Falling on Dead Ears

Travis ran to the guy standing down the hall, a smile on his features. He hadn’t seen his dad in forever! Lifting his arms he skidded to a stop and paused as his name rang through the house.

“I’m stealin’ your hot girl!” Robert Pastrana raised a brow at his son who gasped and spun on his heel, not even bothering to say hello.

“Don’t touch her Bell!” Travis yelled. “Bell!” He yelled rushing after the laughing man, Ellie’s form over his shoulder bouncing around wildly. “Bell!” He yelled again as Andy laughed wildly.

“Travis!” Robert laughed trying to keep up with the two.

“Don’t do it!” Travis pointed as Andy headed for the dock where Parks was getting ready to go, Andy yelling for the small group to wait.

“I got her! I got her!” Andy hollered at the group. Jim and Jolene stood up waving him closer.

“You go anywhere before I say Parks your dead!” Jolene teased as Andy launched himself at the boat. “Go! Go! Go!” She screamed. Parks put the boat in drive and took off, forgetting Erik and Special were on the inflatable raft attached to the back. Both began screaming.

“I’m going to kill you Bell!” Travis yelled. Andy was ruining all the plans Travis had put together, and Andy knew it. Hell Travis had run his whole plan past all of them to see if it was a good idea or not. Sure he’d messed up the first part but that was his fault, not the idiots he called friends.

“Travis!” Robert laughed slowing down as his son launched himself off the dock onto the moving inflatable.

“Did he really just make it?” Jim questioned watching Travis clinging to one of the handles, Erik and Special patting the annoyed man on the back. Travis had just made a ten foot jump with the distance growing at 35 miles per hours.

“I’m going to kill you Bell!” Travis screamed again as Andy set Ellie’s stunned and shaken form down. “That’s not how you treat her!” He added, Andy shrugged as Jolene began distracting Ellie.

“How are you getting up there?” Special questioned his annoyed and angry cousin. Travis let his head fall in defeat, he hadn’t thought of that.

“Sling ‘um!” Jim yelled. All three on the raft looked up at the boat.

“Don’t do it!” All three yelled as the boat began making a sharp turn.

“I’ll kill you Parks!” Travis screamed. He just wanted to yell for Ellie to help him, he was sure she’d get the group to stop, but it seemed pointless to yell at a beautiful deaf girl.

The raft slung to the side tossing Erik Roner off violently as Travis braced himself and held on for dear life. The group blinked as Parks looked at the group. Andy and Jim spun their fingers telling him to bring it around.

Jim picked up a large bullhorn.

“Roner,” Erik waved his arm in the air. “Quick pick up!” He added making Erik groan. He hated these. “Trav’s still on and so is Special.” With that Erik looked around finding he was in fact the only one in the water.

Jim looked at parks. “Sling them Special’s way.” Parks nodded, enjoying getting back at Travis and torturing the guy.

“So he really likes her?” he called. Andy leaned down near parks and let out a slow hiss of breath.

“He jumped off a stationary dock at a quickly moving raft he could just bounce off and he planned the whole day out.” Parks cut the wheel quickly as he looked up at Andy startled. “He planned it.” Andy laughed while looking back at the girl Jolene was distracting with her horrible sign language.

“I don’t know!” Jolene gasped, laughing. Ellie kept asking what was going on and where Travis was. “I don’t know where he is!” She lied. Travis lifted his head, coughing up some water as he and Special still clung to the raft.

“I’m out.” Special laughed and let go on the next turn rolling over his cousin. Special’s arms couldn’t take any more jerking around.

“You guys suck!” Travis yelled as Parks made a pass at Special to do a quick pick up. Special groaned seeing the low bar.

“This sucks.” He huffed just before it collided with his torso and his arms locked around the foam covered pole. Pulling him self up he climbed onto the boat holding his torso like Erik still was. “I hate that.”

“Yeah but that,” Erik smiled pointing at Travis’s form still clinging to the raft for dear life as Parks had fun. “Is worth it.” Special stood, stumbling around as he did so and smiled at the group.

“Let’s head in and leave him out there.” The group smiled. “Leave him attached but don’t bring him in and take her,” he pointed at the small tan girl still trying to pry answers out of Jolene. “And run for it.”

“Where?” Jim asked. Special’s smile grew.

“Let’s go to the track…he’ll never guess that.” Slowly the group nodded. Parks shrugged cutting the wheel and heading for the dock. The second he parked Andy had Ellie over his shoulder running away with the rest of the group, the girl clinging to him for dear life.

Robert lifted his hands confused. Andy stopped for a moment.

“This is Ellie and Travis is head over heels for her.” With that Andy was running off catching up to the group.

Travis huffed as the raft stopping. Looking up he glanced around.

“No fair!” He screamed still twenty feet from the dock. “Hey!” He added seeing them running away. “Assholes.” He breathed standing and jumping straight into the water. The cold water freezing his body as he swam for the dock as fast as his body would allow him.

“So I hear you’re head over heels for this girl…” Robert muttered as his son finally pulled himself out of the water. Travis sat on the dock soaking wet and defeated. They were gone, long gone. “What’s so special about her?” he asked. Travis shrugged and signed a slow ‘don’t know’ to his father. He didn’t feel like talking. “What?” Robert laughed.

“It’s sign language. It means I don’t know.” Travis sighed pulling himself up. His hip cracked loudly and tipped him slightly to the right. “Fuck.” He groaned rubbing the sore area.

“When did you learn sign language?” Robert questioned. Sure Travis was smart, but he wasn’t that smart and what motivation did he have to learn the language anyway?

“Ellie.” Robert frowned at his son. “She’s deaf.” Travis’s hands moved with the correct sign language he knew as he spoke.

“Wait, you’re head over heels for a deaf girl?” Travis sighed deeply, the thought of Ellie smiling at him making his thoughts a messy jumble.

“Do you know where they went?” he questioned. Robert flailed his hands around.

“Answer me Travis!”

“Yes. I like her, who cares if she’d deaf!” Travis snapped. What was so wrong about that fact? “Do you know where they went?” he questioned again. Robert shook his head. Puffing Travis began trudging his way up to his house, shoes sloshing and squeaking as his cloths clung to his athletic frame.

Ellie on the other hand was crammed in a car with all of Travis’s friends and the only person who understood her, for the most part, was Jolene in the back seat. Everything buzzed around her leaving the girl wide eyed and terrified.