Follow the Lightning

Chapter II

She was stunning.

It was the first thing he noticed about her. Yet her beauty was hard for him to describe-- it was a kind of unique beauty, one that stood out and drew the eye over all the other artificial faces and expensive tastes that filled the room. Her skin was neither pale nor tan, but more of a light honey color that contrasted with the small freckles dotting her nose and fading into her angled cheeks. Wispy fringe fell smoothly across her forehead, while the rest of her hair was pulled up into a long, feathery ponytail. Feminine shoulders gave way to graceful arms, those that might belong to a dancer. A dark gray t-shirt clung loosely to the thin shape of her torso, and the gentle curve of her hips supported the waistband of black jeans that were skinny in fit and wrinkled at the ankles. The folds were nestled atop a pair of scuffed Vans, whose faded gray checkerboard print barely showed beneath the overall wornness of the shoes.  All this he noticed in a quick glance, pieced together in the blink of an eye, gave himself an image of who she might be. However, when he met her eyes, he realized his image was a pale representation of who she truly was. 

Deep, fathomless ocean--the only way to describe the color of her gaze. Waves of smoky gray splashed over running springs of aquamarine, and the two swirled together in the endless circle of the iris. He tumbled headfirst into her stare, and it pulled him into his own fantasy. The blood rushing in his ears became the sound of the sea. He could just feel the grit of sand between his toes, smell the beachy air as it warmed his cheeks and untangled strands of his hair. A gull cawed overhead,  drawing his attention to the strong rays of sun stretching across the clear sky, then dunking into the sparkling water below. There were no clouds, save for the hint of a whisp floating aimlessly through the daylight's radiance. He felt 8 years old again, seeing the beach for the first time, and still getting that same fantastic rush of calm and anticipation bubbling together in his stomach, giving his heart an extra two beats.  He found himself lost in this dream, and almost ran toward the pounding, foamy tide beckoning at the edge of his vision.  

She blinked. Ocean spray splashed his face, waking him from his dreams and snapping him quickly back into reality. He turned his gaze to the teacher watching him from behind her stately oak desk, handed her the slip excusing him from a tardy in her class. His body suddenly decided in that moment, as if drawn to the memory of the dream, to manuever him into the chair in front of Ms. Stunning. His mind, however, screamed protests. Then, against his own will, his head turned and his mouth moved and soon he'd learned three more things about Ocean Eyes. She had a name: Ellizabeth, Elli, beautiful, no. He pressed his hands to the sides of his head, trying to think rationally, but with the next two things he'd learned, being rational seemed hopeless. Her smile. Her smile was becoming, made her eyes sparkle, created tiny indentions at each corner of her mouth and painted soft blushes of pink on the angles of her cheeks. It had lifted his own lips into the expression that he hadn't exchanged with anyone in what seemed like years. He didn't even want to remember the shock of chills that had tingled his spine at the sight of it. 

Yet what had affected him the most was something he hadn't seen-- when Mrs. Bernalio had chastised him for talking in class, and he'd turned away from Elli. It was just a small sound, halfway contained, and hardly comparable to the real thing, yet it had taken his breath away. The tiniest of giggles; just one bright sound of happiness. In that moment, he'd felt something in his chest. Not that of your heart dropping into your stomach, or butterflies flitting from lung to lung, no. It was something... something much more profound. His heart hadn't experienced anything in many a year, because of how deeply he'd fallen into the pit he had created with his own shovel. When he'd finally climbed from his hole, his heart had become hardened so much that the outside was now a thick coating of a seemingly impenetrable stone. The stone slowed the lifebeats, kept him from generating any feelings for anything or anyone. For a while, he'd believed it had protected him: from pain, from disappointment. Yet now, this feeling... a tiny giggle had created a tiny jolt in his heart, which had in turn, created a tiny crack in the stone. And the happiness trapped behind that stone drifted out like snow from the fissure it had created. The joy blanketed in the pit of his stomach, then came out in soft chuckles, and in turn brought slight, wet tears of restrained mirth to the crinkles of his eyes.