Seeing Blind |NH|

Chapter Thirty Five

I shut the door and led her to the couch.  "Need anything?  Water?"

"Please?"

"Of course.  Coming right up."  I got her a glass of water and brought it to her.

She took a sip and made a face, "Niall, I just broke up with my lying, sleazy, cheating, asshole of a boyfriend.  Again.  When I ask for water, you should know by now I mean vodka."

I laughed a little.  "Coming right up."

I went to my liquor cabinet and grabbed the bottle of vodka I had already open and brought out two glasses.  Pouring her one and one for myself, I handed her the glass and she reached past me and grabbed the bottle.  She took a long gulp.  In fact, she basically drank it as if it were actual water.

"Oookay, slow down there, hon."

She placed the bottle down and looked at me.  She gave me a small smile. 

"Want to talk about it?" I asked, both concerned for her and curious as to what happened.

"Not right now.  I want that movie you promised."

"You wanna choose?"

"Nah, you pick.  You're turn to pick anyway, I think."

"Okay."  I went through everything on Netflix but didn't really find anything that peaked my interest.

"Veronica is supposed to be good."

I looked at what she was talking about.  "It's in Spanish."

"So?"

"It's scary?"

"So?  Niall, I need a distraction.  A good scary movie could do just that."

"Okay.  Scary movie, it is."  I hit play and turned out the light.

A few minutes in, I looked over at her.  She wasn't looking at the screen.  She was curled up into a ball with her chin resting in her hand and her eyes were cast down.  She looked so tiny and fragile.  It broke my heart to think she continued to let him mess with her head.  And her heart.

I watched her for a minute but then her eyes went back up to the screen so I turned my attention back to it before she noticed me staring.  Every once in awhile, I peeked over at her and she seemed to be watching.  A few more minutes into the movie, and the main character let out this horrifying scream, sending me out of my seat.

"Jesus!" She yelled, half jumping out of her skin, too.

We both looked at each other and then burst into laughter.  "Oh my god, you should've seen your face!" she said, hiccupping from laughing so hard.

"My face?  What about yours?"

As we started to calm down and heart rates attempted to return to normal, she said, "Oh man, I needed that.  A good scare and a good laugh."  She paused, "Although, it is sad that it scared us, because it's not like we didn't see it coming."

Still laughing a little, I looked over at her, and said, "Yeah, it's funny how we know it's coming but we still don't see til it actually happens."

She was quiet.  She bent her head down and started playing with her fingers.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She shrugged.  "Have I ever been?"

Trying to lighten the mood, I said, "Well, I've only known you a year, so I don't know, but seem pretty okay to me.  I mean, not at this exact moment, obviously.  Who would be?  But, yeah, I fucked this pep talk up.  I'm sorry.  I'm terrible at cheering people up.  Clearly."

I closed my eyes.  My attempt to lighten the mood just went completely stupid.  I don't know why I fumbled over my words.

I heard nothing.  No response from her.  Afraid to open my eyes, I just kept them closed.  I felt her get up off the couch.  I opened my eyes to see her heading into my kitchen.

"Esta, I'm sorry.  I'm a shit person."

Still saying nothing, she came back with a bag of Oreos and two glasses of milk.  Handing me my glass, she sat down next to me, a little closer this time.  She grabbed a blanket, throwing it over us both before tearing into the Oreos.

I was about to say something else before she stopped me.  "Don't.  I know you meant nothing offensive by it, Niall.  Geez.  I may be stupid when it comes to boys but I think I can tell when a friend is trying to lighten the mood of the room."  She looked at me before placing her left hand on my right cheek and bringing her lips to my left, lightly kissing my cheek.  "Thank you, for being a good friend to me.  You have no idea how much that means to me."  She lightly smiled at me as she handed me an Oreo.  "Ready?" she asked as she settled down next to me.

"No." I laughed, but it came out shaky.

She looked at me.  "It's okay, Niall.  If you need to hide behind me, I'm right here."  She smirked a little as she popped an Oreo into her mouth.

"That's not even remotely close to how you are supposed to eat an Oreo.  You dunk it first," I said, picking up my glass of milk.

"Yeah, yeah.  Hit play."

I hit play and we settled back in.  Sometime later, I woke up to the Netflix screen of annoyance asking me if I was still watching.  I rubbed my eyes and looked down to see Esta, curled up with her head in my lap, asleep.   I looked down at her and moved a strand of her hair out of her face.  I slowly and gently lifted her head to get out from beneath her.  Grabbing the blanket that had fallen off in the process, I placed it over her and kissed her forehead.

Turning off the TV, I made my way to my bed, plopping down, and passing out.

When I woke up the next morning, I walked out of my room and stopped in my tracks.  I heard what sounded like crying.  I slowly walked down the rest of the hallway and peered into the living room.  She was still lying on the couch with her back to me.  Sniffling.  Running my hands through my hair, I shuffled my way over to her and laid down next to her.  She turned over when she felt me next to her and wrapped her arms around my waist.  Wrapping my entire body around her, I held onto her as she cried.