Kate slumped against the kitchen table groaning loudly. “Why is Braille so hard to read?”

            Chace chuckled, patting her on the shoulder. “You mean feel.”

            “You guys don’t have to do this, you know,” I said moodily, glancing at my mom who was talking to Jack, my Braille teacher. Well, Chace’s, Kate’s, and my Braille teacher. They’d decided they wanted to learn it with me. Even though I’d tried to talk them out of it, they stuck to it like glue.

            “We want to,” Kate assured me. “I think it’d be pretty cool to know.”

            “And you like the support, don’t you?” Chace asked, nudging me in the side with an elbow.

            I slapped his arm away. “Shut up, Chace.”

            “You’re so abusive,” he muttered, pouting at me.

            “Oh, stop complaining.”

            He grinned at me. “I love you, Rosie.”

            Kate smirked at me while I blushed. It’d been nearly two weeks since I’d been released from the hospital, and Chace said that to me every day. And I hadn’t said it back yet. To be honest, I wanted to. Every time he told it to me, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I wasn’t as certain as him. Sure, my feeling for him were strong— really strong and falling in love with him in two and a half months was completely possible, but there was a small part of me that wasn’t positive if love was what I felt.

            “So, what are the plans for tomorrow?” Kate began, breaking the silence that had fallen.

            “What’s tomorrow?” I asked.

            Chace gave Kate a hard look. “Kate!”

            She blinked at him, confused. “What?”

            “Shh!”

            “Shh what?” I interjected, turning to Chace. “What is it?”

            “A surprise,” he grumbled. “Well, it was a surprise.”

            Kate gasped. “Oh crap! I forgot it was a surprise party!”

            Sighing, Chace clapped a hand to his forehead. “And now you’ve given the fact it’s a party away…”

            “Shit!” she swore, looking panicked. “I take it back! You didn’t hear it, Rose!”

            I grinned at her evilly. “Oh, yes I did. You guys are throwing me a surprise party? For my birthday? You’re too sweet!”

            “It would’ve been better if it was actually a surprise,” Chace responded, shooting Kate another dirty look.

            “I’m sorry,” she apologized, frowning deeply. “Damn.”

            “It’s okay, Kate, you were never good at keeping secrets,” I consoled her, reaching across the table to pat her hand. “I would’ve found out anyway.”

            She groaned. “But we were so close! Only a day away!”

            “Yeah, last time we planned a surprise party, you told Tony the moment you heard of it.”

            “Hehe… Oops.” She grinned sheepishly, obviously remembering the memory. “You all got so mad.”

            Chace shook his head. “Forget about it. Rosie can still act surprised.”

            “I’m a horrible actor though,” I told him. “Really bad.”

            “Well, you’ll have to do your best.”

            “But—”

            “No buts. A lot of effort has been put into this.”

            I puffed out my cheeks. “Why? Because this will be my last birthday I’ll be able to see?”

            Shock passed across both Chace and Kate’s faces. “That’s not it!” Kate said quickly.

            “I know that,” I laughed. “Geez, you guys get so panicked so easily…”

            Chace stared at me flatly. “Well, we’re not exactly used to you joking about the fact you’re going blind. Actually, you shouldn’t be joking about that. It’s serious.”

            “Of course it’s serious,” I responded, rolling my eyes, “but I’d rather not spend my time complaining about it and sitting around miserable.”

            “But I don’t exactly think ignoring it is—”

            “Chace,” I interjected. “Don’t try to act like my counselor.”

            My comment put him off and he shot a dirty look at me. “I wasn’t.”

            “Close enough. Would you like it if I pried about your thing?”

            “No,” he said grumpily. “But mine is in the past. Yours is in the future.”

            “Yeah, but—”

            Kate cleared her throat obnoxiously. “Hello, I’m Kate. And I’m still here, so if we don’t mind…”

            “Right, sorry,” Chace replied, smiling sheepishly. “Why don’t we go pick up Paul and head to dinner then?”

            “Sure,” she agreed.

            “Let me go grab my coat,” I told the pair, pushing my chair back, and hopping off of it. “Be right back.” Jogging to my room, I took my hair out of the ponytail it’d been up in all day. It fell to my shoulders and I quickly ran my hand through it a few times, ridding it of some tangles. As I entered my room, I glanced in my hanging mirror, making sure it looked okay. Satisfied, I picked my peacoat up from off the ground and shrugged into it, returning to my friends in the kitchen.

            Kate was just finishing putting on her scarf. “Ready then?”

            “Whose car are we taking?” I asked, glancing at my keys on the counter.

            Chace noticed my gaze and frowned at me. “Rosie… You know you can’t drive anymore.”

            Sighing heavily, I nodded. I’d never get to drive my baby again. It was one of the worst things about going blind. How would I live without being able to drive? It was like cutting off my pointer finger. “I know that, Chace.”

            “I’m happy to drive it for you if you want to use it though,” he offered kindly.

            I smiled at him. “That’s okay. Are we taking your car?”

            “We’ll go in mine,” Kate decided, dangling her keys in front of her. “Paul always complains when he has to ride in the backseat.”

            Chace rolled his eyes. “What’s the difference?”

            “He says it doesn’t make him feel manly.”

            “And a girl driving does?”

            She smirked. “Nope, but I force him to let me drive anyway.”

            “You go girl,” I joked, nudging her in the side with my elbow. “Make that man feel like a sissy.”

            Chace shook his head at us. “Girls…”

            “Guys,” we countered.

            “Let’s just get out of here.”

            “Yeah, before my mom calls a mandatory blindness meeting. Maybe a BA meeting.”

            Kate lifted an eyebrow. “Bad Ass meeting?”

            I grinned. “Nope, Blind Anonymous. Sounds pretty bad ass though.”

            “All right, in the car,” Chace urged, pressing his hand into my back. “Move it, Rosie.”

            “Pushy, pushy,” I chided, smiling despite myself. “Where are we going again?”

            “Ruby Tuesday’s,” Kate informed me, “so let’s hurry up and get there before we have to wait for an hour.”

            As usual, the October night air was freezing when I stepped outside. My teeth started chattering at once, and I crossed my arms over my chest, hoping to retain some of my body heat. The cold really wasn’t my thing. Chace and I climbed into the back seat of Kate’s jeep, shivering on the chilly seats. She quickly jumped into the front, starting the engine, and cranking up the heat. Glancing back, she pursed her lips at me. “You’re sitting back there?”

            “Yeah?”

            “Now I feel like a taxi driver.”

            I laughed. “Oh, suck it up, Kate. Paul lives like five minutes away.”

            “Yeah, fine, whatever. I suppose I can leave you two lovebirds to make out in the back.”

            After scrunching up my face at her I turned to Chace, who was grinning widely. “Well, I don’t mind making out back here—”

            “No,” I shot him down swiftly.

            He winced. “Ouch.”

            “So, how are things with your dad?” I questioned, pivoting in my seat so I was facing him more. “Good still?”

            Nodding, he brushed his umber bangs out of his face. “Yeah. It’s funny though. All he seems to do is talk about you now.”

            My eyes widened. “What? Really?”

            “Uh-huh,” he responded. “How’s Rosie? Is she doing well in school? Is she getting along with her family well? I’m like, why don’t you ask her yourself?”

            “I don’t exactly see your father too much… well, at all really,” I said, furrowing my eyebrows. In fact, I’d only seen Chace’s dad in person three times. Once at his dinner party and twice at the hospital. He was a very busy person. Of course, I saw him in my order of Weiss magazine, but that was just his photograph.

            Chace shrugged. “Whatever.”

            “Maybe we can have dinner with him some night. You know, because you guys are on good terms now,” I suggested, a smirk slipping onto my face. “No thanks to me.”

            “Rosie, I would prefer having bad relations with my dad than having you get into that car crash any day,” Chace told me seriously.

            I waved him off. “Well, I’m fine now, so don’t worry about it. I’m just surprised how easily you fixed things with your dad.”

            He nodded, letting out a short chuckle. “You’re telling me. Things aren’t perfect, but they’re a lot better. I forgot to tell you, but he’s been calling every night he’s gone just to make sure I’m okay.”

            “Aww,” I cooed. “What a good father.”

            Embarrassed, Chace adverted his gaze from me. “S-shut up.”

            “Can I just say Chace’s father being a famous fashion designer was the surprise of the year?” Kate said from the driver’s seat. “I swear I nearly had a heart attack.”

            “I nearly had a heart attack when I realized he’d both designed and gave a dress to me.”

            “Oh, stop bragging,” she snapped at me.

            I laughed. “Sorry, sorry.”

            “I want to meet him, Chace,” she notified Chace, glancing at him through the rearview mirror. “Set up a date.”

            He frowned at her. “It’s not like he’s famous.”

            Both she and I stared at him flatly. “Yes he is.”

            “No…” Chace trailed off, smiling wryly. “Right. Girls. Fashion.”

            “It’s not,” Kate began, sounding exasperated. “Never mind. You’re a guy. You wouldn’t get it.”

            A wicked grin spread across his face. “Oh, don’t tell me. You both have the hots for my dad?”

            “No!” we cried together.

            He raised an eyebrow, his chocolate eyes lighting up in amusement. “That’s some denial there… I get it, Rosie. You’re using me to get to him.”

            “Maybe,” I deadpanned, opting to go for defense than embarrassment. “He sure does look yummy in suits.”

            “Ew,” Chace responded, wrinkling up his nose while Kate laughed. “Don’t go along with that, Rosie.”

Shrugging, I patted his knee. “You brought it up, buddy.”

            “Hey, Rose, I never heard what went on at the eye doctor’s office,” Kate said randomly. “How did that go? Did the accident… you know, mess up anything? Or what?”

            Chace gazed at me worriedly, like he was afraid of what my answer would be. I stared back at him, cocking an eyebrow. He already knew what the doctor said. He had been with me at the time. “Well, after a long hour of testing and anxiety, Dr. Vasquez finally informed me that my accident didn’t change anything. It didn’t speed up the progression of my disease, or slow it.”

            She let out a relieved sigh. “That’s good. I was afraid it might’ve upset something…”

            “So was I,” I told her, grimacing at the memory. That wasn’t a word strong enough to describe how concerned I was over the chance my head injury caused some sort of acceleration of my disease. To be honest, I was both disappointed and relieved when I heard nothing was different. Sure, I didn’t want it to be worse, but it would’ve been nice if it had slowed it down. Unfortunately, my luck hadn’t been so swell as of late. Not that I was really expecting much.

            We pulled into Paul’s driveway and a moment later he came bounding down the front path and to the jeep. “Hey guys,” he greeted as he slid in. “How was study group?”

            Chace and I exchanged uneasy glances. Kate leaned forward to give Paul a quick kiss on the cheek. “It was fine.”

            Inwardly, I sighed. Thanks to me, Kate was lying to Paul. In order for her to come to my Braille lessons and not give it away, she’d created the fabrication that Chace, herself, and I had created a small study group for Spanish— which Paul didn’t take. I hated making Kate lie to him, but I wasn’t sure I wanted him to know I was going blind yet. We were close, but definitely not as close as Kate and I, or Chace and I.

            “Nacho best day, Rose?” Paul joked, catching my expression.

            I half-smiled at him. “No, I just can’t help grimacing when I see your face. It takes a second to get used to.”

            He gave me a mocking look while Kate laughed. “Good one there, Rose.”

            “Thanks.”

            “Let’s get out of here,” he ordered, thumping his fist on the window. “I’m starving.”

            Kate shifted the car into reverse and backed down his long driveway. “Me too. I swear I’ll cry if we have to wait longer than twenty minutes.”

            “I will too,” Chace vowed solemnly.

            We must have been using someone else’s luck, because the moment we arrived at the restaurant, we were admitted in. A handsome waiter who couldn’t be much older than us led us to a secluded booth at the back of the place and seated us. Chace slid in next to me and Kate and Paul sat across from us. After handing us our menus and taking our drink orders, the waiter left.

            “Ah, surf and turf,” Paul groaned. “The best of both worlds. I know what I’m getting.”

            I wrinkled my nose. “Great. Now I’m going to have to smell seafood.”

            “Can’t you try and not be a downer, Rose?”

            “Can you order something that smells normal?”

            “Can you two get along?” Kate interjected as Paul opened his mouth to retort. “Geez, you guys are worse than a married couple bickering.”

            Chace chuckled, which earned him a glare from me. “What?” he said innocently. “I rarely ever get to see you interact with anyone besides me. You’re funny.”

            I pursed my lips at him, unsure whether to smile or frown. “Well… I still think Paul shouldn’t get seafood.”

            “Rose! Come on! It’s surf and turf!”

            “I hate the smell of seafood!”

            Chace’s eyes widened. “Wait, I get it!”

            Paul and I turned to him. “Get what?”

            “Surf and turf. I never got it before, but now I do. Turf is land, so the steak is like the food from the land and the salmon is the food from the sea— or the surf.”

            Reaching across the table, Paul patted him on the shoulder. “There’s the clever college student. I knew he was in there somewhere.”

            Rolling his eyes, Chace brushed the other man’s hand off him. “You know, this is an important revelation.”

            “Sure it is.”

            “Well, to me,” he muttered. “I think I’m going to get that too.”

            I gaped at him. “Chace!”

            “What?” he said innocently.

            “Didn’t you just hear me say I don’t like the smell of seafood?”

            Acting guiltless, he examined the tips of his clean fingernails. “Did you say that? I didn’t hear…”

            “Jerk.”

“What are you going to get?” he asked, sending me a heart-stopping grin.

            “If you think you can change the subject…”

            Waiting politely, his eyes pierced into mine. “Well?”

            “A bacon cheeseburger,” I revealed, pointing to it on the menu. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had a good burger.”

            “Great minds think alike,” Kate announced. “That’s what I’m getting too.”

            “Good. Then let’s order when our waiter comes back so we don’t have to wait any longer for food,” Paul requested, gathering up all our menus.

            It only took half an hour for all our food to be prepared after we ordered. To fill the time, we chatted about school, Chace’s college, Paul’s football games and practices, and the usual high school gossip. When the food came, our conversation broke off as we all immediately began to dig in.

            “Hey, Rosie,” Chace started a few minutes after.

            “Hmm?” I responded, my mouth full of cheeseburger.

            He grinned at me. “Well, you can swallow first.”

            Nodding, I swallowed, and then waited expectantly. “What?”

            “I’ve been meaning to ask you… you have two more months until, you know.” After shooting a surreptitious glance at Paul, he turned back to me to see if I understood.

            “What about it?” I asked, lowering my voice.

            “Is there anything you really want to do? I’ve been thinking we should try to do everything possible you’ve wanted to do…”

            I raised an eyebrow. “Everything?”

            “That’s possible,” he repeated. “Which, sadly, means no flying across the country or anything.”

            “That’s possible,” I pointed out.

            A small grin broke out on his face and he shook his head. “You know what I mean, Rosie.”

            “Well, that’s sweet of you, but I can’t really think of anything. I just want to live regularly, you know?”

            “Nothing at all?” he pressed.

            I frowned, thinking. Was there anything I really wanted to do? “See a meteor shower. But I’m not sure how much control you have over that one.”

            “Yeah, I don’t either,” he responded, biting his lip. “I can keep an eye out for any news about one though. Is there anything else?”

            “I want to see fireworks again…” My chest tightened. Fireworks were definitely something I was going to miss. The only good thing about them was the sight, not the sound. “And I want to go to the movies. And see a play.”

            He nodded. “I’ll find a way to do all those things. And any more that you can think of.”

            I smiled at him. “Thanks, Chace.”

            “Hey, that’s what I’m here for,” he responded, pointing his fork at me. “I said I won’t let you go through this alone, and I won’t let you be bored either. Prepare for the best two months of your life.”

            “Only if you can promise they’ll be the best two months.”

            “I promise.”

            “Then I guess I’ll start preparing,” I told him with a grin.

            He grinned back. “Good.”

__________________________

This chapter is blah. Lately I haven't been into writing... It's so weird. Usually I'm like MUST WRITE EVERYDAY. But now I'm like, ughh, time to write.... I think it might be because I'm still catching up on Supernatural. I'm more like, I want to watch that than write. Hopefully when I'm finished I'll be better at writing again. I went to Best Buy to pick up Season 6 yesterday... and all seasons were on sale for 15 dollars. I was like,$#%@$%#@$%!@$% because I paid 45+ for seasons 1-5. WASTE OF MY MONEY. At least I got one season for cheap, I guess e.e

I love Cas.

Anyway. Even though it was crappy, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

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