Page 16 of Saving You

“Because I think a little sensitivity training is in order,” Oz told her plainly. “You’ve insulted a young Deaf boy who comes in here all the time. His dad knows the owner, by the way. And she loves Rex. You’ve also yelled at a blind man like he can’t hear, which isn’t a great look.”

“I mean, I get it all the time,” Lucas said, “but it always sucks.”

“I—I didn’t,” she stammered.

“Have a nice day,” Lucas interrupted her, turning away, then let Oz’s arm go and backed up a step. “If I had a fucking penny for every time this shit happened…”

“Yep,” Oz told him. “I’d already have my mortgage paid off.”

Lucas snort-laughed and tapped his fingers in a pattern Oz recognized from a few of his autistic students. He began to gently rock his head from side to side. “So. I guess I should go back to tie shopping.”

“Is that what you were up to?” Oz looked down briefly when he felt a tug on his sleeve, and he met Rex’s gaze, who was holding up a very ornate flower hairpin with feathers on the side. “Hang on, Rex is showing me something.”

‘Pretty,’ Rex told him. ‘Do you think Dad would like it?’

Oz pulled out his phone. ‘Take a picture, and you can show him.’ Rex took the phone and darted off, and Oz turned back to Lucas. “He wants his dad to wear a flower pin in his hair.”

“You know he will,” Lucas said with a grin. He tapped his cane tip a few times on the ground, then said, “Did that lady take off?”

Oz glanced behind him. “She’s probably hiding in the storeroom now. I think we scared the shit out of her.”

Lucas didn’t smile. “Good. I’m…fuck, I’m getting really tired of shit like this. Last week, this dickhead health inspector showed up to eat at the food truck, and when he realized I was blind, he called his boss and demanded that we be reevaluated.”

“What the hell?”

Lucas looked furious. “Luckily, Lane took care of it. He made a phone call and tore them a new one, but the dude was dead serious that a blind guy running a food truck couldn’t do itsafely. For a minute, I thought Lane might actually have to fire me.”

“He would never,” Oz said. He didn’t know Lane that well, but he knew him well enough to know he’d rather stab himself in the hand than bend to the will of some bureaucratic, ableist asshat.

“That’s what he said. It…you know…sucks, I guess. When I was at the blind school, I had a few teachers who told me that if I wanted to avoid the stress of adulthood, I should file for disability the moment I turn eighteen and not bother with the corporate world. They said even if I did get hired somewhere, it would be for diversity reasons, and they’d fire me the first chance they could get away with it.”

Oz winced. Lucas’s former teachers were wrong, but not completely. There were dickhead organizations who would do exactly what they described, and he knew damn well how badly those moments crushed people who were just trying to exist and support themselves.

“I think I keep expecting them to be right, even when it’s someone like Lane,” Lucas said so quietly Oz had to mostly read his lips, which wasn’t easy. Being blind from birth, Lucas moved his mouth differently from sighted people, and he could be hard to understand. But it was worth putting in the extra effort for him. “Anyway, sorry to rain on your happy day.”

Oz reached out and gave his arm a pat. “You’re fine. My day hasn’t been particularly happy, but it also isn’t ruined.” And it couldn’t possibly be worse than the afternoon he had coming up with his family. “I should get this kid out of here before he convinces me to buy something though. See you around?”

“Drop by the food truck if you get hungry. We’re two blocks from your school on Thursdays. If you get a decent lunch break, swing by, and I’ll hook you up.”

Oz grinned. “I will.” He wasn’t sure if he meant it, but he would at least try. Turning, he stomped his foot hard to get Rex’s attention. ‘Say bye to Lucas. We have to leave.’

Rex dropped the tiara he was holding and Oz’s phone as he hurtled himself toward the younger man. Oz went to grab his phone and right everything as Rex signed his goodbyes, and after a little pout, they were out the door and heading back for Oz’s car.

‘Oz?’

‘Yeah?’ Oz signed when he had Rex’s full attention.

‘Was that lady being mean? You and Lucas were angry.’

Oz’s heart sank. He swore to himself that any kid he mentored would know the truth when people were being shit. But every time he was honest, Rex’s little soul was crushed more and more. He was still a happy kid, but he didn’t smile as much anymore when they navigated hearing spaces. He didn’t try to engage with people as often.

He was withdrawing and anxious now, and Oz knew that while it was a thing all kids like Rex went through, he wished he could shield him from it. He still bore the ugly, glaring scars of childhood trauma from not fitting in, and he didn’t want Rex to have those.

‘She wasn’t being very nice, but Lucas and I both told her how to be nicer.’

Rex’s brow furrowed, and then he nodded. ‘Okay.’

And that was that. Not the worst outcome, so Oz decided he could pat himself on the back about his answer. And, of course, make sure that Frey knew exactly what happened so hopefully, with the right phone call, it would never happen again.

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