Leather and Lace

~ Prologue ~

The song is Fighter by Christina Aguilera... Enjoy! 😉

Seven years ago if you had asked me if ever asked me what it was like to be blind I would have responded that I had no idea. I had everything I could have ever wanted or needed. My life had been absolutely perfect at the time. I was captain of the volleyball team. My boyfriend, as cliché as it was, was the quarterback for our high school team. I had a beat friend that was more like a sister to me. And let's not forget to add loving parents into the picture. I had it all. Thinking back on it I never could have imagined that my life was fixing to change so drastically for all of us. For me especially.

The night of my senior prom was supposed to have been one of the happiest of my life. I'd spent almost an entire paycheck the day of getting my hair and nails done for the big night. For was almost fairytale-like in my mind. A right of passage for every American girl at that age. In a way, it marked a transition for us. Like a Quinceañera for a fifteen-year-old Hispanic girl. It usually marked the end of her childhood and the starts womanhood.  I was so excited I could hardly sleep the night before. I don't know how I managed with just a short nap so I wouldn't be exhausted for the night ahead. I was a ball of nerves as I tried to relax and enjoy the preparations. After hair, makeup and nails were done I got dressed and waited anxiously for Brett to show up.

My parents insisted on a hundred pictures before we were allowed to leave. The party was in full swing by the time we got there. The music that pounded through the building like it was the very heartbeat of the party. A myriad of flashing lights flitted over the floors and walls. The decorations were set up beautifully. The theme was called Looking Back. A play on memories of our time in school. The minutes and hours blurred together in my mind as we danced the night away. There was supposed to be an after-party at our favorite hang out at the lake so many of us had brought along our bathing suits or a change of clothes. Being young and naïve then I shrugged it off. Mama always taught me to listen to your gut. If something isn't right then you shouldn't do it. Looking back I should have listened to that advice. I should have listened to my gut. Youthful arrogance had me ignore the warning and leave for the lake.

Halfway there is when it happened. At that moment my life would be upended and changed forever. The road had been narrow and dark. The curve too sharp. Blinding headlights flashed through the windshield. Momentarily blinded we didn't see the deer that had started out in front of the road. I'd been in the process of changing my clothes and didn't have my seatbelt on. Brett managed to swerve to miss it but wound up losing control of the truck and hit a tree. I didn't even have time to brace my. From reports, the impact from hitting the tree mangles the truck the force of the sudden stop sent me flying. After that, I have no memory of what happened until I woke up two days later in the hospital.... unable to see.

The doctors told me that I had damaged the part of my brain that focused on eyesight. The damage had been so severe that I would never regain my eyesight again. My heart broke at the news. All my dreams and aspirations went down the drain. It should have been a comfort that nothing else was physically wrong with me. I had all my motor and speech capabilities. I tried to cling on to that fact. But all too soon my world as it was going up in a ball of flames. Brett who had only suffered minor injuries had come to see me when he heard I was awake. At first, be acted like he was relieved that I was alive and was unharmed. At the moment I couldn't bring myself to tell him the truth.

It wasn't until a tray of food was brought in for me and went to reach for it that everything happened at once. I wound up knocking the entire tray onto the floor and my lap. I tried to write it off but I didn't need my vision to know he was catching onto what was going on. The jig was up and I was forced to tell him what happened. The atmosphere in the room, between us, shifted. I could physically feel it. "When were you going to tell me?" That tone. It had been so full of light and laughter was full of reproach and anger. I started to cry while trying to explain that I was permanently blind. He didn't say anything else while I tried to explain and calm myself down. Once I stopped crying and said what I had to there was an uncomfortable silence between us. The minutes stretched into eternity. My heart raced as I waited for Brett to speak. Finally, I heard a shuffle, the chair that he had pulled over to the side of my bed scraped against the floor as he stood up.