My wheelchair jerked to halt as Blake stopped quickly. “Marcus?” he repeated incredulously.

            I squinted against the bright sunshine. “Yeah, he’s leaning against the car in the driveway.”

            “What do you want to do?”

            I debated with myself internally for a moment before letting out a long breath. “I think I should probably talk to him. Obviously ignoring his calls and texts aren’t getting the message through to him.”

            Blake started pushing the wheelchair towards the house again. Marcus spotted us and straightened up from his slouched position. He didn’t say anything as we approached him.

            When we were closer, I got a good look at him and my eyes widened slightly. His light brown hair that he’d always had carefully styled was now long and lifeless as it flopped over his forehead. His green eyes that had always sparkled with mischievousness and playfulness were now dull and had a haunted look in them. He had dark circles under his eyes and his cheeks were hollower. He looked like death warmed over, and that surprised me almost more then actually seeing him.

            I put a hand on one of Blake’s and he stopped once more. I looked up at Marcus and studied him for a moment. “You look like hell,” I told him bluntly.

            His lips twitched the slightest bit, but he didn’t smile. “Thanks.”

            “What are you doing here?”

            He brought a hand up and scrubbed it over his face roughly. “You wouldn’t answer my calls.”

            “That should have told you that I have no desire to talk to you.”

            He lowered his hand again and gave me a pleading look. “Hailey, please. I just want to talk to you, explain to you what happened that night.”

            I bristled. “I know what happened that night,” I hissed, gesturing to my wheelchair. “I was there, remember?”

            Marcus flinched, but stood his ground. “I know. But I want to tell you my side of the story.”

            “Your side? Marcus, you were drunk and had another girl in the car with you that distracted you enough to cause you to run my parent’s car off the road. What else could you possibly have to tell me?”

            Blake put his hands on my shoulders and rubbed them soothingly. “I don’t think she wants to talk to you,” he said in a deceptively calm voice.

            Marcus looked at him briefly and then back at me. The pain that was evident in his eyes made my breath catch a little. “I saw the video of you two,” he said quietly. “It was then that I realized I had to at least come here and try to talk to you. Please Hailey, just hear me out.”

            After a moment of hesitation, I finally nodded. “Fine. Lets go inside so we don’t freeze. It might be a nice day out, but it’s still the middle of winter.”

            Blake bent down so he could talk quietly in my ear. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

            I turned my head so I could give him a light kiss. “No, but I think I need to.”

            “Okay.” He stood straight again, but instead of pushing me forward, he spoke to Marcus. “We’ll go in and talk. But if you do or say anything to upset her, I will hurt you. And don’t think the fact that I’m blind will stop me.”

            Marcus blew out a breath. “Fair enough.”

            “Men think they can solve everything with their fists,” I muttered under my breath. Blake chuckled quietly and started pushing me towards the front door. Marcus trailed along behind us, not saying anything as we went inside.

            We went into the living room and Blake lifted me from my chair and set me down on the couch. He sat beside me and took my hand as Marcus stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. “Okay, talk,” I said.

            He took a deep breath and then sat in a chair across from Blake and I. “First of all, the girl in the car with me wasn’t distracting me in the way you might think she was.”

            I raised a brow. “Oh really?”

            He flushed a little. “I should start at the beginning. I wasn’t even going to go to that party, because you weren’t there, but Mike and Brad convinced me to. I had a couple of beers, but that’s all. I didn’t stay too long because I was hoping to maybe see you after you finished dinner.

            “As I went to leave, I saw this really drunk girl trying to get into her car. I went over to stop her and offered to drive her home. She was really inebriated, but managed to tell me her address so I put her into the passenger seat of my car.” He paused then and rubbed the back of his neck, a sign I knew meant he was uncomfortable. “Like I said, she was really drunk, and as I was driving her home, she got this idea that she should… repay me for driving her home.”

            His face was bright red by now. “She kind of launched herself at me and caught me off guard. I was trying to fight her off and I wasn’t concentrating on the road as much as I should have been. That’s what caused me to swerve into the other lane.” He dropped his head into his hands. “That’s what caused me to run your parent’s car off the road,” he finished quietly.

            I didn’t speak for a minute as I thought all of this through. “So that’s supposed to make everything better?” I finally asked sarcastically.

            He looked up at me again. “No, of course not. It doesn’t change anything; I know that. I just needed you to know that I wasn’t cheating on you. It doesn’t make anything any better, but I thought maybe that it would… you know what, I don’t know what I thought it would do.”

            I studied him closely again, taking in his ragged appearance. “This has been really hard on you too, hasn’t it?” I asked him quietly.

            He shrugged. “I figure I deserve it. I may not have been drunk, but I’d still been drinking. Maybe if I hadn’t had those two beers, I would have been able to keep that girl off of me and stay in the right lane as well.”

            I sat back with a sigh. “We both know that two beers wouldn’t have really affected you, Marcus. Even though it put you over the legal limit, it really wouldn’t have made a huge difference in your reaction time.”

            “We don’t know that for sure. I have to live with myself everyday, knowing that I caused you to lose your parents and almost your brother as well. And that I caused you so much pain, both physically and emotionally.”

            I looked down at my hands. “The emotional pain was harder for me to deal with then the physical pain, I think. It felt like I lost everything that night. My parents, my brother, my independence and the guy I loved. It took me a long time to realize that I didn’t lose everything. Yes, I lost a lot, but I still had my uncle and Jared. And most importantly, I still had my life.”

            I looked at Blake, who had remained silent the whole time we were inside. “But it wasn’t until I met Blake that I really started to heal. Here was a guy just as emotionally damaged as me, but he was also surly and rude. I made it my goal to befriend him, thinking I could maybe help him in some way. But instead, he helped me. He gave me an outlet when I needed it and didn’t get offended when we argued about stupid things. My feelings for him ended up healing those last emotional scars that I had left.”

            Blake leaned in and kissed me gently. “You would have been fine without me.”

            “Maybe, but we’ll never know because I do have you.” I glanced at Marcus again. “I’ve learned a lot in the past year, Marcus. I know that not everything is always black and white. When the accident happened, I needed someone to blame and you were the obvious choice. I didn’t want to talk to you because I didn’t want to hear your side of the story at the time. I think part of me knew that there must have been a more logical explanation for what happened, but I didn’t want to know what it was. I wanted to be able to keep blaming you so I had an outlet for all that rage inside of me.”

            “I can understand that. I told myself to just leave you alone, but I couldn’t. I guess I hoped that if I could tell you the whole story, maybe it would ease some of the guilt I’ve felt since that night.”

            “Did it work?”

            “I don’t know. I’ll find out tonight, I suppose. If I have the same nightmare that I’ve had every night, then probably not.”

            “You’ve had the nightmares too, huh?”

            “Yeah, every single night since the accident. You have them too?”

            “Not every night, but I get them occasionally.” I frowned a little. “Actually, since I met Blake, I think I’ve only had a couple of them, and none at all since before Christmas.”

            It was true. The last time I’d had a nightmare had been the night before Blake came over when I was in a wheelchair the first time after meeting him. We had started dating not too long after that and I wondered if that had something to do with it.

            Marcus interrupted my musings with a question. “You really love him, don’t you?”

            Blake cleared his throat. “Hales, why don’t I go make us some hot chocolate?”

            I was a little hesitant about him leaving. “You don’t have to do that.”

            He squeezed my hand. “I know. But you need a chance to talk to him alone for a minute. I won’t be long.” He pressed a kiss to my temple before standing up and walking towards the kitchen.

            When he was gone, I turned back to Marcus. “To answer your question, yes, I do really love him. I didn’t really expect that to happen again, especially so soon after everything happened. But it did, and now I don’t know what I’d do without him.”

            Marcus sat back in the chair and released a long breath. “I could see it in the video that was posted online. Like I said earlier, that’s what made me finally just show up here. I was hoping that since you’d managed to move on, you’d be more receptive to listening to me.”

            “You were right to think that. If I hadn’t met Blake, I likely wouldn’t have had anything to say to you.” I smiled a little. “You know, not too long ago, I told the principal of my school that everyone deserves to tell their side of the story. I guess it just took me awhile to listen to myself.”

            “I’m glad you let me say my piece. I know it doesn’t change anything or make anything better, but…” he trailed off, obviously not knowing what to say.

            “I know what you mean. It wasn’t healthy for me to have all this rage built up inside me. I had this plan to eventually talk to you on the phone, but this is better I think. If I hadn’t seen you, I never would have seen how much this actually has affected you. I never would have believed your side of the story if I hadn’t seen that.”

            He ran a hand through his hair and grimaced. “I need to get a haircut, that’s for sure. I haven’t really been doing much more then just existing for the past year. My parents made me see a bunch of therapists, but none of them helped.”

            “I refused to see anyone,” I admitted. “When I was learning to walk again, I took a lot of my anger and frustration out on Jared, and he tried to get me to go to therapy. I wouldn’t go and it took me a couple of months to realize that I had no reason to be angry with Jared. After that, I kept a lot of my emotions bottled up, until I met Blake. He was the first person I talked to about the accident. I told him everything and it changed our relationship.”

            “I guess I’m lucky he didn’t knock me out as soon as he saw me.” He frowned. “Or heard me, or you told him or whatever.”

            I grinned. “Yeah, you are lucky. He has quite a nasty streak to him.”

            His lips tugged up into a small smile. “I’m glad you’re happy with him.” He shook his head with a rueful look on his face. “I never thought I’d be telling you that I was happy that you’re in love with someone else.”

            “Life is strange sometimes, isn’t it?”

            “It really is.” He stood up and looked down at me. “I’m going to get going now. Thanks for listening to me.”

            “You’re welcome.” I waited until he was almost out of the room before speaking again. “Marcus?”

            He stopped and looked over his shoulder at me. “Yeah?”

            “I don’t blame you anymore.”

            His shoulders sagged and relief crossed over his face. “Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me to hear you say that.”

            “I think I do know. Drive safely.”

            He nodded and left the room. I heard the front door open and close and a moment later, Blake came back into the room with two mugs. He handed one to me and sat next to me again. “You okay?”

            “Yeah, I really am. How much of that did you listen to?”

            “All of it. I could hear you from the kitchen.”

            “Figured as much.” I took a sip of my hot chocolate. “I really don’t blame him anymore.”

            “I know.”

            “Life’s not fair a lot of the time, is it?”

            “No, it definitely isn’t.”

            “I never asked him who the drunk girl was.”

            “Does it matter?”

            I shook my head. “No, I guess it doesn’t. It wasn’t her fault that he offered her a ride home. True, she shouldn’t have been trying to drive when she was so drunk, but at least she realized that and let him drive her home.”

            “It was just a series of unfortunate events that led to the accident.”

            “That’s just what it was. An accident. I never would have believed that if I hadn’t let Marcus talk to me today.”

            Blake set his mug down on the coffee table and wrapped an arm around my waist. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to let him in like that.”

            “You’re right, it wasn’t. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.” I set my own mug down and put my head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

            “For what?”

            “For being here and then for letting me talk to him alone. I know that you didn’t want to do that.”

            He kissed the top of my head. “No, I didn’t want to. But I knew you needed it, even if you didn’t. And it’s not like I was far away.”

            “Plus you heard everything we said.”

            “That helped as well. Do you still want to go out for dinner?”

            “Definitely.” I pressed my face into the side of his neck for a moment. “What would I do without you?”

            “Wallow in self pity?” he suggested.

            I laughed and nipped lightly at his neck. “That’s what you would do without me, but I was trying to be serious.”

            “I’m done being serious for today. I think we owe it to ourselves to just kick back and have fun for the remainder of the day.”

            “I like that idea.” I moved my head so I could look at him properly. I let my eyes roam his face, taking in every detail. “You know, you’re kind of cute.”

            “Guys aren’t cute, Hailey. How many times have I told you that?”

            I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. I’m the one looking at you and I say you’re cute. Now, let’s get the hell out of here before Jared shows up and tries to torture me. I want a good meal at a restaurant before that happens.”

            He pulled out his phone and called Jack, arranging for him to pick us up in fifteen minutes. When he was done, we sat in silence for a moment, enjoying the quiet of the house.

            “I know you said you were done being serious, but I just want to say one more thing.”

            He let out an exaggerated sigh. “Fine, but that’s it.”

            “If I hadn’t met you, I don’t know what would have happened to me. I was getting through the days, but that’s all I was doing. I wasn’t actually living. Marcus said he was only existing and I think that’s what was happening with me as well. So thank you for being so rude to me on the first day and making me see that there were other people out there that were just as damaged as me.”

            Blake pulled me tighter into his side and gave a long, slow kiss. “I should be thanking you, Hales. You actually made me feel happiness again. You helped me see that I wasn’t the only one with problems and that there are people in this world who actually do care about others.” He kissed me again and then put his cheek on top of my head. “I love you, and that’s enough serious talk.”

            I smiled and snuggled into him. “I love you too and I agree. No matter what else life throws at us, we’ll get through it because we kick ass.”

            “Damn right.” 

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 So I'm guessing that this chapter will surprise a lot of you, since Marcus turned out to be a not so evil person. I know most of you wanted this action filled scene where Blake kicked his ass, but it really didn't fit in with the message I'm trying to get across in the story. Although I will admit that I did write a chapter that involved Blake punching him, just for my own pleasure :-D.

Anyways, the message here is fairly simple. You guys all hated Marcus because you heard Hailey's side of the story. But you never heard his side. Now that you have, I hope you see that every story really does need to have both sides told. Sometimes, it doesn't change your opinion, like in the case with Blake's dad. I had everyone thinking he was this horrible, evil person and he really is. But I had you all thinking the same about Marcus and it turns out that he's not that bad.

Next time you hear a piece of gossip about someone, remember that there is always another side to it and don't judge someone without hearing what they have to say. This goes for everyone, not just people with disabilities.

Now, like Blake said, no more serious stuff. The epilogue will be a fun scene and I've already started writing it. Hopefully it'll be up in a few days. I didn't edit this chapter because I wanted to get it up so you'd all stop hating me lol. Let me know what you thought of it!