Outside, the night air was cool, yet blissfully comfortable compared to the gym. Beyond the yellow glow of the streetlamps, I spotted a bright full moon hanging over the empty football field. As I stepped onto the sidewalk, I closed my eyes and breathed in the smell of fresh summer. I would have kept walking, knowing that the hand-holding Ahna and Lyle would be coming, but I heard her ask, “Aim? Is that...?”
I turned to see Ahna standing a few steps behind me and pointing back toward the gym. I looked and, at first, I only saw the stream of people flowing out. Then, I noticed a figure standing to one side of the doors. He looked tense and out of place with his dark sunglasses and his hands shoved deep into his pockets. In an instant, I was at his side. I caught his arm and he jumped in surprise at the touch.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Amy.” He flashed a smile and I felt my stomach flip. “I’m here to see you.”
My face reddened; this was
not
happening! He laughed as if he could sense my embarrassment and continued, “I thought it was only fair, since you came to my graduation. Chris called a taxi.”
I couldn’t help but smile. The little rascal. I squeezed Tristan’s arm. “Well, thanks for coming.”
“Amy, who’s this?”
I turned to see Ahna smiling coyly. I glared at her. “Ahna, this is Tristan. Tristan, this is my best friend, Ahna, and her boyfriend, Lyle.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Lyle. He pointlessly offered his hand for Tristan to shake and Ahna jabbed him in the ribs.
Oblivious, Tristan nodded in their direction. “Yeah, nice to meet you.”
“I forgot you said he was blind,” Lyle grumbled to Ahna while he rubbed his side.
Tristan raised his eyebrows. “You were all talking about me?”
“No!” Ahna and I both said guiltily.
Lyle muttered, “Guess they
can
hear well,” and Ahna sighed and shook her head in exasperation. “So, is he going bowling with us?”
Tristan turned to me. “You’re going bowling?”
“No,” I said quickly. “We can go do something else. Okay, Ahna?”
“Sure!” She winked at me and began to drag Lyle across the street to the bowling alley. “Have fun, you guys!”
I slid my hand into his. “Why don’t we go sit? It’s a beautiful night to be outside.”
I led Tristan over to the football field. The grass was long and thick, having been neglected since the season had ended. The large metal bleachers were empty. We were completely alone; even the last stragglers had left the gymnasium. The night felt peaceful while illuminated by the white light of the moon. I flopped onto the cool grass and looked up at the stars.
Tristan lay next to me and, after a moment, said quietly, “You aren’t like any of the girls I dated.”
I pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “What do you mean?”
“You
think
and you wear an old, red pair of Chucks.” He smirked. “Chris told me that.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I figured.”
“And you care about other people, not just yourself.”
I rolled onto my side and watched the stars reflect in his dark glasses. Those two lenses hid so much of him from me, so much of him that I couldn’t stand to have hidden anymore. I pushed myself into a sitting position with one leg curled under my body. I hugged my knee and let the words slip from my lips: “I want to see your eyes.”
Tristan leaned up on his elbows. “What?”
“Your eyes,” I breathed.
He brushed a hand through his hair. “Isn’t it dark?”
“There’s a full moon. Please.”
He exhaled slowly and nodded.
I bit my lip and bent forward. Reaching out my trembling fingers, I gently slid the glasses off of his face. I looked down as I rested them on his chest, then I hesitated. Taking in a steadying breath, I lifted my eyes to see...his closed eyelids. I smiled in surprise and, suddenly, his eyes snapped open. My heart leapt and I felt the air escape from my lungs. His eyes were striking—the brightest cerulean of an intense flame. But, even while I reveled at the sight, I could see the vacancy of his pupils as they stared past my shoulder.
I found my hand caressing his temple.
There was no thought, no word, as I simply found my eyes closed and my lips upon his and his upon mine. My heart pounded in my chest while his hand found its way into my hair. I was kissing him with every drop of emotion that had pooled within me since, since I couldn’t even
remember
when! I wrapped my arms around his neck and he pulled me closer to him. I, no,
we
were in lo—
“
Amy
! Where are you?” The ill-timed call pierced the night. “We decided that it would be more fun if we all went for pizza!”
“Yeah, he can eat pizza!” yelled Lyle.
I pulled back and found myself breathing heavily. After sucking in air, I called back, “We’re coming, Ahna!”
As Tristan helped me to my feet, I could see that he was smiling. He said slowly, “That was really...” He pushed his sunglasses back on. “Yeah.”
“It was ‘yeah’?” I laughed and bumped playfully into his side. “Yeah, for me too.”
* * *
I wiped the last specs of parmesan off of my plate up with a finger. We had just finished a meal, which had consisted of much awkward small talk. With silent, somewhat-violent urging from Ahna, Lyle had offered to go with Tristan to the bathroom. Now Ahna, having slurped up the last of her pop, was fixing me with an intense stare. She knew something was up, maybe because I couldn’t stop smiling.
“What happened to you?” she asked, her eyes glistening with curiosity.
My eyes flicked up to hers and I grinned even wider. “We kissed.”
“Wait—
what
?!” she gasped. “Who kissed who?”
I laughed at her expression. “I don’t know—we kissed each other!”
“Seriously? Aim, that’s
so
awesome!” Her eyes grew dreamy. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a simultaneous kiss...that’s so romantic.”
“Hey!” Lyle said grumpily. He was standing next to the table with Tristan. I blushed, hoping they hadn’t heard too much.
“I mean, of
course
I have.” Ahna caught her boyfriend’s arm, while she winked at me.
“Well, I guess we’ll head out,” I said, rising to my feet. “My car’s back at the school.”
“Yeah, mine too,” said Ahna.
I grabbed Tristan’s hand as we all headed outside. Ahna and Lyle were walking a little ahead of us, so I asked in a low voice, “Did you have a good time?”
He smirked. “Well, you know, Lyle did shoot that straw wrapper right into my face... Oh, and he asked me if I
liked
being blind. That’s a great question.”
I squeezed his hand. “I get the picture.”
He laughed, turning his head toward mine. “It was okay.”
“Good.”
After saying our goodnights to Ahna and Lyle, we climbed into my Camry. As I pulled out of the empty parking lot, the silence of my car invited my head to fill with questions. When we kissed, did Tristan feel something, too? Did it mean that we were dating? All of my other short-lived boyfriends been obvious: we went to dinner, a movie, and
tah dah
, we were dating. Kissing a blind—guy, friend, employer?—wasn’t so simple to figure out.
But what did that matter? We had
kissed
!
I grinned.
A short ride later, I pulled onto the Edmunds’ drive. Shutting off my car, I turned uncertainly to Tristan. He brushed my cheek with his hand before reaching down to undo his seatbelt. “You are really something, Amy Turner.”
“Amy
Rose
Turner,” I said. “My mom would want you to remember that.”
“Your crazy hippie mom? The one who tried to get me to eat
flowers
?” he asked mockingly, while opening the car door.
“Shut up!” I laughed, pushing him out of my car. “I’ll see you Thursday; your mom gave me tomorrow off.”
Tristan’s face darkened. “Right. The job.”
Feeling awkward, I joked, “I suppose there are worse jobs than hanging out with you.”
“Yeah.” He caught the rim of the door and his face grew more serious. “Amy, maybe we shouldn’t tell anyone about us.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just....” Tristan grimaced. “You need the money and I don’t think my mother would be willing to pay you, if you were dating me.”
“Oh.” My happiness deflating, I swallowed and nodded. “Right.”
“I think you misunderstood me.” Tristan slid back into my car and reached his hand out, toward my head. I hesitated, unsure of what he meant, and then leaned forward. His hand curved to cup the back of my neck. He guided my face to meet his and gave me a gentle, perfect kiss that made my toes curl. “We’ll make this work, Amy Rose.”
Smiling, I took his hand and squeezed it between both of mine. “Okay.”
“Good night.” Tristan climbed out of my car and swung the door shut. I watched until he was inside the house and then sighed. This was not something I had expected; I had never kissed like that before. And keeping us hidden, especially from nosy little brothers, wasn’t going to be easy. Still, the excited tremble of my heart told me that Tristan was worth it.
“What a night,” I whispered to my Camry and headed home.
Chapter 10
Wednesday morning, I vowed to sleep in as long as possible; a new high school graduate deserves her beauty rest. While my mind was still clouded, I heard the sound of beeping. I growled as I reached out from the warm cocoon of my bed and smacked the top of my alarm clock. The beeping continued. I moaned, pulling the pillow from on top of my head, and listened. It took me a foggy second to realize that the sound wasn’t just plain beeping, but the tune of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.”
“Ugh, phone,” I slurred and tumbled out of bed. Listening for the sound, I dug into my pile of dirty clothes. After a moment, I successfully pulled out my purse, from which fell my cell phone. I glared at it while it hummed mindlessly, before I answered, “Hello?”
The phone emitted Mrs. Edmund’s voice. “Amy? Is that you?”
“Uh, yeah?” I replied, confused.
“I’m sorry to bother you. I know I said this was your day off—you weren’t sleeping, were you?”
I shook my head, hoping to sooth my wild bed hair. There was no sense complaining to the woman paying me $20 an hour. “I’m up.”
“Oh good,” she said too cheerily. “I was wondering if you could do me a favor? I need you to pick Lexus up from the airport.”
Still groggy, I frowned; did she have a new car
airmailed
to her? Well, I supposed it was possible. I stammered, “O-okay, I guess. I’ll have to ask my friend to come, so I can drive it to your house and she can take my car.”
There was a long pause, then Mrs. Edmund said slowly, “Dear...she’s not an ‘it.’ Lexus is Tristan’s girlfriend.”
For a moment, time stopped. I saw black and felt sick and ice cold. Then, I blinked and it was like nothing had changed. My heart was still beating. I was still breathing. What had just happened? I felt numb. It was too early. And, what was that nightmare? I could almost remember...something horrible, too horrible to think about...
“Are you there?”
I jumped at the sound of Mrs. Edmund’s voice. Realizing I wasn’t asleep, I choked, “Yeah.”
“So...you can pick her up?” she prompted as if I was a small child.
I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Sure. Yeah.”
“Wonderful!” she cried. “That’s such a help, Amy. She’ll be landing in about a half-hour. It’s a private plane, so I’m sure you’ll know who she is! Oh, and she doesn’t know about Tristan being blind, yet, so don’t say anything. He’ll talk to her. Anyway, I have to run to work, so I’ll talk to you later!”
I nodded absently and turned off my phone.
For some reason, I always thought when the world ended it’d be louder.
* * *
Sometime later, I found myself driving in my Camry. I tried to, but I couldn’t remember how I’d showered or gotten dressed. I was on the highway, which probably wasn’t a safe place to find myself zoning out. I looked at my car’s clock and saw that it was a little after 10 a.m.—which explained the lack of traffic.
With a sigh, I took the exit to Grayfield Area Airport. Pulling up to the loading area, I flopped my head against my seat. This couldn’t have happened. I couldn’t have fallen for him. I couldn’t have fallen for a guy who had... He had lots of girlfriends
before
, but how could he have kissed me like
that
if...if...
I opened my eyes and looked into my rearview mirror. My eyes widened as I saw a girl standing on the curb—alone. She was the Perfect Female. She looked like I could never look; she was larger and smaller in all the right places. She was a good 5’10” with long legs. She had the perfect bronze tan—not too dark, not too light. Her hair was a shimmering golden blonde with accenting high- and lowlights.
I sighed. Maybe it wasn’t her...maybe.
I peeled myself from my car. Immediately catching my movement, her angled face snapped in my direction. She was like a wildcat; as I walked toward her, she slunk toward me. Her eyes were an intense aqua-green and they scanned my outfit. The Creature flashed a brief, white smile and shouldered her large bag. Her voice was light, if subtly condescending. “You must be the girl Trist’s mom sent.”
The
girl
?! Thoughts of turning around and leaving floated through my head. I frowned. “I’m Amy.”
She dramatically dropped her bag to the ground like it weighed a ton. “Great. Can you give me a hand with this?”
Like a drone, I carried the luggage to my car. The bag was so big that it took me five minutes to shove it inside my tiny backseat. I heard The Creature give a little sniff of distain when she climbed into the passenger side of my car. I bit my lip, feeling awkward with the whole situation. What was I supposed to
say
to her? I turned on the ignition and managed, “Where are you from?”
She tossed her hair and flipped down the visor to check herself in the mirror. “Oh, I’m from Chicago. I was away on a modeling gig.” She snapped the visor back up. “Maybe you’ve seen me, before? Gosh, I’ve been in
so
many ads!”