CHAPTER TWO: MANGOES

There is peace even in the storm.
-Vincent van Gogh

After the day Zeno fixed up my bike and we went to the park it's become a little habit to meet there after school.

Even if he still doesn't sit with me at lunch or is my signed partner in gym class, it's still good to have a friend.

Our routine is a good one, I'd say.

Because we have gym last, a lot of days we just leave in our gym clothes, because I definitely don't want to spend time putting my E-Girl outfit back on if I'm just gonna be hanging out with Zeno or going home.

Usually Zeno just drives right to the park and waits for me to go to the little Boba place a block away for drinks while we work.

Most days, we just sit together on the bench doing homework or I talk to him while he works on any projects he has.

I like to think I'm helping but really I'm just sitting there being a loud, yet pretty, nuisance.

Apparently, my presence is worth it because every day I get him a raspberry tea to drink. My drink of choice is a blueberry lemonade with passion fruit jellies, and he's told me he thinks it's a bit weird.

So far, I haven't been able to convince him to try it.

Some days Zeno will bring us snacks, usually just fruit and sometimes, amazingly, strawberries.

He said he likes that something as simple as strawberries makes me happy.

And I like that me being happy makes him smile.

It's endearing to me how awkward Zeno always manages to seem, even though I can tell that he's comfortable with me at this point.

Communicating was rocky at first but once I learned how to read his body language, filling in the full sentences with his few words became easy.

Zeno also just lets me talk, for hours on end, he'll just let me talk about anything I could possibly want. At any time, if I'm stuck in a loop or asking a question, he'll give input. So he's listening to me.

For being a legally deaf person, he listens well.

I also found that my honesty is sometimes a minor inconvenience, because of how much I openly compliment him. Maybe that wouldn't be a problem, but since the mechanic isn't used to compliment it makes him flush every time.

Which just makes me tell him he's cute when he's red, to which he always shakes his head at and proceeds to hide behind his hat for a few minutes.

Though Zeno doesn't tell me much, I feel like I know a lot about him.

I know that he has two cats with heterochromia- -two different colored eyes- -just like him, they're brother and sister but one is black and one is white.

So he named them Salt and Pepper.

He says their names like 'sall' and 'peppa' which I found adorable.

Another thing I know is that Zeno is unfairly good at math, while I am absolute shit at it.

Yes, I use that to my advantage, maybe more than I should, to make sure I pass calculus this year but I also help him with his English assignments and rewrite his essays to make more sense.

It's a working system.

Even if a teacher would call it 'illegal'.

Honestly, fuck the American public school system.

Today we sat down at one of the park's chess boards and played a pretty funny game.

Or, at least, we tried to play a game but I'll be the first to admit I cheated the entire time and did moves with pieces I definitely was allowed to do. Eventually Zeno just stole the pieces I cheated with -I'm not the best at cheating, seeing as I still lost.

But it made me giggle, which made him laugh and then suddenly we were both wheezing over a messy chess board and trying to breathe.

Being around him in that moment felt amazing so I told him that, and though he didn't say anything I could tell he agreed.

The park we're at has a small baseball field in the middle and trees surrounding it, giving us a nice amount of shade and a good spot to sit once we're done with homework.

Now I'm sitting on the edge of the steep bleachers, swinging my legs to an imaginary song I've had playing in my head for the past few days. "Have you ever had a mango smoothie?"

From the step below, Zeno's knee bumps into my side, telling me he's thinking about it.

We're both touchy people, I've learned, so I'm not as alone in my little love language boat as I thought I was.

"Hmm...nope."

"What!" I find myself shouting, grabbing onto his knee to shake his entire leg as a reprimand. "How could you have never tried a mango smoothie before? We need to fix this immediately!"

"Fix it?"

"Yeah!" Ruthlessly shaking him again only ends with a smile from him, telling me I failed completely. But since he smiled, that is completely fine. "Come on, get up you sentient tree. We're going to my place and I'm going to feed you a mango smoothie and you are going to enjoy it!"

Shaking his head a bit, Zeno sits up to face me completely. "Mhm, I will."

Nodding in return, I quickly jump off the bleachers and wait for Zeno- -who boringly walks down and meets me with my bag pointedly held up- -to make his way to me.

It's less than a ten minute walk to my house from the park, which I'm grateful for because half way there the sidewalks disappear and the dirt roads are shit to skate on.

Either way, it's almost comical how Zeno stumbles a step behind me at all times.

Since I mentioned my dad is going to be there, he got a little nervous- -understandably- -and asked to hold my hand. Of course, I didn't turn him down but he still stayed a little behind me.

Making it easy to trip as I practically dragged his giant ass towards the gate of my back yard -where I hear my dad talking to who I'm decently sure is my Uncle Keagan.

"Hey fuckers!" I announce myself, kicking the gate open. "I'm home. And I brought my friend!"

"Hey Tiny," My uncle playfully calls me. "Skipping school today?"

"Just gym. Gym can suck my dick, they want me to play football for an hour straight. I'm not Cassie, I don't do that. I'm a soccer chick."

"Trust me, we know. Where is the friend?" Papa asks, and because Zeno grabbed onto me tighter, we haven't stepped into sight yet. "This the same one you've been telling me about?"

"Yep, and-" Zeno's fingers clipping up my chin cuts me off, and he points to his ears. "They don't care about that."

"No," He signs. "Not that, these old hearing aids decided to die. I literally can't hear them."

"Perfect timing," I quip, signing what I say. He likes to read lips more than he likes to sign, but I like to be considerate too. "Do you want to mysteriously disappear and save introductions for later, or meet them now?"

"Meet them now, just translate for me if I get confused. Please?"

"Aye, aye Captain." Winking at him, I take his hand in mine and pull him behind me to face my dad and uncle.

They raise an eyebrow at Zeno, Uncle Keagan looking a bit amused at how the giant tries to hide awkwardly in my side like he's afraid they'll bite him.

"This is Zeno Bonnes, cool last name, right? Anyways, he can't exactly hear you at the moment, but just talk clearly and he'll be able to read your lips." Again, I sign while I talk. "He's going to be my best friend by the end of this month."

Papa makes the connection easily and scoffs, shaking his head at me. "So you brought him over for smoothies."

It's not exactly a question, but I nod anyway. "They're the best."

"Keep telling yourself that, kid."

"I will."

Zeno's hand squeezes my side, and he waves to both of them.

"Hey," Uncle Keagan nods, waving back. "You planning to stay the night, or just here until dinner?"

Zeno shrugs, probably not knowing either of those were an option and points inside.

"I really didn't tell him much, but if he does want to spend the night he'll probably want to get his new hearing aids beforehand. And tell his best friend about it! Papa, is it cool with you that he's in my room."

"Stab him if he's disrespectful." Is all Papa says, waving us off.

"Okay!" I chirp, waving at them again as I grab onto Zeno's hand again. "We're gonna go in now. Nice seeing you, Uncle Keg."

"You too, Tiny."

When I turn back to Zeno, he's flushed red and his mismatch eyes are wide and staring at the table my dad is sitting at. Bumping into his side makes his head snap over me and for him to sheepishly dunk his head.

"Mangoes." I sign cheerfully, using the hand not needed to squeeze his. "Do you want to get your hearing aids right after, and come back? Or just go to the park. I don't mind at all. Mangoes first, they're the most important thing in the entire world."

Zeno shrugs and signs, "Whatever works best for you, I don't want to get in the way of anything or cut into family time."

I shake my head at him, "You won't. My mom won't be home until later, she's at work. But she'll probably want you to eat dinner here, to make sure you're taking care of yourself."

He blinks down at me, seemingly confused, so I continue.

"She's a therapist and after you've been here once as my friend, you already count as someone she feels responsible for. She'll like you. And I mean, free food is like, the best food."

"She knows she doesn't have to be responsible for me, though, yes?" Zeno clarifies. "I mean, I have a job, pay for my own apartment and I remember to feed myself most of the time. The worst thing I do is forget to take my medicine or leave the house without my hearing aids by accident."

Shrugging, I wave him off. "Good luck convincing her otherwise."

"Moms are scary."

"You survived meeting my dad and uncle, and my hyper ass every single day for the past three weeks. You will be completely fine." Scoffing, I point down the hall to where my kitchen is. "Now, as I said. Mangoes."

Taking his hand again, I lead him to the kitchen and keep hold of him until I have to open the fridge to grab the smoothies.

Instead of handing one to him, I quickly add more crushed ice from the freezer to both and grab both a lid and a straw for each of us before giving it up.

You've never really lived until you've at least tried a mango smoothie.

And if you're allergic?

Well, I can safely say you must have been a terrible person in your past life.

I'm sure I look like a proud little idiot standing here with these two mango smoothies and a big ass grin, but I could give less than a fuck.

"You honestly can't think that I'm the cute one." Zeno signs to me, and it causes me to glower at him, unable to sign back.

"Fuck off." I bark out, feeling my cheeks start to turn red. "Drink this and your grin will grow, good sir."

"You have such a potty mouth." Zeno says, half sounding like he's scolding me.

Rolling my eyes at him, I hold his smoothie out for him to take. "Drink this."

Zeno raises an eyebrow but takes it nonetheless, singing with one hand. "What if I'm allergic to it?"

Not all that worried- -since we get new EpiPen's every year for Cas and Selene, and my mom definitely knows how to handle a situation like that- -I just shrug and look up from my own smoothie to meet his eye.

"Fate."

"Fair enough," Zeno mumbles, taking a small drink. His features literally tell me nothing before he pulls away from the straw, nodding as he looks down at it. "New appreciation for mangoes."

"Fuck yeah!" I shout, pushing mine into his other hand as I stand on my toes to open up the kitchen window -so I can yell into the backyard. "Papa, he likes the mangoes. You're still the weird one in the house!"

Uncle Keagan's laughing fills in for the otherwise funny silence that came after my dad's annoyed groan.

Not waiting for either of them to properly respond, I close the window and turn back to the mechanic with a grin. "Told you."

Zeno looked down at his own hands, which were holding the drinks, before shrugging and saying, "I agreed."

"Oops, hang on." Taking my smoothie back from him, I switch to signing. "I genuinely forgot you were deaf for a second because I was excited about mangoes."

Is that insensitive?

If so, is it worth it for the mangoes?

"It's okay," He signs back, giving a very cute smile in reply. "Forgetting for a second isn't bad and you've been more accommodating than most people. No offense taken."

"Buddy, if I've been more-" I pause, not knowing how to mimic the hand movement, but being able to read it, I say "Accommodating." out loud before going back to signing for him to read my lips. "-than most people, the people you have been around suck. I will fight them for you."

Zeno's eyes widened in what appears to be alarm. "Absolutely not. You're too tiny, they'd just punt you away from them. It's not bad, I promise, a lot of people besides the teachers know I'm deaf and they just don't know how to help me out without disrupting the class."

"People can't punt me like a football, what are you on? People are stupid. And I fight stupid people." Holding up my hands to show him my knuckles, which are decently scarred up, I watch him struggle to process the information. "I'm good at fighting!"

"Not okay." Zeno says decidedly, standing up straight, walking closer and then this motherfucker puts his hand on the top of my head and compares our heights. Me being mid-bicep to him has absolutely nothing to do with my fighting skill. "Tiny. You're tiny and should not fight people even if you're good at it. I don't want you hurt."

Huffing at him, I turn back to take a quick drink of my smoothie with a shake of my head. "I would willingly fight and get hurt for you. But for now there are no stupid people around to fight, so I won't be hurt." Pausing, I poke him in the chest. "Just because you are over the national average height doesn't mean I'm tiny. One does not define the other."

"And just because I'm above average does not make you anything but short. You're not even five-five, E-R-I-S."

Rolling my eyes at him, I stop myself from reply sarcastically and just say, "We should make a sign movement for my name so you don't have to spell it out."

Not hesitating, Zeno signs 'shorty' at me, making me scowl and shove his arm away from me. He laughs and raises his hands like he's all innocent, when we both know he's not.

Then he makes a sign for the Iris flower, which confuses me until he says, "Eris, Iris." and makes the movement again, this time the start of it is longer and I can tell it means that's my name now.

"That works!" I chirp, giving him a thumbs up. "Wanna see my room now? I have a dart board, a ping pong table and a foosball table. My room is basically the entire basement."

"Cool." He nods. "Would it be okay with you if I take my hearing aids out first, since the batteries went to hell on me anyways? They start to hurt after a while."

"I have no problem with that at all, even if the batteries weren't meeting the devil at the moment."

Nudging me with his hip, Zeno says "Funny." before wrinkling his nose at me, all due to the fact I'm watching him.

Knowing I won't stop unless asked, he just sighs and pulls off his beanie.

Holy shit -his hair is so fluffy.

That's just simply unfair.

He's tall, attractive, has a really cool last name and he has good hair? That should just be impossible, yet here we are.

Zeno takes his hearing aids out easily and puts them in a safe container in his backpack, and it feels a bit odd how all of this seems underwhelmingly normal to me.

"What?" He asks, running a hand through his hair before reaching for his hat. Before he can, because I'm not letting him ruin how perfect he looks right now with a fucking hat, I grab it before he can. "Seriously?"

"Yes." Nodding, I pull the beanie onto my own head, making a face as my all-too-purple hair gets in front of my eyes and I have to blow it away. "Hold on."

Moving our smoothies out of the way, I step up onto the kitchen stool before climbing to stand on the counter. "I am you now."

Slower than he normally speaks and walking closer to the counter, Zeno says, "Okay then." He pauses, then continues signing. "But why did you take my hat?"

"All I needed to be you is the height and the hat, it's like your signature thing. I never see you without it."

"Because I rarely take it off unless I'm home or alone. Look at me," He gestures towards his head. "It's a mess and it's too fluffy and doesn't do what I want it to do. With the hat, I can hide better."

"Yeah, look at you." I sign while stepping closer to ruffle his already messy hair before I take hold of his face, leading to me giggling while looking down at his squished face. "You're cute when you're all squished, and I like your hair. Plus, normally you're attractive, so hiding isn't necessary."

Clearly not used to compliments yet, despite my best efforts over these last weeks, Zeno flushes a bright red and his hands raise to what I assume would be pull his hat down on habit.

But I have his hat, so no hiding for him.

"That's so not fair." He says.

Shrugging, I smirk, remember one of the first conversations we ever had. "Life."

"Ugh," Zeno hides his face in his hands and just sighs. "Room?"

Because he hides, I genuinely don't have any way for him to hear me speak or see me sign, so I wait until his shoulders relax a bit before tapping on his shoulder and motioning down the hall. "That way."

Leading the way, I grab onto his hand as we step down the stairs, keeping him close to me after we both grab our smoothies.

Instead of going to the half of the room where my bed is, I go to the half where all my games are for him to stay before I take his backpack to put on my desk.

"It's a little cold so if you want me to turn the heat up, let me know." I say, hopping up onto the ping pong table to face him. "I want to ruffle your hair, it's really fluffy and adorable looking at the moment. Can I?"

Without much hesitation, Zeno steps up to me and leans down to be eye level with me, hands on either side of my hips so I can have full access to the messy brown curls utop his head.

Yeah, he is cute.

Giggling to myself, I completely mess up his hair before soothing it back down to look more appropriate. It's just so fluffy that it's impossible to get it to lay flat, and it being half-curls that get messy easily certainly don't help.

Bonking my forehead into his, I laugh again as his eyes snap open and he gives me a sheepish smile.

"What do you want to do now? There's a ton of options."

"Whatever you usually do," He shrugs, mismatch eyes on my hands. "I can help you with your calculus homework or we can play a game?"

"Oh!" Shaking his shoulders a bit, I remember the game Triton invented and realize how much fun it would be to play with him. "Let's play spinning truth!"

"What?" He blinks.

"It's a game where you have four options to land on. To tell a secret, to tell an embarrassing story, to do what the other says, and to answer a question honestly. Wanna play?"

"Sure." Zeon easily agrees.

Getting it out from the cupboard, the half broken, worn out and written on box full of colors and half assed puns clearly a made-at-home version of Twister.

"Alright, c'mere. We can't play with you five feet away." I say, patting the ground next to me as I sit in front of my couch. Taking out the spinner, I turn to him and wiggle it. "Want me to go first?"

"Please." He nods, watching me flick the pointer until it lands on the question side. "Um... middle name?"

"Keegan." I tell him, smiling. "I was named after my uncle, he's a cool fellow."

Zeno raises his eyebrow, signing at me. "R-E-G-A-N?"

"K-E-E-G-A-N." Correcting him, I motion back towards the board. "Your go."

The mechanic flics the pointer and lands it square in the center between the question side and the secret side, so I just move it in a way that's definitely not suspicious in the dead middle of the secret side.

"So..." Saying this, I clear my throat and switch to sign. "Tell me your middle name, oh tall one."

"Zeno."

Oh shit, did I sign that wrong? Did he just miss the middle part?

"M-I-D-D-L-E." I try again.

"I know," Zeno chuckles. "My middle name is Zeno. My first name is too long and a lot of people didn't remember it so I just started to go by my middle one in Fifth grade, I think."

"What!" Shouting, I fall back away from him with a gasp. "I've been calling you by your middle name this whole time? Scandalous!"

"It's okay," Zeno, or not Zeno, I guess, bumps his knee into my own. "I'm Zeno to everyone."

Narrowing my eyes at him, I bump him even harder with my knee right back. "What's your first name?"

He sighs, shaking his head at me. "Demetrius."

Demetrius? Like the king Demetrius, who had some fuck-shit to do with Alexander the Great -who in my opinion, really wasn't that great.

That's like, a really cool name and that's coming from the chick named after the goddess of chaos -which in retrospect is quite fitting.

Excited, I grab onto Demetrius's knee and shake him, making him laugh at me, him knowing it's just something I do when I'm really happy. Because I can't talk as fast as I want and still have him understand me, and my hands are busy shaking him I just nod really fast before hugging him.

"I'm happy!" I exclaim, pulling away from him and repeating it in a sign. "I like your name! And I'm going to call you D-E-M-Y now."

Before I sit back down completely I take the time to mess with his hair again, making Demetrius- -that's gonna take some getting used to- -roll his eyes at me.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Demetrius signs. "Not that I mind the nickname. It's cool."

"Dude your name is Demetrius Bonnes," I say his name out loud but sign the rest, and hope he can understand the switch and knows what his name looks like. "That's awesome. I am never not going to say that."

Zeno- -Demetrius- -frowns, "It's not that cool. Just a name."

"It's cool to me, I really like it. Like, your last name is so cool to say and just hear, and you're named after a king too. Everyone's name is just a name. So what. I'm telling you, it's a cool name. Even your middle name is cool."

Why doesn't he believe me?

Names with Z's in them are cool, being named after a fucking king with a rad ass name is cool and having a last name like Bonnes is just awesome.

"Anyways, here," I flick the pointer, watching it spin and land on the slave side -which is when you have to do what the other person says. "Guess I'm yours now. What do you want me to do?"

"Hug?" Demetrius opens his arms, and straightens one of his legs out, probably so I don't have to climb past it to actually hug him.

"Awh," I coo, dropping the spinner to the side. "Of course!"

With that I scoot over and throw my arms around him, clinging to him tighter than I probably should.

It's not my fault he gives such good hugs!

It confuses me a bit how he can be such a touchy person, like me, but be touch starved while having a best friend.

To me it's not much surprising that Demetrius doesn't reply back, him being a rather quiet person pretty much all the time, and it's only kinda surprising to me when he wraps his arms all the way around me and cuddles against my neck.

Normally our hugs are all face-to-chest because of how absurdly tall he is, and when we sit together I'm normally just by his legs or sitting with his head in my lap.

This is actually pretty nice.

And I don't find myself pulling away until Demetrius does, a bright blush across his cheeks.

"You're blushing." I sign, raising a hand to his cheek to feel how warm he is. Dropping my hand, I continue while snickering. "It's cute."

"When I meet your mom," He says aloud. "I'm going to tell her you're bullying me without hesitation."

"You do that, I'll sit back and laugh." My smirk speaks for itself and seeing his disappointment, apparently realizing my mother will know I don't bully people even if I tease my friends, I hug him again and press my face into his neck.

Humming because he can feel it, and because it will probably make him smile, I sink into his hold.

I'd be lying if I said I remember the game at this point.

After finally pulling away from the hug, I pointedly decided to kick Demetrius's ass in ping pong -apparently I move deceptively fast for someone whose limbs are 'that short'.

Shortly after this, Demetrius remembered that he actually has work today and on our way up my mom came into the kitchen so the mechanic awkwardly and quickly excused himself to wait outside.

Hopefully he remembers there's two humans out there he doesn't know, instead of the one in here.

Mama, mango smoothie in hand, shakes her head at me with a small smile. "That boy, is he your boyfriend?"

"Mama!" I scold her, cheeks instantly blaring an annoying red. "He's just my friend, we're just friends."

"Sweetie, I've had a boy as a best friend since I was seventeen, I know how 'just friends' act even when it's a pair like you two. You don't act like you just like him as a friend, and that's from seeing you together for five minutes."

"I'm clingy." I offer, knowing is basically useless to try and stop my mom from analyzing the people around her.

I don't know why I'm denying it either, I'm aware I'm attracted to him.

But we really are just friends.

Mama scoffs, "Well you're clinging to him, Love, that's for sure."

Brushing her comment off, I pocket my phone, grab my smoothie from the counter and briskly make my way to Demetrius -careful to tell Papa my route home because Demetrius won't be able to walk me back.

Not saying anything at all, just offering me his hand, Demetrius lets me grab hold of him and skip along beside him as we walk the two blocks back to Old Greggers.

Demetrius.

Yeah, I like that name.