His Eyes by Renee Carter Page B

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