"Are you ready, Nathaniel?" Dr. Henderson asks while fingering the bandage that is wrapped around the top of my head in order to cover my eyes.

"Yes." But was I really? What if the world is darker than what it appeared to be while blind? It felt darker without her in it. She should be here. I had planned on her being here but she had to go and do the thing I most feared. She used me.

Kelly lied to me. And that hurt more than the constant pounding in my head since the surgery.

"Now, I must warn you," her father says as he begins to unravel the gauze. "You will feel discomfort with bright light. Try to continue to wear the glasses or at least a pair of sunglasses for the next week inside as well as outside. Actually," he finishes taking off the wrap, "we suggest you stay away from direct sunlight for the first few days because it could cause more damage but nothing time won't heal."

I keep my eyes closed. What if the surgery didn't work? What if I remain in the darkness forever? Ever since my birthday, I feel like that is so. But I miss her. So much. Is it possible to still be so madly, obsessively, and completely in love with someone who shattered your heart?

I have come to the conclusion after nights on laying in bed in agonizing pain from post surgery and a broken heart that that is what love actually is. What is more strange, is that I don't want the pain to dissolve because I can't imagine a moment where Kelly Henderson hasn't left her mark. The hurt makes it impossible for me to forget the way she made--makes-- me feel.

But I'm too prideful and hurt to admit it to her that I have been miserable since the moment I left her home the night of the party. I think I'm still in shock from it all. But a part of my brain constantly reminds me that I am a moron for even believing that a girl like her could truly fall for a boy like me.

A broken heart comes with crushed aspirations.

"Open your eyes, Nathaniel." I swear it's her. Her voice is like a lulling siren beckoning me to reach out for her. But my mind is playing tricks on me and as I open my first the first time, I flinch, but soon the sensitivity dulls and I am left blinking away from the muted overhead light to see my parents clutching each others shoulders and smiling watery at me.

"Hi, baby," my mother cooes and for the first time in a little over a year I see her tears instead of just hearing them. The sight makes me want to close my eyes again.

I watch her as she and my dad walk towards me slowly, as if I am a baby lamb whom is scared of its own shadow. My dad's smiles only grows when he sees me watching them.

"So?" He asks, resting a hand on his shoulder.

This should be a happy moment and it is, the feeling bubbling up in my chest as it dawns on me that I can see. Actually see! But the feeling stops just below the left side of my chest and the crushing weight resting there pushes it back down. But I don't want my family to feel anything than what they should be feeling after their son finds a way to see again.

"Wow, Dad," I say lowly, my eyes raking up his body. "You need to lay off Mom's strudel."

My father's booming laughter fills the room in a wave that heats my whole body and for the first time in seven days, I feel a lightness that makes the crushing weight lift a tad. My mother joins in and so does Kelly's father, who is hard to look at because him and his daughter share many features that I have embedded in my memory.

Dr. Henderson is right, the sun hurts my eyes badly even with the special glasses they gave me on. I can't wait for the day where I don't have to wear anything on my face unless it's for my own choosing. I'm tired of the pressure on the bridge of my nose.

"Ready to go home, hunny?" My mom asks. She has signed any papers that needed signing and I shake Dr. Henderson and Dr. Torus's hands. I don't miss the wary look Kelly's father gives me.

Does he know what his daughter and friends did? Is that why he helped me? Out of pitty?

"What do you mean we don't owe a thing?" My mother asks the receptionist behind the counter. My ears prick at her words and I take my eyes away from the doctors.

"What's going on?" I hear my father ask.

"They're telling us that the surgery was done pro bono. Someone has already paid the bill," she answers, her throat tight with tears. "But we didn't sign anything for that. No one said anything about that! We went through insurance and everything. I'm so confused."

"Maybe there's a mix up?" I say, beginning to move towards the desk as well. I just want to leave this hospital and never come back. The sooner we figure this out the better.

"There is no mix up." This comes from Dr. Henderson. We all turn to see him shove his hands into his lab coat. "It's taken care of."

"What do you mean, taken care of?" I try to keep my voice steady but my heart begins to beat rapidly in my chest.

"Let's just say that my daughter is very persuasive when it comes to getting what she wants."

My heart completely stops.

"You've been good for her, Nathaniel, and she cares a great deal about you. So when she came to me a month or so ago and asked me to assist on your surgery, I couldn't say no. Not to mention she wrote a letter and did a presentation on the stats of positive outcomes on your surgery that will possibly lead to the hospital getting a large grant for more research. The hospital agreed and found the funds for a pro bono."

My head is spinning and I am not one hundred percent positive if it's from the lighting or the pain meds. "Kelly asked you to take me on?" I ask, my voice barely vibrating off my vocal chords.

"Like I said, she cares a great deal about you."

Doubt flashes in my mind that it's just her guilty conscience egging her on but even I can't deny that Kelly loves me. I know she does. She might have kept things from me but I know what we had was the real thing.

"T-thank you," My mother stutters, sobbing into her free hand as she shakes his hand for what feels like the hundredth time. My breathing catches in my throat when tears shine visably in my father's eyes as well.

She did all this for me?

Dr. Henderson pats my back before he heads back into the hospital. He shoots another look over his shoulder before rounding the corner which leaves me reeling more.

Kelly went to the board just to get my case paid off. She knows how expensive my hospital bills were and she also knows that my parents were struggling making them. They took out a second mortgage for this surgery alone.

She's knowns about this before my parents even did. She hid it from me since before the day she accidentally let it slip that she loved me. Wow... she really was good at keeping secrets.

"What great people," my father murmurs as he takes my mother's hand and braces his other hand on my shoulder.

My mother continues to sob as we make our way to the car. All I can think about it how life has a way of making a full circle and in the center of it all is a girl with good intentions who has probably moved on already because I was too blind to see them.