How To Save A Life

How to Save a Life (11)

If you haven't listened to Hunter Hayes' new album, Storyline, you need to. One of the songs, Tattoo, is to the side because it's adorable and I'm obsessed with it <3

Emily

"I'm scared"

I knew Oliver was watching me, and had been for a long time, but I was content to lie there next to him until I realized it was the last time I would do it. When he jerked in surprise at my words, I rolled over and wrapped my arm around his torso, holding on tightly.

His fingers intertwined with mine. "Of what?"

"Life" I said. "It's going to be so different without Mom and Dad."

He ran his fingers along the skin of my waist where my shirt had ridden up slightly. "I don't know what to say." he said after a moment. "Because it's not going to be ok for a long time, is it?"

I shook my head against his chest. He hugged me tighter. "Do you want me to say something specific?" he asked, and when he sat up, I followed and climbed onto his lap. There was a part of me that wanted desperately to look him in the eye, but most of me knew that as soon as I did I'd break down and cry.

I'd cried more in these last three weeks than I had in the last three years.

Oliver's arms wound around my waist soothingly as I tucked my face into the crook of his neck, and he rested his chin on my shoulder. He was quiet, like he was waiting for my answer that wasn't going to come, then he spoke quietly. "I don't just read English in words."

I held on tighter. He sighed, and I pictured the way his face would move into a slight pout, the way it did every time he sighed or yawned. "I can read Braille," he said.

"I can't," I admitted. I felt him smile, felt the way his entire body relaxed slightly. "Take a guess why."

"You're blind," I said. He probably rolled his eyes. "You're an awful guesser."

"Jayden's blind."

"Wrong again"

"Well, who's blind?"

He rested his cheek against the side of my head, his hand winding itself through my hair. "Brent," he admitted. Surprised, I pulled away and looked up at him. "I thought he was a hurdle jumper?"

Oliver pressed his forehead against mine. "He was." he said, eyes searching mine for something I couldn't see. "Best in the state. Then he started tripping. He'd clear them with a foot to spare, but as soon as he landed he'd fall. We got his ankles checked, his knees - none of us could figure out what was wrong with him. Max's mum is a nurse, she was the first to figure it out. She'd call his name, and throw something at him, like a pillow. When he'd literally stand there and let it hit him in the face, we got his eyes checked."

"Did he just wake up blind one day?"

Oliver chuckled lightly. "If it was that simple, it probably would have been easier for Brent. It's called cone-rod dystrophy, and it basically meant that his eyesight was there at the beginning of the year, and gone by the end of September. He just started getting flashes of time where he just couldn't see, and one day he couldn't see at all."

I let out a low whistle, burying my head into his shoulder. "How'd he deal with that?"

Oliver smiled wryly. "He was pissed. Not with the fact that he couldn't see, just with the fact that he couldn't go to the Olympics anymore."

"What about Paralympics?"

"He's blind. He can't jump hurdles anymore - Mom won't even let him try." His voice had a tone of regret in it, one I doubted he realized was there. I pulled back, meeting his eyes as I raised my eyebrows at him. "Why won't you take him?"