"What the hell?! Watch where you're going man!" Lauren exclaimed, her face full of anger. She was glaring at Landon, not noticing that he was blind.
Landon instinctively reached out to steady her, but she was too mad to care. "I'm sorry...I...I didn't mean to-"
"Look, it's fine. Next time, just look where you're going, would you?" Lauren steamed.
She was staring too hard at his eyes. Then she turned away. After, she turned around and walked off, she felt a tinge of remorse for being so mean. She pivoted on her left foot to face him, but to her surprise he was gone. She hadn't even turned around for more than thirty seconds. "Damn it!" She mentally kicked herself. "How could you have been so mean? He said he was sorry."
She couldn't help but think of the way he had reached out to steady her after the collision. This actually surprised her, because it had only happened in a few brief seconds. And for another unknown reason, she couldn't get his face of concern out of her mind.
"What is it with you Lauren? What just happened?"
Then she couldn't get his eyes out of her mind. She had been so mad, and those eyes seemed so sweet. They were filled with pain and something else. The strange thing was that they weren't focusing on her, they were all over the place. She couldn't really explain it. His eyes wouldn't stay in one place and they weren't looking at her. They had a distant look on them. She couldn't really describe it.
She started to feel remorse. "How could you have been so mean?!" But Then she caught herself and said "Wait. You don't even know the guy. What are you doing? Why should this even matter?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Landon started running away immediately after the collision. He couldn't see the girl's face but he knew that she had been mad at him. He had felt it. He had run so fast as soon as he felt that she had turned away. He had run as fast as he could and he couldn't stop. There were a few scratches on his face and there were bruises forming on certain points of his body from crashing into a few trees. He didn't know where to go and all he could do was yell his brother's name: " Laaaaaaaance! Laaaaaaance! Where are you?!"
He continued to yell for what seemed like forever and Then finally, he heard a soft voice calling behind him. "What's wrong, Landon? I'm here."
"Where were you?! I got lost and I bumped into this girl and then I ran and then I couldn't stop running and I'm pretty sure I have tons of bruises on me."
"Whoa! Calm down. I'm here now."
Lance looked at his brother with remorse. He knew that it was his fault for not noticing that he had lost Landon sooner. He should have been there with him, but instead he had just kept running, not even noticing the moment that the two had parted.
" Hey...come on, let's go home. We can talk there."
Lance and Landon went all they way home. They entered the living room with ease, and their mother did not notice that something was wrong. She was cleaning the kitchen, since she had to tidy everything up for the visit of their new neighbors. Laura had invited them over in the morning. Now all she had left to do was cook and she would be all set. The problem was that she didn't know what to cook. "Oh well," she though to herself, "I'll figure it out," Although her sons did not know, she didn't have time to explain to them at all. So she was unaware of the conversation between her two sons.
"Okay...so tell me what happened at the park." Lance stared hard at Landon.
" After you lost me, or I lost you...however you want to say it. I just kept running. I don't know for how long I ran but eventually I collided into someone. I instinctively reached out to steady whoever it was that I had bumped into." He said then stopped. Lance took advantage of this pause and asked,
"Okay. And who was this person that you bumped into?"
"It was a girl. I don't know who she was. She smelled differently, like the beach and a little bit of paint. She was probably not from here. But she was furiously mad, I understand but there was something else."
"What was it?"
"I don't think she even noticed I was blind."
At this remark, Lance studied his brother. Landon had a new look on his face. The way that he had said that last remark gave way to his impression of this girl. The reason that this girl hadn't noticed was because she had been furious, but that was reason enough for his brother to think that she was different. In fact. it actually did make her different. Most girls knew. It was weird but they knew, even if they weren't mad. This fact was a sign of hope. Maybe this was a sign.
"I don't know, Lance." Landon said, barely above a whisper, "Maybe she's different."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lauren arrived and saw that her mom was getting ready for something. All she saw was that she wore one of her dress blouses and one of her formal skirts. Her dad was wearing a suit...not so formal though, he was wearing no tie. With a blank stare in her eyes, Lauren looked at her parents. "What's going on?"
"Oh there you are sweetie. We were looking for you. Get ready, we're going somewhere in a few hours." her mother replied.
"Where are we going, Mom?" she asked.
"To our neighbor's house. Laura invited us over and we decided to meet her at her house. She's having us over as guests."
"Why?"
"Come on, Lauren. We're new here. Laura was kind enough to invite us over. She has two sons, so you won't be alone. At least you'll have someone to talk to."
"Sure, Mom. Sure."
Lauren went upstairs and went straight to the closet. To her surprise, everything was neatly organized. "What are you going to wear today?"
There was a feeling in her stomach that she couldn't explain. It had come out of no where and she didn't know what to do. She spotted a dress in the corner of the closet. She pulled it out and it was a salmon colored dress with three-fourths sleeves and a black belt. She hadn't put it on in a while, but for this occassion, it seemed just right. I mean, she wasn't really expecting much. Hopefully they're nice, she thought, maybe in one of her two sons, I can find a good friend. Or maybe I could find a friend in both of them.
By the time Lauren walked down the stairs in her salmon dress and her black wedges, it was 7p.m. There was still a hint of light outside and she could see that her parents were extremely impatient. It hadn't even been that long and she didn't understand why they were so irritated. There was nothing she could do.
"Okay. I'm ready." Lauren said.
"Okay, come on then. Let's go.
Lauren and her parents made their way out of the door. Then they were at the next door's front door in a few seconds. Lauren's mom knocked, and Laura opened the door.
As soon as Laura recognized them, she let them in. Laura and Lance were already waiting there. They all sat in the living room talking for a while. Then they went to eat. And they had a good time.