April 12th

 

They were not, in fact, “Roommates”.

 

After a very awkward few minutes of the cheerleader crying her heart out, she introduced herself as Jessica Brown, past Victoria’s best and only friend. It was from her that Victoria learned what the rest of her class thought of her, looking down on her background and upbringing as a basis to not hang out with her. Victoria figured out that was fine in its own way, she would be pretty absent from any extra-curricular activities anyways as she tried to prepare for what was to come after all.

 

She was a little surprised when she heard she was actually one of the most gifted students when it came down to pure academics though. Victoria thought her alternate self would’ve focused more on other aspects, but going by what Jessica said, her alternate self’s dream was to graduate and study engineering to join Stark Industries in the future.

 

Well, at least they shared their favorite Marvel character apparently. The billionaire was an interesting study on a brilliant mind encumbered by arrogance and ambition, one that slowly evolved into a true hero over time until…Thanos happened.

 

She shuddered a little at the idea of facing the mad titan in the future, thankfully that would take more than a few years before it happened.

 

Going back to the topic at hand, Jessica explained how they met. Victoria was working at the Mad Hatter, a fashion store that sold quite the unique collection of outfits at very reasonable prices, when Jessica entered and they shared a moment of recognition. Victoria knew of the cheerleader since she saw her in action quite a few times, and Jessica held respect towards Victoria for rising to the top ranks of the school despite her rough situation at home.

 

According to her they shared a few conversations before they actually became friends, this caused Jessica to lose a bit of her standing with the rest of the cheerleader team and her popularity with the jocks, but she didn’t care that much. On the other hand, Victoria seemed to be gently isolated from the rest of her class. There was no harsh treatment, but it was needless to say she would spend her time alone if Jessica wasn’t there to keep her company.

 

The conversation in general turned around the same few topics. Going about Victoria explaining how she lost her memories and eyesight due to the impact the explosion had on her brain and her neural system, just a re-telling of what the nurse and a few doctors had explained to her during her stay at the hospital.

 

Speaking of, Jessica explained to Victoria, or Vicky as she insisted on calling her, how to use the vocal commands on her phone.

 

It turns out she could use them since her cellphone, an Iphone 4 at the time, supported the function. Of course the system was a little early in design so some commands didn’t work perfectly and she’d need to repeat them a few times for the mic to catch them correctly, but it was way better than not having anything.

 

After that they had decided to take some time on the weekend to take a walk and maybe talk some more, to let Vicky get situated and figure out what to do about not being able to see, read or write as she used to.

 

And that’s how they arrived to Kissena Park, sitting down by the side of the lake under what seemed to be a weeping willow. A medium-sized blanket was laid down on the grass, and the two friends were sitting there, enjoying two cones of ice cream they had bought at the entrance, not too far from the trail they had begun their little walk in.

 

“So, now that we’re a little more comfortable, how are you handling….Well, everything?” Jess asked, with genuine concern behind her voice, but hiding it behind her upbeat attitude.

 

It was kind of weird how Victoria could just tell how people were feeling from her pulses and body language alone. Maybe it was another effect of her TK? That would involve some form of Empathy or maybe Telepathy? It wasn’t like she could actively hear Jessica’s thoughts, but she could tell what emotions were present in her voice at least.

 

Victoria shook those thoughts away as she licked her vanilla ice cream.

 

“To be honest, not being able to see is kinda weird.” She started. “But it’s not…Scary, in a sense. I’m not sure if I can explain but….”

 

“But?” Jess prompted her to continue.

 

“It’s like this.” Victoria took a lick around the cone so the ice cream wouldn’t spill as she talked. “Imagine that you entered a cave and couldn’t see anything without light. The entrance crumbles behind you so you can’t go back anymore.”

 

“Okaaaaay, that’s a scary idea, but continue.”

 

“I know, believe me.” Victoria chuckled before continuing her explanation. “But knowing there is no going back just kinda takes that worry away, like, you know it can’t get worse than that so you just focus on adapting to the dark. You learn how to walk without seeing where you step and eventually you become a cool cave creature like a bat or a mole rat.”

 

Jessica giggled. “I don’t think a mole rat counts as a cool cave creature, Vicky.”

 

Victoria shrugged, licking her ice cream before it started to really melt away.

 

“You know what I mean though. It’s not like I can become ultra-blind so I just have to get used to it as soon as I can to keep going. After you told me about past me wanting to become an engineer I think I may still want to give that a try, and I can’t do it if I can’t read or write.”

Jess seemed to hesitate a bit with her answer, but in the end just smiled and put a hand on Vicky’s shoulder, deciding that maybe shooting down that dream with a cold truth wouldn’t be a good idea while her friend was recovering from the trauma.

 

Not that Vicky would know, but she at least appreciated the silent encouragement.

 

“So, whatddaya wanna do after this?” Jess asked after a few moments of silence passed between the two.

 

“Hummmm…I should probably start looking into getting another job.” Vicky replied with a hard truth of her own.

 

“Why would you do that? Oh wait, shit.”

 

“Yup, can’t work at a fashion store if I can’t see color now, can I?” Vicky chuckled and finished her ice cream, biting into the cookie of the cone itself.

 

“Shit, sorry. I can ask Dad maybe he could find you something?” Jess offered a helping hand.

 

Her father was big in the laundry market. He basically just kept a few stores around town that ran laundromats and made him a pretty penny. Victoria ran the idea through her head, it wasn’t the worst option possible. It would probably just entail janitorial work or attending clients that had specific requests to prepare suits and dresses and the like.

 

Heh, maybe Deadpool would drop by to clean off the blood from his suit. Now that would be a fun time to be had.

 

“Sure, I don’t think there’s many businesses that can use a blind person though. Especially one that doesn’t have any real studies on her back and stuff.” With that, she finished the cone and used a handkerchief to clean off the crumbs from her face.

 

Jess had some trouble doing the same since her ice cream had been melting for a bit longer, so a few crumbs remained on her cheek.

 

“Dad’s pretty lax, he’ll probably just ask you to clean a little and make sure everyone gets their clothes clean, not too hard but the pay won’t be amazing you know?”

 

Victoria felt a little uncomfy at noticing the crumbs still on her friend’s face, so she was about to raise her hand to clean them off herself, but figured that it would be telling that she wasn’t fully blind if she did.

 

So instead she offered her handkerchief to Jess.

 

“Sure, clean your face though, don’t wanna go around town with ice cream on your nose right?” She pointed out the wrong thing on purpose, she was getting used to acting huh?

 

“Thamks~” Jess took a big bite to get everything that remained done with and took the handkerchief to clean the crumbs off her face, giving it back right after.

 

“Alright. So, what do you wanna do Jess? We could go to the movies but I’m afraid I won’t have many comments on it right after.”

 

The cheerleader took a moment to think, really think, before she came up with the perfect answer.

 

“Why don’t we take a longer walk around the park and then we have lunch somewhere close? I’m paying since I don’t wanna impose on my broke friend.” She offered her idea with a smug tone and a grin on her face.

 

If only Vicky could see her face more clearly, see the color in her eyes….Wait, where were those thoughts coming from? She was her friend! She wasn’t ready to be looking at her like that yet!

 

“Vicky, you’re a bit red, you feeling okay?” Jess asked, dragging Victoria out of her little bubble.

 

“Y-yeah. Just had a little itch to sneeze but nothing happened, no worries.” Vicky lied as naturally as she breathed, the faint red in her cheeks washing away.

 

“Sure, let’s go with plan A then?” She asked again, to which Victoria nodded.

 

“Plan A it is.” 

 

Vicky picked up the cane from her lap and stood up, gently brushing her hand over the long skirt she was wearing. True, the temperatures were still rising, but she still decided to wear a long skirt, a pair of heeled shoes and a sweater. Mainly because the outfit was pretty comfy indoors, but the heat was starting to get to her after all.

 

“Give me a sec, I’ll take off my sweater.” Victoria held the cane with her thighs as she carefully glided the sweater off her torso. “Alright, much better.”

Jess seemed to be frozen in place though, so Vicky worried a bit. Maybe she was having a heatstroke too?

 

“Ummmm Jess?” Vicky asked, snapping Jess out of her bubble this time.

 

“Y-yeah still here. Just surprised your sense of fashion is just as good as it used to be.”

 

Victoria’s smile widened at the compliment. It was great to know she had an eye for these things, even if she was suffering a little due to a lack of awareness towards the weather. Not like she ever had to worry about the weather in her past life though, it was weird how hot or cold outdoors could get sometimes.

 

“Alright. Let’s finish our walk and go grab some burgers then!”

 

Jess chuckled.

 

“Still love burgers huh? Good to know.” She mumbled, but Victoria decided she didn’t hear it.

 

‘Nope, not stepping on that landmine today!’  

 

But she already had, she just didn’t know yet.