Echo-A Ballet Story

o3

I stirred in the hard bed, slowly opening my eyes. My blurry vision became bolder.

"Pst...Paige, are you asleep?" A voice asked through the dim room and the beeping of the monitors.

I groaned, "Now I am."

"Sorry," he apologized, though it wasn't his fault at all, "Listen, yesterday, we got off to a bad start, and I would like to make it up to you."

I slowly sat up, careful not to hurt my foot and alert the nurses. "If you could send me back to two nights ago, that would be great!" My sarcasm hinted that I was still in a bad mood. Cody just sighed.

"You know that's impossible, so why are you wasting your breath? Besides, we are both stuck here," his blindfold keeps getting annoying. I just wasn't used to talking to someone who was blind, "so," he continued, "let's somewhat get along while we're here, shall we?"

I rolled my eyes, I really didn't want to do anything, especially make friends. Cody treated me almost like he wasn't blind, now that I think of it, I don't think he's even complained about his temporary disability. I guess making friends with this guy will help to pass the time since I really hated reading and sitting on dad's phone is just, I don't know, not interesting. All he has on there are business and ranch related stuff. No games, no teenage social media, he even blocked YouTube. So this pretty much gave me no choice. "Fine. We can be friends. But only until one of us get out of here." I finally answered him.

He flashed a smile, even with the blindfold on, I couldn't help but notice that his smile was pretty attractive. I shook the thought out. Once he regains his sight and lays his eyes on me, he'll probably vomit on the spot. My burned cheek didn't feel as bad as yesterday, but I could tell from the bumpy texture, that it might and could leave an unwanted scar.

Cody cleared his throat, "So Ms. Ballerina, how long do you practice?"

"About two hours at school and an hour to two hours at home, since my brother is too lazy to let the horses into the pasture." I replied, thoughtfully. Feeling a pang of pain.

"You live on a ranch?" He asked, completely interested in the subject.

"Well sure, my dad's sort of the boss of the place,"

"You're more talented than I thought!" His grin curved his lips upward. I couldn't help but smile.

"And what about you, Mr. I-was-stupid-to-play-with-chemicals?" I asked, saying it as I went along, trying to keep the humor. To my surprise, he chuckled.

"Well, I'm a soccer player, for your information and you already know that I can easily goof off without intending to."

"Soccer player?" My eyebrows went up, "I pass that field every day to get to my car, wonder why I didn't know you." I still couldn't picture him playing soccer.

He shrugged, "Yeah well, same goes to you as well."

"You're still talented," I said, letting the grin take up my face.

Cody shook his head, "Nah, a soccer player who almost went blind from a dumb experiment is not talented."

"Oh sure you are!" I waved that off, "Everyone has talent, so don't let anything stop you."

Cody leaned against the pillow as he smirked, "Says the one who's angry at the hospital. I still don't know what it did to you."

I let out a small laugh, "You're such a player. So tell me, you do this with all the girls, don't you?"

Without missing a beat, he said, his voice completely serious all of a sudden, "Why would I? A guy getting a girls hopes up sounds more like a jerk. It's just wrong."