"See?" » Zarry ✔

5: Slight Hope

"Please watch your step, Harry. Uh, I mean... Y-yeah... Watch your step." He helped Harry off the curb and over into the car.

"Wow. I see you're already learning."

"What?"

"You just stopped yourself before you could offend me. You're learning."

"Oh. Yeah." Zayn closed the door and then got in the car on the driver's side. "The day we saw each other in Walmart, I went home and thought about what you said. About how not being able to see colors doesn't mean you can't have color preferences. I guess adjusting my speech is just as discriminatory towards you as assuming you can't like colors because you're blind."

They put on their seatbelts at about the same time.

"You're right. It is. But you're the first person outside of Grandma and Mindy who's actually said what I've been thinking all these years. That's very considerate of you, Zayn. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

He pulled off from the curve and started the drive.

"Do you know what the best part about speech is?"

"What?"

"You only need your ears and mouth to do it right and I still have both of those. Every single one of us learned the way the human language works by the way people​ spoke to us and communicated with us as we grew up. As for me, my grandma never held back. She never told me I couldn't do something and she never gave me limitations. That's why when people purposely avoid using words in my vocabulary simply because of my lack of sight, I'm offended. There is no designated speech for the blind. We just interpret certain words we hear a little differently."

"Right. Like when you tell me 'I see', I know that you mean you understand. Not that you literally can see."

"But I do see, Zayn."

"What?"

"I get that you don't know this but what I have is congenital blindness. That means I've been blind since birth and in turn, means I have no concept of what it means to see with my eyes. No matter how many times you try to explain it to me, it just won't work. Because the only way I know to see is with these." He held up his hands.

Zayn glanced out of the side of his eye. "Your hands."

"Yes."

He sighed and then nodded. Having Harry explain things like that made everything so much more clear. "I get what you're​ saying. I guess it's just as hard to grasp for me as it is for you to grasp the way I think."

"Yes, Mindy was the same way at first. It took her a while to truly understand the way I am and how to help me without smothering me."

Zayn gripped the steering wheel upon hearing that word. It concerned him and he had a feeling he might be doing that. "To be honest, it's so fascinating knowing a blind person. I think it's cool to learn little things about you and how you live. But I don't want to smother you either."

Harry poked at the fabric on his pants. "Mindy and I have been friends for about ten years. She's had me figured out for at least the past five so I would figure the requirement to know me as well as she does is five years. You have a long way to go. Do you really think you could ever befriend me for that long?"

He thought for a moment. "Sure. I once had a friend for four years of high school if that counts for anything."

"Had? What happened?"

"He went off to college and we stopped hanging out and talking the way we used to."

"Just like that? So were you ever actually friends or did you just call yourselves that for fun?"