawled her way over to him, snuggling into his side.

He had opened his arms for her without a second thought in his half-asleep state, slipping his arms around her and pulling her into his warmth. And she'd wrapped her arms around his torso, burying her face in his neck. Her breaths on his neck almost made him forget about sleep, but then again, he was so tired from everything that had happened that day that eventually, he fell asleep.

And that's how they both ended up sleeping on the floor and abandoning the bed.

Ethan looks at her now as she sleeps next to him. Her chest moving with every steady breath she took as she slept on her side, facing him. The sunlight coming through the open curtains shower her in a golden hue, making her hair color look a lighter shade of brown. And warmth shoots through Ethan's chest as he realizes she's the most gorgeous thing he's ever laid eyes on. And as cheesy as that thought sounded in his head, he doesn't even care and wonders why she's with him in the first place, instead of being with someone less broken. Someone who hasn't been a loner for the past year.

And if she knew he'd thought that, she would definitely follow up saying that he's not broken and that his deafness isn't a flaw. That it's a part of who he is and that even if he was a loner he's her loner. Or that she was a loner, too, when she first moved here, which Ethan won't lie about- she kinda was. Until Kaylee and Ryan eventually became friends with her.

He'd have become her friend, and more, earlier if he wasn't too busy brooding in his lonesome self and telling everyone around him with his eyes to leave him the fuck alone.

She would say all those things that would make him feel better and she wouldn't even be lying for his benefit. She'd be actually genuine, which makes him love her even more. She's done so much for him. Always being there and thinking about him before she thought about herself. Being a light in his darkness since he met her. An undying hope. An undying echo of a voice that once was him, telling a story of what could be.

He wonders how heavy his mother's words were weighing on her before she broke and told him everything. And he decides it's time to have a talk with his parents. For her. But most of all, for himself.

It's a few minutes of watching her sleep peacefully and stroking her hair before he finally presses a kiss on her head and gets up to use the bathroom. He finds Kaylee in the kitchen afterward. Sitting on a stool with a huge mug in her hands. Kaylee sees him and gets up, waving at him to take a seat and pulling out another mug to fill it with coffee before setting it in front of him.

Ethan whispers thanks to her and takes the mug, taking a sip before putting it back on the table. Kaylee smiles and whispers back while signing slowly as she's still new and unused to it. "I'd almost forgotten how your voice sounded like. It's good to be reminded every once in a while, you know."

Ethan chuckles, "Okay."

"How do you know your voice isn't loud? You could be screaming right now and I wouldn't tell you. It'd be too funny to stop you." Ethan shakes his head in amusement at her. Only expect it from Kaylee to tease him about it so easily without breaking a sweat while others treated it like some sort of disease.