He liked watching her, a happy, carefree girl in skinny jeans with long blonde hair hanging to the small of her back. Those two details were the ones he noticed primarily when she had her back to him. When they faced each other, however, it was all about her eyes – seas of deep dark blue that throbbed with ancient sadness and lit up with age-old merriment. Her eyes were living entities in their own right. They made him wonder, they made him nervous, they made him love her.
His friends watched him get lost in her wondrous eyes. They would guffaw loudly and elbow him and assume he was gazing at something else. Sometimes they would ask him if he had asked her out yet. He would shake his head and wish they’d go away. In fact, he wished everyone in the world would go away, leaving just him and the girl with the wondrous eyes.
****
She stole peeks at him over her shoulder as often as she could manage without cluing him in to the fact that she was watching him. He was handsome in a way most of the awkward idiots around him might never achieve, and most of that was because of his eyes. Dark, murky pools of a rich green, a tiny light kindled far down inside them – smoldering emerald eyes. His eyes were living entities in their own right. They made her wonder, they made her nervous, they made her love him.
Her friends laughed at her when she stole peeks at his lovely eyes. They would giggle and push her shoulder and ask if she’d talked to him yet. Sometimes they suggested that she be the one to ask him out. She would shake her head at the idea and wish they’d go away. In fact, she wished everyone in the world would go away, leaving just her and the boy with the marvelous eyes.
****
One day his friends’ teasing and his own love combined to be so insistent that he almost asked her. He walked past the niche where she sat and read; his feet half-stopped momentarily. He hesitated. Then he lost his courage and kept walking.
****
She glanced up at him as he passed and a sad little pang grew in the pit of her stomach. There seemed to be a pause in his step, a slight hiccup in the rhythm of his feet – or was there? She must have only imagined it.