For Your Eyes Only

Nate's POV: The Lake House

Her cheeks turn a light shade of glowing pink and she bites her lip to make herself stop speaking. This calms my vibrating nerves some. It has been a few month since I have physically stood in front of her. Mainly because I am a coward. But mostly because I had figured this was all just a phase for her. Once she had spent some time away from this science geek, she would soon realize that she didn't actually love me, that she was just bored with her mundane life and needed to shake things up a bit.

I remember the first time I had seen her after a little over a year of being in the dark when I nearly bumped into her in my floyer. She had looked so shocked, so utterly divine, with her wild blonde hair and blue eyes so round as they connected solely with mine.

I will never forget the way my chest constricted and heart lurched against my ribcage. I will also never forget the way Kelly looked back at me. I had remembered her being beautiful, but my memory didn't suffice. She was other wordly.

"Nate?" Kelly is looking at me as if she is concerned for my well-being. And maybe she should be. I can't take my eyes off of her.

I close them briefly, afraid that if I don't, I will never look away and that will just peg me as weirder than I already am.

"Um," words falter and I feel like I am back at square one. Her physique mixed with that siren voice of hers is enough to bring me under and willingly so.

Kelly's brows lower and the look is so alluring. I never knew she was such an open book. Her expressions give away everything that she is thinking. And to think that I had missed out on that for the past almost two years...

She walks back over to me. With my eyes drawn to the floor, I see her painted red toes stop themselves directly in front of mine.

"Is something wrong?" She asks, her tone so sweet it makes my fingers twitch at my sides to reach out and touch her.

Surprising myself, I do just that. I grip at her fingers with my own and lightly pull her closer so that her body is nearly flushed against mine. I sigh in relief when her chest touches mine.

"I've missed the way you feel, that's all." My words are daring but I don't feel embarrassed like I used to around her. I know for certain that Kelly loves me. I don't know why I ever doubted it to begin with but this I know with every fiber in my body. "I don't know how I managed without it."

"Yeah," she says with a sad smirk on her face and within seconds my world dulls. "Me too."

"Hey..." I tip her wobbling chin up so that her face is clear for me to see.

She tries to smile but she fails. I have heard Kelly cry many times. I have seen it only a few and the sound mixed with the sight of actual tears is enough to bring me to my knees.

"I'm sorry," she apologizes and she closes her eyes as if that is enough to compose herself. I don't like her apologizing to me. She already has hundreds of times for what her and her friends did that cause my accident and it felt like hearing her say the words again brought the subject back up.

My body goes stiff at the memory and my hand falls from her face. "Stop apologizing."

Kelly's brows lower further. I'm confusing her.

"I just want to put it all behind us." I walk over to an armchair and take the sheet off.

I can hear her footsteps before I feel her arms wrap around my waist. "I feel like we really didn't talk about it though. You must have many questions."

"I don't."

"Well, I do, Nate."

I turn around and take another step away from her. This isn't how this night was supposed to go. We had both said we are sorry for this things that needed treading around. Why can't she just let things go? I have. And this is mostly my problem to come to terms with.