I groaned and slapped my alarm clock off. Pushing my short, choppy dark brown hair out of my face, I sat up. I waited a few moments more, eyes closed. Maybe this morning… I opened my eyes. Still black. Damn. All well. No different than any other morning. I wasn't actually expecting to wake up this morning able to see. After almost ten years of being blind, you don't really get your hopes up anymore.
I became blind right after I graduated high school. My mom died in a car accident, and I lost my sight right after her funeral. The doctors said that sometimes after someone has been through a tragic event, part of their bodies will shut down. In my case, it was my eyes.
After she died, I distanced myself from everything I had once been. I was headed to college, and I built a wall. My best friends Dave and Alice couldn't even take it fully down, though they were closer to me than any other people. My dad walked out when I was two, so it was just my mom and me. Without her, I had no one.
I met Dave at college. He was the first and one of the few that I actually connected with over the four years I spent there. He was a year older than me, and he was chosen to show around the blind girl. Unlike other people our age, his voice never showed any indication that I was a nuisance. He took this as an opportunity to meet a new friend.
I wouldn't talk to anyone beside Dave. Leave it to him to befriend the emo blind girl who wouldn't talk like a normal person. I mean, I would talk in class, and if you talked to me, I would politely reply, but when it came to social activities, I didn't really partake. Though I was distant, he still did what he could to make me feel at home. Over the first two years, he became the only family I had.
All through college we stayed close. He helped me become more social, and I gained a few more friends. He introduced me to Alice, who became a sister to me. I was also friends with everyone in Dave's band Axium, and we all wrote music together. I wrote a lot of their songs, and I came to nearly all of their shows.
Dave's voice could move mountains. His level of control and skill was undeniably beautiful. His harsher vocals were good, but my favorites were his ballads and softer songs. They were breathtaking. They gave my stomach butterflies and I swear when I heard them my heart would skip a few beats. It was almost like I could see again.
I made the mistake of telling Alice this one night, and she immediately came to the conclusion that I was in love with him and needed to do everything in my power to get him. I didn't deny that I had feelings for him. He was my best friend. But I was in no place to go after anyone. I was shy and closed off and had my future to worry about.
Over time, I got over my fascination, and Alice grew bored with her failed attempts at bringing us together. He had girlfriends in college, and though it made me jealous, I was very good at hiding my emotions. Alice took this as a sign that I was no longer interested and began to back off.
After we graduated, Dave went off to Tulsa, and I went to Vancouver to start my record company. We stayed as close as we could with the distance. Alice came with me and was the Vice President of my label, 'Unicorn Sound Records.' She was a brilliant business partner, and we got things done.
When Dave tried out for American Idol, Alice and I put the company on hold. We went to all of his shows and his audition. We were in the audience when he won, and I hadn't been that happy in a long time. Lord knows he deserved it. Dave was talented, likeable and humble.
I was a little scared that he would blow up so much that he would forget us. But he never did. He did his best to stay out of the limelight, and I loved that about him. He knew who his family and friends were through the fame, and most of the time he was annoyed with the rumors and crap going on in articles and on TV.
Dave was a pop culture fireball. He blew up immediately. Everyone loved him. He was an older-woman magnet. "Cougars for Cook." We all just laughed it off and had a good time.
Kimberly Caldwell sort of put a damper on my good spirits. I mean, I was still emotionally attracted to Dave as more than just my best friend. And here comes this witty blond beauty. I didn't expect Dave to know how I felt. He wasn't a mind reader. And I was far too shy to do anything like tell him how I felt.
So I quietly went back to Vancouver and absorbed myself in my work. The record label blew up. I went almost a year without 'seeing' Dave. We chatted on the phone from time to time, but he was busy, and so was I. It wasn't till Adam died that I came back to the states.
