Reddit Prompt: For most of college everyone thought you were deaf when in reality you just don’t like talking and learned sign language at a young age. You never corrected anyone until someone confessed their love for you, thinking you couldn’t hear them

This was awkward. 100% not what I was excepting to end my day on, but here I am. Staring, mouth hanging open at a pretty girl as she confesses her love for me.

And now I’ve got a problem.

“I’m sorry,” she says slowly, “I spoke too quickly. So you couldn’t read my lips.”

At some point, someone cooked up the lie that I’m deaf, and I being the antisocial queen that I am, let it stick. It helped that I’ve known ASL since I was a kid, courtesy of my mother, who right now would be laughing at this whole situation, but now the lies biting me in the ass big time.

The girl stepped further into my line of sight. Her small round face a deep red from the effort of her confession. Her long curly brown hair swept back into a messy bun with her bangs framing her plump cheeks. She took a deep breath and locked her deep blue eyes with mine. “I like you,” she said slowly and carefully formed each word, “I’m trash at sign language, but I’m trying my best to learn.”

“You don’t even know me,” I snapped before thinking. It’s the gasp around us that reminded me that we were in public. I’m pretty sure I heard a few people say they knew I was faking it.

The girl blinked in surprise.

“Yeah. Not deaf. Sorry to disappoint you. Not even sure who started that rumor.”

Instead of smacking me or yelling like I thought she would. She sighed, “that’s a relief. I am trash at ASL.”

“What?”

“So we can take our time getting to know each other.”

“You’re not upset?”

The girl smiled, “a little, but your deafness isn’t why I like you. I don’t think you remember, but you stood up for me at a party once. And I’ve heard you’ve done that for a lot of girls.”

The college parties, my roommate, and her friends dragged me to every few weeks. Somehow I would find myself protecting a drunk girl or two from guys who thought they had found easy targets. I would always make sure everyone got home safe, no matter the time.

“That’s the person I like and want to get to know,” she steps close, “if you’ll let me.”

I couldn’t think of a reason not to. Not liking people suddenly seemed flimsy, and my jig was up now that she knew I could hear. A mischievous smile slipped across her face, “great. How about we start with lunch?” She asked as she grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the cafeteria.

Music used: Bug by Metre from freemusicarchive.org