Love is Blind

by Shayna B

  I had my back turned to Blake, but I heard him stand up and close the distance between us. He put a hand on my arm and even though I tried to jerk away, he didn’t remove it. “There’s something more to that, isn’t there?”

  I took a shaky breath. “The driver and his passenger were fine. He managed to put his car in a snow bank and so they had no injuries,” I told him. My voice broke on the last word and a tear fell down my cheek.

  I was suddenly pulled into a hug and I was too shocked to do anything at first. Was Blake really hugging me? When I recovered from the surprise, I wound my arms around his waist and clung tightly to him. I buried my face in his shoulder as I struggled to control my emotions. When I managed to stop crying, I didn’t move. Instead, I told Blake the rest of the story. “He was my boyfriend,” I whispered.

  I felt Blake stiffen. “What?”

  “The driver of the other car. He was my boyfriend at the time.”

  “You have got to be shitting me.”

  That got a tiny smile out of me. “I really wish I was, but I’m not. And you know what else? The passenger was another girl and she’d been… um… distracting him while he was driving, which was part of the reason he swerved. They were coming back from that party I told you about.”

  Blake was silent for a long time as he processed this. His whole body was so tense that I could feel his muscles trembling slightly from the strain. But his arms remained gentle around me and he slowly started to rub my back. “Christ Hailey, how can you be so happy when you’ve been through so much?”

  I reluctantly pulled back a little and took his hand, leading him back to the bed. Once we were both sitting again, I let out a big breath. “I wasn’t happy at first; remember, I was in a state of depression for two months. But Jared and Liam helped me through it. Having them helped me more than I can say. I guess that’s what made me determined to befriend you. I wanted you to have the same support that I did, even if it was two years later than it should have been.”

  Blake snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me close to his side. He rested his cheek against the top of my head. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “For not giving up on me like everyone else did.”

  I frowned. “Sophie and your aunt didn’t give up on you.”

  “I guess not, but they don’t really know how to act around me. They try to treat me normally, but it’s hard for them.”

  “I guess that’s why I don’t talk to anyone from my old school anymore. I know my friends would try and be there for me, but it would just be too hard with them. Especially because of the whole Marcus thing.”

  “Marcus was your boyfriend?”

  I was surprised at the amount of venom in his voice when he said Marcus’s name. “Yeah,” I replied.

  “Have you talked to him since?”

  “Not really. He came to the hospital but I kind of went mental and started throwing things at him. He’s also tried contacting me a few times since, but I’ve kept ignoring him. He had to go to court because of the accident. He got away with just community service since he was underage, barely over the legal limit and it was technically the black ice that caused my dad to lose control of the vehicle. The fact that his parents are very influential in that town had a lot to do with the ruling as well.”

  “He should’ve been tried as an adult and thrown into jail.”

  “Yeah, he should have, but that’s not how the justice system works, unfortunately.” I laid my head on his shoulder, taking comfort in his closeness. “So now you know my story. Is it what you were expecting?”

  “Not even close. I never would have thought that you’d been through all of this.” He fell silent for a moment. “Has anyone told you about my accident?”

  “No, I never asked anyone about it. I figured if you wanted me to know about it, you’d tell me.”

  He lifted his head, but he didn’t remove his arm from around me. “I appreciate that.” He blew out a breath. “It was a dirt biking accident.”

  I frowned. “How did that cause you to become blind?”

  “I was stupid, that’s how. I wasn’t wearing a helmet and I crashed. Apparently I’m lucky to even be alive. I was in a coma for three weeks and they thought I was going to be mentally damaged when I woke up. Imagine everyone’s surprise when I woke up completely lucid, but blind. They did a bunch more scans and that’s when they saw the damage to my optical nerves. I guess the impact to my head caused the nerves to become pinched or something. The doctors weren’t sure if they would repair themselves over time or not, but as time went on, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to happen.”

  “And there was nothing they could do to fix it?”

  “No. Surgery wasn’t possible because of the risk that it would cause more damage than good.”

  I slid one of my arms around his waist. “Well, we’re just a couple of messed up people, aren’t we?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess.”

  We sat in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying each other’s company. “Can I ask you something?” I finally asked.

  “At this point, you can ask me pretty much anything.”

  “You were able to notice something was off with me, even when everyone else couldn’t see it. How did you do that?”

  His brow furrowed. “Can you give me a specific example?”

  I thought back. “The first day we met, you asked me if I was okay. How did you know something was wrong?”

  He thought about it for a minute before replying. “I heard you curse, but I also… heard you falter?” he said it more like a question.

  It was my turn to frown. “What does that mean?”

  He rubbed his free hand over his face. “Remember when we talked about my hearing improving after I went blind? Well, I decided that my hearing needed to be really good, so I started working on listening to everything really carefully. Everyone has a normal way of walking and moving, so I could hear when something was off about your rhythm.”

  I straightened up a little as my jaw dropped. “Seriously? That’s kind of awesome.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

  “I’ll have to remember that for the future,” I told him. “So you could tell when I was in pain because I walked different?”

  “Basically. Now I have a question for you.”

  “What?”

  “I’ve known you for over a month now, and I have no idea what you look like. I mean, Sophie has told me a little, but it’s not the same thing.” He held his hands up in front of him. “I can use these to ‘see’ you, if you’ll let me.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “You want to know what I look like?”

  “Yeah.”

  I shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.”

  “Can you lie back for me? That way you’ll stay still.”

  I complied and stretched out on my back. “Ready when you are.”

  He shifted slightly so he was beside me and then he ran his fingers lightly over my forehead. They smoothed over it briefly before moving down. My eyes automatically shut and he feathered his touch over my eyelids. He moved onto my nose and my eyelids fluttered open again. I saw his brow was slightly furrowed as he continued exploring my face with his hand, as if he was concentrating intently. My breath caught a little when he traced a finger over my lips and I silently cursed myself for my reaction.

  His lips turned up a little when he heard my breathing stutter. When he had gone over my entire face twice, he moved his hand to my hair. He ran his fingers through it, testing the length and weight of it. When he was satisfied, he removed his hand and smiled at me. “Thanks.”

  I raised a brow. “Well, what did you think?”

  “Nope, I’m not telling you.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “That’s really mean.”

  He laughed. “And that surprises you?”

  I sighed. “No, I suppose not.” I stifled a yawn.

  “You tired?”
>
  “Yeah. Sophie’s phone call woke me up.”

  “My dad’s phone call woke me up too.” He sat up and moved so that he was lying on the bed properly. He held open an arm in invitation. “Come on; let’s have a nap, since we both got woken up by the phone this morning.”

  I hesitated for about one second before accepting his invitation. I crawled up to his side and snuggled into him. It had been a long time since any guy besides Jared or my uncle had held me and it felt different, but nice. I laid my head on his bare chest and he pulled the covers up over us. “This is different,” I murmured.

  “What?”

  “You being nice.”

  I felt his chest vibrate as he chuckled. “I know. Maybe I’ve decided that I can be a little nicer to you.”

  I smiled as my eyes closed. “Don’t be too nice though. I like our bantering.”

  “Don’t worry; I’m sure we’ll still annoy the hell out of each other. Go to sleep, Hailey. We can talk some more when we wake up.”

  I murmured in agreement and allowed the steady rhythm of his heartbeats lull me to sleep.

  Chapter 12

  A soft knocking on the door woke me up. I muttered quietly and snuggled into my pillow more. My brows furrowed when I realized that my pillow was harder than usual and it was moving. I slowly peeled my eyelids open and saw Blake’s face. His eyes were still closed, but his lips were turned up into a smile.

  When I heard the door open, I turned my attention to it. Sophie poked her head in and her eyes widened when she saw me curled up against Blake’s side. “Oh sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

  Blake shifted underneath me a little. “I was already awake.”

  I looked back up at him. “How long have you been awake for?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Not long.”

  I turned to Sophie again. “Is something wrong?”

  She shook her head. “No, I just wanted to see how things were going, that’s all.”

  I sat up and stretched my arms over my head, wincing when the muscles in my back protested the movement. “Well, I got him calmed down,” I said.

  Blake sat up as well, his hand going to my back. He started lightly massaging the sore muscles as he turned his head in his cousin’s direction. “Thanks for calling her, Soph.”

  Surprise flitted across her features. “No problem. But I thought you’d be angry with me for doing that.”

  He shrugged. “I am kind of annoyed that you went behind my back, but in this case it worked out for the best. So thanks.”

  She smiled. “You’re welcome. Hailey, are you staying here for the day?”

  I glanced at Blake. “I don’t know.”

  “I don’t have anything planned, so you can stay if you want,” he told me as he dropped his hand back to his side.

  “I suppose that’s the closest thing to an invitation that I’ll be getting from you,” I said jokingly.

  He grinned. “You’re probably right. So, are you going to stay?”

  “Sure. But you have to take me and Sophie out for dinner later.”

  The smile left his face. “Why do I have to do that?”

  “Because we want you to. Right Sophie?”

  Sophie bit her lip, but the look on my face must have convinced her. “Yeah, that would be fun.”

  When I looked back at Blake, I saw that he was scowling, but I could also detect a bit of fear. Without looking away from him, I spoke to Sophie. “Sophie, why don’t you go take Abby out in the yard? We’ll be there shortly.”

  Sophie looked between the two of us once before nodding and closing the door behind her. I waited until I was sure she was gone before speaking again. “You haven’t been out to dinner since the accident, have you?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t want everyone staring at me,” he snapped.

  “Don’t get all snarky with me. Why would everyone stare at you?”

  “Because I’m blind,” he said in voice that indicated I wasn’t too smart.

  “Yeah, but it’s not like it’s easy to see that. You look like every other teenage boy that I’ve ever seen.”

  “Why are you being so damn pushy about this?”

  “Because you need to get the hell out of this house. It’s not good for you to keep yourself so cut off. You’re being a wimp.”

  He bristled. “I am not a wimp.”

  “Well, you sure as hell act like one a lot of the time. Come out to dinner with Sophie and me tonight. It might end up being fun.”

  Blake sat with a blank face for a few minutes, his jaw tense. Finally, he blew out a breath. “Fine,” he said grudgingly.

  I grinned and bumped his shoulder with mine lightly. “Don’t be such a sourpuss.” I looked around his room and spotted his guitar sitting in the corner. “Are you any good on the guitar?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Will you play something for me?”

  He debated for a moment. “Sure.” He climbed off the bed and made his way to his guitar. He picked it up and walked back to the bed, sitting on the edge. “What do you want me to play?”

  “Something happy.”

  “Okay.” He positioned his fingers over the strings and strummed it a few times before starting the song. He chose to play Mud on the Tires by Brad Paisley. I closed my eyes as I listened to him sing. His voice was deep and beautiful, and it sent shivers through my body.

  After the last note, I opened my eyes again. Blake had a look of utter peace on his face, and I understood it completely. The feeling after I sang a song was always one of contentment and it was clear that he felt the same thing. “Well, you aren’t horrible,” I told him.

  He grinned. “Thanks. Should we go outside now? Sophie is probably wondering what’s taking us so long.”

  “Sure. You going to get dressed? Or are you going to go around in just you pajama pants all day?”

  He smirked. “Well, I know you like my body, so I just figured I’d let you ogle me for a little longer.”

  Heat crept into my face, because I had been discreetly checking him out. I wasn’t about to admit it thought. “It’s not bad, but I’ve seen better,” I said with a shrug.

  He chuckled. “You keep telling yourself that. I’ll meet you outside in a few minutes.”

  I muttered under my breath about egotistical jerks as I left the room, the sound of his laughter following me.

  That evening, the three of us got into my car to go to the restaurant. Blake decided to leave Abby at home, because he figured that would just draw attention to him, which he didn’t want.

  When we got to the restaurant, we all got out of the car and I walked to Blake’s side, laying my hand on his arm. “You ready for this?”

  “No, but let’s do it anyways.”

  I slid my hand down his arm and linked my fingers with his. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze before lightly tugging on him, leading him forwards. Sophie fell into step on my other side, and the three of us entered the building together. We’d chosen a fairly casual restaurant, because none of us had the desire to dress up.

  The hostess quickly seated us in a fairly private booth, and I was grateful for that. I knew Blake would be more comfortable if there weren’t as many people around. We settled into the booth, Blake and I on one side, and Sophie sitting across from us. Blake had asked me to sit beside him, because he knew I wouldn’t try to help him unless it was needed.

  Once the hostess had made sure we were settled, she told us that our waitress would be here shortly, and then she disappeared. I turned to Blake. “We’re in a pretty private part of the restaurant, so you can relax a little.”

  He nodded. “I could tell it wasn’t too crowded, because there aren’t a lot of voices around. Can you describe the layout of the table to me?”

  I nodded and quickly told him where everything was. He used his hands to feel everything and by the time the waitress arrived to take our drink order, he was fairly comfortabl
e with where everything was.

  The waitress stopped at our table and smiled brightly. “Hi! I’m Shannon and I’ll be your server tonight. Can I get everyone something to drink?” She was on the small side, with light brown hair and hazel eyes. She looked to be around our age, but I didn’t recognize her.

  Sophie and I ordered coke and Blake ordered ice tea. Shannon gave us another smile, her eyes lingering on Blake for a second, before she went off to get our drinks. Sophie and I grinned at each other.

  “Blake, I think you have an admirer,” Sophie said.

  He frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “The waitress was checking you out. It was subtle, but we both caught it,” I explained.

  “Really? What does she look like?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Typical guy, worried about looks over personality.”

  “Aw, don’t be jealous Hailey,” Blake said in a fake sweet voice. “I’m sure she’s not as pretty as you.”

  “You think I’m pretty?”

  His face turned to stone immediately. “I never said that.”

  “Hate to break it to you Blake, but you kind of did,” Sophie said with a grin.

  Blake scowled. “Shut up,” he grumbled.

  I laughed. “You obviously didn’t listen to that book I got you, if that’s the best you can come up with.”

  “Just read the damn menu to me, will you?”

  I chuckled again, but obliged. The rest of the evening went really well. The three of us had a lot of fun, and Blake stayed relaxed for the most part.

  When I dropped them off at their place, Sophie got out of the car quickly and practically ran to the front door. I watched her go with a slight frown. “What’s her hurry?”

  “I think she has a crush on a guy and she’s probably going to stalk him on Facebook like she does every night.”

  “That’s cute, in a creepy kind of way.” I turned my gaze to him. “So, did you have fun?”

  “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” he admitted.

  “Told you so.”

  “Yeah, yeah, no need to rub it in.” He was quiet for a moment. “Thanks.”

  “What for?”