Chapter 24

I could see the fear in his eyes, hands trembling as he stared at the picture in front of him. I kept waiting for him to say something, to tell me he was right and that we should have called his father, waited for him to say "I told you so." But it never came. He just stood there; eyes open wide in disbelief.

When did Mute even come up to my room? At what point was he able to draw this without us knowing? I kept cursing at myself for being so forgetful. I knew he was downstairs passed out in another room, I had made sure to set the house alarm so I would know if he tried to leave, so why the hell did I forget to lock my door. If I had just paid a little more attention to details, this whole situation could have been avoided.

He stayed quiet for a moment, not moving from the spot he originally jumped to when he rushed out of bed. After what felt like an eternity of silence, he finally lifted his head from the picture and locked eyes with me, worry painted all over his face.

"We have to talk to him. No one else can see this, Leo."

His voice was shaky with panic, despite his obvious efforts to keep it the usual calming velvet that would otherwise send surges of relaxation throughout my body. He was scared, and I hated seeing him like this, even more so know that my mistake was the reason behind it.

"To be fair, I don't seem him actually telling anyone anything." I stated somewhat jokingly, trying to lighten the mood and get a smile back onto his face, but he clearly wasn't amused.

"Have you ever actually asked him if he could talk? Or did you just assume that he can't because of his nickname and because that's what everyone else told you."

I could hear the frustration in his voice. I mean, I hadn't ever actually asked Mute if he could talk, but I'm sure if he could he would have spoken to me by now, right? I found myself pondering his question a little more than I anticipated. I mean, he wouldn't just our right choose not speak, that makes no sense at all. Who would choose to go their whole life just drawing pictures to communicate if they had another option?

Turing around and heading downstairs towards the room we last out Mute, we weren't surprised to see he was no longer in there, but instead sitting in the living room pencil in hand, quickly scribbling onto the paper in front of him. He was hunched over slightly, leaning inwards, as if to prevent others from seeing what he was doing, what it exactly that he was working on.

Following Kavaar, he positioned himself directly in front of him, standing just behind the table and clearing his throat, attempting to get his attention. Finishing out a few more lines on the paper in front of him, he slowly raised his head up, allowing us to get a full view of his face.

His eyes were still bloodshot, but his pupils retracted back to their normal size. It looked as though he had found the guest bathroom and tried to clean himself up. His face was a little red, and his hands seemed to shake slightly, like he was missing something but trying not to needed it.

Lifting his hands up, I watched in curiosity as Mute did the same, each one of them waiting on the other to make the first move. Then it hit me, maybe he could talk, just not with his mouth.

"Shylo." Kavaar stated then proceeded to move his arms. "How are you feeling?"

He spoke with each gesture he made. I had never actually seen sign language done in real life, only in movies and tv, but never actually paid much attention to it. I watched as Mute signed back, but made no sound whatsoever. How did he know that they could communicate through sign language?

"I'm glad to know you're feeling better. We have to talk about last night."

I just stared in awe. I mean, I knew Kavaar was an English teacher, but was part of the requirement to know sign language? When did he learn it? I couldn't fathom learning a new language, if signing even counted as one, I heard a hard enough time counting above ten in Spanish, but the two of them just made it seem so natural, like they had been doing it all their life.

"You'll have to forgive me if I'm a little hesitant to believe you, Shylo. After what happened last night, you're lucky to not be in a hospital bed."

There was a slight suspension in his tone, similar to the one where he questioned me when we first met.

"You told me you always draw two copies of the same picture." Kavaar stated sharply, still signing away. "Did you draw a second copy of this?" He asked, pulling the picture from his pocket.

Shaking his head no and offering to empty his pockets, Kavaar stated there was no need, but stated he will hang onto the picture for now, making sure it would end up in a safe place that no one else would see. I was confused as to why we didn't burn it, tear it up, put it through a shredder, anything really, why keep something that if found could only cause trouble?

I didn't get a chance to voice my thoughts on the matter. Telling Mute to stand up and to get his shoes, he let me know that he was going to take him home and offered to bring the pajamas back that I had dressed him in. In all honestly I wasn't too worried about them. Turning to Mute and asking if he wanted to keep them, I watched as he stood and grabbed the waist and began to pull outward. They were clearly too large for his much smaller frame and agreed with Kavaar to have him bring them back.

I watched as Shylo walked off into the guest room where he was passed out in hour ago, only to feel my body pushed against the wall as Kavaar shoved his lips against mine, then pulling away shortly afterwards, letting me know that he would be back as soon as possible. Smiling and catching my breath, I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Mute, a giant smile plastered all over his face.

Chuckling and turning to face him, Kavaar said he would return before walking out the front door, Mute following right behind, until no one but me remained in the house. I was still tired, and after glancing at the clock to see it barely read six am, I decided to lie back down for a bit and attempt to get a little more rest. Pulling out my phone and sending Kavaar as text, I let him know I was going to try and sleep a little more, figuring he would reply when he dropped of Mute, then made my way upstairs.

Stripping down completely and climbing into bed, I set an alarm for ten in the morning and proceeded to try and relax, letting go of everything that happened this morning, instead focusing on what had occurred then night before, my first date with him. I could feel the sandman coating my body in its sands, and I refused to fight it, peacefully drifting off to sleep.

I could hear the buzzing of my alarm, the constant repeating down shattering my sleep and pulling me from relaxation. I couldn't remember my dream this time, or if I even had one in the first place. Reaching over and turning it off, I stayed in the same position, not wanting to move and contemplated going back to sleep.

"Good morning, handsome."

Jumping up at the sudden realization that I wasn't alone, I quickly moved out the bed and turned around to see who was behind me. I didn't recognize the voice at first, partially because I was still borderline asleep, and partially because I thought I was alone and wasn't expecting to hear anyone else.

Looking up at me, eyes wide in shock, I saw Kavaar staring before quickly turning his face the other way. When did he even get here? I didn't hear him come in, nor felt him getting into bed with me.

"Uh Leo..." he started, continuing to avoid my eyes. "You're...uh, well..." before ending his sentence short once more and just pointed at my legs.

Looking down, I quickly turned away in horror as the realization hit me. I was naked! I hadn't planned on him getting back into bed with me when I went to sleep so I just went autopilot, pulling off my clothes and sleeping nude as I usually did. Reaching down and grabbing the underwear I had on earlier, I quickly threw them on, but continued to stay turned away from him till the blood stopped rushing to my face, as well as another area in particular.

God I was mortified. Here I was just thinking the night before how I wanted to leave somethings to the imagination, that I wasn't trying to show or see everything so quickly yet there I was just moments ago completely naked. How did he even get in the house! Cursing myself for forgetting to lock the door behind them, I realized once again that I was at fault for another morning disaster.

"It's not a big deal, Leo. Don't worry." He sounded calm, but also like he was holding back a laugh. "I sent you a text telling you I'd join you when I got back, I figured you are already asleep when you didn't reply, then check to see if the you left the door unlocked for me and figured since it was that you wouldn't mind if I joined you."

I was a little annoyed that he just assumed I would be fine with him showing up and getting into bed with me. Voicing that I was actually bothered by it he apologized and confirmed that without my direct consent, it wouldn't happen again. Feeling a little more at ease I decided to grab my pajamas and started getting dressed. I was definitely hungry, and figured Kavaar and I could talk about what happened with Mute over some breakfast.

Confirming that he himself was pretty hungry, he got up from the bed carefully, making sure that he was turned away the whole time so that I wouldn't see anything as he threw on his jeans and shirt. Smiling once again at the letters now on his chest, I found myself chuckling that we ended up wearing the exact same shirt on our first date, but still felt like he pulled it off a bit better than I did.

Following me downstairs and into the kitchen, I pulled out a skillet and asked Kavaar to grab the eggs from the fridge behind him, as well as the ham, peppers, and cheese. I was usually pretty careful about what I ate, making sure it was high in protein so that I could maintain the body I worked so hard to build up.

"Omelettes sound good?" I asked, turning to face him. "If not, I can prepare your eggs a different way.

"Omelettes would be perfect, thank you. Is there anything I can help you with?" He asked earnestly, smiling the entire time.

"You can sit there and look pretty." I joked, pointing directly to the chair he was next to. "Though, I think you've already got the second part down."

Chuckling at my corny joke, he took the seat as directed and waited patiently for his food.

"So what happened with Mute when you took him home?" I asked, cracking open an egg and setting the shell in the sink next to me for the garbage disposal to take care of shortly afterwards.

"Honestly not much. His father wasn't there when we arrived so he quickly went in and changed, then brought your clothes out for me to return. They're sitting on your dresser by the way."

"Do you think he'll keep his word about not saying anything?"

"I hope so. He seemed earnest in his face when I brought it back up, but I don't completely trust him after what happened at the bar. I did let him know he was banned from there as well, due to everything that happened."

I couldn't blame him for the ban, but I still wanted to known more. Where did Mute get high? Had he been drugged or was it something he did of his own volition?

"You have security cameras, right?" I asked, then quickly realized it was a dumb question. Of course he probably had them. It's a bar, he needs to be able to go back and review footage if there were any incidents.

"Of course I do. I planned to go through them tonight and get as many details as I could, and I still have to get my lesson for tomorrow ready as well. I'm going to have leave after breakfast to start preparing."

Letting him know I understood, reached over and grabbed the ham and peppers, mixing them in before sprinkling the cheese on top and setting on a plate for him, then fixed mine as well. Smiling and thanking me, he waited until I was completely sitting down and ready to eat before diffing into his, smiling up at me between bites.

It didn't take either one of us long to finish our food, then taking his plate and rinsing it off, I set both his and mine in the dishwasher before escorting him to the door. I didn't want him to leave, but I more than understood why he had too. Smiling and kissing me one last time, he let me know he would text me when he had some free time throughout the day.

Turning and walking through the door, he stopped in place as I thoroughly confirmed a few times that I actually locked the handle this time and prepared to close it when he walked away.

"Oh, and don't think just because we're together that means you don't have to do your homework. It's due tomorrow."

Vote, Comment, Love me.