Ray ||l.h.||

0.1

"Okay, that's the fifth person that's stared at us with heart eyes." Ashton says as he gives yet another older woman a polite, but stiff nod and tight smile.

Ray smiles, giving both her and Ashton's hand a swing in between their bodies. She imagines it was a lady, since most men don't coo over teenage couples as much as they despise them. Which doesn't make any sense because they used to be half of a teenage couple, but, whatever.

"We've been walking for two minutes, why are you reaching?" She asks, pushing her sunglasses up on the bridge of her nose. Ray's smile falters when she feels a gust of cold air hit her, letting her know that they've made it to the school entrance.

Ashton's laugh gets buried underneath the sound of the hallway commotion in Ray's ears and she hesitates to walk further into the noise.

The boy looks down at her, gently pulling her closer to his side. "Are you okay?"

Ray lets out a frustrated sigh because she hates that question, and she knows that he knows that she hates that question, but sometimes he has to ask and sometimes she needs someone to ask. Just not right that second; not when she's going into the place where she's reminded of her blindness the most.

She's never really going to be okay, because she's always going to be blind, and she's always going to be a little more scared than everyone wherever she goes.

Ashton doesn't take her sigh as an answer because he knows how she gets and that it's mainly a thing about her and not about him, or anyone else, really, so he tries again, "Bans, any day now."

After being friends with her for so long, Ashton's learned that banter is the best way to ease Ray back to a chill state, and when she cracks a smile he's reminded that that tactic will probably always work.

"Haven't I said to stop calling me that?" Ray says, letting Ashton lead her to her first class.

Fun fact, Ashton Irwin likes to think he's clever, therefore when they met and after she explained why she screamed when he greeted her in her garage--she was facing him the whole time so he thought she had a staring problem--and he talked about why his family moved in next door, he considered them friends and gave her the nickname: Bans.

She was confused at first until he kept saying, "Like Ray Bans? The sunglasses? Because blind people wear sunglasses and your name is Ray,". Ray remembers laughing at his explanation and realizing that her and Ashton would get along just fine.

"Every day for seven years, yes." Ashton smiles warmly down at the girl, stopping in front of the open door of her English class.

"Okay, then--"

"Sorry," A light shove interrupts her before the voice does, but both of them happened at nearly the same time, causing her to embarrassingly cling to Ashton. Her friend chortles, accepting her into his arms. Ray rolls her eyes at herself for being so jumpy, but it was still early in the school year so that meant tons of people that didn't know she was blind would be pouring in.

Not to mention she was on edge ever since last week when she got news of her guide transferring schools, meaning she would be getting a new one and have to get used to a new voice and touch, and she desperately wished Ashton didn't have work when she has school so he could walk her around.

"It's all good, man." Ashton assures whoever it is that they're forgiven and Ray forces herself to let go of him. At this point she just wants to get in class and find out who would be pointlessly taking her through school for the year.

She makes a small mental note to remember the way the kid's voice sounds, though that was hard since he only said one thing and she was too busy trying to steady herself to really focus on the random voice.

"Alright, get in there, I gotta make money to pay our bills." Ashton teases and Ray figures he's smiling so she smiles back and reaches up until she feels Ashton's jaw. She brings his face down at the same time she leans up and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

Well, it's really closer to the outside corner of his eye, but Ashton still grins when she lets him go anyhow.

"See you later." Ray pats him on the chest and carefully makes her way to her seat. She'd already walked around the room enough times to know a sure path to her seat and she only bumped into one desk, but it was her own so it barely counts.

"Oh, Ray, there you are," The girl holds up her hand as some form of a wave, instantly recognizing her teacher's voice. He always seemed to be overeager to please when it came to her, and Ray didn't exactly find it annoying so much as she found it bothersome.

"Here I am."

"Here you are," He replies with a small chuckle and Ray doesn't say anything back, just sits and waits for him to get on with it. She hears him clear his throat and she thinks he's probably somewhat red-faced. "The office assigned our newest student, Luke Hemmings, to be your guide for the year."

Ray opens her mouth to ask if they can come and sit next to her but she closes it when she feels a hand on her elbow.

"Hi, I'm Luke." Ray turns her head to the right and places her hand on top of his. The boy flinches away and she mirrors him. She can't blame him, he's probably wondering how she knew where to put her hand and how she knew where he was, since she can't see.

"I'm Ray." She simply introduces herself when she doesn't feel his hand return to her arm then takes her backpack off of her shoulders. She means to place it on her desk but it slides off because she placed it too close to the edge.

Luke swears and Ray shakes her head as she stands up. "It's fine, I got it." She quietly says since she can hear Mr. King starting his lesson. Ray holds on to the back of her chair until she has to use both of her hands to pick up her backpack.

"So, um, your name's really Ray Charles?" Luke attempts small talk as he watches her stand up, worrying his lip ring after he asks to keep himself from blurting out a warning that Ray clearly doesn't need.

Ray stands and thinks she's got it down enough to not hold on to the chair this time around as she goes into her weekly spiel.

"Yes, my name is Ray Charles and yes, I am blind," she pauses, momentarily panicking when she doesn't feel the side of her desk until her knuckle bumps against the wood. "And, no, my parents didn't jinx me."

Ray feels for the margin of the desk before she places her bag almost in the middle of it. Luke pinches the bridge of his nose, because of course everyone asks those same questions and give those same remarks as soon as they meet her.

He wants to say more to her but she seems to have tuned into their teacher's lesson on something with themes in literature that Luke definitely didn't feel like pretending to listen to. He accidentally stares at the brown girl for longer than he meant to and startles when she turns her head in his direction, but then he remembers that she can't actually see him, so maybe he can get away with looking at her instead of dozing off like he usually would.

A/N: what am i doing oh my gosh

i love blind fics though i am not blind myself so apologies if there's any screw ups of any sort

i'm kinda excited for this tbh so show this some love??????

xoxo garbage girl