When Harper awakes a few hours later, she's terribly disoriented.
The mattress beneath her is not the soft one of her bed she's so used to. There's loud noises coming from somewhere beyond her, mixed with loud voices and yelling. And then she feels the odd sensation that she is moving.
Harper begins to panic. She has no idea where she is, who she is with or why she's there.
She shoots up from her laying position and her head comes in contact with something hard. Harper lets out a mix of a yell and a whimper, falling onto her back and holding her head in her hands. Her forehead already feels warmer and she knows there will be either a terribly bump or bruise in that exact spot.
But, Harper still has no idea where she is and she begins to cry, wanting terribly to escape. She just wants to go home, to go to Cole, to know what the hell is going on.
A thud erupts from Harper's left and she begins to panic a bit more. Her eyes move around frantically but it doesn't take long for her to realize that there is no light source for her to judge any shadowy movements off of.
Suddenly, she hears a sound like a shower curtain being pulled back extremely close to her and light must have flooded wherever she is, because everything gets lighter.
"Harper?" a soft voice questions tentatively. Harper can't place the voice right away. It's familiar, really familiar, and she knows it's coming from the horribly faint figure moving before her eyes.
"J-Josh?" she squeaks, tears still falling down her face and a hand still held to her throbbing forehead.
"Yeah, it's me. What happened?" his voice comes, still softly. She can barely hear him over the loud noise coming from what must be another room, wherever they are.
"Where am I?"
"Harp, you're on tour. Remember? With me and the band and Cole?"
Harper sits quietly for a moment and things start to come back to her. Yes, she's on tour with Paramore. That's right. She's with Cole and the band and their tour manager. The moving sensation is just the bus, and the loud noise must be everyone in the back lounge. She's safe.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I woke up and I forgot. I was so disoriented," she sniffed and wiped her face.
"Hey, it's okay. What happened to your head?" Harper feels Josh move her hand aside and three soft finger tips skim across the throbbing spot on her forehead.
"I hit my head when I sat up fast," she murmurs, eyes fluttering shut as his fingers now move from touching her injured head to wiping away the few teardrops she'd missed.
"Come on, you need to put something on it," a hand wraps itself softly around Harper's and she allows herself to be tugged out of her bunk. She stumbles a bit when she hops down but Josh is quick to steady her. Harper can feel her cheeks heat but ignores it as Josh tugs her towards where she assumes in the front lounge.
Josh moves her and gently makes her sit on the couch. All falls quiet - except for the sounds of what Harper now realizes is everyone playing video games - and she can hear water running and filling something up and doors shutting and closing. The soft vibrations of someone approaching her can be heard and Harper tenses as she senses someone kneeling on the floor before her.
"Tell me if I press too hard?" Josh's voice meets Harper's ears and she nods softly before something cool is being pressed against her forehead.
Josh watches as Harper flinches away from the cool washcloth in his hand.
"I'm sorry," he apologizes softly.
"It's okay," she smiles, eyes still closed. "It's just cold."
The two fall into silence as Josh presses the cloth to her forehead, sometimes rewetting it before replacing it on her skin.
Josh allows his mind to wander as he watches Harper. He wonders if she's always been blind her whole life. If she knows what anything looks like. If she's ever seen herself in the mirror and, conversely, if she has any idea how beautiful she really is.
He's startled out of his reverie when Harper's eyes suddenly flutter open and seem to look right into his own brown irises. If Josh didn't know better, he'd think Harper was looking right into his mind.
"Harper," Josh starts softly, placing the washcloth aside.
"Mmm?"
"Have you always been blind?" he questions nervously. Harper only smiles softly and nods.
"Yeah, I was born this way," she affirms.
"So then...you've never seen anything? Like colors or your surroundings? Or yourself?" he wonders aloud, instantly regretting it when he sees her face fall. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..."
"No, Josh. It's okay," Harper laughs. "But you're right. I have no idea what anything looks like."
Silence falls again between the two. For Josh, it's awkward and he's starting to think of all the different ways he could kick his own ass when the bus comes to a stop. Apparently everyone in the back is too engrossed in what's going on to notice, but the busdriver stands and exits, telling Josh he has ten minutes if he wants to explore also. Josh nods and is about to go back to several versions of self torture when Harper suddenly speaks again.
"Josh?" she whispers out, her eyes pointed completely unfocused to the ground.
"Yeah?"
"What do things look like?" she whispers again.
Josh is startled at the question and obviously had no idea how to answer that. How do you explain what things look like to a person who's never seen before?
"Wha-what do you-?" he cuts himself off with a swallow and runs his hands through his hair.
"I want to know what things look like," Harper says softly. "Show me."
Josh sits in silence for a few moments, when an idea dawns on him. A smile grows on his face as he stands up.
"Come with me," he grins and grasps Harper's hand in his softly.
Josh leads Harper off the bus, helping her down the steps. They're in the deserted parking lot of a Walmart. It's about noon and it's mid-summer, so the weather is surprisingly warm.
He brings Harper to the middle of the parking lot, away from any source of shade. He turns Harper so she is facing him and waits for a few moments. Their skin absorbs the hot sun shining down on them to the point where they both feel comfortably toasty. The eighty degree weather surrounding them does not offer any breeze at all, and everything is still.
"Do you feel that?" he whispers.
"What?"
"The sun on your skin? How it's strong enough where you feel warmed but not to the point where you're getting a sunburn?" he asks.
"Yeah," Harper nods.
"That feeling right there," he smiles, "is orange."
"Orange?" her eyebrows raise and she laughs slightly.
"That feeling is what the color orange looks like," he confirms.
"Wow," Harper whispers.
A larger smile appears on her face and she spins in the sunlight, allowing every molecule of her body to internalize the warmth. She turns her face up towards the sun and can sense the bright light through her eyelids. It makes her fell warm and comfortable and happy, as if she's in some sort of cocoon.
"I like orange," Harper laughs.
Josh laughs softly back, but soon it turns into a sad smile. As he watches Harper spin, he realizes this is the first time that he's ever been truly sorry that she's blind.
Because she'll never be able to see how beautiful she is when she does things like this.
I'm already torn.
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