I Have a Million Different Kinds of Fun.

I tapped my fingers against the table where I sat at my favorite coffee shop in all of San Diego. It wasn't a popular coffee shop like Starbucks, just a mom and pop run shop called 'Frap'. I came here often to write and do research for school. I know Its sounds like something a typical hipster would do. However, I just don't fine myself able to write when I am at home, anywhere is better than my apartment, for some reason my roommate always hassles me when I try to write. She means well, but sometimes I find her unbearable. She's been with me through thick and thin, and she was my best friend, but I had to get away every now and then. No matter how much it worried her.

All the employees in the store know me, which is good since they knew I wouldn't be able to hear them call out that my order was done. Instead the owner or one of their daughters would bring me my coffee. I smiled warmly at Stacy, as she gently grazed my shoulder with her hand to get my attention, she sat my green tea Frappuccino with extra whipped cream down in front of me and returned a smile of her own.

"Thank you" I said quietly to her.

"your welcome" I read her lips for her reply.

I have been deaf my entire life. Ever since birth I was unable to take in sound. I was raised to read lips, and I went through years of speech therapy to be able to speak back to 'hearing' people. I preferred to sign, since I found it simpler, unfortunately not many people in the world know how to use sign so my parents thought speech therapy was something I needed to lean. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely thankful to them for putting me through speech therapy, I just always found signing to be a beautiful form of speech. I wish I cold use it more on strangers, but I was content using it with just my family and close friends.

I attended an all deaf school from the age of six, until the age of eighteen, I currently attend a small
San Diego community college. It isn't designed for the hearing impaired, but I get by just fine by paying close attention to my teachers during lecture, they are all also kind enough to make sure they are always facing the class when they are speaking so I don't miss anything extremely important. I'm twenty six years old now, and working on getting my masters in literature and my associates in teaching. As long as I can remember I've wanted to write books and teach young hearing impaired adults how to sign. Graduation was approaching for me soon and I was currently working on my final thesis paper for English. It was a hundred paged short story, I needed to proofread over a dozen times, and check all my grammatical pairings and associations carefully, but also tell a captivating story in the process. However I was becoming frustrated with finding an ending to my story, and I only had about a month to complete it before I needed to start focusing on final examinations.

I stared at my laptop screen intently, My fingers that had been moving across the keyboard rapidly for over an hour now started to slow as I became stuck on my last sentence. The ending I had put in place just didn't seem to fit the mood I set with the story, When I had made my outline the ending seemed perfect. Now I wasn't so sure.

I sighed heavily and took the final sips of my Frappuccino, and leaned back in my seat. I looked around the coffee shop, it was mostly filled with regulars that I've come to recognize here and there. My eyes wandered around the walls briefly before something caught my eye. There was a group of men sitting in the far right corner just across from me. Two of the men's backs were turned to me and I couldn't see their faces. Just the snapback on the head of the taller male, and the spikey black hair of the other. There was two other men sitting across from them, I could see their faces, they were unfamiliar to me, and the only reason this group of men had caught my attention was because of the tallest gentlemen in the group whose face I could see. He ware big sunglasses indoors, with his snapback turned backwards. There were two lip piercings on him and his arms were heavily tattooed. I had always admired tattoos, but they weren't for me. I just enjoyed looking at the various types of art all sorts of different people seemed to have on them. Another thing about these men that caught my interest was the shortest of the group sat next to the heavily tattooed man.

This man had long brown hair that hung out from under his hat, he had beautiful tan skin and a smile I couldn't help but notice, and that reason was because....he was smiling at me. Why was this stranger smiling at me?

I gave him a small smile back before I dismissed him and stared once again at my computer screen. I watched the line blinking at the middle of the sentence I had stopped at, The blinking taunted me in a way. Its like my computer was urging me to continue, to just type something more onto its screen for it to hold in its memory. But I just couldn't bring myself to write anymore today. I scrunched my nose up and shut the screen.

I was startled however by a hand waving in my face just as I had shut the screen, I looked up sheepishly to who the hand belonged too. It was the man who had smiled at me. He was smiling at me once again. He pointed to the seat across from me and asked if he could sit down.

I gave him a confused look, but nodded my head causing him to take a seat across from me. He set his coffee down across from him and extended his hand to me.

"Im Vic" I read his lips and smiled. I liked his name, and how shy he seemed.

I blushed and held out my index finger to him. He frowned but I grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze before I pulled out my phone.

I was always shy using my voice around people who I've just met. I've been told my voice sounds very weird to strangers because I have a lisp due to being deaf It also took me a few minutes until I could figure out what volume I should use my voice in most situations I was either to low, or to loud for hearing people. It embarrassed me immensely, but once I got comfortable with someone new, I didn't mind them hearing it. Another reason I didn't want to use my voice around this man, is because he was quite handsome and I didn't want to scare him off. Normally I wouldn't even bother with a man if he approached me outside of a deaf community... It was always hard to meet a hearing man who would tolerate a deaf girl. But something about this mans smile made me want t give it a shot for once, not to mention its been awhile since I've been approached by someone like this.

-Hello Vic, My name is Madelyn-

I typed out quickly and handed it to him. He gave me a confused look until I pushed it towards him just a little more, and smiled at him. I could feel that my cheeks were probably a horrible shade of red.

He smiled at the phone, I thought he was going to hand it back to me, but he held up his finger to me just like I had to him and smiled back at me. He seemed to be typing out a reply to me.

Once he was finished he slid my iPhone back to me from his side of the table.

-That's a beautiful name, why wont you talk to me Madelyn? are you shy?-

I quickly deleted his message and typed out my reply.

-No, no. I'm not shy...I'm deaf and I get embarrassed using my voice around new people-

I slid the phone to him once more. He read my reply and looked from me to the phone a couple of times. He seemed slightly shocked, but Then he bit his lip before looking back at the phone and typing out another reply. He slid the phone back to me once more.

-Oh, I understand, Im sorry if I made you uncomfortable... How did you know what I had said to you earlier?-

I laughed lightly which made him smile. I replied and handed him the phone instead of sliding it this time. His fingertips grazed mine. His fingers were rough and calloused, I liked the way they felt against mine. as he took the phone and eagerly read my message to him.

- I can read lips. You can talk to me and I understand just fine If I can see your lips. However I can only reply with my phone or sign language until I'm comfortable enough to talk around someone new. (:-

He squinted his eyes at the message as if he was thinking. Then his facial expression seemed to loosen and yet again another smile started to grace his lips as he replied. He handed the phone back to me, our fingers brushing once more.

- Well Madelyn, Is it okay if I give you my number? Maybe Ill get lucky enough to hear your voice someday :) -

I was shocked that this this Vic had put up with me this long, let alone wanted to give me his number. I couldn't help but blush as I replied. I felt butterflys in my stomach for the first time in over a year, I wouldn't mind if he gave me his number at all.

- Really? I wouldn't mind that one bit Vic.-

I handed my phone to him again. He blushed a little at my reply before he programmed his number into my phone. He handed it back to me after a few minutes.

-Talk to me whenever you'd like. I want to know more about you if you wouldn't mind it? But Im going to get back to my friends over there and head out. It was very nice meeting you Monada, hope to talk to you again soon ;)-

I looked up from the phone smiling like and idiot, I nodded my head at him as he returned my smile, I extended my hand to him. He shook it as I mouthed

"Nice to meet you" to him slowly. He blushed and replied

"you too" before returning to his friends.

I blushed again as I noticed his friends all staring at us when I watched him walk away. I looked down to my laptop and quickly packed it away before getting up and leaving the coffee shop.

I couldn't help but sneak one more look at the man I had just met before walking back to my car. There was a huge smile plastered on my face the whole way home