Gil's first date attire admittedly needed some work. He had realized too late that his "nice" clothes either didn't fit or were wrinkled beyond recognition. He had to settle for clothes that he would wear on any other day. He thought he looked good. These were his favorite clothes after all, but he was hoping that Maddie wouldn't judge him too harshly for not dressing more special.
He did look a little out of place standing in front of the community center. Rebels didn't normally loiter in front of posters reminding others to care for each other and their community. Gil had spent the past few minutes thinking about how some of their community reminders of casting votes, getting flu shots, and cleaning up the city were actually pretty punk rock. He made a mental reminder to volunteer more.
It wasn't much longer before Maddie appeared. Unfortunately for Gil's inexperienced heart, she had dressed up for the occasion. She was wearing a flowing red dress with giant white polka dots. Her hair was in her normal pigtails, but her hair seemed extra shiny with perfectly coiffed curls.
Gil had to take a breather and rest his hands on his knees.
Maddie approached even quicker. "Are you okay?" she signed.
Gil stood up straight. He could already feel his face flushing. "I'm okay. It's nothing. You're just really pretty. I got overwhelmed."
Maddie beamed, which did nothing to help Gil's heart. She hooked her arm around his and leaned in. Gil thought he could die. She extended her hand to the door, indicating that they should go in.
Gil felt semi-robotic, trying too hard not to make a wrong move. Whatever he expected the deaf community to look like, he was mildly surprised. There were a few people Maddie and Gil's age. Some slightly older. Mostly a lot older. There were a few kids running around making signs at each other.
One of the guys around their age approached, waving happily. "Maddie!" he said aloud as well as signed. "It's nice to see you again."
Gil could tell that this guy's signing skills were much more advanced than his. His transitions were a lot smoother though his signs were simple.
Maddie unhooked her arm so that she could talk. Her hands were a beautiful flurry of words. Gil was only catching every other sign.
"Ah," the guy said. "Maddie says you've just started learning. I'm Ned. I teach some community beginner ASL classes."
"Yeah, I'm Gil," he reached out to shake his hand.
"It's always nice to see a new face around here."
Gil frowned slightly as Ned went to greet others in the deaf community. Obviously, everyone here thought of him as some sort of new recruit. His attitude change when he felt a soft pressure on his palm. Maddie's hand. She looked to him shyly. Gil smirked and intertwined his fingers with hers.
They went around and Maddie would introduce him to some of the people. Some were deaf. Some were parents of deaf children. Gil felt a little better when he saw them struggling to follow the signs as well.
Before long it was time to find a seat in front of the screen. Gil had always been a front and center kind of dude, so he grabbed a couple of seats for him and his date.
"Are you excited about the movie?" he asked.
"Yes. I always had a little bit of a crush on Jim," Maddie said.
Gil nodded. "Jim" was definitely a shorter name to spell than John Krasinski. And who didn't have a crush on Jim. Gil made a mental note that. The Office would be a good second through several hundredth date if he got that far.
From the corner of his eye, Gil saw another guy standing off to the side, positively glaring at Gil. He wasn't going to mention it to Maddie. It wasn't her fault that people had a problem with him.
"Want popcorn?" Gil made a show of making the popcorn sign pop all over the place.
She put on a breathy smile, a remnant version of a laugh, and nodded yes. Gil got up and went over to the table where you could get free popcorn. Apparently, all you had to do was sign for what you wanted, and Gil had that down pat. Now, he just had to dare that dude to confront him in front of the popcorn lady.
But apparently, Gil had not been the man's target. He had sat down next to Maddie. Uncomfortably close. Gil could tell from there that this was not a welcome development. The dude's body was blocking out what he was signing.
Gil collected his popcorn and went over to claim his spot. Even if the seat on the other side of Maddie had been empty, there was no way Gil would make her sit next to someone she clearly disliked.
Gil planted himself in front of the screen and handed Maddie her popcorn. She smiled nervously at him. Gil shoved the other bag of popcorn into the guy's hands.
"That's my seat," Gil said and signed.
"Doesn't have your name on it," nameless guy sneered. Gil would have forgiven that if the stranger was a preteen.
Maddie started to get up, clearly trying not to make a scene. But Gil was not above making a scene.
"Fine. Have it," he all too happily signed.
Gil proceeded to lift the guy and the chair up, hoisting him up over his head. The shock and awe came in waves of gasps after witnessing Gil's strength. He carried him to the back and placed the chair in line with the empty back row. The guy was too stunned to do or say anything. Gil took one of the empty chairs and brought it back to the front and placed it next to Maddie. He grabbed a fistful of popcorn from her bag as he sat down next to her still speechless frame.
She set the popcorn bag down in her lap.
"You're really strong," she signed.
Gil shrugged. He stretched his arm out and draped it across Maddie's shoulders. He made sure to send a glare out to the back row. He didn't notice how tense he had gotten until he felt Maddie lean into him. His breath caught and a strange warmth radiated from her head on his shoulder.
"Thank you," she signed.
Gil worked on taking nice, controlled breaths. The warmth settled in all over as the lights dimmed and the movie started.
It surprised Gil how good the movie was despite nearly all being signed. He was also surprised it had been shown in a family community center despite its horror themes. The plus of watching a movie with deaf people was that it was easy to hold a conversation without disturbing the rest of the audience. The minus was that when Gil flinched due to an audio scare, all the nonhearing people looked at him like he was crazy.
"That was a good movie," Maddie signed once the film was over. She separated herself from leaning on Gil's side.
"Yes," Gil agreed. "Do you want to grab a quick bite to eat? I've got practice later, but..." Gil didn't want to say goodbye yet. "I thought we could spend a little more time together."
"Sure. Just let me say goodbye to some people before we leave."
Gil did a subtle fist pump. He didn't understand all of her signs but he did understand the yes.
When Maddie went to go converse with others, Ned approached Gil.
"Did you enjoy the movie, Gil?" Ned asked, not bothering to sign between the two of them.
"Uh yeah," Gil responded, trying to keep an eye on how close Maddie was to leaving.
"So are you and Maddie a thing?"
Gil started to get defensive. "Yes," he lied. "Is that a problem?"
Ned held up his hands. "Not at all. It's just that I know Tommy had a pretty big crush on Maddie the last time she was here. That's probably why he caused that little disturbance before the movie started."
So the punk's name was Tommy, Gil thought. He looked around the room to see if he could get a visual on the little sleazeball.
"Anyway, as I mentioned before, I teach a couple of sign language classes. I'd be more than happy to help you fill in some of the gaps that you..."
Ned prattled on as Gil scanned the room. He found the dude talking to Maddie. She looked really uncomfortable watching his hands. They looked aggressive and inappropriate, though Gil couldn't pin down why. She closed her eyes and looked away. The bastard grabbed her chin and slapped her signing something about how she needed to look at him when he was talking.
Gil saw red. He pushed past Ned and rushed at Tommy. He may not have been very experienced with sign language, but there was one form of hand to hand communication he knew all too efficiently.
Maddie's face went from hurt to relieved to horrified as Gil came to her rescue by pounding his message into Tommy's head.