LOVE AT LAST SIGHT ?
By Jordan Lynden✅
#Final_Episode +Epilogue?
When I woke up I knew it was going to be one of those days that I just wanted to give up. My vision had only been gone for one week at this point, but I’d woken up four out of seven days (today included) feeling like it wasn’t worth it. Just finding my way to the bathroom was a has-sle. I knew the way of course, I’d lived in the house long enough for that, but I was so paranoid . That I’d trip on the stairs, that I’d step on something that wasn’t there the day before. All that plus the fact that having no sight really though off my balance didn’t exactly make me a happy camper.
It was even tougher at Chace’s house, because everything was different. I had to go down the stairs to find the bathroom.
So today, at Chace’s, when I stumbled on the last step on the stair and fell crashing to the ground, I briefly wondered why my n£¢k couldn’t just snap. Seconds later I heard Chace hurrying from the kitchen (or at least I figured it was the kitchen) and come to a st©p by my side. “Rosie, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I responded moodily, allowing him to haul me up by the elbow.
“You don’t sound fine, Grumpy.”
I scowled at him— or where I thought his face was. It was kind of ha-rd to know without any vision. “You try not being able to see anything .”
“Hey, if you really want me to, I’ll sew my eyes shut,” he responded easily.
“No,” I said immediately. “Chace, no.”
Laughter rumbled throu-gh his che-st. “I’m just kidding, Rosie. You’re okay though, right?”
I frowned at his serious tone. It’s like he knew I’d thought about dying alre-ady once today.
“You know, it’ll get better,” Chace told me, drawing me into a hvg. “I know it’s ha-rd .”
“You don’t know,” I pointed out, not unkindly.
I could almost hear him roll his eyes. “Trying to be sympathetic here.”
“I know,” I responded, grinning a little. “This just su-cks.”
“Yeah, it does,” he agreed, warm breath c@r£ss!ngmy cheek.
“But I’d much prefer you like this than dead. That’d just be weird.”
“And creepy,” I commented, wrinkling my nose at the thought. “I don’t really want to die though, you know that, right?”
Chace nodded against me. “I know. It’ll be a while until you’re used to this.”
“Unfortunately.”
“But hey, now you always have the excuse of holding my hand,” he commented happily, taking my hand almost as to prove his point.
“Yay,” I said flatly.
He laughed. “So enthusiastic. Let’s go around the house.”
“I want Jack—”
“Do you want to have to rely on Jack your whole life?” Chace scolded me.
I pouted. “No.”
“Then you have to walk by yourself sometimes too.”
b!tt!g myl-ip, I slowly started taking a few baby steps forward. It really su-cked not being able to see. I knew I looked like an idiot when I walked— slow, hesitant, ba-rely ma-king a half a foot per step. Even with Chace holding my hand, it took me three minutes to get out of the house.
But, and I hated to admit it, Chace forcing practice onto me was actually helping a lot. I now knew where the sharp edges of the tables in the hall were, or where Jack’s food and waters bowls were in the kitchen, or where the coat rack in the hall was. Before, I’d spilled the water bowl every time I’d entered the kitchen, and jabbe-d myself in the h!pwith every sharp surface available.
After we mapped out the house a few times, Chace allowed me to lead us to the door. “Where are we going?” I asked, cautiously reaching out to find the door handle. “Where’s Jack?”
“You don’t nee-d Jack, I’ll be right beside you,” Chace as-sured me, taking my hand for emphasis. “And secret.”
“If it’s the movies, I won’t be amused.”
Chace tsked. “I’m not that mean, Rosie.”
I smiled. “I know you’re not… but seriously, where are we going? You know how I feel about driving now…”
“It’s not a long trip, don’t worry,” Chace responded, giving my hand a squee-ze. “And I know.”
Driving was terrifying when you couldn’t see. It wasn’t like I didn’t trust Chace or my friends or my family when they drove me— I trusted them fine. Well, maybe Kate I didn’t trust, but she’d been in four accidents since she’d gotten her license, so it was acceptable. But I just didn’t like not being able to see what was going on around me. Two pairs of eyes were much better than one while driving.
The trip only took about forty minutes. I tried thinking of anything fun that was twenty minutes from Chace’s house, but nothing c@m£ to mind. Maybe an ice cream parlor, but it was a bit cold out for ice cream.
“You’re not allergic to anything, right?” Chace checked with me as he helped me, unnecessarily, out of his car. “Only your dad’s allergic to animals?”
“Nope,” I responded, smiling a little bit. Chace had a pretty great memory. I couldn’t even remember any time I’d told him my father was allergic to animals. It didn’t seem that important to me, but the thought it was important enough to him to remember in the first place made me happy.
“Awesome.”
“I don’t like ducks though.”
Laughing, he tugged me forward. “Hey, you don’t have a reason to hate them. They attacked me , not you.”
“Well, maybe if you hadn’t offended them by your awful quacking…”
“It wasn’t awful!”
I grinned. “Sure, Chace. Sure.”
“Whatever,” he muttered. “Let’s go inside. It doesn’t look too busy today, so I think it’ll be okay.”
“Where are we?” I asked curiously. Chace’s kindness always surprised the heck out of me, so I as-sumed we were somewhere a blind person would enjoy just as much as a person with regular eyesight. By his question I would as-sume some kind of petting barn, but I knew there were none around our area. There were no green houses either, so we weren’t going flower smelling.
By the tone of his voice, I figured Chace was grinning happily.
“You’ll see.”
“I don’t like surprises,” I whined.
“You’re such a kid.”
“No. Old people don’t like surprises either. It can give them a heart attack.”
Chace let out a small sigh. “You knew what I meant.”
sm-irking, I gave a half-shrug. “Eh.”
We c@m£ to a st©p and I heard the jingle of a bell, so I as-sumed Chace opened the door to wherever we were. Immediately a strong scent of
everything met my nose. It was sweet and spicy and fresh and strong . I blinked a bit in shock, su-cking in air with my mouth to let my nose adjust to the as-sault of scents. Candle scents. “Yankee Candle?” I said, turning in the direction I figured Chace stood.
“Yep— so we can both enjoy it. There’s a big candy section in here too,” he replied cheerfully.
Yep, Chace really was a great guy. “You know I love you, right?”
He chuckled and k!$$£d the t©p of my forehead. “Yeah, I know.”
“If they still have Pumpkin scented candles, you’re buying me all of them,” I told him, gesturing for him to lead me throu-gh the sto-re. I didn’t dare try to navigate it myself. Me and glas-s jars wouldn’t mix too well.
“I knew you only loved me for my money,” he accused sarcastically.
I pursed myl-ips at him and he snickered before guiding me past the front of the sto-re. From what I knew, this Yankee Candle sto-re was pretty mas-sive, so I figured we’d be here for a while. I was one of those people who had to smell
every candle. So about fifty candles in Chace was complaining.
“What even is the difference between Blueberry Cake and Blueberry Muffin? They smell the same,” he grumbled, holding out the jar for me to take a whiff.
I wrinkled my nose. “No, one smells much worse than the other. You can put that back. What’s next?”
He gro-an ed. “Rosie, we’ve been here for like an hour, and we’ve only gone throu-gh one wall of candles.”
“And?”
“My nose is tired. I never want to smell anything again.”
I laughed quietly, indicating for him to pick up the next jar.
“Come on, it’s not really that bad, is it?”
“Yes it is,” he deadpanned.
“But I’m having a lot of fun,” I pointed out.
“You are?”
I nodded. “I am.”
He was quiet for a moment. “Well, I guess that’s okay then. Your nose is still intact.”
“Yep, and it’s re-ady to smell more candles.” I paused for a moment. “This really means a lot to me, Chace.”
He wra-pped an arm around my shoulder and gave it a squee-ze. “I’m glad.”
“Would it be cheesy to say I don’t deserve you?”
“Yes, because out of everyone, you do deserve me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying that you’re better than most other guys out there?”
“Depends. Am I?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, yeah, I am,” he decided, and I pictured him grinning. How handsome he must’ve looked.
My che-st ti-ght£ñed painfully and I stared down at the floor, trying not to let my emotions show on my face. I didn’t want Chace to think I was sad— although it was really depressing not being able to see his face. I’d have given anything to see it one more time.
“But I think you’re better than everyone else too,” Chace said to me.
I gave him a tiny smile. “Oh yeah?”
“Definitely.”
“Look at us. Feeding each other’s egos. Next candle, buddy,” I ordered, snapping my f!ngers.
He let out a quic-k puff of air. “Yes.”
About an hour later, we finally finished going throu-gh all the candles. Chace picked out a few boring ones like Cotton and Island Breeze while I chose more exciting ones like Pumpkin Pie and Apple Spice.
Gathering candy went much quic-ker. Chace alre-ady knew what he wanted, and I only wanted a few chocolates. But of course Chace wouldn’t take a few for an answer, and bought me an entire bag of different flavored truffles and chocolate-covered things. With our purchases in hand, we headed back to the car and left.
“So how long did it take you to decide where to go today?” I questioned on the way home.
“Um, not too long. A minute maybe?”
Impressed, I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah, I have a whole list of things we can do together,” he responded, sounding proud of himself. “I made it back when I first learned of your disease.”
My heart fli-p-flopped in my che-st. “Are you joking?”
“No.”
“Chace…”
“Rosie,” he replied light-heartedly. “Don’t think on it too much.
It’s no big deal. I just wanted to make sure we would have lots of things to do together when you went blind… of course back then I was just still hoping you’d want to be with me after you told me.”
.I bit my lowerl-ip, fiddling with my hands. “You never cease to amaze me, you know that?”
“I can say the same to you, my br@ve little friend.”
“I’m not br@ve.”
“Then I’m not amazing.”
A smile fli-ckered at myl-ips. No, Chace honestly was amazing. He was exceptional. And somehow, he was all mine. “So what else do you have on that list? A petting zoo?”
“Er, maybe… is that too childish?” he asked, sounding hesitant and sheepish.
“No way! I love petting animals.”
He let out a little sigh of relief. “Oh, good. Maybe we can do that next weekend. Or something else. Like I said, I have a list. A long list. Spend a whole afternoon ma-king it, too. Being blind isn’t all bad, yeah?”
.I grinned. “No, it’s really not.”
Especially with Chace by my side. If he was there, I could do anything.
???
? THE END ✔