Love is Blind (25 page)

Blake furrowed his brow. “I’m only telling you
the truth,” he said.

“Bullshit. You’re just feeling sorry for
yourself right now.”

“No I’m not,” he began to reply heatedly, but I
cut him off.

“Yes you are! Are you trying to say that I’m
defective as well then?”

His eyes widened. “What? No, of course not!”

“Well, that’s what you were implying. Just
because we’re different doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with
us. I thought you knew that already, but apparently I was
wrong.”

He rubbed at his temples and blew out a breath.
“Christ, I can be an idiot sometimes. You’re right; I am just
feeling sorry for myself. This day has just turned out to be
stressful.” He held his arms open. “I’m sorry.”

I stood up from my chair and settled myself onto
his lap. “I know this can’t have been easy for you. So why don’t we
get out of here and do something fun?”

He nuzzled into my neck. “I like that idea.”

“Let’s go pack a bag for you then, because I’m
liable to punch that man in the face if I have to talk to him
anymore.”

Blake chuckled as we stood up and headed to his
room. “As entertaining as that would be, we both know that you
would feel guilty afterwards.”

“That’s probably true,” I replied, opening the
door to his room. “How long do you think they’ll stay here
for?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m
not talking to them again.” He went to his closet and found his
duffel bag. He hauled it to his dresser and we began putting
clothes in it.

“Your mother didn’t seem too horrible,” I said.
“I don’t think she knew about your fathers plan to cut off your
trust fund. She seemed genuinely shocked when he said that.”

“Doesn’t matter. She still abandoned me after
the accident.”

“But she has come to visit you in the past
two years. Granted, she maybe shouldn’t have left in the first
place, but at least she’s made some kind of effort. It couldn’t
have been easy for her to be put in between the two of you.” I
walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist from
behind. “Don’t hate her just because of your father.”

He leaned into me for a moment. “I’m really glad
you were here when they showed up. I’m not sure what would have
happened if you hadn’t been.”

“I know what would have happened. You would have
had a huge fight with them and then sulked for a while. I would’ve
had to come over and snap you out of it so you didn’t turn back
into the cranky jerk you used to be.”

“I would not have sulked,” he said
defensively.

“Yes you would have. But that’s okay, because I
have ways of getting you out of one of your moods now,” I replied
confidently.

“Oh really? Do tell,” he said dryly.

“Nope, I’m keeping it a secret until I need to
use it. Let’s finish the packing so we can get out of here. I’m
sure Grace will have supper ready by the time we get there.”

Blake pulled away and zipped his bag closed. “I
think I have everything I need, except my bathroom stuff.”

“I’ll go get that while you get Abby. I’ll meet
you at the front door in a minute.” I went into his bathroom and
gathered his toiletries up, putting them in a small travel bag.
Then I left his room and went to the front door, where he was
waiting with Abby. “Ready to go?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

I knelt by the duffel bag and stuffed the
toiletries into it before zipping it up again. I stood up again
with a little groan. “I think you need to give me a massage
later.”

His hands immediately went to my back. “Is your
back bothering you today?”

“Not really, it’s just a little stiff. But I
really like it when you massage me. You’re better at it than even
Jared, I think.”

“What can I say? I have magic hands,” he replied
smugly.

I rolled my eyes. “You keep telling yourself
that.”

“Blake?”

We both turned our heads in the direction of the
voice and I saw his mother standing in the doorway. Blake scowled
as soon as he heard her voice. “What do you want?”

She hesitated before taking a few steps forward.
“I wanted to apologize for your father. What he said wasn’t right
and we won’t be cutting off your trust fund.”

“I told you I don’t care about that. You can
keep your money; it means nothing to me, just like the two of you
mean nothing.”

I saw her flinch, but she didn’t back away.
“Well, you’ll still have the trust fund, regardless if you need it
or not. I know you hate me, but I wanted to say that it’s nice to
see you happy again. I’m glad you found someone that you love.”

Blake reached for my hand and I laced my
fingers with his. He was silent for a moment. Finally, he sighed
and stopped scowling. “You should be happy for me and yourself as
well, because if it wasn’t for her I’d never speak to you again.
But I know that it wasn’t your idea to keep me here while you guys
took off. Give me some time and I may be able to forgive you at
some point. But I’ll never forgive your husband.”

Relief flitted across her face. “I can
understand that. And I never should have agreed to you staying here
without us. In my defense, I did what I thought was best at the
time, but I can see that I may have been wrong. I want the chance
to try and make it up to you.”

Blake nodded once and then bent to grab his bag.
“Talking on the phone I can handle for now.”

I smiled timidly at her. “I’ll see you later,” I
said.

“It was very nice meeting you, Hailey.”

“You too,” I replied. Blake started tugging
me towards the door then so with one final wave, I let him lead me
away from his parents.

Chapter
twenty-seven

For the rest of the winter break, Blake
pretty much stayed at my place. The weather turned even colder and
we spent most of our time inside. Neither of us felt like becoming
Popsicles. Sophie surprised me by asking if she could stay with me
for a few days as well. Apparently she couldn’t stand Robert any
more than Blake could. I agreed without hesitation and we all ended
up having fun together for the last bit of the break.

The day came for school to start again and none
of us really wanted to go out and face the cold weather, but we did
so reluctantly. The advantage to my uncle having a massive garage
was that the car was at least nice and warm when we climbed into
it.

We arrived at school and hurried inside, being
careful not to slip on the ice filled parking lot. I breathed a
sigh of relief when we got outside. “This is one part of living in
Canada that I don’t like,” I stated.

“I agree,” Sophie said. “These freezing
temperatures leave me wanting to fly somewhere tropical and sit on
a beach all day.”

“Hey, that’s what we should do for March break!”
I said excitedly. “We should all go somewhere warm and just bask
for a few days.”

“That is an awesome idea,” Sophie replied. “My
mom was talking about going somewhere anyways.”

“And I know that Jared, Liam and Jake would love
to go as well.” Jake had officially been released from the hospital
and we were all ecstatic to have him back. “What do you think,
Blake?”

He shrugged. “It would be nice to go away
somewhere warm. It just sucks that I won’t be able to see you in a
bikini.”

I grinned mischievously. “You can always just
imagine it,” I said.

His lips turned up into a smile. “That’s very
true,” he replied distractedly.

I tapped his arm lightly. “Not right now; I
meant when we’re there!”

He grinned devilishly at me. “Too late, I’m
already picturing it.”

Sophie groaned. “That is definitely my cue to
get out of here. I’ll see you both at lunch.”

Blake and I both laughed as she walked away and
we continued to my locker. “It is so fun making her freak out,” I
said smugly.

“It really is, and it’s so easy to do too,”
Blake said.

We reached my locker and I opened it. I was
shocked when a few pieces of folded up paper fell out. “What the
hell?” I muttered, bending down to scoop them up. “There are random
pieces of folded paper in my locker,” I informed Blake.

“Do they say anything?”

“I don’t know.” I unfolded one and saw that it
did indeed have something written on it. My eyes widened as I read
the words. “Holy crap.”

“What? What do they say?”

“This one says that someone was amazed at our
performance at the talent show. That they never realized you had
that kind of talent. They want to know if either of us sings
professionally.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.” I unfolded a couple of other papers.
“They all pretty much say something along those lines.”

“That’s… kind of creepy,” Blake said.

I laughed as I gathered all the pieces of paper
and put them on the shelf in the locker. “It is a little bit, isn’t
it? I didn’t know anyone really knew where my locker was. But at
least they’re nice notes and not nasty ones.”

We started walking down the hall to our
classroom. “That’s true. But we kicked ass, so it makes sense that
they’re nice,” Blake said.

“You know, I’m going to have to tell Mr. Avery
that he needs to make the doorways in the school bigger, because
soon you won’t be able to fit your big head through them,” I chided
him.

He raised a hand and held it over his chest in
mock hurt. “I was simply stating the truth,” he defended
himself.

“No, you’re being a cocky jerk, which doesn’t
surprise me anymore.” We walked into our classroom and took our
seats. A few of the other students looked over and smiled at us,
which caught me off guard for a moment. I leaned a little closer to
Blake. “People are smiling at us,” I whispered.

He frowned a little. “Really?”

“Yeah. It’s weirder than the locker thing I
think.”

“Just ignore them.”

“But that’s rude!”

“What’s your point?”

I huffed out a breath. “You’re the rude one, not
me. How am I supposed to ignore them?”

He just shrugged. “Well, what else are you going
to do? Act all friendly to everyone just because they decided we’re
not that rejects anymore?”

“They never thought I was a reject. Just
mentally impaired for putting up with you,” I muttered before
kissing his cheek lightly. “This day might turn out to be a bit
more interesting than I thought it was going to be,” I mused.

It turns out I was right. All day, I had
people smiling at me and a few of them even stopped to talk to me,
letting me know that they thought I had a wonderful voice. I
noticed no one tried talking to me when Blake was around though,
and that confused me a little at first. But I quickly realized it
was likely because of Blake’s unpleasant attitude towards most
people that kept everyone away.

By the time the final bell rang, I was more than
happy to get out of there. The smiles I kept receiving were
starting to creep me out. I found Blake and Sophie quickly, and the
three of us headed out of the school, with Blake on one side of me
and Sophie on the other.

We walked out of the school and headed
towards the parking lot, shivering as the freezing wind whipped
through our clothing. I picked my way carefully over the icy
ground, trying not to lose my balance.

“Are we going to your place or mine?” Blake
asked.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” I replied. “As long as
it’s somewhere warm, I’m happy. I freaking hate winter.”

“I’m getting sick of the cold weather as well,”
Sophie agreed. “Maybe we can stop and get some hot chocolates from
somewhere.”

“That’s a good-” my voice was cut off as I
stepped on a particularly slippery patch of ice. My feet went out
from under me and I desperately tried to regain my balance, but it
was too late. I saw two hands reach for me as I slammed into the
ground on my back, and excruciating pain raced through me. I
struggled for breath as my vision darkened. I managed to not lose
consciousness, but it was difficult.

“Hailey, what the hell just happened?” Blake
asked in a panicked voice.

I couldn’t get enough breath to answer, and
Sophie obviously realized that because she answered for me. “She
slipped and landed on her back.” She dropped to her knees beside
me. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head and a moment later Blake was
kneeling beside me as well. He found my face with his hands and
stroked my cheeks gently. “Can you move?” I shook my head and he
cursed quietly. “Is it your back?”

I nodded and tears started trickling down my
cheeks. I finally got enough breath back so that I could talk. “I
can’t move my legs,” I whispered.

Blake wiped my tears away with his thumb. “It’ll
be okay Hales. Sophie, call an ambulance and then call Jared or
Liam.”

By this time, a small crowd of people had
gathered around us. I closed my eyes and concentrated on just
breathing properly while Blake continued to stroke my face lightly.
I heard Sophie talking on the phone, but I couldn’t make out what
she was saying.

A few minutes later, I could hear sirens
approaching. I opened my eyes again and saw that Sophie was
kneeling beside me once more. I gave her a weak smile, which she
returned before her eyes flickered around the crowd that was
surrounding us.

I followed her gaze and realized that there were
a lot more people around me now. I watched as Mr. Avery literally
pushed his way to the front and then crouched down beside me. “What
happened?” he asked.

“I slipped and fell on the ice,” I replied. “I
landed on my back and now I can’t move my legs.”

The sirens grew louder and everyone turned to
watch as the ambulance came to a stop a few yards away. Two
paramedics climbed out immediately and one came straight to me
while the other one went into the back to get some stuff.

What happened next was a bit of a blur. I was
aware of being asked questions and I know that Blake answered most
of them for me. I heard him explaining to them about my history of
back problems and that they had already called my physical
therapist and uncle.