EmPATHETICally Blind (A skinny love story)

Chapter 9: The New Kid and the Blind Kid.

  Matt's POV:

"Hey! Stop!" I heard Emilee's voice next to me say as we stood by our lockers. People were throwing what felt like rolled up paper balls at us. I recognized the rude laughter, and knew it was a group of guys that liked to pick on me from last year. And now Emilee was double the target, being new, and being my friend.

        "Hey Matt. Who's the chick?" I heard Marcus come up next to me and say. Other footsteps by him told me that Braxton and Tyler were there too. 

        "My name's Emilee. Nice to meet you." She said on the other side of me. I felt arms reach across me, so Marcus must've held out his hand for her to shake. 

I'm assuming it was Tyler who whistled, because I got a whiff of his cologne as he walked around me to get up close to her, and I moved out of the way so I could give them space. Tyler was always the flirt. I couldn't wait to listen to him getting shot down by Emilee.

        "Emilee, what a pretty name. Matches the pretty face." He said. Marcus groaned next to me, and I rolled my eyes. Braxton whispered "Not the new girl" under his breath. 

        "Wow, urm... thanks." I heard her say, and my jaw dropped. She sounded shy, her voice small. I could hear a smile in her voice.

        "Dude, she's blushing. Tyler's actually got one." I heard Marcus whisper into my ear. I shook him away.

        "Give it until the end of today, she'll see how big of a flirt he is to anything wearing a skirt."

        "There goes my outfit idea for tomorrow." Braxton says. I hear a smack and figured that Tyler had overheard us.

The bell rings loud and clear and they all say bye to me and Emilee, and I look over to wear I guessed she'd be. She touches my arm and I follow her, my arm instinctively reaching out to touch her, but I pulled it back, not sure if she'd like that. But then her pinky wrapped around mine and I felt a small smile come to my face. Her hands were so small. I could tell just from how small her pinkie was.

        "Thank your lucky stars I'm good at reading maps." She says. I hear a door opening and I follow her into the classroom, unhooking my pinkie from hers. 

        "Ah, you must be Emilee. Welcome back Matt, take a seat." A man's voice says. A hand that wasn't Emilee's tugs my wrist to touch the back of a seat, and I sit down. The same hand claps me on the back. Not all the kids here were mean to me, in fact, a bunch were pretty helpful. It was just a few that always found it hilarious to move my desk from under me or knock into me.

I heard the familiar lecture of first-day procedures and I leaned forward, propping my head on my elbow. A small tap on my desk to my right told me Emilee was sitting next to me.

        I started to doze off, knowing I wouldn't get in trouble because my eyes were covered with the sunglasses. I was so fucking tired it wasn't even funny. I never thought I'd be able to stay out all night with the same person without going crazy. If I spent that amount of time with Marcus or Tyler or Braxton, I'd be beating them up by the end of the night.

***

        "Wakeup, sleepyhead. If I have to stay awake then so do you." Emilee's voice said by my ear, along with a hand tapping my shoulder. We were in English, our like, fifth class of the day, and the teacher told us it was silent reading time as soon as we walked in. So I decided to lie and say I didn't have any braile books with me and I got to put my head on my arms and sleep.

        "You suck." I say, stretching. People were getting up and talking around us, and I heard the zipping of bags. Class must be almost over.

        "I wasn't the one who decided to sneak out at night." 

        "No you're right, that was me, but I wasn't the one who agreed." 

She was silent and I smirked, hooking my pinkie around hers as she led me to our next class. 

As tired as I was, I still focused on the smells and the different turns we'd take. I felt really pathetic having to hold on to her as she led me to class, so I was going to memorize our way around as quickly as possible. Last year when I was paired up with Marcus, he thought it would be funny to yank me around by my walking stick. Asshole.

        "I don't think you should be ashamed." Emilee's quiet voice said next to me. I frowned a little, wondering how she knew how I felt.

She was actually really good about that, knowing what mood I was in.

        "Awww look. The blind guy has a giiirlfriend!" The annoying voice said, followed by obnoxious laughter, the same I heard each time I got pelted with something or when someone stuck their wet finger in my ear or when people would run up and tap my shoulder then run away.

        "How pathetic. No wonder she'd settle for the fricking blind kid. He'd never know how ugly she was." A different voice said, followed by a chorus of 'oooohs'. I gritted my teeth and squeezed her pinky. She squeezed back, and I realized her hand was shaking.

        "Well he must be really lucky then, not having to ever look at your shuck face." She said. I laughed at the fact she was using Maze Runner lingo. 

        "Babe, trust me, no one in this school is more attractive than me."

        "Size must not matter here then." She retorts quickly. My jaw drops. Ouch.

        "Guess not, cuz every new girl we get, the fatter they come." He says. I immediatley decide to step in, unhooking my pinky from hers and walking towards his voice, throwing my fist back and slamming it into what I hope is his face. I feel a nose break underneath my hand and I knew I guessed correctly.

Emilee's hand grabs my wrist and she's pulling me away, running as I hear the hallway noise grow louder. We walk into the library, our study hall. She's still dragging me, and I know we're in the back of the library because the smell of ancient, dusty books is strong. She guides my hand to a chair and i sit down, and she sits in a chair next to me.

        "You shouldn't have done that, I was holding fine on my own." She says in a quiet voice. 

        "No one insults my friends." I say shortly, massaging my hand from where I punched his nose.

We sit there, in the quiet, and I realize that she's not breathing normally. Her breaths are short gasps, and I hear sniffling.

She's crying. And trying to hide it. 

I can't stand it when a girl cries. I don't know why but it makes me want to cry myself. I'm a fricking wimp for it.

        "Awww, Em, don't cry. Please. You're not fat." I say, moving my chair closer to her and putting an arm around her.

        "How would you know." She replies in a biting voice.

        "Uh, let's think back to way earlier when you pinned me down, trying to take my soccer ball from me. You barely weighed anything." I say. She sniffs again.

        "I know, I know. I'm dumb, I shouldn't be taking it like this, it's just ugh." She says. I nod.

        "I don't think any less of you." I say.

We're quiet for a long time, and eventually her breathing goes back to normal.

        "I hit the right guy, right?" I asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

She snorts, and her back shakes from containing laughter.

        "Yeah. Really good aim."