So there are two things I would like to say: Sorry this took so long to get out, I was having trouble with it, I really just finished this a few minutes ago. And Two: I got my Driver's License! I know, I know, the legally blind person gets to drive... I swear nothing bad'll come of this.
To my Goth Faerie: So as stated above, I can drive! But you see, I'm lacking a car... what a bummer...
Chapter 4
Vain
I can pretend to be many things. I can pretend to be Mr. Teddy for Angel when she wants to play house with Celeste. I can pretend to be in command when Max and Fang are off doing who knows what, I can pretend guys, I pretend very well.
I can pretend that it didn't hurt when Max ordered me to stay behind when they went to rescue Angel. I can pretend that it doesn't hurt when people look down on me because I'm blind.
The one thing I can do, over everything else, I can pretend to be vain.
My sightless eyes will look down on everything even though I am trembling with anxiousness and fear because I know that I am not better than everyone. I hold my head high, pretending to not hear the words they say.
I pretend that I don't feel their gaze on me and instead pretend to ignore their existence.
"Watch where you're going stu- oh, you're blind, sorry." A voice reached my ears of a female that was shorter than me, I felt her head bounce off my chest. I held my head high. "Aren't you going to say something?" She was waiting for me to respond.
"Iggy, come on!" Max's voice carried out through the crowd.
"Why do I have to say anything? After all, you were the one who was wrong." The cold words obviously hurt her. I brushed past the female hearing her mutter 'selfish jerk' before joining the flock.
"Not that you don't already have blank eyes but right now, they're really cold." Max pointed out to me. "Hate the noise?" Another person brushed past me in the darkness I was surrounded in. I nodded and looked away. It wasn't the noise that bothered me, no, it was that everyone around me was so vain they didn't notice I was blind, yeah I don't carry around a walking stick or have a seeing eye dog, so what?
I had hoped, when we had found my parents, that they could know me, they could understand me. They wouldn't be bothered that I was blind, that I was a freak. But they had wanted to parade it around, the blind kid who could fly, all for freaking money.
A sudden tug on my hand made me realize I had stopped walking, the warmth and pulse belonged to Fang's, his fingertips made me register his face. The hand's grip tightened, urging me to hurry up.
And suddenly I collided with something. Fang's grip released and I heard Max gasp faintly over the roar of the crowd. A clatter of a stick -a long one at that- as it fell to the concrete. "I'm sorry," A young female voice reached my ears, it was gentle and fearful. "It's so hard to hear in this street." Her words held a tentative smile in them and I sensed worry in her voice. "Do you know where my stick is, can you help me find it?"
"She's blind." Fang uttered under his breath, so low that I could barely hear it. My eyes widened in shock, how could I be vain to her when she is denied sight just like me.
"Yeah," My voice cracked in a hoarse voice, my long fingers tracing over the sidewalk with ease, "it is hard to hear, I don't know where anything is."
"Oh!" I sensed evident surprise and I wondered what her expression was. "You're blind too, do you need to find your walking stick because I can find mine, I'll be fine."
"I don't use a walking stick." I replied, my fingers brushed over an object, it was her hand. I withdrew mine quickly, a blush creeping onto my cheeks, I could hear her blood rushing, so she was too.
"A seeing eye dog then." She stuttered the beginning of her sentence.
"No." There was a laughter in my voice, it surprised me. It's so strange, not being cold to an outsider, someone who wasn't part of the flock, but they knew me… they understood me for what I was. Blind.
"Oh?" My fingers grabbed a thin pole as she spoke. "How do you know where to go?"
"Belt loops," I said honestly, I could feel confusion radiating off of her. "I have a big family and we're always together so I just hang on and listen. Here you go." I handed the stick and her fragile, uncalloused hands traced mine, her fingertips were engraved into my memory, if I ever met her again, I would know.
I heard her pull herself up before she whispered a soft thank you and goodbye for Fang lifted me up from the busy sidewalk. "New girlfriend?" Max asked.
"Not a chance." I replied, sensing Max's tease.
I became numb again as people bumped into me at a constant, wondering how much they didn't care because they thought I was an ordinary Joe. I will be as vain to the people who are vain themselves but how can I be vain to those who see with their heart and not their eyes?
I laughed bitterly to myself, a finger hooked onto Fang's belt loop, my mind replaying words that would never leave:
It's a concept.
Don't you think?
It came to me the other day but I could never put this into words... You see, I can be oh so vain too... but I can be that fragile girl with the walking stick... the worried smiles always so afraid because of the fact of what she is.
P.S. Is it just me (because I don't check that often) or are there a lot more people doing Iggy POV's?
Adieu
Nightwing