Borrowed Light for My YouthChapter 3

My pencil case hit the ground.

Pens, erasers, and a ruler went everywhere.

My admission ticket skidded a few feet away.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't see you."

A boy I didn't know. I couldn't place him.

I didn't bother with him and went straight for the ticket.

My fingers had almost reached it when a shoe came down on top of the paper.

He bent close to my face, his voice thick with mockery.

"Are you actually blind, or do you just play it up? Your eyes really do look off."

"That's not your business."

I tugged at the ticket. It didn't move.

"Real or fake, you're still a charity case. So quit hanging off Lena.

"Don't be so selfish. Yeah?"

I looked up at him. The face was vaguely familiar.

"Move your foot. Whatever's between me and Lena has nothing to do with you."

"Wow, you really—"

He twisted his shoe. The thin paper tore straight through.

Before he could finish, somebody shoved him hard enough to knock him sideways.

Lena stood there with her face gone cold.

"What is wrong with you?"

That stopped him for a second.

"What's wrong with you?

"It wasn't on purpose. I already apologized."

Lena picked up the torn ticket and the scattered pens and pushed them into my hands.

"I'm walking you to your room."

I kept my head down and followed her, holding the case against my chest.

As we passed him, he muttered it under his breath.

"Blind kid's such a drama queen."

I knew that voice.

He'd been outside my building that night, with Grant.

Lena walked me all the way to my testing room before she went to find her own.

For a few minutes it felt like it used to.

But the coldness hadn't been in my head. Neither had the impatience.

I really didn't understand her anymore.

The SAT was finally over.

The whole school felt lighter.

That evening I finished sorting my notes and picked up my phone.

Grant had posted a photo of the record.

The caption read: "A surprise with perfect timing. Still hearing it. Thank you for the gift."

It was the exact record I'd given Lena, right down to the birthday message I'd cut into the sleeve myself.

Her birthday present, from me. And she'd handed it to Grant.

The hurt came up so fast my eyes burned with it.

I called her.

"You gave Grant the birthday present I got you?"

She made a small, careless sound. "Yeah.

"Grant and I were talking and it turns out he likes it too, so I took it over for him to hear."

My grip closed hard around the phone. My voice came out scraped raw.

"It took me two weeks to find that.

"You handed my present to somebody else and didn't even tell me. You don't think that's too far?"

Lena sounded irritated.

"It's a record. You seriously called me to put me on trial over a record?"

"It's not about the record."

My voice shook.

"You threw away what I meant by it."

"You gave it to me, so it's mine. What I do with it is up to me.

"You don't get a say."

I opened my mouth. Nothing came.

"This is exhausting."

She hung up.

I sat there holding the phone with my chest aching.

The exact words she'd said on picture day.

After that, we stopped talking altogether.

Until our class put together a get-together that spring.

I didn't want to go.

But it was the first thing anyone had organized all year.

My parents pushed me to.

Miss Carol even told Lena to keep an eye on me.

It was the first time Lena and I had seen each other since the fight.

She was in a mood the whole way there.

I tried a few times. She gave me "mm" and "sure" and nothing else.

So I stopped, and we rode the rest of it in silence, like two strangers who happened to know everything about each other.

The restaurant was loud. Everybody talked over everybody.

I drank my soda and listened.

My eyes don't let me stare at a screen for long.

I stay out of harsh sun when I can.

After dark I'm most of the way to blind.

Basketball, gaming, biking. There wasn't one conversation at that table I could get into.

We'd barely sat down and I already wanted to go home.

Then somebody suggested truth or dare.

The bottle went around a few people and landed on Lena.

She picked truth.

Somebody grinned.

"Lena, you take such good care of Owen. Do you like him?"