EmPATHETICally Blind (A skinny love story)

Chapter 10: Impulses

Emilee's POV:

        "You dyed your hair...WHITE?!?!?!" Macie asked me, when she came home from work. It was a Saturday, I was left home alone yet again while my parents and Macie did their jobs; and I got bored. So, I bleached my hair. It was now a white-ish blonde. I also decided to add purple and blue streaks to it, then add layers. Why?

I felt like it.

        "Yahuh." I answered, dipping pretzels in nutella as I sat on the living room couch and watched Spongebob. I also decided to try a new makeup look that consisted of black eyeliner and mascara. I thought it looked bitchin.

I felt hands run through my hair, then yank on it a little to see if it was real and not just a wig. 

        "Mom and dad are going to murder you. It looks great on you, but they're going to kill you so dead." She says. I roll my eyes and continue to watch Spongebob.

***

I had impulses alot. Not ones that usually involved me sneaking out and staying out with a guy I barely knew all night; but impulses. I mentioned earlier I didn't live too much on the dangerous side; but that was most of the time. Others, I had random urges. To do stuff. Crazy stuff. One involved me getting a tattoo on my stomach. Another involved getting my ears double pierced. This one involved dyeing my hair. 

I got in big trouble obviously. My parents took one look and grounded me from hanging out with anyone. I would go straight from school to home, where I was forced to sit at the table and do my homework, then sit in my room.

They tried turning off the wi-fi, but Macie complained that affected her too, so I still had the internet. Did being grounded stop me from sneaking out to meet Matt after my family went to bed? No.

        "You dyed your hair?" He asked me, when I mentioned to him that I was technically grounded.

        "Yup. White-blonde. With purple and blue streaks." I say. His hand reaches out and fluffs my hair around, as if he can feel any difference. He could probably tell it was a little fuller, considering I added layers.

        "Maybe I can gain Iggy's powers and feel colors." He mumbles to himself.

        "Huh?"

        "Nothing, book reference."

        "Oh."

We hang out in comfortable silence, like we usually do. Most of the times we hang out, we rarely talk. Unless one of us has something to say or a random thought to blurt out, we stay silent and just enjoy each other's company.

I feel curiosity, excitement and something else I can't quite put my finger on radiate from him. I try to decipher the third emotion when he speaks.

        "You're pretty impulsive, Em." He says. I laugh.

        "You don't know the half of it." I say.

        "Oh but I do. I can tell by the fact that you agreed to sneaking out with me, by just dying your hair, by the fact that you lashed out at a random guy who was just being a dick. You act with your gut before you think. A lot like me." He says the last part as an afterthought, and I smile.

        "Maybe we were just meant to be friends then." I say. He smiles, his two dimples appearing, and before I can stop myself I poke one. He turns towards me.

        "What?" He asks.

        "I like your dimples." I say. He makes an odd motion with his head and the scarred hazel circles on his eyes move a little. I learned that that was him, rolling his eyes. It looked freaky cool.

        "Oh, that." He mumbles. I laugh, catching bashfulness come from him.

        "You mean those." I say, poking his other cheek. He smiles and retaliates by poking my side. I shriek, ticklish, and poke the underside of his knee. He makes an awkward sounding squawk sound, and it turns into a full on playfight.

It goes over all so quickly, I don't even realize he's pinning me down until all I see is his face and all the stars behind him. How cheesy.

I can't help but smile, trying to regain my breath. I'm feeling dizzy and giddy, and I don't think it's because of the fact that I just came out of a fight.

He got a bashful grin on his face, and climbed off, then reached out a hand to help me up.

        "What's it like?" I ask.

        "What's what like?" He answers with a question, feeling out for the nearest tree. He then finds one and feels around for a low branch. With surprising strength he pulls himself up and is sitting on it. There's another right next to it, so I climb up on that one, facing him. It took a lot of grunting, straining, and arm muscle to pull myself up, including scraping my knee on the tree bark. Matt's eyes were focused on a point near me, a look of interest on his face.

        "Being blind." I say. He shrugs.

        "Going through your daily life with your eyes permanently shut I suppose. And all your other senses magnified." He states simply. I feel bitterness come from him and I reach out to put my hand on his knee.

        "I must say I'm amazed at how well you climbed up here." I say.

        "I've been climbing trees ever since I could walk. It's second nature to me. I'm impressed you were able to get up here, you don't have much arm strength it seems." He says. I laugh and punch him in the shoulder.

        "Jerk." 

        "Bitch."

        "Assbutt."

        "Idjit." He finishes. We both smirk, referencing our 2nd favorite TV show; Supernatural. My first favorite is Doctor Who, his is or was Courage the Cowardly Dog. 

I can't help but feel so glad for a moment, that I moved here, that he was the one delivering the muffins and not his brother, that his mom paired us up to have all the same classes. Then I think back to the reason of why I moved here, and I frown. I lay back against the tree, staring up at the sky.

        "My dream is to travel. To take a road trip across the US and part of Canada. I've been saving up for it for a while now, but I won't really get anywhere with what I have." I murmur, telling him a secret of mine. A silly one.

        "I always wanted to be a traveling soccer player. Just go around and play in all the major league games." He mumbles, letting me know one of his.

        "Maybe we can take a road trip some time." He says quietly after a moment.

        "That would be awesome. Although we'd have to take a third person."

        "Why?"

        "Because I don't want to do all the driving." I say with a laugh. He drops his jaw in mock offense and reaches up, grabbing a handful of leaves and throwing them at me. With surprisingly accurate aim.

        "Hey!" He says. I laugh and throw more leaves at him.

***

I get back to my room around 2am, almost refusing his offer to sleep outside like he was planning to do. I would have, but I probably already had ten bugbites on each limb and didn't need more.

        I climbed through my window with a smile on my face, and walked to our bathroom to clean and bandage the scrape on my knee. Before I went to bed, I noticed that on my window-sill was a leaf, one of the ones that were in that tree. It had a small heart cut into it. I smiled and put it next to the empty bag of gummy worms.

I still haven't given him his jacket back.