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

"Get out, and go tell him that your here for Sterling. If Sterling asks who you are, tell him that you've got the girl with the pencils in the car."

"Umm... Okay?"

"Don't question just do."

"You do. You know him better than I do."

"Yes, but I'm not familiar with this drive way. So it'd take me a minute to get up the walk. Then longer to get back down with him. Just go grab him you dork."

I sighed and said, "Fine. But you owe me for this."

I climbed out of the car and headed up the walk. The guy had by this time moved out to an old beaten up lawn chair and was smoking a cigarette.

"Hi... I'm.. Umm... I'm here for Sterling? Lancing? My friend and I were going to-"

Before I could finish the sentence he snarled at me and looked up irritated. "If you're one of that little shits friends then I suggest you be careful. Last ones got him into trouble. Go inside up the stairs second door on your left. If he's not in there then check the kitchen."

Not knowing what to say I slowly opened the door. I stepped inside and was instantly hit by the strong smell of beer and cigarette smoke. I checked in the kitchen and didn't find him there so I worked my way up the stairs.

"Sterling?"

I heard a relatively deep voice come from down the hall. "I'm in here. Deb, if that's you, so help me I will lock the fucking door and climb out the window with my cane."

"No. I'm a friend of Jess's."

"Jess? Who the fucking hell is Jess? And who the fuck are you?" I learned right away that this boy had either had no lesson in manners, or had gotten a lesson, and then forgot them.

"The girl with the pencils? You go to school with her at the deaf and blind school. She said you were new..."
By this time I could hear him working his way towards the door. I knew when he had hit it because there was a thunk as the head of the cane rammed against the door.

"Oh! I know who you are. Sorry. I'm still not used to having to base my people finder skills on my ears and nose. I'm Sterling, but you all ready know that apparently. Yeah, I just have to grab my shoes and then I'll be ready to go."

I followed him down the stairs and helped him narrowly avoid colliding with a chair as he had left his cane on the couch with his coat. As soon as he had his coat and shoes on I headed to the door.

"Don't worry about folding your cane down. I'll help you out to my car."

"You know how to do a sided guide?"

"Proper and not proper. Why?"

"Just surprised. Not many seeing people do. How long you and Jess been friends?"

By this time we were working our way down the steps. "About six years. I met her when I was ten at the rec center. I was finishing up a piano lesson and she was coming in for Braille class. There's a step right here."

"Thanks. And that's cool. She told me you were a nice person. And that you had a great personality. I'm not sure about the personality part yet. But you obviously have a lot of patience seeing as you didn't deck me the first chance you got. Sorry about upstairs by the way. I thought you were my dad's psycho girl friend. She insists on following me every where I go. Even if it's just into the kitchen. She thinks that if she leaves me alone for five seconds I'll chop a finger off or something."

I helped him into the back seat of my car while still continuing the conversation. "It's fine. I know all about over protective parents. Right Jess?"

She gave me a dirty look and then said, "Unfortunately yes. Hi Sterling. If you haven't figured it out all ready I'm the girl who's always giving people pencils in class."

"Yeah, I kind of got that up stairs after I cussed your friend out. She has some amazing patience."

"Yeah, I know. I figured that out after spending a week with her and she hadn't got fed up with leading me around things."

By this time he was starting to loosen up a little. Not anywhere near trying to smile. But he wasn't sitting up looking like he was getting ready to fend off an attack. Instead he was slouched over looking like he might actually be ready to try and have a good time.
"So, Sterling. Which restaurant was it that you were going to go to?" Jess was angling herself so that she was facing him.

"Umm... The owner's name is like Reggie or something like that. Just look for the only Italian restaurant in town."
I fortunately knew where it was so it took me under five minutes to get there. When we pulled up Jess got out of the car and asked which direction we were facing. I told her and she said that she would be back in about a half an hour. I said okay and gave her a quick hug before she headed off down the road. I turned to Sterling and for the first time noticed that he was at least a half a foot taller than me. I decided to try making small talk first.

"So. Where do you want to sit?" He looked like he was on the verge of hitting something. When he didn't say anything I just grabbed his arm and led him up the walk.

When we got inside he froze instantly. Suddenly I heard somebody yell. "Sterling! It's been so long since you've been in. How have you been?" He looked around trying to figure out where it was coming from. I had seen Jess do the same thing so I mumbled under my breath, "Front left. Short lady. Brown curly hair. Mid length." His eyes twitched in my direction and he nodded an acknowledgement that he had heard me. 

He turned in the direction that I had indicated. Slowly raising his head up, I realized something. The person talking to him didn't know he was blind. And he was embarrassed to tell her. Feeling bad for him I gently grabbed his arm and started leading him to the lady. She was still smiling broadly when we reached. He nodded to me that it was okay to let go of him. 

He approached her warily. He had folded up his cane and stuck in his back pack. And unless you knew what to look for in some people, you can't tell anything from their eyes. So when he whispered in her ear, and she slowly started leading him to a back room, I wasn't surprised. I didn't know what to do, so I asked him, "Do you want me to come with you? Or would you rather I not? I can stay out here..." He stopped momentarily. Then he turned to me and reached out his arm. I took this as a sign that he wanted me to follow. Probably to make sure that he didn't run into anything. I led him around some tables and told him we were coming up to a small flight of stairs going up.

"So... Where are we going?" I asked this slowly so as not to startle her or him. She turned back to me and smiled a little. "We're going up to my office so Sterling can talk to me... I thought it was going to be in private."

I was tempted to retort with some sort of smart ass comment. But instead I decided to keep my mouth shut. Best to be seen and observed instead of heard and understood... Learned that the hard way too many times.

My thoughts were interrupted when Sterling reached out and tapped my shoulder. I jerked my head up and looked at him. His mouth was set into a frown. I didn't know what had been said, but I didn't think it was good. I waited for an explanation but none came. So instead of trying to fill up the awkward silence I reached over to him and whispered, "Did she say something that made you mad? Or do you always look like that after having a conversation with people?" His frown quickly turned upwards into a smirk. "No she didn't say anything to make me mad. And yes, I do always look like that... Any more questions Sherlock?"

I waited for a second and then said, "Yeah. I do. Are you always such a stubborn smart ass?" He started laughing and shook his head. "No. Not all the time anyways."

I just shook my head and started laughing. "Yeah. I think we're going to get along just fine. Come on. Let's go find our table." He just grinned and held his arm out for me to grab on to. I led him back down the stairs and to a table in the back. After we were seated and had ordered our drinks we sat there for a minute. I was about to say something when he suddenly asked, "Does this bother you? At all?"

I sat there for a minute. Confused on what he meant. "I'm not sure what you mean... Does what bother me?" I saw a look of discomfort cross his face and he looked down into his lap. He wasn't going to say it outloud. I'd seen that look before. And it was almost impossible to change people's mind when they've made that decision. I sat there for a minute waiting for him to speak. When he didn't I leaned over and whispered quietly, "If you don't want to say it outloud, I have a pen and paper in my bag that you can write it on... Would that make you more comfortable?" He looked up and then down and nodded his head slowly.

I reached into my bag and grabbed the pen and paper. Uncapping the pen and handing it to him I saw him start writing slowly across the paper. When he handed it back he dropped the pen quickly and withdrew his hands back into his lap. I looked at him for a moment before grabbing the paper and lifting it up. His hand writing was messy, but not so much that I couldn't read it. In his messy scrawl he had written, "Being out in public with me..."

This was something I had gone through with Jess for a while when we got older. She didn't want to embarass me or make me feel uncomfortable. I drew in a breath so that when I spoke my voice wouldn't sound shaky or start stuttering. "No. It doesn't bother me. I go out with Jess all the time and this is not different other then you're a guy... Don't worry about it." He looked up and I saw his mouth was turned downward into a scowl. I didn't know if it was something that I had said, or if he was just thinking, but he looked like he was getting ready to hit something.

"If I'm not supposed to worry about that, then can I worry about those ass holes at the other table making comments?" I didn't know what he was talking about until I looked up. Over in the corner there was group of boys about my age from the public school here watching us. One of them caught my gaze and smiled at me. Suddenly, he was standing up and walking over.

"Umm... I don't know if you're very prone to fighting with people. But one of them is coming over here. And he's smiling." I