Love is Blind (16 page)

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with
Sophie, playing games and goofing around. I think Sophie was
surprised that Blake was willingly doing stuff with her, but she
was also obviously pleased.

When it came time for me to go home, Blake
walked me to the front door. He pulled me into his arms and held me
tightly. “I think my bed is going to feel empty without you
tonight,” he said.

“Maybe I can stay over one night next weekend,”
I suggested.

“I like that idea.”

“So I was thinking, maybe I could start picking
you and Sophie up in the mornings before school. That way your aunt
doesn’t have to worry about driving you and I can spend more time
with you.”

He was quiet for a minute. “I wish I could be
the one offering to pick you up,” he said quietly.

I ran my hands up and down his back. “Well, I
like driving the Camaro so it works out for me that you can’t,” I
replied.

His lips twitched a little. “I don’t deserve
you,” he replied softly.

My heart melted a little. “Sure you do. I’m not
exactly perfect.”

He chuckled. “True, but you’re a better person
than me.”

“Well, that’s just a given.”

He pushed me away from him slightly. “Okay, you
can leave now.”

I laughed and gave him a quick kiss. “So I’ll
come get you in the morning?”

“Yeah. See you then.”

I kissed him again and then walked out the
door.

Chapter seventeen

When Blake and I walked through the hallway at
school the next day, a lot of people did double takes. I knew it
was because Blake and I were holding hands, which was something
new. Sophie was walking with us as well and she rolled her eyes
when she realized people were staring. “It’s pretty sad that you
and Blake holding hands is likely going to be the talk of the
school in about five minutes.”

I laughed as I watched a bunch of people whip
out their phones and start typing madly. “It is pretty sad,” I
agreed. “But that’s part of the joys of living in an age where cell
phones are practically an extension of people.”

“Did you ever think they were just staring at us
because we’re hot?” Blake asked.

I turned my head to look up at him. “Of course
that’s why they’re staring. Why else would they be?” I asked
innocently.

He snorted and shook his head but didn’t say
anything else.Sophie split off from us when we reached my locker to
head to her own. When I was done at my locker, we went to Blake’s
and then we headed to class.

Once we were seated, I scooted my chair closer
to him so that I could lay my head on his shoulder and close my
eyes. He slid his arm around my waist. “Tired?”

I nodded without opening my eyes. “Yeah, I think
I missed having you with me,” I replied.

“I know what you mean. My bed felt empty without
you last night.”

The bell rang suddenly, causing me to jump and
snap my eyes open. Blake cracked up laughing beside me, and that
managed to get everyone’s attention, since no one besides me had
heard him laugh in two years. I shoved his shoulder. “It’s not
funny, that really scared me.”

He grinned at me. “Come on, that was a little
funny. I felt how much you jumped because of the bell.”

I mock scowled at him. “You’re mean,” I
said.

He nodded. “Yeah, but you knew that from the
beginning.”

I sighed. “I suppose you’re right,” I
muttered.

The teacher called the class to order then, so
any more conversation was made impossible for the time being.

After class, we walked down to his next class
together. Once he was sitting in his chair, I hopped onto his desk
so that I was facing him. He put his hands on my knees and drew
little patterns absently. “Are you going to eat lunch with me
today?” I asked.

His hands stilled. “I don’t know,” he
replied.

I leaned forward and placed a hand on his cheek.
“Please?” I pressed a light kiss to his lips.

He groaned. “Are you seriously going to start
this again?”

I smiled against his lips. “Oh yeah.”

He raised his hands to push on my shoulders a
little. “Fine, I’ll eat lunch with you. But you’ll owe me.”

“Hmm, and what exactly am I going to owe
you?”

He grinned wickedly at me. “That’s for me to
know and you to find out.”

I sighed. “Why do I have a feeling I’ll regret
this?”

“Because you probably will.”

“Oh well, it’ll be worth it if you’ll start
eating lunch with me.” I stood up and looked down at him. “I need
to get to class before I’m late.”

He grabbed my hand and tugged on it until I
leaned down. He pressed his lips to mine in a sweet kiss. “I’ll
meet you in the cafeteria then?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you there.” I left the classroom
and headed to my own. Rachel and David were both there already, and
I quickly took my seat beside David.

“So how did the date go?” Rachel asked.

I smiled. “It went really well.”

“Are you guys a couple now?”

I nodded. “Yeah. We decided that I’m the only
one who will put up with his cranky ass.”

David chuckled. “He seemed more like himself the
other day. You’re good for him.”

I shrugged. “He’s good for me, too. We seem to
level each other out.”

Rachel leaned forward a little so she could see
me better. “Did he kiss you?”

I blushed a little. “Yeah,” I mumbled.

“What was it like? Is he a good kisser?”

“He’s a very good kisser, but that’s all I’m
telling you.”

She pouted a little. “Spoilsport.”

I grinned. “Don’t worry; you can grill him at
lunch. I convinced him to sit with me.”

David’s eyes widened. “He’s seriously going to
eat with us?”

“Yeah. But don’t expect him to really talk or
anything. He might be starting to socialize again, but I don’t know
if he’ll be ready to talk to anyone else or not yet,” I warned.

“The fact that he even agreed to eat with us is
amazing enough, so I won’t be offended if he doesn’t talk,” David
replied.

Rachel just waved her hand in dismissal. “I’ll
get that boy to talk. No one can resist my charm.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “By all means, go ahead and
try. But if he snaps at you, don’t take it personally. He doesn’t
really have any manners yet.”

The bell rang, so we turned our attention to the
teacher. The class seemed to drag on today, but that was probably
because I was eager to have lunch with Blake.

When the bell finally rang to signal lunch, I
got out of my seat. “See you in a bit,” I called out to my friends
as I hurried out of the room. I stopped at my locker to chuck my
bag in and then made my way to the cafeteria.

Blake and Sophie were waiting outside the doors,
and I saw Sophie say something to Blake. His head turned in my
direction and I stopped in front of him a moment later. He reached
for my hand and entwined our fingers. “Ready to get this over
with?” he asked.

I chuckled as the three of us walked into the
cafeteria. “You make it sound like this is going to be torture,” I
teased.

“It kind of is to me. I don’t like people,
remember?”

“You like me,” I replied.

“Yeah, but that’s just because you let me kiss
you.”

I rolled my eyes and shoulder bumped him. “Just
for that, I might not let you kiss me for the rest of the day.”

“We’ll see about that,” he responded with a
smirk.

Sophie chuckled. “You two make such an
interesting couple.”

I grinned at her as we stood in the food line.
“That’s because we’re both awesome.”

“That’s what I was going to say,” Blake
said.

“I know. That’s why I said it.”

We bought our food and then went to the table
where my friends were sitting. Blake fell silent as we took our
seats, but I’d been expecting that. He ate his food in silence
beside me and even though Rachel tried to talk to him a couple of
times, he blatantly ignored her. She wasn’t perturbed though; she
just shrugged and turned to talk to Sophie.

When I finished eating, I moved my chair closer
to Blake so I could put my hand on his knee. I leaned closer to him
and whispered in his ear. “Thank you for sitting with me.”

He sighed before turning to kiss the top of
my head. “You’re welcome. And you so owe me later. Rachel doesn’t
shut up, does she?” he asked quietly.

I chuckled quietly. “No, she really doesn’t. But
she really is a nice person. Maybe you’ll see that eventually.”

“I know she’s nice, and I’m glad she’s with
David. But her chattering is giving me a bit of a headache.”

I kissed his cheek. “Don’t worry you learn to
tune it out eventually.”

I saw his eyebrows rise from under his
sunglasses. “Really? You think with my sensitive hearing, I’ll
really be able to tune her out?”

I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing.
“Okay, maybe you won’t be able to,” I said, amusement evident in my
voice.

“Oh yeah, just laugh it up,” he replied
sarcastically.

“You’ll survive,” I promised.

He leaned in and kissed me softly. “And if I
don’t, I’m taking you down with me.”

I laughed at that. “Gee, thanks for caring so
much.”

He smiled devilishly. “Anytime.”

Chapter eighteen

The rest of the week went by fairly quickly. The
weather grew colder and I knew that winter was on its way. Blake
continued to eat lunch with us and he slowly started talking to
David again. Our relationship was going well, and I quickly noticed
that Blake was actually very affectionate. He was constantly
touching me in some small way and when we were alone he always
liked to have me cuddled into him. I think part of it was because
he missed having someone to be close to, but I knew the other part
of it was that he genuinely cared for me.

Even though the relationship was going well, we
still argued. I had talked to my teachers and now I had permission
to be late for all my classes so that I could walk with Blake to
all of his. That had caused our first big fight.

“I don’t want you to have to babysit me,” he
snapped. We were standing in his bedroom on Saturday afternoon and
I’d just told him about the new arrangements.

“I’m not babysitting you! I’m just walking with
you to all your damn classes. What’s the big deal?”

“I should be walking you! Not the other way
around.”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “Not this again.
Blake, I know that it’s hard for you dealing with being blind. But
you have to stop getting irritated with me just because I’m doing
things that you stupidly think should be your job.”

His jaw was tense and his arms were crossed over
his chest. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Are you serious? You’re not the only one in
this relationship with problems, you know.”

He turned his head towards me. “At least you
have a normal life!”

“Normal? You think my life is normal? I have to
be confined to a wheelchair sometimes! I wake up every morning
praying that my back won’t act up so that I can actually walk.”

“People don’t talk about you behind your back,
though. No one knows about your problem.”

“So what? You think I should go around and tell
everyone that I was in a car accident that killed my parents and
put my brother into a coma?” I asked snippily.

“I didn’t say that!” he shouted.

“No, but you implied that just because people
can’t see my disability, it means my life is so much easier. You
always bitch about people being closed minded, and yet you’re worse
than a lot of them.” I stalked over to the bedroom door and opened
it, pausing to look back over my shoulder. “I don’t tell people
about the accident because I don’t want the fake sympathy from
everyone when they hear about my family. I had enough of that from
my so-called friends at my old school.” With that said I left the
room, shutting the door roughly behind me.

When I got home, I went directly to my room,
ignoring Jared and Liam who both seemed surprised to see me home so
early. I slammed the door to my room and went over to my bed,
flopping down onto it. I was frustrated with Blake, but the
conversation had also brought up an old hurt from right after the
accident. The few “friends” that had actually come to visit me had
only been trying to get all the gossip on everything that had
happened. They all pretended to be sympathetic, but the whole time
they visited me they were fishing for information.

It was an hour later that Jared finally came
into my room to see what was wrong. He sat on the edge of the bed.
“Want to talk about it?”

I rolled onto my back so I could look at him.
“Not really. Blake was just being an ass and it pissed me off this
time.”

Jared frowned. “But he’s always kind of an
ass.”

I cracked a half smile. “I know. But he said
some things that made me want to punch him. So I opted to just walk
away instead.”

“Hmm. Well, I’d offer to kick his ass for you,
but that probably wouldn’t solve anything.”

I shook my head and gave him a more genuine
smile. “No, it wouldn’t.” I sighed and sat up. “Why aren’t you with
Laurel?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I had plans with her for later,
but when I saw how upset you were I called her to cancel them. I
told her that my little sister needed me tonight.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” I told him. My
phone rang so I grabbed it and looked at the Caller ID. I saw that
it was Blake, but I wasn’t ready to talk to him yet so I ignored
it. When I looked at Jared again, he was grinning. “What?”

“You’re going to make him suffer for this,
aren’t you?”

“No… well maybe just until he apologizes.” I
lay down on my back again. “Stupid ass really thinks that his life
is so much worse than anyone else’s,” I muttered.

Jared chuckled. “You’ll show him the error of
his ways, don’t worry. I know first- hand just how stubborn you can
be.”