Blind Love (Edited)

Chapter 10: The Gift

Lauren carried the painting downstairs and asked her mom where the wrapping paper was. She touched the paint with the tip of her fingers to see if the paint had already dried. It was recent and she was pretty sure that the paint had not dried. But when she touched the canvas, the paint had already dried. "Huh," she thought, "I'm guessing it's eager to arrive at its destination."

Her mom came in with a big roll of wrapping paper and asked her, "Is this fine sweetie?"

"Yes, mom. That is abolutely the right size." Lauren smiled at her mom.

"What's it for?"

"I'm going to wrap up a gift."

"A gift?" her mother looked at her with surprise.

"Yes, Mom. A gift."

"For who?"

"A friend. Someone I met the other day."

"Can I ask who it is?"

"It's our neighbor."

"Oh, okay. Have fun then."

Lauren laughed and said okay. "Okay," she thought, "let's find a way to wrap this up. I'm pretty sure that Landon will love it....or he'll just think it's creepy that I painted him specifically. Ugh don't think that, Lauren. You're going to make yourself more nervous than you already are." Then she realized what she had said. She had said the word nervous. What in God's name was going on? Why was she so nervous about giving Landon the gift that she had just painted? What was this reaction caused by? Lauren was feeling nervous and it was something that she couldn't quite understand. "You're overreacting, Lauren," she whispered to herself. "There's no way that this is nervousness. I barely know the guy."

She went to wrapping the canvas up with the wrapping paper that her mother had given her. It took her a while but she finally got the wrapping to look okay on the canvas. Sure it looked silly, because more than once she had to cut an extra piece of wrapping paper and just tape it on there, but other than that it was as perfect as it could be. After she was done wrapping it, she went over to the living room and set the canvas against the coffee table in the middle of the living room. She then sat down on the couch right across from the canvas. Lauren sat there and just stared at the wrapped canvas of Landon. She was debating on whether or not she should give it to Landon. On one side, she told herself that it was a bad idea. Landon would only think that Lauren was weird and that would make him not want to talk to her. On the other, she told herself that it was a nice gesture because people had isolated him for so long that this was probably the first gift he would receive from someone else other than his own family, and this would show him that Lauren was a real friend. He would probably also think that she was stalking him or something. But at the same time, Lauren couldn't stop thinking about his words and all the pain that not only Landon felt but also the rest of the family. She thought about Laura and how she was a single mother and how much she loved her children. That was evident in the way she treated Lance at the dinner and by the way she talked about Landon. She thought about Laura crying sometimes when her son came home all disappointed that he couldn't find any friends. Lauren's eyes began to tear up as well and that's when she decided to do what she had intended to do. She got up and took the canvas in her hand. She went to the door and opened it. Then she yelled, "Mom, I'll be right back. This won't take long!"

That way her mom knew that she was going to be back soon and she wouldn't freak out like Lauren knew she always did. She closed the door behind her and then walked slowly with the canvas over to Laura's house. She took a deep breath and she rung the doorbell. Laura opened the door and as soon as Laura recognized Lauren, Laura smiled and told her to go inside.

"Hello, Lauren. What's brought you here, dear?"

"Hello, Ms. Laura."

"Please, just call me Laura."