"See?" » Zarry ✔

1: First Impressions

"You're so weak, Zayn!" Zayn said to himself after he took a puff of a cigarette. "You said you wouldn't do this again and here you are! Ugh! Why am I enslaved to you? You don't own me!" He noticed an empty box of candy that had been thrown on the ground and kicked it into the street. He had taken one more puff of the cigarette when he heard a voice.

"Hello?"

He looked to his right in the direction of the house beside him and saw that there was a young man about his age and he was standing at his front door underneath the porch light. He had a garbage bag in his hand and he was also wearing sunglasses. Sunglasses?

"I will call the police. Show yourselves." He said.

"I'm right here, dumbass." Zayn told him because he was standing under a street light and in plain sight.

"Are you the only one?"

"Do you see anyone else?"

"So you were talking to yourself then?"

Zayn couldn't help but to constantly be sarcastic. "What do you think?"

"Oh. Okay..." His voice sounded cautious but Zayn watched as he slowly made his way down the pathway of his home and onto the sidewalk in his direction. He continued that way until he lightly bumped into the trash can that was out in front of his house. He opened the top, lifted the bag he had and put it in the bin. When he closed the top, he turned toward Zayn.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Do I look okay?"

"No?" And it came out as a question. As if he really couldn't be sure despite the clearly bothered look Zayn had on his face.

"Then I'm not. And say, why do you have on sunglasses at night anyway? Who do you think you are?"

"I'm cool." he said. "Cool guys wear sunglasses, so where are yours?"

"Cool? Tssh. You're an idiot. That's what you are."

He saw the man turn his head sideways. "And yet, you are the one having a full conversation with no one but yourself. Your room to talk is not that vast."

Zayn chuckled. That was actually true. "Yeah, you're right. My bad."

"So who are you? I've never heard you before." The man said and he ran his fingers through his hair. It was too dark for Zayn to get the accurate color but he could tell that it was curly from where he stood.

"I'm the neighbor that moved here in the house beside you." He said, finally making his way over to him. "I moved in two weeks ago."

"Oh yeah. I did hear a truck the other day. Couldn't see who was moving in though."

"Well it was me. Your new neighbor."

The man smiled. "You sound young. How old are you?"

"Guess."

"Well... I can't tell. But by the sound of your voice, I'd say you were twenty nine, thirty."

"Thirty? I can assure you I'm not that old. Is it the beard? Because this thing always makes me look older."

"So how old are you, then?"

"I'm twenty four. You?"

"Twenty three."

Zayn looked as if he was surprised. "Oh. I would have sworn you were younger."

"And why is that?"

"Because you seem so naive."

The man hummed. "I won't take that as an insult."

Zayn chuckled weakly and took another puff of his cigarette. "Good. Because technically, it wasn't meant to be one."

As he said that, the man in front of him turned his head away and he coughed a few times.

"Oh. I'm sorry. Is the smoke bothering you? I can put it out." With that, he tossed it to the sidewalk and he smashed it under his foot.

"Thank you. But you didn't have to do that. I was going back inside anyway. I have to get my hands clean and get some sleep. But it was nice meeting you.

"Meeting me?" Zayn replied. "You don't even know my name."

"It's Zayn."

He was surprised by that. What? How did he know his name when they had never introduced each other? "How do you know my name when I've never met you any time before tonight?"

"I heard you say it when I walked out of the house. I thought you were talking to someone else but when you clarified that you weren't, it was kind of obvious."

"Ah." Zayn breathed out. "Observant."

"Yep." Harry smiled warmly at him and then turned his back to him. "Goodnight, Zayn. It was nice meeting you."

"But I didn't get your name." Zayn spoke up.

"Oh right. Silly me. I'm Harry."

"Harry..." His voice sounded distant although he was standing right there. "Goodnight, Harry. Sorry if I disturbed you."

"It's okay."

He watched him as he made his way up the sidewalk and then the pathway to his house in the same manner that he came. Slowly and cautiously. Once the door to Harry's home closed, Zayn grunted to himself and looked down at the cigarette he had only been able to take a few puffs from. Wait a minute. That little conversation caused him to put his cigarette down. He smiled victoriously to himself. It'd be nice if he could do this more often versus giving in to his desire for nicotine. Instead of lighting up another to replace it, he just walked into his own home, then closed and locked the door behind him.

Later in the night, when he had stripped down to his underwear and crawled into bed, he thought about Harry. He thought about how strange he was and how he asked so many dumb questions as if he couldn't see for himself. What was wrong with him anyway, and why was he walking so... carefully? He also thought about how weird he was and how he had those sunglasses on. Sunglasses at night? Why would he even need those? It wasn't like the sun was out. Gosh, he sure would like to learn more about that guy. He seemed like he would be a pretty interesting neighbor.

He closed his eyes and turned over, deciding that he'd better get some rest. He could always find out more about what made Harry so strange another time. But quicker than expected, when he was just that close to drifting off to sleep, he swiftly sat up in bed and put a hand to his forehead, having come to the realization of what was really the case.

Harry is blind.

*****

This story is my own. So please be kind and not steal anything from it. :)