Seeing Blind (Rough Draft)

Chapter Seventeen

Ambrose was still asleep after a week passed, and then two, and before Avery knew it, it was the first week of August. She came to visit Ambrose every chance she got, bypassing his family and friends.

Her father came with her every time since she still didn't have her license and he shook every time she thought about going to see him. She didn't have a good reason not to have her license already, something always getting in the way.

She would get dirty looks when she entered Ambrose's hospital room, but she ignored the stares and focused her energy and time on Ambrose, and his recovery. It was her fault he was in a coma anyway.

Avery wanted to get to the hospital by three since she knew there was an open window of visitors around then, and she only had an hour to make it there. She wanted to visit before she stopped in to see Ambrose and wasn't sure if she'd make it to St. Mary's by three, or if the person she wanted to visit would listen to her.

She hoped.

Avery remembered where her house was so went on her way after telling her father she'd be back in an hour or so to go to St. Mary's. Walking to the house felt like an eternity, in Hell, Avery breaking out in a sweat that had nothing to do with the California heat and everything to do with her nerves.

Avery walked up the pathway and knocked on the door, her heart beating a mile a minute and she took deep breaths to try to calm herself.

It wasn't working.

The door opened and little Colin was on the other side, staring up at Avery with big, brown eyes. "Avery Wainwright."

"Um...yes...hi Colin. Is your sister home?"

"Which one?"

"Um...Tamar?"

"She's in her room with Eliza. She's the oldest and a freshman in college. She's on a scholarship for soccer at Winston University in L.A. Isn't that cool?"

"Yeah...that's cool. Could you get Tamar for me? But don't her it's me asking. Just say she has a visitor."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Guess so." He walked away, keeping the door slightly ajar.

Avery stood on their doorstep, awkward. She looked around the empty neighborhood, twisting and intertwining her fingers together, telling herself not to walk away. It was so hard staying at that doorstep.

"Avery?"

She turned, surprised, and came face-to-face with Tamar. A purple-haired Tamar. "H-Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

"Can we talk...outside?" She was not about to tell this story in front of an audience.

"What's this about?" Tamar crossed her arms over her chest.

"Just...please come out. I can explain everything."

"You can explain your racism?"

"I can explain about Ambrose and why he's where he is."

"In a hospital, in a coma, because of you."

"Yes, now please can you come out and shut the door?" She was losing her nerve, Tamar needed to come out soon before Avery trashed the whole explanation.

A pregnant pause passed. Finally, "you have five minutes." She closed the door, her brows raised and arms staying crossed.

Five minutes. Avery could work with that. She'd have too. She took a deep breath. "I met Ambrose before moving here with my father, and it was three years ago at Venice Beach. I was swimming with some friends--old friends, apparently--and before I knew it the current pulled us deeper into the ocean and I was being pulled down. A shark was pulling me under by my leg--left leg. I tried swimming to the top, beating its head, kicking, and hitting it, but nothing was working.