Stay: Changing Tides, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

get used to until she learned to sign. “What do you plan to do after you graduate, Jonathon?”
    He ignored the interpreter and signed back. “Not sure. Why?”
    So he could read lips. Good to know. “It’s important to tailor your classes for your college career. What do you like to do?”
    “This is bull—stuff.”
    Surprised by the sudden outburst and certain the interpreter had softened the language translation, Abby met his angry stare. “What is?”
    His hands worked in a flurry of motion and she wondered what being deaf must feel like. She didn’t pity him—far from it, he accepted his inability to hear the same as she accepted her inability to commit to anything. It wasn’t a handicap, it was a personality.
    Something else angered this young man. The emotion was traced in his sharp signs. “All you people, sitting here ready to tell me what’s best for me. Just because I’m deaf doesn’t mean I can’t make my own decisions and choices. I don’t need anyone’s help.”
    Abby sat back and flipped through the folder on the table. “I could care less if you can hear or not. My way of looking at this is that you had the chance to make your own decisions. You made bad ones.”
    “In your opinion.”
    Damn apples and oranges—just like his father. She met Brack’s gaze briefly and almost thought he was thinking the same thing. “Letting your grades slip, truancy, sexual activity at school and drug use seem like bad choices to me.”
    “Like I said, your opinion. Kind of like assholes. Everyone’s got one.”
    Brack squeezed his son’s shoulder, enough that the youth cringed.
    Abby quickly interrupted. “It’s okay, Mr. Elliot. He’s frustrated. But the question is why. What was so bad about your old school?”
    Anger generally led to accidental admission, and she wanted him to open up.
    Jonathon kept his eyes on her lips as he signed. “They treated us like we were stupid. Like little kids.”
    Perfect. “Do you suppose that’s because you were acting like one? Like now?”
    Fury erupted in his eyes and the scowl that tightened his lips matched. “I don’t act like a kid.”
    “No, of course not,” she pushed. “Sitting at the table slouched down with a hat on is acting very adult-like. So too is cursing while we’re talking, and of course your behavior at your old school was very grown up.”
    He said nothing, just stared and she continued on, closing his folder and sliding it across the table to him. “I can’t begin to offer help to someone who refuses to accept his own fault in a matter. You want to be treated with respect, you have to give it.”
    Two quick signs accompanied a deep scowl.
    “He said, f-fuck you.” The interpreter whispered the profanity with a blush.
    Standing, Abby pulled her bag over her shoulder. “Jonathon, when you want to be treated like an adult, you know where I am. But don’t come to me until you’re ready to act like one. I don’t have time for a grown man throwing a fit worthy of a two-year-old who’s lost his candy.”
    She walked through the office door, very much aware that Brack’s furious stare followed her from the room. When the door slammed, echoing in the empty hall, she knew he’d followed her out.
    “What the hell was that?” His deep growl rumbled through the entire question.
    “That was me showing him that I won’t put up with his crap.” Her bag tugged at her shoulder and she set it down. “He has to accept help, not be forced into it.”
    Crossing his arms over his chest, Brack leaned against the wall. “You made matters worse. How is that going to help him?”
    “I hope he’ll respond to being treated like an adult.” It was a long shot, but something told her the boy would come around. If his father had the patience to wait him out.
    Brack’s eyes narrowed as he lurched forward, the smooth muscles of his neck and shoulders bunched with tension. “You’re taking a chance with my son. What if your little plan