How did we all miss the fact that he had vision problems and probably needed glasses? “We should tell Harmony. I think you might need an eye doctor appointment.”
Seb scratched the back of his neck. “H-harmony n-needs to believe I’m j-just c-c-c-clumsy.”
“I don’t think so, man,” Ethan interjected as he joined us in the dining room. “Johnny’s right. You knock over shit all the time and bump into furniture. I don’t think you’re a klutz. It has to be your eyes.”
“T-too expe-pensive?—”
“Oh!” Harmony gasped as she walked through the arch and found us gathered beside the mess. Her gaze swept over the broom and the dustpan filled with broken shards of stoneware. “Seb?”
I urged, “Tell her, man.”
Puzzled, Harmony asked, “Tell me what?”
When Seb growled no, I ‘spilt the beans’. “For real. The kid is blind.”
“What?” our foster mom shrieked in terror.
Ethan backhanded my chest, then tried to calm Harmony. “Just in need of glasses.”
She blinked at Sebastian. “Are they right? Do you have trouble seeing things?”
Seb sighed, then reluctantly answered, “Y-yeah.”
Out of the blue, Blue’s soft, hesitant voice spoke up. She was lingering beneath the arched entrance to the kitchen. “I wear glasses too.” She suddenly winced. “Or did before, umm, he broke them.”
I will kill that fucker someday—wait.
Blue wasn’t wearing glasses when she arrived, so it made sense that none of us realized she needed them. What also now made sense was the tiny cuts she had around her eyes. She must’ve been wearing them when ‘he’ hurt her.
Since Blue wasn’t stumbling into things or knocking them over like Seb, it wasn’t as obvious that she needed another pair. I had to bite back a snarl. My list for revenge was starting to grow at an alarming rate.
Harmony tilted her head, staring at Blue for a couple of heartbeats before she nodded. “I’ll get you both an appointment.”
“T-too expen?—”
Harmony’s hand stopped Seb. “We are assisted in aid to help with all your needs.” As she marched off, she mumbled that every kid in this house would still have all needs met if she had to pay every dime herself.
Deep inhale… Someday I’ll find a way to repay this woman.
Seb moved closer to Blue and held out his hand. She stared at it.
Most young men would’ve taken the rejection strike straight to the ego, but not him. Hand still extended, he just… waited.
As if caving to a last piece of cake, Blue took it, tucking her palm inside his. A timid and bewildered smile hovered on her lips.
I wondered if this was a victory for her. It might seem silly to others, but not in this house. We all came to understand that every time we had the chance to stand up for what we needed or how we felt, it was a reason to celebrate. In Blue’s case, that seemed exceptionally true.
Just eight days later, Seb and Blue walked into the house wearing new glasses. Blue’s were a light shade of purple. Seb announced that black glasses made him look geeky, so he settled on a rockin’ shade of blue. That earned a few smiles since each of us guys understood the need to not appear weak. Plus, it was easy to see how much the color blue already meant to him.
My first real conversation with Blue happened a few days later when I had another restless night, tossing and turning until I shoved off the blanket and headed downstairs. The hot cocoa didn’t appeal to me, and I found my way outside, stepping off the porch toward the detached two-car garage connected by a cobblestone pathway.
To the left, the path veered off and ended in a gazebo in which Harmony often retreated in the early evenings. She’d strung up strands of twinkling white lights that lined the upper interior along with vines of ivy. It reminded me of something my Noma would have liked since there were several potted, and flowering plants resting in window boxes. Her jungle.
My hand lifted to rub my sternum as a phantom echo flashed through my chest. I only took a few more steps, intending to enter the garage ahead of me, when I saw movement.
Someone was seated inside the gazebo.?1
My heart stampeded in fear, as did my feet. I suddenly wished I had Dad’s knife on me so I could protect my friends until I got closer. My feet stopped at the edge of the path when I saw Blue.
