The Life and Lies of The How-To Manual

I woke up, not yet opening my eyes. I don’t want the stupid sunlight filtering through the stupid window directly into my stupid eyes. I’m just not ready for this emotional rollercoaster.

Jaime’s arm was tightly wrapped around my waist, spooning me against his chest. I felt his even breath gently tickle the back of my neck. His head was buried against my hair, his lips just barely touching my skin with every breath he took. In and out, in and out, in and out…

I lay there in contentment, happy within the darkness of my closed eyes. I didn’t have a clue what time it was, or where my mom thought I was since I was “technically” supposed to be sleeping in my assigned room with my mom and Autumn, well, wait…Autumn was uh…”doing things” (and by things, I mean Turtle) in their own little honeymoon suite.

I shivered at the thought of what had gone on. There were two possible ways last night went:

1.Autumn was too tired to do anything so she stripped to shorts and sports bra and slept there.
2.She was so hyped up on cake and sugar that she and Turtle did things that I’d rather not think about right now.

Yawning slightly, I felt Jaime shift behind me. He held me closer to his chest, humming in his sleep. In all the years that I’ve known Himes, he either snores really loudly in his sleep until I smack him with a something harder than a pillow, or he’ll start humming. No clue why, but he’ll do it. And here’s the weird part: He’ll hum literally any tune, from his own Anatome to Yankee Doodle.

Nothing’s freakier than waking up in the middle of the night to someone very quietly and very creepily humming Yankee Doodle in your ear.

“Jaime.” I whispered.

Nothing.

“HIMES.” I hissed slightly louder. Still nothing. It must be pretty early. I mean, I haven’t even opened my eyes, so I have no clue what time it really is. I should probably get up and wake up Vic and Mike as well if they’re in here. Who knows? Maybe they stayed up all night doing something Fuentes-ish, like skateboarding down the boulevard at midnight. It’s more likely that they got arrested though.

Since Jaime wasn’t responding and I could taste my own breath, I needed to steal some of his toothpaste to freshen up. Maybe borrow his toothbrush as well. We’ve kissed enough that I haven’t gotten herpes yet and hey, I think one time using his toothbrush won’t give me any other mouth nasties.

With a sigh, I slowly opened my eyes.

Darkness.

Oh, okay…it must be like four in the morning. No wonder Jaime didn’t wake up…I thought slowly to myself. I’ll just give it a minute and my eyes will adjust to the dark shadows.

I mentally started to sing Stained Glass Eyes and Colorful Tears. I got to the second chorus before becoming impatient and slowly sliding out of Jaime’s grasp. I still couldn’t see a thing, but I could remember the room okay. Fumbling around, I managed to grasp my way to the bathroom.

Now where’s that damn light switch?

I fumbled over the walls but was too afraid to fall into the bath tub. What a way to go. My obituary in the newspaper would read: CLUMSY GIRL FALLS INTO BATH TUB, HITTING HER HEAD. Just plain and simple enough for everyone to laugh at.

I nearly hit my head on the wall a couple of times and kept from loudly cursing. I think I hit the light switch as I heard a little click. After a few more moments of fumbling, I realized it was the light switch.

But I was still in darkness.

“Crap.” I muttered sullenly.

Either the power was out…or I went blind again.

“JAIME!” I yelled a little louder. His humming stopped at least. Fumbling around again, I gave up with the lights and managed to find a tube, and then another tube, and another…

Either these were the boys’ three different toothpastes, or it could be dangerously wrong paste. You know what? Without lights, I’m not going to even try. Instead, I fumbled around slowly shuffling my way out of the bathroom and to the little couch area. I managed to sit down, just staring ahead.

My eyes never adjusted and panic rose in me.

This couldn’t be happening again….

Being stuck in complete and utter darkness erased my concept of time. I had no clue if the footsteps came an hour later or five minutes later, but someone gently touched my shoulder, kissing my forehead tenderly. I nearly screamed out of the sudden touch.

“Oh, hello Himes.” I smiled, looking up.

“Uh, hello, Willow. Are you alright?” Jaime’s distant voice asked. I nodded, thinking things through. It might just be that it was four in the morning and the power went out. I thought I saw the lights flickering last night, so it was always a possibility.

“Yeah, I think I’m fine. What time is it?” I asked, looking in his general direction. His hand pulled my chin to face him. Oh, I was way off of ‘looking’ at him.

“It’s eight in the morning. Are you sure you’re alright?” He asked slowly.

It’s eight in the morning.

No, please, anything but this…

“Jaime…”

“Yes, my dear?” He asked softly.

“Can you turn the lights on?” I asked quietly. There was silence to long that I could drive a truck down it and the truck would never reach the end.

“Ding…”

“Yes?” I asked, a tear already coming to my eye. I think I knew the answer already.

“The lights are on.”

“Please, turn them on!” I broke down in sobs, blinking many times to make sure that this was real life. I couldn’t see…I really couldn’t see. It was all pitch black again. I couldn’t make out a single thing, not a shadow, not a figure, not a color. All I saw was darkness and I missed the light like a plant would miss oxygen.

“Oh no, Ding.” Jaime’s voice cracked.

“Please, please, tell me that this is some cruel joke.” I sobbed. His hand gently grabbed my shoulder as he sat down next to me. I could feel his weight shift the pillows down as he wrapped his arms around me. I sobbed into his chest as he held me.

“Can you see anything at all?” He whispered. I shook my head.

“Nothing, no shadows, no colors, just nothing.” I whimpered. His hand slowly stroked my hair as my eyes closed.

I’m blind and my life has become darkness yet again.

Notes

Oh no! She's blind again!

Sorry, but I'm a cruel writer XD

How is she ever going to recover from this? Will she ever get better or is this the end of the Might Ding?

Please don't forget to comment below and vote! :D