by Shayna B
“Don’t use that tone with me, boy,” his father said, showing emotion for the first time.
“I’ll use whatever tone I want to use, old man. Now get the hell out of here. I don’t want to have to deal with you, Robert.”
This time, Robert flinched a little. I think the use of his first name cut him a little, but he quickly composed himself. “Your mother and I are staying for a few days Blake, so get used to it.”
Blake suddenly turned to me. “Can I stay at your place for a few days?” he asked.
“Of course. You know you’re welcome anytime. I swear Liam would adopt you if he could, what with all the help you’ve been giving him.”
He wrinkled his nose. “Being adopted by him would make you my cousin and that’s just weird.”
I laughed. “I agree. That would definitely present some problems.”
He laughed as well and I felt the rest of the tension drain from his body as he pressed his face into the side of my neck. “I knew there was a reason I loved you,” he said quietly. “You make me laugh even when I’m pissed off.”
A throat cleared from the doorway and just like that, Blake went instantly rigid again and his face turned to stone. I cupped his cheek with one hand. “Breathe,” I murmured.
He leant into my hand for a brief moment before turning to face his father again, once more placing his body in front of mine. “If you’re staying here, then I’m not.”
Robert sighed. “Fine, but at least stay and talk to us for a little bit. Your mother misses you.”
Blake snorted. “Like I care.”
I tugged on Blake’s arm a little until he turned towards me. I stood on tiptoe so I could whisper in his ear. “Blake, just give them a few minutes. I know how you feel about them and I don’t blame you at all. But they’re still your parents.”
His jaw was tense as he thought about it. “I don’t want to talk to them,” he finally replied.
“I know you don’t, and again I don’t blame you. But at least you still have your parents.” I hated using the sympathy card, but I knew it was the only way I might get through to him right now.
It worked. He blew out a long breath and put his forehead against mine. “Fine, but only for a few minutes. Then I’m packing a bag and we’re leaving.”
I smiled and pressed my lips against his quickly. “Deal.”
Five minutes later, Blake and I were sitting on a couch across from his parents. His mother had blonde hair and blue eyes, which is obviously where Blake got his coloring from. She offered me a tiny smile when we sat down and I returned it, before making my face go blank.
Robert shifted in his seat a little. “Well, I didn’t catch your name before, but I’m Robert and this is my wife, Susan,” he said to me.
I nodded once. “I know. I’m Hailey.”
“So, Hailey, how do you know Blake?” Susan asked.
I bit my lip. “Um…” I wasn’t sure what Blake wanted me to say.
He squeezed my hand reassuringly. “She’s my girlfriend. We go to school together.”
“You have a girlfriend?” Susan asked in surprise.
Blake tensed. “What, you don’t think someone could love me just because I’m blind? Not all people are like the two of you, mother,” he snarled.
Susan looked shocked. “No, that’s not what I meant! It’s just that I had no clue you were even interested anyone and yet you have a girlfriend. And you know we love you, Blake.”
I could see that she genuinely cared, but Blake just snorted. “Sure you do. That’s why you made me live with Aunt Carol while the two of you booked it to the other side of the country.”
“But we want to fix that now. We want you to come live with us again.”
This time it was me who tensed up as dread filled me. They wanted to take Blake away?
Luckily, Blake wasn’t interested in the least. “Why the hell would I come live with you? I’ve found the one person in this world who loves me unconditionally and there is no way I’m leaving her. And since I turn eighteen in two weeks, you can’t make me go.”
I exhaled slowly as relief filled me. But his father’s next words made me almost stop breathing.
“If you don’t come live with us, we’ll cut off your trust fund.”
“Robert! We will do no such thing!” Susan exclaimed. Obviously he hadn’t told her this plan.
“Yes we will. He is refusing to have any part of this family and if he won’t even live with us, then I refuse to keep supporting him.”
“You know what? Go ahead,” Blake said. “I don’t need your money. You may not have noticed, but I haven’t touched any of the money you’ve been giving me anyways. You seem to have forgotten that Grandpa left me a large amount of money when he passed away. I don’t need you.”
Robert’s jaw tensed. “You will come and live with us!” he shouted.
I knew Blake was about to snap completely, so I put a hand on his knee. “Blake, could you go get me a drink?”
He turned to me with an incredulous expression on his face. “You want me to get you a drink right now?”
“Yeah, because I think you need to cool off for a minute before you do or say something you’ll regret.”
He let out a frustrated breath, but nodded and stood up. “You’re probably right. I’m about done talking to them anyways.” He ran a hand lightly over my hair and then left the room.
Susan was looking at me thoughtfully when I turned back to her. “You seem to know him very well,” she said.
“I do. It took me a couple of months to get through to him, but once he opened up we got close pretty quickly.”
“And why exactly are you with him?” Robert asked.
I looked at him in confusion. “Huh?”
“Why are you with him? Is it because you’re hoping to get money out of him somehow?”
My jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
“Robert, it’s clear that she loves him. Why would you think that she only wants money from him?” Susan asked.
“Because no one wants to willingly be with someone who is defective,” Robert replied easily.
Anger coursed through me and I stood up. “Defective? If anyone around here is defective, it’s you!” I said. “Blake is an amazing person and I love him with my whole heart.”
“And the fact that he’s wealthy has nothing to do with your feelings?” Robert asked sarcastically.
I had to restrain myself from hitting that man. I normally was not a violent person, but right now I wanted to punch him square in the jaw. “Money means nothing to me,” I hissed. “But just to put your mind at ease, do you by any chance know who Liam Graham is?” I knew he did but I wanted to make a point.
“Of course I do; everyone knows who he is.”
“Well, he just happens to be my uncle as well as my guardian. I have absolutely no need for Blake’s money since I have more than enough of my own. And the fact that you think so little of your son that you would believe that the only way I would love him was because of his money shows me what kind of person you are. A complete and total jackass and you don’t deserve to have someone like Blake as your son.” I turned to Susan. “It was nice meeting you and I hope we can see you again sometime.” Then I walked out of the room.
I was still seething when I walked into the kitchen and saw Blake sitting at the table, a glass of water in front of him. It was then that I realized he probably would have heard all of that. “I’m guessing you heard that?” I asked.
“It was kind of hard not to,” he replied.
I sat beside him and rubbed my hands over my face. “I actually wanted to hit him,” I said. “I’ve never wanted to hit someone like that before. Well, aside from Marcus, that is.”
“He didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” Blake stated.
I turned to look at him. “Come again?”
“He was right. I am defective.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know, I’m not normally a violent person.
But in the space of five minutes, I’ve now wanted to hit two people very badly.”
Blake furrowed his brow. “I’m only telling you the truth,” he said.
“Bullshit. You’re just feeling sorry for yourself right now.”
“No I’m not,” he began to reply heatedly, but I cut him off.
“Yes you are! Are you trying to say that I’m defective as well then?”
His eyes widened. “What? No, of course not!”
“Well, that’s what you were implying. Just because we’re different doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with us. I thought you knew that already, but apparently I was wrong.”
He rubbed at his temples and blew out a breath. “Christ, I can be an idiot sometimes. You’re right; I am just feeling sorry for myself. This day has just turned out to be stressful.” He held his arms open. “I’m sorry.”
I stood up from my chair and settled myself onto his lap. “I know this can’t have been easy for you. So why don’t we get out of here and do something fun?”
He nuzzled into my neck. “I like that idea.”
“Let’s go pack a bag for you then, because I’m liable to punch that man in the face if I have to talk to him anymore.”
Blake chuckled as we stood up and headed to his room. “As entertaining as that would be, we both know that you would feel guilty afterwards.”
“That’s probably true,” I replied, opening the door to his room. “How long do you think they’ll stay here for?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m not talking to them again.” He went to his closet and found his duffel bag. He hauled it to his dresser and we began putting clothes in it.
“Your mother didn’t seem too horrible,” I said. “I don’t think she knew about your fathers plan to cut off your trust fund. She seemed genuinely shocked when he said that.”
“Doesn’t matter. She still abandoned me after the accident.”
“But she has come to visit you in the past two years. Granted, she maybe shouldn’t have left in the first place, but at least she’s made some kind of effort. It couldn’t have been easy for her to be put in between the two of you.” I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his waist from behind. “Don’t hate her just because of your father.”
He leaned into me for a moment. “I’m really glad you were here when they showed up. I’m not sure what would have happened if you hadn’t been.”
“I know what would have happened. You would have had a huge fight with them and then sulked for a while. I would’ve had to come over and snap you out of it so you didn’t turn back into the cranky jerk you used to be.”
“I would not have sulked,” he said defensively.
“Yes you would have. But that’s okay, because I have ways of getting you out of one of your moods now,” I replied confidently.
“Oh really? Do tell,” he said dryly.
“Nope, I’m keeping it a secret until I need to use it. Let’s finish the packing so we can get out of here. I’m sure Grace will have supper ready by the time we get there.”
Blake pulled away and zipped his bag closed. “I think I have everything I need, except my bathroom stuff.”
“I’ll go get that while you get Abby. I’ll meet you at the front door in a minute.” I went into his bathroom and gathered his toiletries up, putting them in a small travel bag. Then I left his room and went to the front door, where he was waiting with Abby. “Ready to go?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
I knelt by the duffel bag and stuffed the toiletries into it before zipping it up again. I stood up again with a little groan. “I think you need to give me a massage later.”
His hands immediately went to my back. “Is your back bothering you today?”
“Not really, it’s just a little stiff. But I really like it when you massage me. You’re better at it than even Jared, I think.”
“What can I say? I have magic hands,” he replied smugly.
I rolled my eyes. “You keep telling yourself that.”
“Blake?”
We both turned our heads in the direction of the voice and I saw his mother standing in the doorway. Blake scowled as soon as he heard her voice. “What do you want?”
She hesitated before taking a few steps forward. “I wanted to apologize for your father. What he said wasn’t right and we won’t be cutting off your trust fund.”
“I told you I don’t care about that. You can keep your money; it means nothing to me, just like the two of you mean nothing.”
I saw her flinch, but she didn’t back away. “Well, you’ll still have the trust fund, regardless if you need it or not. I know you hate me, but I wanted to say that it’s nice to see you happy again. I’m glad you found someone that you love.”
Blake reached for my hand and I laced my fingers with his. He was silent for a moment. Finally, he sighed and stopped scowling. “You should be happy for me and yourself as well, because if it wasn’t for her I’d never speak to you again. But I know that it wasn’t your idea to keep me here while you guys took off. Give me some time and I may be able to forgive you at some point. But I’ll never forgive your husband.”
Relief flitted across her face. “I can understand that. And I never should have agreed to you staying here without us. In my defense, I did what I thought was best at the time, but I can see that I may have been wrong. I want the chance to try and make it up to you.”
Blake nodded once and then bent to grab his bag. “Talking on the phone I can handle for now.”
I smiled timidly at her. “I’ll see you later,” I said.
“It was very nice meeting you, Hailey.”
“You too,” I replied. Blake started tugging me towards the door then so with one final wave, I let him lead me away from his parents.
Chapter twenty-seven
For the rest of the winter break, Blake pretty much stayed at my place. The weather turned even colder and we spent most of our time inside. Neither of us felt like becoming Popsicles. Sophie surprised me by asking if she could stay with me for a few days as well. Apparently she couldn’t stand Robert any more than Blake could. I agreed without hesitation and we all ended up having fun together for the last bit of the break.
The day came for school to start again and none of us really wanted to go out and face the cold weather, but we did so reluctantly. The advantage to my uncle having a massive garage was that the car was at least nice and warm when we climbed into it.
We arrived at school and hurried inside, being careful not to slip on the ice filled parking lot. I breathed a sigh of relief when we got outside. “This is one part of living in Canada that I don’t like,” I stated.
“I agree,” Sophie said. “These freezing temperatures leave me wanting to fly somewhere tropical and sit on a beach all day.”
“Hey, that’s what we should do for March break!” I said excitedly. “We should all go somewhere warm and just bask for a few days.”
“That is an awesome idea,” Sophie replied. “My mom was talking about going somewhere anyways.”
“And I know that Jared, Liam and Jake would love to go as well.” Jake had officially been released from the hospital and we were all ecstatic to have him back. “What do you think, Blake?”
He shrugged. “It would be nice to go away somewhere warm. It just sucks that I won’t be able to see you in a bikini.”
I grinned mischievously. “You can always just imagine it,” I said.
His lips turned up into a smile. “That’s very true,” he replied distractedly.
I tapped his arm lightly. “Not right now; I meant when we’re there!”
He grinned devilishly at me. “Too late, I’m already picturing it.”
Sophie groaned. “That is definitely my cue to get out of here. I’ll see you both at lunch.”
Blake and I both laughed as she walked away and we continued to my locker. “It is so fun making her freak out,” I said smugly.
“It reall
y is, and it’s so easy to do too,” Blake said.
We reached my locker and I opened it. I was shocked when a few pieces of folded up paper fell out. “What the hell?” I muttered, bending down to scoop them up. “There are random pieces of folded paper in my locker,” I informed Blake.
“Do they say anything?”
“I don’t know.” I unfolded one and saw that it did indeed have something written on it. My eyes widened as I read the words. “Holy crap.”
“What? What do they say?”
“This one says that someone was amazed at our performance at the talent show. That they never realized you had that kind of talent. They want to know if either of us sings professionally.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.” I unfolded a couple of other papers. “They all pretty much say something along those lines.”
“That’s… kind of creepy,” Blake said.
I laughed as I gathered all the pieces of paper and put them on the shelf in the locker. “It is a little bit, isn’t it? I didn’t know anyone really knew where my locker was. But at least they’re nice notes and not nasty ones.”
We started walking down the hall to our classroom. “That’s true. But we kicked ass, so it makes sense that they’re nice,” Blake said.
“You know, I’m going to have to tell Mr. Avery that he needs to make the doorways in the school bigger, because soon you won’t be able to fit your big head through them,” I chided him.
He raised a hand and held it over his chest in mock hurt. “I was simply stating the truth,” he defended himself.
“No, you’re being a cocky jerk, which doesn’t surprise me anymore.” We walked into our classroom and took our seats. A few of the other students looked over and smiled at us, which caught me off guard for a moment. I leaned a little closer to Blake. “People are smiling at us,” I whispered.
He frowned a little. “Really?”
“Yeah. It’s weirder than the locker thing I think.”
“Just ignore them.”
“But that’s rude!”
“What’s your point?”
I huffed out a breath. “You’re the rude one, not me. How am I supposed to ignore them?”