My phone rang, rousing me from a deep sleep. I grumbled and felt around on my bedside table for it. I finally located it and answered it. “Hello?” I said in a sleepy voice.

            “Hey Hailey, I’m sorry to wake you up so early,” Sophie said.

            I glance at the clock and saw that it was barely seven in the morning. “It is Saturday, right?” I asked.

            “Yeah, I’m really sorry. But I think Blake might need you right now.”

            All sleepiness vanished. “What do you mean?”

            She hesitated. “He just got off the phone with his parents, and I don’t think it went too well. He’s in his room and I can hear him throwing things around.”

            I swung my legs over the side of my bed. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” I said before hanging up. I got dressed quickly and then headed to Jared’s room. I knocked on the door and opened it before he answered. “Hey Jared-”

            I stopped abruptly when I realized he wasn’t alone. “Crap, sorry. Didn’t realize anyone else was in here.”

            Jared sat up and rubbed his hands over his face. “It’s okay Hales. What’s wrong?”

            “I’m going to Blake’s. Sophie just called me and told me that I need to go over there.”

            “Everything okay?”

            I sighed. “I don’t know. Something about a phone call from his parents. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know where I was going to be. Can you let Tonto out later? He didn’t even budge when I got up, so he’ll need to go out in a few hours.”

            “Sure, I’ll even take him for a run.”

            “Thanks Jared, you’re the best. I’ll see you later.” I closed the door again and hurried out to the garage. I hopped in the car and made the drive to Blake’s quickly. When I got there, Sophie was waiting for me at the front door. I parked the car and went up to her. “He still throwing things?”

            “Yeah,” she said as she led me inside. “He doesn’t want me to come in there. He sent Abby out, but that’s the only time he’s opened the door.”

            I could hear a muffled thud come from behind his closed door. “He’s not going to want me in there either, but I won’t let him stop me.”

            Sophie smiled sadly. “That’s why I called you. You’re the only one who might be able to get him out of this mood.”

            “I’ll try,” I replied as I put my hand on the doorknob. “You might want to go somewhere soundproof. I have a feeling that there will be some yelling.”

            She nodded. “I’m going to go out for some coffee. My mom isn’t home, so don’t worry about waking her up.”

            I nodded once and then opened the door. It was dark, so I flicked on the light and my eyes widened at the sight in front of me. Objects were scattered over the floor, some broken and some at drunken angles. Blake was standing in the middle of the mess, wearing only a pair of pajama pants and his head whipped in my direction when he heard the door open. “Sophie, I told you not to come in here,” he snarled.

            I shut the door behind me. “It’s not Sophie,” I replied calmly.

            He froze in the middle of throwing what looked like a clock radio. “Hailey? What the hell are you doing here?”

            “Sophie called me, said you were having some sort of temper tantrum. Since I like her, I told her I’d risk my life by talking to you, rather then having her do it.”

            He scowled. “I don’t want you here,” he snapped.

            “Oh, ouch. That hurts me so deeply. Get your head out of your ass and calm down for a minute. Your room looks like a war zone.”

            He inhaled deeply. “Hailey, just get the hell out of here. I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now.” He started prowling around his room, somehow managing to not trip over everything.

            “Too damn bad. I’m your friend, and obviously something has upset you. Being the amazing friend I am, I decided to come and try to make you feel better.”

            “You can’t make me feel better. You have no idea what the hell I’m dealing with.”

            “Are we going to go through this again, Blake?” I asked in an icy tone. “Did we not establish weeks ago that you aren’t the only one with problems?”

            “You think your problems are so much worse then mine? Are your parents assholes who think that you should be able to do anything even though you’re blind?”

            “No,” I replied in a deadly voice.

            He snorted. “Let me guess, your parents think you’re the best thing that ever happened to them,” he said sarcastically.

            “My parents are dead, you inconsiderate bastard!” I shouted.

            His pacing stopped and he turned towards me again. “What?”

            “They’re dead! They died in a car accident just over eight months ago. And my brother, he’s been in a coma since then. So don’t you dare try and judge me,” I snarled.

            He blew out a long breath. “Hales, I’m sorry,” he said in a calmer voice.

            It was my turn to snort. “Why? Because I lost my entire family? You think I want your sympathy?”

            “No, I’m sorry for being such an ass,” he replied. He made his way to his bed and sat on the edge. He patted the spot beside him. “Come sit beside me.”

            I grumbled a bit, but picked my way through the objects scattered on the ground and sat next to him. “You going to explain why you’re in such a foul mood?”

            He sighed. “If I tell you, will you tell me what happened to you?”

            I was silent for a moment as I thought about it. “Yeah, I can do that.”

            “My dad called me this morning. I hadn’t spoken to either of my parents in over three months, so I was a little surprised by the call. Everything was okay at first; he asked me how I was doing, how school was going, etc. But then he started talking about me coming down to where they are and taking a more active role in the business,” he spat the last word out like it was poison. “They want me to attend meetings, go to parties, rub elbows with all the big wigs. They just can’t accept that I want nothing to do with the stupid business or them, for that matter.”

            I hesitated for a minute before reaching out and placing my hand on top of his. “Maybe they’re just trying to make amends with you.”

            He surprised me by turning his hand over and lacing his fingers with mine. “No, they just want to pretend that nothing ever happened. When I told my dad that I refused to go down there, we ended up having a big fight. Some things were said that I’ll never forgive him for.”

            I squeezed his hand gently. “It’s their loss, you know. They’re missing out on knowing the person you’ve become.”

            “Yeah, because they’d really want to know me now that I’m a sarcastic, cranky asshole who takes his problems out on everyone else.”

            I chuckled. “Well, you are all those things, but you’re also strong and kind when you want to be. You’re also smart, although I’m still smarter.”

            His lips lifted into a small smile. “Yeah you wish.” He sobered again. “Are you going to tell me your story now?”

            I took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’ve never told anyone this before though, so it might take a while.”

            He frowned. “What do you mean? You’ve never told anyone about what happened?”

            “No. I’ll explain it all, so just be patient.” I closed my eyes before beginning. “My brother, Jake, came home for the weekend. He was in school to become a doctor, so we didn’t get to see him that often. We decided to go out to dinner as a family, since we hadn’t done that in a long time. We went out to our favorite restaurant and we had a lot of fun.” I smiled softly at the memory, but didn’t open my eyes.

            “It was the middle of winter, but the roads weren’t that bad. We were driving home, my parents in the front and Jake and I in the back.” I could picture it all vividly in my mind as I spoke. “There was a party that night. I’d been invited to it, but I declined because I had the family dinner to go to.

            “Everything happened so fast, and yet it was so clear. A car swerved into our lane and my dad tried to avoid it. Unfortunately, that caused us to hit a patch of black ice and the car flew off the road and into a tree. I could hear the glass from the back windshield shattering, but I didn’t feel anything at the time. I was the only one still conscious and I started calling out to my parents and Jake. But no one answered.

            “I don’t know how long it was until the emergency crews got there. But when they did, I realized there was something wrong with me. I couldn’t move my legs and one of the EMT’s nearly puked when he got to us. I blacked out at that point and woke up in the hospital two days later.

            “My uncle and Jared were sitting beside my bed when I regained consciousness. I was in a lot of pain, but the first thing I asked was where my parents and Jake were. My uncle broke down and Jared explained that my parents had died and that Jake was in a coma. When I tried to move, I found that I was barely able to make my toes twitch.

            “I started to panic and they had to sedate me. When I came back around the next time, I asked Jared what was wrong with me. He told me that when the back windshield had shattered, a bunch of pieces of glass had lodged themselves into my back and done a lot of damage. The doctors told me that I’d probably never walk again.

            “I went into a state of depression for a few weeks after that. I refused to talk to anyone from my school. I didn’t want anyone seeing me like that. If it weren’t for Jared, I probably would have stayed in that depressed state. But he came to my room one day and told me to stop feeling sorry for myself. That I was still alive and I should be thankful for that. I argued with him for nearly an hour, but eventually I calmed down and listened to him.

            “Jared had been my brothers best friend for as long as I could remember, and he’s like a second brother to me. He had graduated from school as a physical therapist, and together, we started on the journey for me to walk again.” I paused for a minute. I opened my eyes and saw that Blake was facing me, concern clear on his face. I took the hand I was still holding and unlaced my fingers from his. I then took his hand and moved it to my back, under my shirt. “Here, feel that,” I said.

            His fingers trailed over my back and when he reached the first scar, he stopped. “What is that?”

            “It’s one of my scars. I have ten of them across my back, from the glass and from the surgeries that I had to go through.”

            He ran his hand over the rest of my back, making me shiver a little. When he’d explored my whole back, he removed his hand and found mine again. “How did you start walking again?” he asked.

            “It took five long months. Jared refused to let up on me the whole time. I hated him at times, but it was worth it in the end. I got Tonto to help me out while I was stuck in a wheelchair, and I still need him sometimes.”

            Blake frowned. “What do you mean?”

            “I have good days and bad days. On really bad days, I’m confined to a wheelchair still.”

            “Jesus,” he said. “I never would have guessed that. I mean, I knew something was wrong with your back, but I never would have thought it was so severe.”

            “Good. I don’t want anyone to know about it. I’ve worked really hard to make it unnoticeable. I’m sure you understand me when I say that I don’t want to be treated differently.”

            “Well, you screwed that up by becoming friends with me,” he said dryly.

            I chuckled. “Yeah well, at least I’m only considered different because I can put up with your attitude.”

            “Everything makes a bit more sense to me now. I used to think you only wanted to be friends with me because you felt sorry for me, but now I realize that it’s because you actually understand me a little. You’ve been through hell and yet you survived and are still optimistic about life.”

            “I still have days where I curse everything and everyone around me. Those days are usually when I’m confined to my wheelchair. But I’ve found things that help me get through those times.”

            “Like what?”

            “Music. I play the piano and it helps me get through the tough times. I almost always play after I see my brother in the hospital. Those visits are hard on me, because I never know if I’m doing the right thing by keeping him alive.”

            Blake was silent for a moment. “I play the guitar,” he said quietly.

            My head snapped up. “Really?”

            “Yeah. I find it helps me when I get really frustrated as well. It’s a good release.”

            “It really is,” I replied.

            We sat there in silence for a little while. But then he asked the question that I’d been dreading. “What happened to the driver of the other car?”

            My whole body went rigid. I pulled my hand away from him and stood up, walking a few steps away. “The driver walked away with barely a scratch,” I said acidly.

            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.

            I managed to stop crying, but I didn’t move. Instead, I told Blake the rest of that 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. In fact, I sank into a deep depression. But Jared helped me through it all and so did my uncle. Liam lost his sister, so he understood the loss of a family member and Jared and Jake have been best friends for as long as I can remember. Having them helped me more then 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 then 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 is the bastard who was driving?”

            I was surprised at the amount of venom that was dripping from his words. “Yeah,” I replied.

            “Have you talked to him since?”

            “Once. He came to the hospital but I kind of went mental and started throwing things at him.  He had to go to court because of the accident, but 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, but I also never asked anyone. I figured it was your story to tell, not anyone else’s.”

            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. 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 then 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. “Well, you know how when you lose one sense, your others become magnified?”

            I nodded. “I’ve heard that before.”

            “Well, for me, my hearing increased more then normal. I can hear people do things by the sound of the wind their movements make, if that makes sense. Like, when you shrug, I can hear the air shift around you, so I know you made a movement. If I’m really paying attention, I can tell what movement you did by listening to where the sound came from.”

            I straightened up a little as my jaw dropped. “Seriously? That is so awesome!”

            He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it is. When I realized that I was going to be blind for the rest of my life, I put all of my time and effort into honing my hearing.”

            “I’ll have to remember that for the future,” I told him.

            “It won’t matter if you try and prevent me from hearing things. Almost every movement you make is unconscious, so you won’t be able to hide it.”

            I shook my head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I meant that I’ll be trying to make more movements so that you can ‘hear’ them. Now that I know you can tell when I shrug or whatever, I’ll be more open in my movements. But how exactly could you always tell when I was in pain? I know you always noticed, because you offered me painkillers more then once without me saying anything.”

            “You’re walking is different when you’re in pain. I can hear the difference in your steps.”

            “That really is amazing, you know. I have one other question for you.”

            “Go ahead.”

            “The first day I met Sophie, she said something about you seeing me for yourself. What did she mean about that?”

            Blake shifted a little before answering. “I can use my hands to see things,” he mumbled.

            My eyes widened. “Oh.” I thought about it for a moment. “Do you… want to see me?” I asked quietly.

            He turned his head toward me. “It would be nice to have a picture in my head of what you actually look like. I know you have black hair and brown eyes, but that’s it.”

            I blew out a breath. “Well, go ahead then. Will it be easier for you if I’m sitting, or…?”

            “Can you lie back? That way you won’t accidentally move away and interrupt me.”

            “Sure.” I removed my arm from his waist and moved until I was lying on my back straight across his bed. “I’m ready.”

            He took a deep breath as he moved so that he was lying on his side next to me. He raised one hand and hovered it over my face. “Try not to move, okay?”

            “Okay.”

            He lowered his hand and his fingers touched 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 him frown slightly as he continued exploring my face with his hand. 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 is 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 if 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.

************************************************************************

So, a lot of things get discovered in this chapter. Hopefully I did a good enough job in explaining everything. Don't worry, Blake isn't going to turn into this super nice guy all of a sudden. He's just being really nice because of how emotional Hailey is feeling in this chapter.

Some of you had it right in assuming the phone call from chapter 7 was from an ex and a couple of you actually figured out that it was the ex that was driving drunk.

I hope you all liked this chapter, should hopefully have the next one up in two days. I got this one up so quickly because I already had the bulk of it written :-). Comment to let me know if you like it!