Love Unseen.

Chapter Two

~~~Wasn't planning to post this till later, but I kind of fainted when I saw I had 16 votes... haha I'm such a nerd. All of you are so nice thank you ^^   Mademoiselle Louise <3 

“So who we’re you running from.” I cock my head.

            “Just some girls.” Niall carefully chose his words.

            “Mr. Popular then.” I snort. I knew his kind. They thought they ruled the world. Back when I went to public school, I had a hard time fitting in. I enjoyed my studies so I didn’t fit in with the populars. However, I was too ‘dumb’ for the smart kids. I struggled with this a lot and bounced around from group to group. Homeschooling has been perfect for me because I don’t have to deal with people. It’s also a curse, because I don’t get to see people.

            “I guess you could call it that.” His words came out controlled again, like deep thought had to go into each word. He seemed different.

            But if there was one thing I knew, it was that every popular kid, boy or girl, were the same. If they wanted something they’d go and get it, without much thought to the delicate feelings of others. Though out of all the popular kids I’ve met, none of them had mobs following them.

            “You’re not from around here.” I project.

            “Not in the least.” He says, smiling.

            I can tell he’s smiling by the lift in his beautiful Irish accent. You can always tell if someone smiles while they talk, especially if the smile is genuine.

            “ I take it you are.” He states, making an assumption out loud rather than asking me a question.

            “For practically my whole life.” I sigh.

            “Oh.” But I can tell he’s distracted. Maybe looking over my shoulder or preparing to run from more mobs.

            “Do you have somewhere to be?” I ask disappointedly. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed talking to other people. Particularly people my own age. Well he sounded my age. I’m almost never wrong when it comes to guessing ages, normally within a five year difference.

            “I’m supposed to be meeting back with the boys in a few minutes.” He says, still uneasy.

            “Alright.” I falter. Rarely did I get around to talking to people, especially not one my own age, and never ones with cute accents. With my constant schedule, I was either talking to my online classmates, teacher, or the employees at the Café. Besides my family, I didn’t really talk to anyone about personal stuff.

            “Well I should go.” I shrug, not wanting to break my schedules. Girls like me are in double the danger when it comes to boys, so I try to quell my curiosity.

            “I’ll walk you.” He offers immediately. Walking past me, he opens the door. The little bells chime and the humid air poisons the air conditioned utopia of the pawn shop.

            “Thanks,” I walk past him.

            We walk in silence for a little while. I can feel that awkward tension start to fall.

            “I’ll be fine ya know.” I look to him.

            “It’s no trouble really.” He tries to take me by the elbow to guide me through a turn. It scares me so I jump a little, making it even weirder.

            Most people are like this when it first sets in that I’m blind. It’s the number one reason that I don’t have any friends. In the first few years of adjusting, most of my friends bailed. They were either too uncomfortable or just couldn’t handle having a friend they didn’t see every day.

            “Look.” I stop. “I’m blind, yes. But I know my way around. You don’t need to push me or walk with me everywhere.”

            He’s silent. I probably just killed my only chance of getting to know this guy. But I was tired of people babying me. I was nearly 18 for crying out loud. I’ve struggled with this for seven years and have become quite good at being blind.

            “I’m sorry.” He says plainly and it sounds like perhaps he shoves his hands in his pockets

            I just continue walking to prove my point. My birth Dad used to take off work and take me for walks. He’d show me how to pay attention to my surroundings. Every last Saturday of the month, he would ask me to take him somewhere, to see if I remembered the routes. I came to love our little quizzes, they we’re what I looked forward to every Saturday. Well, what I looked forward to back when he was still around.

            Footsteps approach from behind, but they’re farther off than where I left Niall. It sounded like maybe there were three of them.

            “Niall.” Another heavenly accent cries out.

            All of the movements and voices are too many and too far away for me to gather them all. Niall seemed to be traveling with a whole group of accents. Guessing by their ages, they might have been exchange students, but I can’t really reason why anyone would want to come to Oregon.

            “Give me a minute.” I distinguish Niall’s voice from the rest.

            His footsteps come over to me.

            “Are you sure you can get to where ever yourself?” he asks, concern edging into his voice. It was more sincere than I was used to. Generally it was used to see if the helpless blind girl could handle herself, but Niall’s tone seemed to hold something more genuine.

            “To a café, but yes, I’ll be fine.” I shrug, running my fingers over the roses carved into the handle of my cane.

            “Okay well take care.” He starts off.

            Disappointed. I was looking forward to talking to someone, a real flesh and bones person. But my mom had drilled it into my head so many times that I was in the most danger of being harmed out of all the teenage girls in town. My disability made me a target, she said. Mom only sees my blindness as a disability. She only sees everything as a disability.

            “Ellianna.”

            “Yes.” I turn quicker than I should have, causing my curls to slap me in the face.

            “Maybe tomorrow we could meet at the pawn shop and you could show me the bakery.” He scuffs his feet on the ground.

            “Okay.” I sort of smile.

            “So I’ll see you then?” he confirms.

            “Okay.” I repeat like a total idiot.

            “Okay.” He shoots back stupidly, smiling as well.

            “Come on mate.” A new accent enters the mix. Paul is going to have a field day if we don’t get back.

            “Bye.” Niall waves, or at least I think he does.

            In the rest of my walk, I couldn’t stop smiling. I had a date, or a meet up really, with a mafia thug, cute accented, considerate boy. It was a miracle.