Seeing Blind |NH|

Chapter Thirty Six

For the next couple of days, I did my best to cheer her up, but it was like she managed to make it through that one night and then just broke. During the days, she did okay, finding enough to distract her; tagging along with me whenever she could. But, at night, when she went back to her apartment that first night, within an hour, she was knocking on my door with a pillow in hand, not wanting to stay and face the remnants of her failed relationship. I gave her my bed and took the couch for the next several days. Each morning, I woke up to her crying. And each morning, I curled up beside her and did my best to soothe her. But she still didn't want to talk about it and I didn't want to force her, but it made cheering her up even more difficult. And I felt like shit for not being a better friend. She was so good at making me feel better about things that I felt like a crappy friend because I couldn't do the same for her.

One late afternoon, I was coming home from a couple of interviews I had to do for promotional purposes when I found her standing in the hall talking with Patrick. I had left her in my apartment, so it was a nice surprise to see her not wrapped up in a blanket, lost inside her own head.

Her face lit up when she saw me. I smiled at her and slightly waved at the both of them as I made my way up to them.

"Niall, we're having dinner with Patrick tomorrow night. Did you know he got himself the cutest girlfriend?"

I smiled, "Yeah, I did. And, yes, definitely. To dinner."

I looked at her. She was wearing overalls, with her hair up, and the red bandana she had worn one of the first nights we had hung out. She also had what looked to be paint on her face and hands and overalls.

"Okay, so dinner at 7, yeah?" I was snapped out of my thoughts by Patrick staring at me with a slight smile on his face.

"Seven sounds good," I responded.

"Alright. I need to get back to what I was doing. I'll see you tomorrow, Patrick," Esta said, giving him a hug. "Thanks for your help today."

"Can't wait to see the finished product. I love the color you chose."

"Me too."

"You two have a good evening," he said as he made his way back inside.

"Finished product?" I asked.

"Yes! I'm making some changes, Niall."

"Okay?" I said, turning the knob on my door and finding it locked. That's when I noticed her door was open and music was coming from inside. "What are you up to?"

"Come see!"

She grabbed my hand and pulled me into her apartment. Walking in, the place was a total disaster. Stuff was piled everywhere and there was plastic covering the furniture and floors. She had paint cans everywhere and the brightest blue I could imagine had started to be painted over the white walls.

"What is going on in here?" I asked, eyes wide.

"I'm painting the walls."

"I see that. What brought this on?" I asked, taking off my jacket and laying it across her plastic covered couch.

"Well, I was sitting in your apartment, feeling like shit. And, I don't know, I started wandering around a bit. Nothing crazy, promise," she said, raising her hand at me to assure me she wasn't snooping. "I was literally walking up and down your hallway, with my fingers tracing the walls beside me when it hit me. I need to get out of this funk. I mean, I realize, I just broke up with someone, but my problem has never been breaking up with Jace. My problem has been accepting his apologies and taking him back. Well, I don't want to do that anymore. So, I got up off my ass, cleaned up my belongings that I've somehow managed to spread all over your place, and walked myself back over here. I gathered every last thing that reminded me of him, which unfortunately, is quite a lot of stuff; tossed it all into the dumpster downstairs and when I got back up here, I realized that I just wanted to completely start fresh. So, I started tossing more things but then got on this idea that I really wanted to change the color of the walls. Because, despite what you sing in that song, you can change the color of the walls, Niall." She laughed a little at her own joke. "So, having made up my mind, I recruited Patrick and we went down to the paint shop that's a few blocks away and I was instantly drawn to the blues. You like the color we picked out?"