Blind Love: English (2 page)

Ethan called again, and when he said the strawberry-blonde girl, I knew that Sandra wasn't really mistaken when she said he meant me. Surely there were more girls around with the same hair color, but what were the odds of another strawberry-blonde standing behind me, right?

"You go," I said. She was in a white shirt, a strawberry-blonde and she wasn't … uh, she wasn't like me. She was a better choice.

"What? No way! He wants
you
," she said in a hurry. "C'mon, Anna, the lights are on you!"

Oh, shit!

"Sandra, I'm not going to get up there, trip and make a fool out of myself in front of two million people!"

"Anyone could trip and fall, c'mon, it happens once in a lifetime, you have to get up there!" she said for the hundredth time.

"Not everyone is blind, Sandra!" I all but screamed. "Just go!"

There was silence from Sandra's side after that, and I knew that she wanted to do what I was suggesting, but she wasn't sure if she should leave me alone and didn’t want to ask the question that I hated the most. I answered the unspoken question, "I'll be okay, I promise, go!" fighting with everything in me against the tears that threatened to fall out of my useless eyes when her hand left mine and I couldn't feel her close presence anymore.

It was just another thing my disability took away from me, no big deal.

I wasn't born blind. I was fine, my sight was 20/20 until the age of eleven, but then it started to go downhill as the days passed until it was impossible to see without thick and ugly glasses. I was considered legally blind for a short time before we discovered that I was losing my sight quickly due to a tumor in my brain, one that made me
completely
blind in
no
time.

The doctors said that I would get my sight back after they removed the tumor that was pressing on the vision area, but even after that, I couldn't see anything, I was still blind, even after chemo and after all of the time they said it would take for the swelling to go down. And now, ten years later, I was still waiting, but I never lost hope. Well, I did lose hope for some time. But Ethan's songs reminded me of how we should never give up and to always believe in miracles.

But it wasn't so easy to do so. Still, I did. I hoped. I believed.

Sandra had such a good time up there on the stage, I could hear it. She didn't sing with Ethan like he'd offered her; instead, she played the drums with Dominik – of course. You see, Sandra only admired Dominik because
he knew how to play
, she'd told me once. She said that he wasn't only going with the music or the melody, he always brought life to it. Sandra used to play, as well, when she was younger. She had a band of her own in high school, but sadly, the band didn't make it anywhere far from school, and then there was college and everyone got busy starting a new life. She didn't play anymore other than with pencils on her desktop every now and then.

I was so glad that she was enjoying herself – she deserved it. I loved Sandra dearly, I loved her the most. She was, simply, my everything. And a bit more. But I still couldn't help the feeling I got when I thought about how it would feel if I was the one up there on stage. Well, in another world, not this one. Another world where I would be able to see where I was going, where I would be able to see the sights from up on the stage, and how it would feel to stand there higher than anyone, facing everyone. This world, though, I wouldn't be able to see the stairs or whatever they'd put to get you up there. I would've needed help to find where I was walking on the stage. I would've needed Ethan to hold the microphone up for me or place it in my hand to be able to sing – if I was ever up to that, that is. In this world, the sight from up on stage was the same as the sight from the second row I was currently standing in: complete darkness.

I pushed the pain away and smiled, blinking back tears and hoping that no one was looking at me. Pretended I wasn't scared out of my skin because I was standing alone in a crowded place full of people I didn't know. I decided to just be happy for my sister and her five minutes of joy. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Sandra.

Three weeks later, Dominik Thompson was minutes away from arriving at our house. You could say that Sandra had made quite the impression on him when she was up there on stage. She'd slipped him a card with her phone number. And tonight, he was coming over to have their first date together since going out wasn't a very good idea when you're a celebrity. He wanted them to have some privacy.

"Anna, would you get that, please?" Sandra called when we heard the buzz of the alarm. We lived in a gated community in a two-story house we'd moved in to after our parents passed away in a car accident. We couldn't stay in that old house we were raised in, too many memories. But we didn't sell it, though, only sold Sandra's apartment. The money we’d inherited from the two of my parents, plus what the insurance company paid us, was enough to cover everything we might need for school and college as well as living very comfortably for the rest of our lives. Sandra was twenty-two and I was sixteen when it happened. She was my guardian legally, but for what she'd done for me for the last five years, I liked to think of her as my guardian angel and not
just
guardian.

"Sure thing," I called back and stood up from the couch I was sitting on in the living room while listening to a TV show where I couldn't keep up with half of the things happening in the episode.

One, two. Arm chair. To the left. One, two, three. Small table. One. Entrance. Another left. One, two, three, four. The foyer. One more step. The door.

I pressed the button and spoke into the intercom, "Hello."

"Yo, Miss Barker."

"Hey, George," I smiled at his inability to call me Anna, no matter how many times I’d told him to do so.

"There is a Dominik Thompson here and he says that the other Miss Barker is expecting him."

I shook my head, not able to believe that Sandra forgot to inform them earlier.

"Yes, George, please let him in," I told him and pressed the button again, disconnecting our call.

"Sandra, it's Dominik," I called and heard a loud thud. "You okay there?" She couldn't have fainted, could she?

"I'm okay," she yelled. "Just tripped."

I shook my head and chuckled; I'd never heard that nervous tone in her voice before. A few moments later I heard the clicking of her sounds-like-very-high heels as she came toward where I was standing in the foyer. "Oooh, someone smells good," I commented.

"Aww! Thank you, Love. You think Dom will like it?"

"Of course, he will!" I smiled. "Don't be nervous, okay? He's the same guy you've been talking to on the phone all night long for the last two weeks."

"Ugh! I know, but still … can't help it."

"You're gonna be fine, hope you have a good night," I said and then called, "Tan! C'mon, girl. Bedtime."

"Whoa!" Sandra exclaimed. "Are you going to bed now? You won't meet Dom?"

"Nuh, maybe another time. I'll write for a while before I go to sleep. You go and have fun," I said, hearing the doorbell the second I finished talking.

"You know I love you, right?" Sandra called as I counted my way to the staircase.

"Love you, too," I called back, patting my fur-baby's head when I felt her jumping up the stairs beside me.

I sighed when I reached my bedroom and closed the door behind me, then made it to the bed to find Tan already making herself comfortable on top of the covers. I was hardly able to pull up said covers, she was such a huge girl.

I sat comfortably on my bed, then reached for my laptop that I'd put on my nightstand earlier today, turning it on and listening to the options before I chose to open a 'New Microsoft Word' then started working on a new story. This one was about a princess falling in love with the farmer's son. Another children’s book of mine. I liked to write about innocent and pure love and how it should always win over any difficulties or disposability, that one should always fight for the one they love no matter what. I wrote about hope and chances. My bestselling book was about a little girl who battled with cancer and won. I didn't write about how the girl had faced blindness since then, though. No one wanted to read about that, I believed.

Writing children’s books was what I did for a living – not that I needed it, but I didn't like to feel completely useless and just stay home not doing anything with my time or myself. I liked the feeling of – normalcy. I always took care of myself and all of my own needs. I dressed myself, showered on my own, never allowed Mom or later Sandra to help me with anything like that. I made my own coffee in the morning and cooked dinner. Tan was my companion on the walks I took every now and then. I cleaned my room and kept the house neat as much as I could. It was a huge thing I was grateful for; that I could be considered an independent woman and not someone who had to ask for help in every little thing.

Sandra was the one who edited my typos whenever I was finished with a new book before sending it to my agent, and I would be forever grateful for her. She was one of the
only
two I trusted. She took the role of my useless eyes in so many things, like buying my clothes and then telling me the color and what they looked like, making me touch every piece so I could memorize it and then be able to choose whatever I wanted to wear anytime without having to call for her to help me
every
time I wanted to change. Sandra was amazing that way.

A few hours and about two thousand words later, I heard footsteps outside of my room. I stopped typing on my keyboard and listened carefully, waiting for Sandra to come in, expecting that I would hear the click of the light when she turned it on to check on me before going to sleep – something she always did. This time, though, the footsteps stopped right on the other side of my door, then I heard a faint
''Shhhh,"
 and it wasn't so hard to understand that Dominik was still here and they'd decided to move their date upstairs, where her bedroom was, right next to mine.

I smiled, shaking my head; Sandra simply never understood how good my hearing was. When I heard her door being closed, I logged off after saving what I’d written so far and got up, making my way to the bathroom where I brushed my teeth before going back to bed and deciding to call it a night. I put a pillow over my head to muffle the outside noises that I knew for sure would come soon. I was happy for my sister, don't get me wrong, I just didn't want to hear
how
happy
she
was. Not like that. Ugh!

The first thing I did the next morning after I showered and dressed was go downstairs and start the coffee machine, then get Tan's food from the kitchen cabinet as the coffee machine worked. While I tried opening the can, Tan made sure to tell me how impatient she was with how much jumping she was doing beside me. I could hear her every move and she would always put her front legs on my arm, trying to tell me to hurry the heck up while panting like a dog right in my shoulder. Well, panting like
herself
.

"Bad dog, Tan. Bad dog!" I told her when I almost dropped the can because she just wouldn't let me open it in peace.

Eventually, I was able to get it open and put the food on her plate. I then placed it on the ground, hearing her start eating it right at the same second. It made me chuckle. She was just too cute for words.

"Good morning!"

"Oh, crap!" I cursed, startled at the alien voice I heard coming from behind me as I was touching the mugs searching for mine, barely managing to catch the one I almost knocked off.

"Oh, shit!" he cursed back. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," I breathed, swallowing thickly. "I'm just not used to hearing a male voice around here, and I didn't hear you approaching. I guess I was too focused on Tan."

"Yeah, right, she seems like a nice dog," he said awkwardly, and I stifled a laugh – my girl was huge and scary. "I'm Dominik, by the way, you must be Anna. Sandra had told me so much about you."