“Have you ever been in a limousine before?” Aaron’s question startled me. My head was sticking outside of the rooftop window from his fancy black limousine. When I got down I saw his smirk. “No,” I answered shortly. “Well, there is first time for everything. Right? “ He lifted his sunglasses up with a quick move and his right hand was rubbing the end of his cane.

We were sitting opposite to each other, my back was facing the direction where the driver was taking us. Aaron turned his head to his right and if you wouldn’t know that he was blind you would have guessed that he was watching the views from car window. I pushed the button next to me and the rooftop window closed slowly.

“You could have kept it open if you wanted to,” Aaron sounded amused. “Got enough already,” I murmured and stared outside of the window. The scenes were changing rapidly. We had left the countryside where his so called mansion was located. The ride seemed to take forever but at least it was much more comfortable that I had been got used to during the years of my escape. It is much more comfortable to sit the whole journey on a soft seat than run as fast as you can and take short brakes sitting on rocks.

The surroundings started to change slowly as we were closing in a bigger city. Traffic got bigger and I felt nervous. Normally I stayed far away from cities but maybe I could do something different for while. I haven’t seen no one from the Organization for months. Maybe it would be safe?

The limousine made a curve and we arrived to a yard with nice looking buildings. We were at New Haven and arrived finally at Yale University. I tried to hide my excitement but Aaron seemed to notice the small sound that came through. “Judging by your reaction we have arrived.” His words caused me to blush, interacting with people wasn’t my thing.

I tried to change the subject, “So what are your big plans since you applied here?” He started to laugh and lifted the sun glasses on his forehead. His blue eyes were almost like watching me even though they were still. He is really good in finding people’s positions just by his hearing. “No big plans actually, I am quite old already to apply here. Took me long enough to convince the people who take care of my funds.” He was smiling even though he sounded serious.

“Why are they taking care of your funds?” Maybe I asked too directly since he went silent. For my relief he chuckled, “I just turned twenty-one so their reign over the business and funds my parents left me was ending. However they would like to be in charge despite of me being 21 since I am incapable for it. At least they think like that.” He placed the sun glasses back to his nose and was playing with his cane, throwing it from hand to another.

The driver stop before a big building and told Aaron that he is getting the keys to his apartment.  Aaron simply nodded and lifted the window back up after hearing what the driver had to say. “Why they think that you are incapable for running your family business and deciding things by your own?” Suddenly he threw his glasses off and was just few inches away from my face. “Because of this,” his voice was filled with annoyance as he pointed at his eyes. They didn’t trust him because of his blindness. “Oh, I am sorry.”

The driver returned to car and then drove us next to a beautiful building. It wasn’t one of the usual dorms but a two storey high tile building. “I have the upstairs,” he stated while we went in. There were two guys staring at us when we went upstairs, there was a door on the end of the stairs. He really had an apartment of his own. There was a small kitchen, bedroom, living room and bathroom. It wasn’t a mansion but for most of the regular students this must be heaven. The driver brought a box with him that contained books. However I couldn’t read what books they were since they were done with blind writing using dots.

“Make yourself at home,” he started to walk around the apartment. This time he used his cane a lot hitting it from wall to furniture and moving slower than usual. He went to kitchen and I heard a loud thumb with “Crap!”. When I went to kitchen I saw him kneeling on the floor and his hands facing the ground. He had tripped on a broom that was sticking from the doorway. “Let me help you,” I took his hand in mine but he slapped it away. “Let me do it myself!” He hissed between his teeth.

He rose up and his feet searched for the ground. His foot touched the broom and he bend down and touched its surface. “So you are the one to blame?” He whispered to himself and lifted it away from the floor. Then he picked up his cane and I saw his hand touching his forehead. Then I realized the familiar smell. Blood.

His forehead had a cut that was bleeding. My heart beat got faster as I stared at the sight. It was hard to resist, it was different from animal blood. This was so inviting. I slammed my head with my hand and quickly took a paper napkin from my pocket. “Hey!” He yelled from surprise when I carefully cleaned away the blood from his forehead. Then I ripped the edge of my shirt and rinsed it under cold water.

He made a sound of “Oh,” when I cleaned his wound and tried to stop the bleeding. “Thank you, “ he smiled at me when I was ready. “It was nothing and you don’t need stitches. He chuckled, “Yeah, sorry about that. I have had lots of stitched on my body. This usually happens when I get to new surroundings.” I knew that he tried to sound cheerful but failed on it.

“Sorry about the shirt,” his fingers brushed my skin when he took a hold of the shirts bottom. He was smiling. “No worries,” well at least he mustn’t worry but I needed to. I had just ripped off a piece from his mother’s old shirt. “You can borrow my clothes, they have been transferred here already. In the bedroom closet I assume.” He tried to point out a direction and I had to turn his hand to his right where the bedroom actually was. He pointed his finger at the bathroom just before. “Aren’t I hopeless,” he whispered.

“Well.. this place is new to you but I really believe that once you feel like you’re at home you will walk here like you did at your place. “ Huh, that sounded weird. Me cheering up on someone but at least it ended with a faint smile than bursting to tears.  “So..I will just go and change..” I went to his bedroom. All his rooms were already decorated and prepared for him to stay.

Finally I found the closet and when I opened the door I almost fell to floor from shock. It was a horrible sight. A closet filled with flannel shirts, all in red and scotch patterns. He seems to wear the same clothes every day. Quickly I changed my shirt to one of his. The flannel felt itchy against my skin.

He was sitting on the couch and looked like a lost puppy. “Do you need help to adjust here?” I asked and tried to sound friendly. He nodded in silence. “You know that all off your clothes look the same?” He shrug his shoulders and grinned playfully, “Why would I care about the looks of my clothes? They are comfortable!” That I felt like disagreeing while I scratched my hand which was still itching.

“We can go and get you some girl clothes tomorrow,” he started t lay  on his back and I noticed that he had taken of his glasses. He was just laying there with his eyes closed. “I only accept that offer if I can choose you new clothes.” He turned his head from side to side as the sign of no. “Well, what are your majors?”

“Law and business. How come?” He sounded interested and my jaw almost drop. “You really think that you will be taken serious dressing like that! You look like a hill billy!” He started to laugh, “you’re the first one who has said something like that to me. I assume it is something bad?” He was annoying me, “Yes, it is bad.”

“Alright, shopping for some clothes for you and me then. We will leave at noon tomorrow.” He pulled his phone from his jacket and after opening it he gave it voice commands. He just informed to a local taxi company about picking us up tomorrow. Then he ordered pizzas that were soon delivered.

After we ate he wanted to go for a walk outside which I tried to refuse. The sun was already setting but he convinced me to go with him by using the card on his sleeve. Yeah, the one of him being blind. There were some other students on the outside also having a blast. We were walking on silence and then I heard whispers around us. “Is she wearing contact lenses?” “What is wrong with that girl?”

Yup, they were seeing my eyes that were already turning back to red when the night arrives. “You seem to draw lot of attention,” he laughed, “good for me since normally people stare at me.” His shoulder pushed mine. He was behaving overly familiarly. I made a simple throat sound as a respond.

The university grounds were beautiful. Old buildings and some green areas. “Beautiful,” I whispered. “I believe you,” Aaron said and stopped walking. “Sorry,” I felt embarrassed right now. “Don’t be, I find things beautiful also. Mostly it is related to sounds, how they differ from each other. or how things smell or how they feel. “ He grinned, “For example your facial features felt beautiful and your voice sounds nice. “ Right after he said that he continued his walk back to apartment.  My cheeks were burning up, he just gave me compliment?

He was already at the door when I caught up on him. There was a party going on downstairs, there were some other students that had arrived few days before to campus before studies start. The room went silent when we arrived. “He is the rich guy,” some girls whispered. “He seems odd and he really is blind!” I glanced at him and his face was facing the ground without a smile.

“Whoa.. those eyes are surely something!” A boy in the corner said to a person next to him. I turned my back on them and saw that Aaron was already taking the steps up. When I went after him he spoke to me, “you should go and have some fun. Just remember our shopping trip. Don’t stay up too late.” He smiled.

“Nah! I am not a party person.” His apartment was dark and I found the light switch. I could have been able to be in the dark but he might be suspicious. Then it hit me, “where do I sleep?” He smiled, “on the bedroom of course.”

I furrowed my eyebrows and gave him directions to bedroom. There was only a twin bed. “You cant say that I need to sleep next to you?” He tried to hold his laugh. “No, if I remember correctly these are not one piece of bed.” He started to pull the bed from the corner after he found it by hitting his cane on the beds edge. “Help me out here,” I went to his aid and truly there were two single beds that were little larger than usual.

He must have sensed my uncomfortable state. “Don’t worry, I can’t see you when you sleep. Just place the bed next to other wall.” With almost none effort at all I pushed the bed where he told me to. It banged against the wall since I accidentally used too much strength. “Hey, don’t make holes to my walls!” He laughed. I managed to say that I was sorry after I cleared my throat.

Some guys knocked the door to his apartment and Aaron yelled that everything was alright. “They must have heard you moving furniture,” he mocked at me. “Haha, very funny!” I turned around and saw that he had taken his shirt off. He didn’t look bad at all but there were some scars on his arms. He was unzipping his pants and I covered my eyes. Soon I heard him going under bed sheets. “Good night, see you at the morning.” He turned to his other side and soon I heard the sound of him sleeping. I decided to sleep with the itchy flannel shirt which luckily was long enough. It just reached to my knees. Yes, it was a little big for me  but Aaron was a strongly build guy and I was much skinnier and smaller compared to him.

“Good night,” I whispered and went to sleep also. He made a sleepy "mmh" sound as a respond. I guess he wasn't in so deep sleep yet. Also on this night I didn’t saw the nightmares that usually haunt me.