Blake and I sat in a small room that was furnished with a plush couch and a large TV. Currently, the TV was showing talk show host Eve McGill as she interviewed one of the hottest new actors. Blake snorted as he listened to the actor talk about his newest movie. “He sounds like a jerk,” he muttered.

            I looked at him with mild amusement. “You just don’t like him because I said he was hot in his last movie.”

            He jerked his shoulders. “No, I don’t like him because he’s too cocky for his own good.”

            I raised an eyebrow, but decided against giving him a response. Instead, I returned my attention to the TV just as it went to commercial. With a sigh, I stretched my arms over my head. “I think that’s our cue.”

            Blake grunted in response before pushing himself to his feet. He came around behind my wheelchair and gripped the handles. “I still can’t believe we’re doing this.”

            I started wheeling out of the door just as someone came to get us. “Stop complaining, I know you’re excited about it.”

            “Maybe a little,” he admitted.

            I smiled at the woman who was waiting for us. “Is it our turn?” I asked her.

            She nodded. “Yeah, lets get you two to the edge of the set. She’ll announce you guys right after the commercial break.”

            We followed her out of the room and stopped just out of view of the audience and the cameras. Eve waited until she was counted back in and then smiled out at the audience. “And now we have a real treat for you guys. Our next two guests have caused a sensation over the Internet. Let’s take a quick look at their video.”

            The screen behind her came on and the video Sophie had taken of us almost two months earlier came on. They only played twenty of seconds of it and then it shut off again. “Please help me in welcoming Blake Adams and Hailey Baker.”

            The audience started applauding and Blake and I made our way into view. My stomach had about a thousand butterflies fluttering in it, but I managed to keep my nerves under control. When we got to the spot we had rehearsed, I stopped the wheelchair and set the brake. Blake came to the front of the chair and bent down to wrap an arm around my waist. He straightened up slowly and I cautiously got to my feet, my left arm hooked firmly around his neck. Together, we slowly walked the rest of the way to the couch that was waiting for us. Everyone in the audience cheered louder when we made it and sat down after greeting Eve. Blake kept his arm securely around my waist, but I removed my arm from around his neck so that I could sit more comfortably.

            Eve sat down in her chair and smiled warmly at us. “Welcome to the show guys. I’m very happy that you chose to come here. I know you must have had a lot of offers for different interviews.”

            “We did, but this is the only one either of us wanted to do. Blake and I watch your show all the time, although he likes to deny it,” I said with a small laugh.

            “So can you tell us a little bit about your respective accidents?” Eve asked.

            Blake and I took turns telling our stories. I left out the part about the driver of the other vehicle being Marcus; that wasn’t something everyone needed to know. Blake told her about his dirt biking accident and how he had damaged the optical nerves.

            “It’s amazing that the two of you are so strong after everything you’ve been through. But I think everyone really wants to know how you two met and became a couple. Did you connect instantly?”

            I snorted derisively. “Hardly. Blake was the rudest and crankiest person I had ever met. Our first actual conversation pretty much consisted of us calling each other names.”

            “And you were so annoying, refusing to leave me alone and dragging me into conversations,” Blake put in.

            “Are you complaining?”

            He sighed. “No dear. I’m very glad you stubbornly persisted in dragging me into meaningless conversations almost every day.”

            I rolled my eyes. “See what I mean about him being rude?”

            Eve grinned widely at both of us. “You guys are pretty cute together. So, what happened to change your relationship?”

            I thought about it for a moment. “I think the first turning point was when Blake realized there was something wrong with me. When we met, I wasn’t in a wheelchair. I was able to get around fairly well on my own, but I had a service dog to help me out. I brought him to the park and Blake was there with his dog. When I gave my dog a command, Blake recognized it as a service dog command. I refused to tell him why I had a service dog and we kind of argued. The next day, he apologized and we started to become friends.”

            “And what made you become more then friends?”

            “That started after Hailey came over one day because my cousin had called her. I was in a really bad mood and Sophie, my cousin, figured Hailey was the only person who could calm me down. She was right, but not for the reason she had thought. Hailey and I argued for a minute when she first got there and then she suddenly blurted out something about her past. It had the effect of shutting me up and asking her to explain what had happened to her.

            “When she started telling me everything she had been through, I was beyond shocked. The Hailey I knew was too strong and optimistic to have gone through something like that. When she finished telling me the story, she placed my hand on her back and I could feel all the scars. Later that day, she made me go out for dinner with her and Sophie. It was the first time I’d done that since my accident. We started growing even closer and it eventually turned into us becoming a couple.”

            “It must be hard for both of you,” Eve commented. “And I imagine the other kids at your school must treat you differently.”

            “They used to. After I fell on the ice and re- injured my back, I was afraid to go back to school, because I knew everyone would be staring and whispering behind my back. But then Sophie took that video of Blake and I singing, and everyone watched it. When we went back to school, everyone was very supportive and friendly to us.”

            “I’ve read some of the comments on the video. It seems you’ve reached a lot of people with your story. How does that make you feel?”

            “Weird,” Blake replied. “It is definitely weird knowing that people look up to us now. That we’ve become role models of sorts.”

            “I can only imagine how that must affect you.” Eve became amused at that point. “I also read some comments that said how gorgeous the both of you are. Blake, you especially seem to have gained some admirers. Has that affected you at all?”

            “It’s made him more cocky then usual,” I said dryly. “He’s got an amazingly large ego and all the admiration has gone straight to his head.”

            The audience laughed and Blake grinned charmingly. “I can’t help it if the ladies love me,” he said smugly.

            “If the ‘ladies’ knew you like I did, they wouldn’t think you were so charming,” I retorted.

            Blake just continued to grin and grabbed my hand with his free one, raising it to his lips to brush a kiss over my knuckles. “Don’t worry Hales, you know you’re the only one I love.”

            The audience went “Aww” and I struggled not to smile. “I’d better be.”

            Eve laughed and clapped her hands together once. “Well, we need to take another commercial break, but when we come back, Blake and Hailey will be performing a song for us.”    

            Once the commercials were rolling, Blake helped me back to my wheelchair and then we went over to where the piano was set up with his guitar resting next to it. We got ourselves settled and as soon as the commercial break ended, we played the song that we’d played at the talent show. Our voices blended together smoothly, and at the end, everyone in the audience stood up to give us a standing ovation.

            Blake held my hand as we both smiled at everyone and then made our way off the set. As we walked out of the building towards the car that was waiting for us, I couldn’t help but think how much my life had changed in the past year. I had lost my parents, but my brother was now on the mend. I had lost the guy I thought I loved, and found someone who I knew I couldn’t live without. I had friends and family to support me and I was slowly gaining the ability to walk again.

            It had definitely been an eventful year, but I knew that everything had happened for a reason. And I knew that a saying I had once heard was true. Love is blind, but that’s why we have hands.

 The End

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   I can't believe that this is done. It's been quite the journey to get here, that's for sure.

For those of you wondering what I'll be doing next, I'll let you know. I'm going to take some time to edit and rewrite a bunch of this book, then send it to an editor (if I can find one), and then send it to the publishers. As for what I'll be doing on Wattpad, the next story I start will be Struggling to Break Free, the sequel to FTGO. Don't expect it too soon though, as I have to firm up the story line before I do any serious writing on it. Hopefully I'll have it up within the next couple of weeks.

Quick question for everyone. What additional scenes would you like to see in this book? I'm going to add a lot more with her and Jake, and I'm also going to change what happens when Jake gets out of the coma so it's more realistic.  I'll also put more of Rachel and David, Jared and Cindy and Amanda near the end. I need to take all the lyrics out as well, and I want to double the length of the book, so any additional scenes will be taken into consideration. I have a lot of them thought up already, but I would like to hear what my fans want to see :-). And are there any questions I left unanswered?

Thank you all for being so incredibly amazing throughout this process. You all seriously rock. And the dedication goes to TheJessaGirl for sending me the picture of the card with the quote I used at the end of this chapter. Talk to you all soon!