Author's Note:
So I know I owe a lot of stories attention. But this idea? It was just too good to pass up on. It'll only be six chapters after this first one but the chapters will most likely be huge. (And I have writer's block on everything else.)
Hopefully, this will be well received since I'll be trying very hard to finish it within two months at the very most.
She wasn't born blind. There had been a time where she'd seen colors, stars, the world.
Now, rather than all the hues that the universe could bless her eyes with, she saw nothing. At first, it had devastated her, had sent her into her room for weeks on end. In the beginning, she wasn't sure who had comforted her in those weeks. She had a feeling it had been Shawn, with the scruff that had scratched against her cheek and the low voice that assured her that she would overcome it, just as she had overcome everything else in her life.
As if having her birth father leaving her wasn't enough to deal with in life. By her seventeenth birthday, she was left by her father, adopted by Shawn, rejected by Josh at every turn, and blinded from falling off the slope at the ski lodge. (A diffuse axonal injury could only be treated so fast and by the time it was, she'd been through two seizures.)
For now, her mind focused on the loud music thrumming against her eardrum, throwing out the smallest of echoes onto the rails of the subway. She tapped her walking stick against the ground, finding herself close to a woman feeding her baby; there was no details in the little bit of surroundings she was able to see through the blackness, just a white outline of what she was seeing. Maya smiled at the woman in front of her, seeing the smile reflected back to her when she gave a few hits of her stick against the ground.
The subway came to a stop and she listened, hearing the woman's robotic voice tell her streets that were accessible from this stop. She held her stick tightly and moved to the other side of the car, just getting past the exit when she was shoved. She fell out of surprise, landing on her hands and knees, and dropping her phone and earphones. She groaned, trying to press her hands against the concrete, only to wince at the sharp pain in her hands.
"Hey, fuck you, asshole!" she heard a deep voice yell, all before she felt a hand on her elbow. "Here, let me help." She nearly pulled away from the accent that she couldn't quite decipher, but decided to allow them to help since she couldn't find her phone the traditional way.
"Can you grab my phone? It landed somewhere but I can't really see it." She chuckled, since she figured the man helping her hadn't quite figured out her issue.
He didn't give a response while she worked on getting up, finding her stick and holding her hand out. She didn't expect more than someone to toss it to her; she was rather surprised when she felt a rough hand with a tender touch against hers, feeling her eyebrows pull together in confusion. "Oh, you didn't-"
"Yeah, I did," he interrupted, pulling his hand back. "Since that guy basically shoved you out of the train, I thought it would be nice to have a bit more hospitality, ma'am." She could now detect it; he was from some country state. He was most definitely a change of pace for her. "I don't mean to be rude but, do you want someone to help you get home?"
Despite the Texas drawl, she was wanting to back up and let the next train run her over before she willingly led a stranger near her apartment. With her nature of thinking the worst of people, she could see him coming back, trying to rob her, kill her.. or worse. She took a deep breath, deciding that a comment to make fun of him would be the first thing to drive him away. "No thanks, cowboy; I think I'll manage."
Maya almost smiled whenever she heard him laugh and give a "soft, "alright, alright, alright." She almost felt like she could see a tall, bearded man wearing flannel, boots, and some leather chaps. As she heard him walk away, she did laugh at the thought, beginning the rhythmic taps along the bricks for her limited amount of sight. It was time to walk home, and hopefully alone.
Maya entered her apartment quickly and closed the door closely behind, listening for anything as her hands fumbled for the locks. She hadn't felt comfortable the entire way home, but she knew it was just the paranoia she always felt when she didn't know the person she knocked into.
She heard a few footsteps, her heart rate instantly spiking. She didn't dare let her breathing change, taking a deep breath through her nose and clicking her walking stick against the flooring a few times. "Hello?" she called, her teeth sinking into her cheek to keep the nervousness at bay.
"It's just me, Peaches!" a voice called, a voice that instantly soothed Maya. It was Riley, her best friend; she remembered giving the brunette- well, who knew if she was still a brunette at this rate- a key, just for safety reasons. "I wanted to make you some cookies."
Maya journeyed almost effortlessly to her kitchen, sitting in the closest seat to that she could find. "What kind?"
"White macadamia nut, your favorite, of course!" She struck the floor with the butt of her rod, only to be greeted with an overly happy face. There was the smile that could light up a thousand worlds, yet annoy her endlessly in the same moment; it was the one thing she hadn't missed in her blindness. It wasn't that she didn't like her friend smiling, but there was a thing such as smiling too much. "So there was something that I wanted to tell you."
Her ears perked up; she knew she hadn't been imagining that there was a suspicious taste to the scent of her favorite cookie. A cooling treat was placed in her hand as her hand was flipping over, a corner of her mouth raising up for only a moment. "Oh? Like what?"
Just as she took a bite into the soft delight, she heard a whisper form into the sentence: "I signed you up for a support group." She nearly felt numb, perhaps that's what betrayal felt like. Part of her knew she was just exaggerating but another part knew she wasn't. She had told Riley over and over that she didn't need a group to pat her on the back every week, pretend like they liked her or cared about her every week because they wanted the same attention they would give her when they listened to her struggles.
The last thing she needed was a group who had families of their own who helped them through their entire lives. Why? Because the last thing she needed was to be pitied. "I can't believe you would just fu-" she began, only to be interrupted by a buzzing filling her apartment.
She could feel the tension between them as there was silence, followed by the sounds of sneakers against the hardwood floors. The click of the door sounded before wind swept in and took its sweet time in grazing her arms. "And I also forgot to tell you that the who will be sponsoring you is picking you up now." There was an uncomfortable laugh before a few, inaudible things were said and there was the sound of the door clicking again.
Maya turned around in her chair, feeling her eyes close tightly in a habit of trying to adjust before they opened again, her teeth clenching in frustration as she felt someone's soft breath against her cheek. They smelled like wild mint, peppermint and spearmint rolled into one, along with something else that she couldn't quite name. Unfortunately, she liked it. Her upper lip curled slightly as she heard him chuckle; was he actually laughing at her now?
"I think she'll recognize me; she did call me a cowboy after all," the man said, leaving her mouth to almost instantly dry up from how her method was coming back to bite her in the butt. "You must be Maya.. Hunter. I'm Lucas Friar, your sponsor."
She thought for a moment; she could try to hit him with her stick, maybe even try being more violent than she'd been when she could actually see. But she could only imagine how fast he'd be able to stop her with sight. So she stood up, making a point to flick her walking stick against his leg to tell him to move before starting towards the door. "Let's just get this stupid meeting over with; I'd like to be home to listen to other western boys before too much longer," she mocked, being sure to stamp her feet to give herself more of a visual of her apartment.
As if her best friend couldn't be more predictable, there were a cluster of apologies falling out with a hushed tone, which caused Maya to smirk; she loved causing trouble to test patience, even with someone who had put up with her all these years. Before she could reach the doorway, she felt a hand on her elbow, pulling her back slightly and Riley's voice murmur into her ear, "Just give it a chance, Peaches. Besides.. I picked pretty well. He's handsome."
"Oh, yeah, like I would know," Maya hissed back before she felt an unfamiliar palm on the small of her back, pushing her into what would be a new world all over again.