For the next couple of weeks, Blake and I met up at the park almost every day after school. He came over to my place once more for dinner and I went to his place a few times to work on the project. When the project was done, I was actually a little sad. I was going to miss hanging out with him at his place.

            On a Friday night, my phone rang, interrupting the movie that Liam and I were watching. I paused the movie and glanced down at my phone, frowning when I didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”

            “Hailey?”

            “Yeah?”

            “It’s Sophie.”

            Recognition dawned. “Oh hey, how’s it going?”

            “Pretty good. I stole your number off of Blake, in case you’re wondering.”

            “Ah, that makes sense. Does he know you did that?”

            “Um, no?”

            I laughed. “Figured. So what can I do for you?”

            “I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping with me tomorrow?”

            “Yeah, I could do that. What time? And do you want me to pick you up?”

            “How about right after lunch? And that would be great if you could pick me up. It sucks not having my license yet.”

            “No problem. I’ll pick you up around one then, okay?”

            “Sounds good, see you then.”

            I hung up the phone and turned to see Liam looking at me curiously. “That was Sophie, Blake’s cousin. She wants to go shopping tomorrow.”

            “Oh, I didn’t realize you were friends with her.”

            I shrugged. “With how much I was at Blake’s to work on the project, we kind of became friends.”

            “Well, have fun shopping,” he said with a shudder.

            I chuckled. “I’m sure I will. Not everyone has your aversion to going to malls.”

            “I suppose not. But since you’re going, would you mind picking up a couple of shirts for me? That way I don’t have to go as well.”

            “Sure. Ready to finish the movie?” At his nod, I pressed play again and we finished watching the movie.

            The next day, I pulled up at Blake’s house right on time. I got out and knocked on the door. When it opened to reveal Blake, I blinked in surprise. This was the first time he’d been the one to answer the door. “Hey, is Sophie ready to go?”

            He shrugged. “No idea. She said something about doing her hair or makeup or changing her clothes.”

            I raised a brow. “So I might be waiting for awhile then?”

            “Possibly.” He opened the door further. “Come on in. I’m sure I can entertain you until my cousin is done being a diva.”

            I chuckled and followed him into the house. “I’m sure you can. Do you need to let her know I’m here?”

            “No, she heard the doorbell and that’s when she freaked out and started ranting about not being ready. Which is why I was the one to answer the door.”

            “Where’s your aunt?” I had met her a few times and I really liked her.

            “She had to go to a meeting earlier.”

            “On a Saturday?”

            “Part of being a lawyer, I guess. They don’t really get weekends off.”

            “That must suck,” I said as we walked into the living room. The TV was on and I quickly realized that it was in descriptive video. “So what are you watching?”

            “The Simpsons.”

            “Awesome, I love that show. What season?”

            “Fifteenth. Do you have a favorite episode?”

            We sat on the couch together and discussed our favorite Simpson episodes for a while. We were in the middle of debating our favorite characters when Sophie appeared in the doorway. I looked over at her. “Hey, you ready to go?”

            “Yeah, sorry it took me so long. I lost track of time so I didn’t realize what time it was until you showed up.”

            “No problem. We were just discussing how Bart is the best Simpson character.”

            Blake snorted. “As if. Homer is so much better.”

            “You just keep telling yourself that. Next you’ll be telling me that Smithers is the best character.”

            He wrinkled his nose a little. “No way. That guy is disturbing.”

            I breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, at least we have that in common.” I turned back to Sophie who was watching us with amusement. “Let’s get out of here. I’m ready for some serious shopping.”

            Sophie grinned and flicked her blonde hair out of her eyes. “Great. See you later Blake.”

            He grunted in response and I rolled my eyes. Walking over to him, I smacked his shoulder. He scowled and rubbed at the spot. “Jesus you’re abusive. What was that for?”

            “Your cousin said bye. Aren’t you going to answer her?” When he stubbornly remained silent, I let out a breath and leaned closer to him. “If you don’t want them to treat you like a child, then don’t act like one.”

            Shock covered his face for a moment before being replaced with a blank expression. He turned his head in Sophie’s direction. “Have fun shopping.”

            Sophie seemed surprised, but she didn’t say anything. I smiled smugly. “Was that so bad?”

            “You’re so annoying. Go away.”

            I laughed. “You know you like me. Have fun watching The Simpsons.”

            “I will.”

            I walked out of the room with Sophie and we quickly left the house and climbed into my car. We arrived at the mall and got down to the serious business of shopping.

            Two hours later, I forced her to stop so we could have a coffee. I needed to get some of my energy back. We sat at a little café and ordered our drinks. Once they had arrived, Sophie looked at me. “You know, Blake has changed a lot since he met you.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Well, he actually smiles sometimes now. After the accident, he never smiled or laughed anymore. And he talks a bit more.”

            “Oh,” was my intelligent response.

            “How did you get through to him? I tried so hard to break through to him, but nothing seemed to work.”

            I let out a long breath. “I guess I understand him. And I treat him like I treat everyone else, which he has told me that he likes.”

            Sophie frowned. “But how can you treat him like everyone else? I mean, I love him, but he’s an ass now and he makes it so difficult to be close to him.”

            I smiled. “Yeah, he really does. But I can treat him like everyone else, because that’s how I see him. If he says something rude, I call him out on it. I don’t let him get away with stuff just because he’s blind. But I also let him do everything for himself.”

            “How do you mean?”

            I bit my lip as I thought about how to answer that. I decided that honesty was the best way. “The first night he had dinner at my place, he told me that he really liked how I let him serve himself. He said that you and your mom try to do everything for him and it makes him feel like a child. He also said that he knows you mean well, but it’s difficult for him.”

            Sophie was silent for a minute. “I never even thought about that. We just want to make his life as easy as possible for him.”

            I smiled reassuringly at her. “I know. But life isn’t supposed to be easy. He needs to know that you guys trust him enough to take care of himself. Does he ever go out to do anything?”

            “No, not really. He leaves the house to go to school and the park with Abby, but that’s about it.”

            “What did he used to do?”

            “He went out with his friends a lot. To the movies, parties, concerts, stuff like that. Regular teenager things.”

            “Have you tried to get him out of the house since the accident?”

            She nodded. “Yeah, at first. But I gave up after awhile, because he always refused.”

            “Maybe I should start trying to get him to go out and do things then. He’s already figured out how stubborn I am, so I might have more luck.”

            “He does like you, you know.”

            That caught me off guard a little. “He does?”

            “Yeah. He might not want to admit it, but I know he’s actually really happy to have a friend. He was always such a happy and social guy before the accident, so it makes sense that he likes having you around.”

            “Well, for some unknown reason I seem to like him too. Even though he is an ass.”        

            Sophie chuckled. “He really is, isn’t he?”

            “Yeah.” My eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh my god, I just thought of something I have to buy for him!” I threw some money on the table and grabbed Sophie’s hand, dragging her away despite her protests.

            By the time we were back at her house, I was exhausted. My back had started to ache a little, but luckily it wasn’t too bad. When we walked into the house, there was no sign of Blake, but I could hear music playing in the distance.

            I gripped the bag with the gift for him in my hand as I turned to Sophie. “I’m going to go give this to him. Wish me luck.”

            She chuckled. “Good luck. Let me know what his reaction is.”

            I grinned at her. “Oh, I will.” I walked back to Blake’s room and knocked on his door. The music dimmed a little and a moment later the door opened. My mouth dropped a little when I saw that he was shirtless. My eyes raked over his subtle abs and I nearly had to wipe a bit of drool off of my chin.

            When I realized what I was doing, my eyes snapped up to his face and I swear I saw a flash of amusement in his eyes, but I decided I must have imagined it. For once, I was glad that he was blind, because that way he didn’t see the slight blush on my cheeks. “Hey, Sophie and I are back.”

            “I noticed.”

            I rolled my eyes. “I bought you something.”

            His eyebrows shot up. “What?”

            I placed the bag in his hands. “I saw this and had to get it for you.”

            He frowned as he reached into the bag and pulled out a book. He ran his fingers over the title and he chuckled. “You actually got me a book of insults?”

            I smirked. “Told you I was going to buy you one. Took me forever to find one in Braille though. But I figured you could use all the help you could get.”

            He smiled fully at me. “Thanks. This should keep me amused for a day or so at least.”

            “No problem. I need to get going, but I’ll talk to you at school on Monday.”

            “Okay. Have fun for the rest of the weekend, Hailey.”

            “You too, Blake.”

            After I said goodbye to Sophie, I left the house with a smile on my face. Things were going pretty well with Blake and I was happy that he was finally opening up to me. I wanted to be able to tell him my story, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready.

            Everything changed with a single phone call the next weekend.

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I know this one is short, but the next one should be a lot longer. I had to put this one in so you could see that Sophie and Hailey are friends as well. It's kind of a filler, but at least you get to see what Sophie's opinion is on Blake and Hailey :-)

Not much else to say, hope you enjoyed it. Comment to show me what you thought!