On the drive home, I thought about what Amanda had said about Blake. Should I tell him about the accident? I had made the decision to not let anyone at this school know about it, but that had been before I met Blake. Out of everyone, he was the least likely to treat me differently because of it.

            But I just wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. I would tell Blake about it in time, but for now I would just keep quiet. Maybe in a couple of months I’d feel better about talking about it.

            When I got home, I wasn’t surprised to see that Jared’s truck was gone. He was probably out at one of his other patients homes. I went straight into my room and collapsed onto my bed. Tonto came into the room and watched me carefully. “I’m alright, boy. Close the door, will you?”

            After he did as I asked, he came over to the side of the bed. I scratched his head a few times before shifting so I could curl up under the covers. Within seconds, I was sound asleep.

            I was woken up a few hours later by someone knocking on the door. Jared poked his head in a moment later. “Hailey? What are you doing home?”

            “I didn’t feel like subjecting people to my wrath because I was tired, so I left school after first period. I went to the hospital to see Jake.”

            Concern entered his eyes. “How are you feeling?”

            “About Jake? Or about how tired I was?”

            “Both.”

            “Well, I had a nice long nap, so I’m not tired anymore. And as for Jake, I actually ran into Amanda there. Did you know that she’s been visiting him since the beginning?”

            Jared was clearly surprised. “No, I didn’t know that. I haven’t seen her since her and Jake broke up, although he talked about her a lot still.”

            “Did you know that he had called her the night of the accident?”

            “That, I did know. He wanted to get back together with her. Said something about how he was stupid to let her go.”

            I smiled. “He really was. Anyways, having her there really helped me. I never wanted anyone to come with me, because I thought it would make it worse. But having Amanda there actually lessened the load a little. We’re going to start meeting there regularly. And I was hoping maybe you could come as well.”

            “Isn’t there a limit to how many visitors a patient is allowed at a time?”

            I rolled my eyes. “Like they’re really going to try and stop us. Liam donated so much money to that hospital, that we could probably have a party in Jake’s room and the staff would cater it for us.”

            Jared chuckled. “That might be true.” He sobered a little. “Are you sure you want me to come as well?”

            I shrugged. “Maybe not every single time, but sometimes it might be nice. Today is the first time I came home from the hospital without that feeling of depression coming over me.” I glanced at my watch. “I’m going to take Tonto to the park. I told Blake I might be there, and I wouldn’t mind talking to him for a bit if he’s there.”

            “You planning on telling him about the accident?”

            I shook my head. “Not yet. But I think I will eventually; I just don’t exactly know when.”

            Jared nodded. “It’s up to you when you’re ready. But it might be good for you to tell him about it.”

            “I hope so.” I stood up and Jared walked with me to the front door. I clipped Tonto’s leash onto his collar and opened the door. “See you in a bit. Tell Grace I’ll be home in time for dinner.”

            “Okay. See you later Hales.”

            When I arrived at the park, Blake wasn’t there. I looked at my watch again and decided I would wait for half an hour. After that, I would just go home.

            Fifteen minutes later, he arrived at what I now considered our bench. I didn’t say anything at first, but he obviously still knew I was here. “Feel less bitchy now?”

            A smile tugged at my lips at his bluntness. “Yeah, a little.”

            He nodded and sat down, releasing Abby like I had already done with Tonto. “Well, you sound better.”

            I raised an eyebrow. “Am I supposed to assume I sounded like crap before then?”

            “Yup.”

            I chuckled and shook my head. “I guess I never have to worry about getting a big head with you around.”

            “Guess not.”

            It was silent for a few minutes. “So, I have a question for you, and even though I’m pretty sure I know the answer, I’m still going to ask it. Would you like to come over for dinner tonight?”

            Blake thought about it for a moment and then completely shocked me by agreeing. “Yeah, I could do that.”

            “Really? I thought you were going to refuse and I’d have to annoy you until you gave in.”

            He shrugged. “I like surprising people sometimes. Besides, maybe we can get a little more work done on our project this way.”

            “I almost forgot about that, but it’s a good idea. Let me just call Jared so he can let Grace know that there will be an extra for dinner.”

            “Jared? The guy who’s like your brother?”

            “Uh, yeah. He’s staying with us for a while, so he’ll be there. No one else is around tonight though, so you won’t have to meet anyone else, aside from Grace, the housekeeper.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, because Jared really was staying with us and Liam was at that conference, so no one else would be there.

            I knew Blake was thinking about something, but to my utter relief, he didn’t ask me anything about my family. “Well, let’s get going then.”

            We called our dogs back over to us and once they were leashed, we headed out to my place. I called Jared quickly to let him know what was happening and then the rest of the walk was made in companionable silence.

            When we reached my house, I glanced over at Blake. “We’re here. There’s a single step to get into the front door, so be careful.”

            He nodded. “Abby will warn me when there’s a step.”

            “Good. Let’s go inside then. Grace is an amazing cook, so whatever we have for dinner should be good.”

            We went in and I saw Jared waiting in the entranceway. I noticed that Blake was turned in his direction, so he must have realized that someone else was there. I’d have to ask him about how he could notice these things so easily. “Jared, this is Blake. Blake, that’s Jared. He can be a bit of an idiot, so feel free to ignore him. And Jared, Blake can be an ass, so don’t take offense if he says something rude.”

            Jared eyed Blake for a moment before saying anything. “Nice to meet you Blake. Hailey has told me a lot about you.”

            “Jared,” I said warningly.

            He gave me an innocent look. “What? It’s true.”

            I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, but you don’t have to make it sound like I talk about him obsessively or something.”

            Blake cut in. “Don’t worry, I know I’m hot, so I don’t blame you for talking about me all the time.”

            I stared at him for a second. “Wow, that’s a side of you I haven’t seen yet.”

            He frowned. “What?”

            “Conceited ass. But it kind of suits you oddly enough.”

            “If you say so. Anyways, nice to meet you as well, Jared.” He must have sensed me staring at him again, because he turned his head in my direction. “What? I can be polite when I want to be.”

            I just shook my head. “Come on, let’s go see what Grace has made for dinner.”

            The three of us, plus the two dogs, walked into the kitchen. Mouthwatering smells assaulted us as soon as we walked into the room, and Grace was busily puttering around. “Hey Grace, they’re here. How much longer until dinner is ready?” Jared asked.

            Grace turned around and smiled at us. “Hello Hailey. Did you have a nice walk?”

            “Yeah, I did. This is Blake, a friend from school. We need to work on our project together so I invited him over dinner.” That was kind of the truth.

            “It’s nice to meet you young man. Supper will be ready shortly. Have a seat at the table and I can start you with the salads.”

            I took Blake’s arm and led him to one of the chairs. Once he had grabbed the back of it, I released him and sat in my chair, which was right next to his. Jared sat across from me. Once Blake was settled, I turned to him. “If you need anything, just let me know.”

            He nodded. “Okay.”

            Grace set a salad bowl down in front of Jared and he dished some out for himself before passing the bowl to me. I put some on my plate and then turned to Blake again. “Here, grab the salad bowl from me. It’s good stuff, all fresh vegetables and homemade salad dressing.”

            Blake cautiously reached a hand out and I placed the bowl in it. He used his other hand to search for the tongs in the bowl and then carefully put some salad onto his plate. He had a small smile on his face as he did all of this and I couldn’t help but wonder if something had amused him. I decided to ask him about it later.

            Dinner went by smoothly enough. Jared chatted with Blake a little and I was happy that they both behaved themselves well enough. I was also impressed with how well Blake was able to serve himself. I’d been a little unsure of how he would be able to do it, but he had no problems. He occasionally asked me to pass him something that was right in front of him, but other then that it would’ve been hard to notice there was something different about him if you didn’t know.

            After dinner, I took Blake to my room so we could do some work on the project. Once we were settled on the bed with my books spread around us, I decided to ask him about his good mood. “So, you seem happier today then I’ve ever seen you. Is there a specific reason?”

            He was quiet for a minute. “This is the first meal I’ve had sine the accident where people weren’t trying to do everything for me.”    

            I frowned. “What do you mean?”

            “At home, my aunt or Sophie are always putting food onto my plate for me, or refilling my drink. They mean well, but it just pisses me off.”

            “I can see why. You’re blind, not a child. You did just fine tonight without me treating you like an invalid.”

            “Exactly. It was really nice to be treated like a normal person.”

            “Hate to tell you this, but you kind of are a normal person. Sure, you’re rude and sarcastic, but so are a lot of people. And if everyone has been stifling you in everyday things, then I can kind of understand why you’re the way you are. It’s not just because you’re blind, is it?”

            He sighed. “No, although that is a big part of it. But when people treat me differently because of that, it just makes it worse. I’m sure you know that David tried to stay friends with me after the accident, but he was worse then everyone else when it came to doing things for me that I could’ve done myself. I hated that and so I pushed him away.”  

            “I think that’s the longest speech I’ve heard you make that wasn’t laced with sarcasm.” I paused for a moment. “It’s nice to know though. That you can tolerate me because I let you do things for yourself. You might not believe me, but I do kind of know how you feel.”

            “I think I believe you. Are you going to tell me your story one day?”

            I thought about it for a moment. “Probably. But not yet.”

            He nodded. “Okay. Let’s get to work on this stupid project then.”

            And just like that, we went back to our normal bickering and sarcastic comments. When we finished working on the project, I offered to drive him home. He reluctantly agreed and we got into the car with Abby in the backseat. I left Tonto at home because I wouldn’t need him for this.

            Once I pulled up in front of Blake’s house, I looked over at him. “We’re here.”

            With a nod, he opened the door and got out. Abby climbed over from the back and jumped out after him. Blake leaned his head in for a moment. “Hey Hailey?”

            “Yeah?”

            “Thanks.” And then he closed the car door and walked up to his house.

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This has NOT been edited. I wanted to get it up for you guys, so I didn't have time to go through it or get someone else to do it for me. Please frogive me for any mistakes.

So, in this chapter you get a tiny glimpse into how Blake thinks and feels. It's not just his disability that makes him the way he is, it's also the way people treat him that makes him surly.

Thanks for being so patient while waiting for this uplaod. I'm hoping to get back into my writing routine now that life has kind of gone back to normal. I don't think I'll be updating this every single day like I did with FTGO, but I'm going to try and uplaod every other day if I can. Hope that's okay with you guys. As always, comment to let me know if you enjoyed the chapter!