Blinded By Love by Rebecca K. (booksvooks txt) 📕

I slowly walked down the stairs after I hung up the phone. Not wanting to make it seem like this was anything that it wasn't, I kept all of my actions normal and calm. Knowing my mom and dad were going to be waiting for me to come down and do the dishes and take out the trash I decided to use this time to use my supposedly amazing people skills. I pasted a smile on my face and walked into the kitchen. As expected my mom was at the table doing work for her job and my dad was out back.

"Hi, Mom!" I said this as cheerfully as possible with the smile still on my face.

She barely registered that I had entered the kitchen. But the second those words were out of my mouth she looked up at me with suspicion all over her face. "What do you want? I'm busy, Rachelle. You know that."
I didn't let this faze me. I knew better. "Nothing. Just came down to do the dishes early and take out the trash. I've got to take Jess to a book store over in the Falls to pick up an order of Braille paper. We're going to meet one of her friends for lunch."

She hardly even blinked. She knew that I took Jess all over the place to do all sorts of things. However this was the first time a friend was going to be involved. "What friend might this be?" She said this in a tone of voice that made me think of the ignorant way she acted the first time I ever brought Jess to my house. She took me to hers first. I was afraid to bring her to mine. I knew my family would be incredibly rude about it. I just hadn't expected it to be that bad.

*********

I had gotten home and was waiting for the bus to come by my house so I could ride my bike the four blocks down to Jess's to grab her so we could go down to the library. Unfortunately she said that she thought it was high time that I brought her to my house. I had warned her that my family was rude and ignorant. No matter what the case being. The second I hit my front yard I knew things were going to be bad. My twin brothers were in the front yard arguing over a rake and the second they saw Jess's cane they bombarded her with questions. 

Seeing as they were about seven she simply answered them and brushed it off. However, my eleven year old sister, who knew better, was ruder than I thought imaginable. The first thing out of her mouth was, "What is that? Are you some sort of like freak or something? Because, you know, my parents don't like freaks. Why they keep her around is beyond me." With the emphasized her she pointed her finger at me. It was at that point that I felt a gentle squeeze on my arm. I had forgotten Jess had my arm in her grip. She signaled me to lean over. "It's fine. Let's just go inside, okay? I'm used to this kind of stuff from kids. I've been living with this for fourteen years."

I shook a little and leaned over to her. "She's right. My parents can be very ignorant. Are you sure you want to do this?"

She just nodded her head and started working her way up the walk taking me with her. I told her the steps and that there was a flower pot that people always missed. I got her inside my house and she folded her cane down and stuck it into her book bag.

"Mom, Dad, I'm back. I brought Jess with me. I thought you might like to meet her." All I had told my parents about Jess was that she was visually impaired. I didn't want to go any further into detail than that.

My mother was in the kitchen, as usual. My dad was in his office. Taking Jess and leading her into the kitchen I grabbed a chair and sat her down. "Do you want something to drink? We have orange juice, kool aid, milk, Pepsi."
"I'll take some Pepsi. Caffeine addict." She said this with a little smirk because she knew that I had full knowledge of this. She just wanted to see my mother's reaction. My mother was typing so Jess knew she was in the room with us. "So, Mrs. Jensen, how are you today?" Jess was facing me, but I knew that she was doing this to prove a point to me. My mother glanced at me then back to her computer.

"I'm fine. How are you? I hope the walk way wasn't too difficult to get through. The kids have their toys scattered every where." This was an innocent comment. Something that could be applied to anybody so I paid it no attention.
"I'm fine. And it was very easy. I had my cane, and Rachelle was helping me. You have some very inquisitive children. They had all sorts of questions for me. Although, I'm not sure your daughter understands the full concept of what my cane is actually used for."

At this my mother froze. I had specifically warned Jess not to say anything regarding my siblings' behavior if it wasn't positive. But I should have known. I've known the girl for four years and she's very blunt.

"My daughter has a very broad span of knowledge, thank you. I'm sure if you explained to her, she would understand." My mother's cheerful voice was slowly fading. At this point my father decided to walk in.

"Ah. I see we have company... Rachelle, who is this young lady and why is she talking to your mother, but looking at you?"

I glanced at Jess knowing before I could even start to think she would be going at it, so I didn't even bother. Sticking out her hand in my dad's general direction she said, "I'm Jessica Smith. A friend of Rachelle's. I was just telling your wife that your daughter was a little confused about the uses of my cane."

My dad glanced at my mom who immediatly went back to her typing. "Well, I'm sure if you just explained to her-" 

"I all ready said that. Unfortunately she didn't seem to understand."

My dad was standing right behind me so when my mother came up and started whispering in his ear I heard every word.

"I cannot believe our daughter would bring this into our house. This girl looks like she could barely make it through our door way without falling. Do you want to say something? Or should I?"

"I'm not saying anything. Although I do agree with you. Look at her sitting there. I saw her walking down the road. She looks like a disaster waiting to happen."

"Okay, then. I'll say something. But next time Rachelle brings something of this nature into our house we both deal with it together. Okay?"

"Okay."

Knowing that because of the loss of her sight, Jess's other senses were increased a great deal. So when I turned around saw the look on her face I knew she had heard every word.

Before I could make a move to get her out of the kitchen my dad started talking, "Umm... Rachelle. Would you mind taking Jessica up to your room. Your mother is about to start dinner and she doesn't need anybody getting in the way. And we'd really greatly appreciate it if you would let us know if we are going to have company that might be impaired by our house. Thank you."

That froze me right in my tracks. Before I could think about what I was saying or doing, I grabbed Jess and started towards the stairs with our sodas. But before I followed Jess up the stairs, I turned to my parents, completely mortified. "I cannot believe you just said that! You guys know she heard every word of that right? God, could you be any more ignorant? I mean seriously!" With that I ran up the stairs quickly locating Jess sitting in front of my door shaking.

"Oh my God, Jess. I am so, so, so sorry. I didn't realize they were going to act like that. I swear. I knew they were going to be a little blunt. But I didn't think they were going to be that out rightly rude about it. Are you okay? Do you need something?"

"No... No. I'm fine. Just, let's go back to my house. I see why you were afraid to bring me over here. I thought you were exaggerating, but I can clearly see that you weren't."

"Okay. Here, we can go through the back so my parents don't see us. Hold on. I'll go grab our stuff."
With that I ran down the stairs and grabbed our coats and bags. After that, I never brought Jess to my house. We stayed at her house with her crazy over protective mother and ever watchful brother.

*********

"Just a kid from her school. He's new at the school and wanted something to do over the weekend. So we were going to go and hang out with him." I didn't wait for a response. Instead I started unloading the dishwasher and keeping all of the thoughts running through my head to my self. After I was done with my stuff I ran back up to my room to text Jess that I was going to be at her house in about five and then we could leave.

After pulling my hair up and putting my boots on I ran back down the stairs. I figured my mother would still be at the table, but instead she was out back with my dad. It looked like they were arguing so I just left. I knew my brothers and sister would have questions, but I usually ignored them. So this wouldn't be any different.

"Rachelle! Brian took my bag!" This complaint came out of Susan.

I turned to just barely register this and quickly headed to my car. Climbing in I realized that this was the first time I was leaving without directly asking permission to leave town. And I didn't feel guilty about it in the least bit. It actually felt good.

Chapter Four

When I pulled up in front of Jess's house her brother was sitting out in the middle of their yard. He was a year older than me but looked like he was almost in his late twenties. He glanced up when he heard my car pull in. I waved at him and he stood up and walked into the house. A minute later he was bringing Jess over to my car.

"Thanks, Alex. Tell Mom I'll be back after six so don't bother setting a place for me for dinner."

"Okay, JJ. I'll make sure I let her know that. Later, Rach."

I nodded at him and after Jess was buckled in I backed out of their drive way.

"He still calls you JJ? That was over a year ago!"

"I know. Don't even start. I'll tell Sterling that you're a psycho path who likes to feed on the living souls of visually impaired guys with long gorgeous blond hair."

"And how exactly do you know he has hair like that?"

She smirked and just said, "I don't. Just thought it might be fun to imagine."

I thought for a minute and groaned. If there was one thing that this girl was famous for, it was for being a perv. "You know, if I get left alone in a restaurant for longer than two hours with him, we might just go sneak into a bath room..."

I let the sentence hang in the air for a second before we both started cracking up. We knew we needed to get all