Chapter 4

Wilton yawned and stretched, basking in the sunlight that was only now managing to cut through the earlier fog and mist. It was lunch time and he was waiting next to the truck for Cole to make an appearance. Normally Cole finished first and was waiting for him in the common room but his lanky frame hadn't been there so Wilton decided to take advantage of the sun. He stood against the truck and strummed softly on his (stunning) guitar, nothing special just little bits and pieces. After a little while he saw Cole emerge from the main building and cross the car park to meet him. He held up a hand in greeting.

"Hey bud. God your brother is such an arse." Wilton slung his (amazing) guitar over his shoulder and brushed his hair out of his eyes, "Your dad really gave him what for y'know. Where've you been?"

"I'm taking a BSL course," Cole grinned, looking every inch the Western cowboy in the sunlight, the sun striking gold-blond from his hair and tan in his skin, "British Sign Language," he clarified, seeing Wilton's confusion. "How was music?"

"Awful, I spent the whole time trying to avoid Shelby. She kept on looking like she wanted to bite my head off." Wilton scuffed the ground, "Dude I still cannot believe that you're up and walking and talking. I'd be hanging all day if I'd drunk as much as you."

"Yeah well," Cole grinned wickedly, "We all know who the bigger man is don't we?"

"You're just freakishly tall. Can eat now, please?" Wilton place his (elegant) guitar reverentially back it its case and hung it over his shoulder. They turned towards the cafeteria. "So what did you learn this morning?"

Cole ran him through his sign lesson as they walked. There was the alphabet, and a bunch of greetings, questions and emotions. The pair were so distracted as they walked that Cole didn't notice another presence until someone touched his elbow. He turned to see Dina, Jared's deaf friend. She smiled up at them, her blond curls bouncing around her face. She signed something in the air and Cole shook his head. He waved the two fingered sign for 'again' and managed to put a hand to his chin for 'please.'

Dina repeated the signs, slower this time, and Jared caught 'you' and 'BSL' and assumed the bit in the middle he didn't know was probably 'learning'. He nodded and smiled. Dina gave him a double thumbs up. She gestured for his phone, which he handed over quickly.

Jared will be pleased. Come sit with us at lunch?

Wilton and Cole regarded the message and nodded quickly.

Jared had met up with his twin and they had reached an uneasy truce for the sake of their friends and lunch time. He sat with a coronation chicken baguette and a salad opposite his sister. Shelby said something, then tapped his arm and pointed.

'Look.'

Jared turned and smiled when he saw Dina before a look of shock passed over his face. Dina was grinning happily and was leading a boy in each hand, looking like a cat that got the cream. Following her and exchanging slightly unwilling glances were Cole and his musical friend. Jared turned back to his sister.

'Oh god, ' her signs were exasperated, 'What has Dina gone and done now?'

'What's the other guy's name?'

'Wilton. He plays guitar, we have music together.'

Dina plopped into the seat next to Shelby bringing Wilton with her. He looked confused and she looked excited.

'Look what I found! Cole is learning to sign.'

Jared turned in shock to Cole who slid carefully into the seat next to him.

'You're really learning to sign? Why? Do you like it?'

Cole's eyes flashed over his hands and then he shook his head. Shelby rolled her eyes and spoke as she signed.

"Jared he doesn't understand all that. He's probably only had one lesson."

'Sorry' Jared stopped the sign when Cole put his hand over the fist on his chest and shook his head. Cole started to sign, his movements were good, but slow and stilted.

'I'm – BSL – slowly.' It was obvious that he didn't know the sign for learning, but he smiled and spoke when he signed and Jared managed to get most of the sentence by lip reading, 'How are you?'

'I'm good," Jared smiled back, 'Hungry, ' he gestured to his lunch, 'How are you?'

Cole stopped, he looked confused, and Jared realised he probably didn't have complex signs enough to deal with answering that question in an honest way. Not really wanting his sister to act as translator he got his tablet computer out and put it on the table between them. Cole typed first.

I missed you. We need to talk about the other day.

After lunch?

Cole nodded. Wilton returned from the serving hatch with his and Cole's lunches and Jared watched in fascinated surprise as Cole tore into the rack of ribs like a starving wolf.

'Does he not eat the rest of the time?' Shelby asked. Wilton, eating a sandwich without much fuss, replied after he'd swallowed and faced Jared and Dina so they could lip read/

"You gotta kept the Sathie people fed or they go nuts. I'm kidding," he added at the look of horror on Dina's face, "He does a lot of work on the farm, so he eats a lot."

"Stop talking about me like I'm not here," Cole swallowed, wiping his face with the back of his hand and dropped the bones he was holding, "I can hear you y'know."

'You live on an actual farm?' Jared asked. Shelby put her food down and settled into a role as translator for the rest of the session.

Cole smiled, and his leg touched Jared's under the table.

"Yup. Me and," he held up the sign for five, "All my siblings. And the horses and dogs."

Jared smiled, reached out and thumbed sticky rib glaze off Cole's cheek. It had been a calculated gesture, but he had not been prepared for the sudden stillness in Cole, the perceptible widening of his eyes and Jared own answering erection. Jared realised the conversation at the table had gone on without them as he sat staring at Cole's face.

He was surprised to find that he had never really looked at Cole before, not properly, but now Cole was still he tracked his eyes all over his face, his hand still resting on the taller boy's cheek. Cole's skin was tan three or four shades darker than his own and his messy blond hair fell across eyes a brighter blue than Jared's own. He had a slim nose, aquiline, and lips cracked from spending too much time in sun and wind and cold. The cheek under Jared's hand was totally smooth, the line of jaw sharp and clean cut. His eyes were set under thick straight brows and he had wide, high cheek bones. Jared's mental sweep took all of ten seconds, which was plenty of time for his cock to go from sitting up and taking notice to downright begging. Jared traced the shape of Cole's lips with one finger and was surprised when Cole pulled away.

Cole pointed to Jared, then to himself before making an unmistakable gesture towards the door. He got up and left with the tall blond man following on his heels. Cole didn't stop until they were outside the back of the building where he sat on the low brick wall, his back turned towards college, facing the nature reserve. Jared sat next to him and placed his bag by his feet, the tablet still held in his hand.

'What's wrong?' Jared stopped signing when he realised that Cole understood him, but wasn't responding. Jared got off the wall and hopped down onto the grass. He stood in front of Cole, finding himself about level with the taller boy's abdomen, looking up into his face. 'Talk.' He spelt it out then made a frustrated noise-vibration in his throat, 'T-A-L-K'

"I can't do it Jared," Cole made the sign for his name automatically, "I can just sit there all casual and have you touch me knowing that there's someone else in your life. Have you any idea what it does to me? It hurts. I feel," he made the hand shape for bad on each hand and waved them away from himself, "Awful."

It his pocket Jared's phone buzzed. Cole fastened his eyes on the device as Jared reached for it.

"Is that him?" Jared gaped as Cole snatched the phone. The message made him shake his head, a mixture of horror and shame and disgust. He handed the phone to Jared and walked off, away from school and into the underbrush of the nature reserve. Jared looked down at the phone.

Joel: bored. blow job?

Cole kept walking until he was sure that no one from the college could have shouted and he would have heard them and then slowed his pace as he came upon one of the little grass tracks that wound their way through the reserve. He followed it until he came to on open place with a little timber docking platform for children to stand and use rock-pool nets from and a stream. Cole collapsed on the decking and put his head in his hands.

Jared hadn't seemed surprised by the message, which probably meant that sex in the middle of the day was not an unheard of occurrence from him. Vivid images of how that love-bite had happened flashed in unholy amounts of detail in Cole's mind. He couldn't picture this Joel person, but in the vision the unknown man was smirking at him.

Cole knew that it was unreasonable to be jealous. He and Jared had barely even had four actual conversations and already he'd drank himself stupid because of the guy and stormed off into a field, it wasn't exactly mature behaviour. What is wrong with me? Cole spent another few minutes feeling sorry for himself before what his mother had said popped up in his skull. Fine, so Jared had some secret lover, Cole would win him over with charm. But who the hell did you charm someone in sign language? As he got up his phone beeped at him, vibrating against his leg.

Cole sighed and stamped his boots on the dock, forcing the moorhen in the reeds to flap hastily away, screeching.

Cole grinned to himself as he read the message. His heart began to swell in his chest and he swore it was only the distance that kept the damn thing from exploding with emotion.

Cole: no. come find me. hide and seek

Cole dropped the phone back in his boot and grinned. Despite his height and obvious appearance, he'd gotten good at playing hide and seek with his sibling around the farm, hiding in plain sight in fields of young corn, creeping behind horses and sheep and hiding in trees. He'd once spent half an hour under the hood of their father's Chevy Blazer, waiting it out until he could jump on Clayton blindly searching for him. Now Cole knew he had an advantage. He stepped of the path and jogged through the grasslands until he reached the edge of the trees. There was the definite sound of snapping branches, rustling, and the odd half-sounds he had come to associate with Jared. The deaf boy had no idea how much noise he was making, and Cole didn't have to worry about moving silently himself. He scrambled up a thick trunked beech tree and hung there on the lowest of the big branches, waiting for Jared. The boy was signing his name with one hand, peering across the landscape as though Cole would just ride up out of the grass. Cole sniggered to himself, hooked his legs over the sturdy branch and let go. He swung down, ruffled Jared's wavy hair and swung back up out of sight, unless the boy looked directly up of course.

For the last week Cole had wanted to know what those curls would feel like under his hand, so he'd just reached out and ... they were like silk, smooth like water. Jared made a drawn out syllable like a growl and span around in circles. Cole stuck his fish in his mouth and sniggered. It was too funny. He curled back down as Jared turned and the boy exploded in frantic hand symbols that Cole didn't really understand. He smiled. Jared was staring at him and Cole realised to late that his shirt had obeyed gravity and was somewhere mid-chest exposing his stomach for all the world to see, and Jared. The boy typed something onto the tablet and held it up for Cole to see. Cole damn near fell out of the tree in shock.

You're beautiful.

Cole made a gesture to get Jared to back off, swung up and grabbed the branch, unhooked his legs and dropped down, landing in a crouch. He straightened up and pulled his ridden-up shirt straight again.

'How are you?' Jared's hand signals were slow and clear. Cole replied with something that he hoped could be interpreted as:

'Better.'

They walked along the grass path in the vague direction of town. Jared's shoes weren't really designed for walking in fields, so Cole tramped in the long grass, wetness streaking his jeans. They spoke by typing, and Cole burned to touch the other boy again, but he kept his hands to himself.

I'm sorry you had to see that, Jared sighed as he handed the tablet to Cole to read, I told him it was over. He obviously didn't get the message.

Not too bright huh?

My sister said the same thing about you.

Yeah, Cole thumbed his jaw which ached dully, about that...

I'll talk to Shelby. She's always been really protective of me. Guess when we were younger she needed to be.

Cole stopped the field and frowned at Jared.

And the reason you never told her about this 'Joel' guy is?

Jared's facial expression made up for him being unable to snarl.

I'm not exactly proud of it OK? No one was supposed to find out.

'Sorry.' Cole repeated his most familiar hand sign, he held out the tablet and when Jared took it, he made sure to touch the older boy's fingers. Cole's pupils went wide and dilated again and Jared smiled.

No more secret men?

'Please.' Cole signed as he spoke, "I think I'd have a heart attack."

So this thing...

I thought you were thingless... Cole smiled to show it was a joke.

Well, is this a thing? Jared gave him time to read the message before taking hold of Cole's hand, lacing his soft finger in with larger calloused ones. Cole thought his heart was going to jump right out of his mouth, but he managed to smile and keep walking, holding Jared's hand in his own.

Now all you have to do, his inner voice said, is not screw it up. Good luck.

Wilton and Shelby were waiting by the truck when they got back. It still surprised Jared, who treated driving like something scary, that Cole could just start the thing up and be in control. The machine looked like it would eat anyone who came near it. Jared waved to his twin and signed with one hand, not willing to let go of Cole's hand just yet.

'You waiting up for me?'

'Yeah. Where have to been? And what are you doing?'

'Duh.'

'Why then?' Shelby tapped her foot impatiently.

'I like him. Get used to it.'

"Dude," Wilton made sure to face them both when he spoke, "We are really really late for anthropology."

"I was ... busy," Cole spoke, but he signed too. Me, you. Jared smiled and finally let go of Cole's hand. Cole grinned.

Point at Jared, point from one side to the other, point to himself; internationally recognised symbol for drinking.

'Do you wanna go for a drink with me?'

Jared nodded enthusiastically. Cole gave him the thumbs up, grabbed Wilton's shoulder and took off running.

Shelby looked disappointed, but Jared didn't care. All he had to do now was get rid of Joel and it would be plain sailing from here on out.

During English Jared prepped a bunch of stuff on his tablet for him and Cole to use. He got out a new conversation page, a canvas drawing page with a bunch of coloured brush options, and some games. The idea of being able to talk to Cole with his hands excited him. Cole was taking BSL lessons so he could communicate easier. If Jared had needed any signs to show that the boy cared, it was done. Just as seminar let out his phone buzzed and he walked with Abi in silence down towards the library and Classics.

Jared considered both messages. Joel he could just ignore until he actually became an issue. For now Jared just re labelled his contact from 'Joel' to 'Do Not Answer.' He finished his message to Cole just as the lecture started and had to rush to get all his gear set up before pressing send.

Jared: tell me anything. i promise not to get weird

The lecture was excellent a guest speaker in to talk about Greek mythologies impact on art and architecture through the ages. Jared flicked between the images that she showed them and Abi's hand signals, trying to keep up, and didn't even notice his phone until just before they were finished. He packed away his notes and books, taking the hand out and turning off the voice-to-tape recorder and backing up the file onto his tablet. The phone's green notification light blinked at him.

Cole: i've never kissed anyone. or done anything else either. and I think I want to kiss you. forgive me for being such a loser?

Jared smiled to himself and saved the text message to his tablet. He wanted to make sure he kept it so he could tease Cole with it at some indeterminate point in the future.