Through His Eyes

II

Dean Ambrose scrolled once again through the pictures of students that attended the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. He stopped when he saw who he was looking for. She had dark brown almost black hair that stopped at the bottom of her back and blue eyes with slightly pale skin. He bit back a smile; Tia Martin. There were three pictures of her. The first was when she was about 8, the second when she was 12 and the last recently when she was 16. Her face was the only thing that hadn't changed. Same chubby cheeks, same button nose. He couldn't keep his eyes off the dimple that showed on her right cheek when she smiled. He kept his thumb pressed over her recent picture until options came up if he wanted to save the image or copy it. He pressed the Save Image button and went into settings to put it as his wallpaper.
A few years ago, before Dean's little sister died, he used to visit her at the blind school. That's where he met Tia who was a friend of Lindsay's. He was about 24 at the time, 10 years older than both girls but that didn't stop him from developing feelings for Tia. After Lindsay passed on, Dean would still visit but not as often because it felt weird to see Tia without Lindsay right beside her. Earlier last year, Dean found out as he was trying to visit Tia that her parents had pulled her out and he never saw her again. Dean pined for the day that he would see her again. She told him that she was a huge fan of wrestling, but not once since he's worked here has she seen the show live whenever they hit Austin, Texas.
"You're drooling," one of Dean's best friends Roman Reigns told him as he sat down beside him on the couch in their locker room.
Dean felt his face. "No I'm not."
"Might as well be," Seth Rollins, another friend of Dean's, chimed in. "You've been obsessing over that girl for, like, ever. Is she even real. A lot of people draw people and make them look real."
"She's real," Dean insisted. "I've seen her."
He shook his head at his friends. They would never understand what love was. Or at least Seth never will. He's so focused on work he hasn't even been on a date in years. Roman's married and has a kid. Dean's surprised he's not siding with him on this.
"I'm going on a walk," he said as he jammed his phone into his pocket and headed out.
He decided to go out to the ring. Some of the stands were filled with fans but there were still huge patches of empty folded seats. A bunch of people cheered when he came out and he just smiled. He went over to the commentary table where Michael Cole, JBL, and Jerry Lawler, WWE's commentators were seated, getting ready for the show.
"Hey, guys," Dean greeted.
"Hey, Dean," Jerry greeted back.
"Hey, Ambrose," JBL replied.
Michael just nodded his head towards him.
"Anything you need?" JBL asked.
Dean shook his head as he grabbed a metal folding chair from the Time Keeper's Area and sat beside the table. "Not really," he answered. "Just wanted to see what was going on."
"Nothing much," Michael said as he straightened a stack of papers in front of him and cut his iPad on.
Dean nodded as he looked around at the few fans that were seated, ready for the show. That's when he froze, his eyes locked on the front row. He leaned forward and squinted, trying to see if his eyes were messing with him. But they weren't. Dark brown almost black hair. Blue eyes with pupils that blended in with the irises. Chubby cheeks. Button nose. She smiled at the woman beside her. Same dimple on her right cheek.
"Dean?"
Dean snapped out of his trance and turned to Jerry. "Yeah?"
"I've been calling you for a minute. You okay?" Jerry asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he insisted before looking back at Tia. "I gotta go."
"I'm gonna go get us some popcorn and drinks," the woman told Tia. "I'll be right back. Thomas, watch her."
"Mom," Tia whined.
"Yeah, yeah," the man said distractedly as he continued to type away on his phone.
Dean stood in front of Tia and stared for a while. Dean guessed she could sense his presence since she reached out and touched his chest. She recoiled.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"It's fine," Dean said a little breathless, still not believing that she was there right in front of him.
That's when she reached out again, higher this time, to touch his face, but Dean quickly ducked out of the way and ran back to the locker room. He wasn't sure what was wrong with him. Why had he run off like that? But he kept running until he reached the locker room and bursted inside. He was alone for the moment so he flung himself on the couch and buried his face in the cushion.
"What's wrong with you?" he heard Roman say.
Dean uncovered his face. "I saw her," he said.
Roman smirked as he sat in one of the vacant wooden cubbies. "Oh really?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Dean nodded. "I have a plan but you're gonna think I'm crazy."
Roman chuckled before replying, "I already think you're crazy."