I could feel her eyes watching me, no matter how much I ignored it.
She was always looking at me, and I was always looking at her. The energy in between made it porcelain clear that it was more than just two strangers having a staring contest.
She was one of the few things that really caught my attention, or maybe the only thing that ever caught my attention. I wasn't even an attentive person to begin with, but something about her had my gut twisting the wrong way. I was yet to find out what it was.
I didn't know I was holding my breath whenever I saw her until she walked past me and I would exhale. That's when I realized it, and that's when I also realized how my heart had stopped there for a minute. Something was up with her and I seriously needed to find out.
If only I knew how.
Maybe it was the way she carried herself around with her friends all the time, maybe it was the blue oceans of emptiness in her eyes that swallowed me in its waves, or maybe it was her long blond hair that seemed to be calling for my fingers to touch.
I didn't know what was more overwhelming. Everything about her was like an overload to little old me.
"Why are you always looking at that girl?" Dativa's voice spooked me enough to make me jump at 8am in the morning. And here I thought I could never be scared if I was a monster..
"Darn–Tiva! You freaking scared the hell out of me!" I playfully hit her and she laughed, fixing herself on the seat next to me.
"Sorry," she apologized with a little laugh. "But seriously, why are you always staring at her?"
"Who?" I could guess who she was talking about. I mean, it was pretty obvious at who I was looking at and it would be a thrill if the blond queen herself didn't notice me ogling at her.
"Stop playing dumb, Avery. You know exactly who you're staring at."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Why you always staring at her?"
"Who the hell is 'her'?"
"That blond bimbo!"
I grimaced. "Don't call her that, she's not like you."
"Oh, so I'm the bimbo?"
"Yep, you're the curly bob haired bimbo."
"And that will make you - the braids bimbo."
I shot her a glare.
"Ouch, that burns, y' know. How dare you shoot me that look all because of that blond bimbo?"
I shot her another glare.
"Okay, okay, okay - she's the blonde queen from now on, how's that?"
"Good." I hid my smile.
But of course, Dativa could always tell when something was up with me. Someone might think we were best friends from kindergarten, but we were far from that. We met a month ago, two lost college juniors trying to figure their way around campus with no map. Worse, we were majoring on the same course, so we shared all our classes together. You have no idea how much this mere luck made Dativa so ecstatic.
"Is it just because she's pretty?" Dativa whispered. "Or is there something else behind it?"
We watched the blue-eyed goddess take a sit on the front row with her group of friends.
Dativa called them the pentagram. I had to agree that they sent off the wrong vibe, like some mean girl sorority sort of thing, but of course, I had bigger problems to fret about.
"Tell me," Dativa pestered, dragging me out of my thoughts.
"Tell you what?"
"Why are you so invested in the blonde queen?"
I sighed, defeated.
"I–I don't know," I admitted. "She just catches my attention most times than not and I can't help myself. There's something about her eyes too, like she can see through me or something and it scares me somehow, in a good way, though. It's–weird."
"Avery, scared? Wow, that's a new one."
"No, I just–" I chuckled a little, staring ahead at the blue-eyed girl.
She was quiet, while her friends never knew how to shut up. Like always, she was a mouse among cats.
"You just?" Dativa looked at me.
"I honestly don't know." I looked away. "But you could say she sorts of makes my heart flatter."
Dativa stared at me weirdly for a while before opening her mouth again.
"Well . . . that's sweet. Wish I could make your heart flatter, too."
There she goes again with her flirting games.
"Shut up, you idiot," I couldn't help but laugh. "It's not that deep."
"If anyone's an idiot then it's you," Dativa pulled on my ear playfully. "An idiot in love."
"I'm not in love, you idiot," I smacked her hand away at the same time the lecture began.
"Just a crush, then?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I laughed at how funny she looked.
"It's nothing. Now get your damn notebook and focus."
That was me telling my one month old best friend that I needed my space now.
She turned to her books, and I turned to mine - or rather, struggled to turn to mine.
It was hard to focus on anything that wasn't the blond queen sitting right in my line of sight.
And I wished to be the one sitting next to her.
I wondered if her blue orbs were more mesmerizing up close, or if the strands of her hair were really as soft as they looked. Or what's her favourite colour was . . . Was it blue, like her eyes?
Or pink? I heard most girls preferred pink.
"Earth to Averista!" Dativa's hand waved before my eyes, waking me from my daydreams.
"What's up?"
"The sky," she rolled her eyes. "Class is over, you dweeb."
I finally looked around, noticing what was going on and accepting the fact that I spent the entire period daydreaming. What the heck was I even doing at school? Only the gods knew.
"We don't have another class until later. Wanna grab some lunch?"
"Sounds perfect. " I smiled, and we got up the same time I saw blue-eyes get up from her seat. I ignored her and tagged along with my best friend to the closest cafeteria.
"I feel like having some roasted chicken. What do you say?", Dativa nudged me with her shoulder, eyeing me suggestively.
"Good idea, but I don't think I can afford it with all these student loans going on."
"Always there to point up the logic, ain't you Avery?" she rolled her eyes.
What, I was being reasonable.
"I'm saving you from bankruptcy–"
"But I feel chicken-starved. Chicken-sick?"
"You literally had chicken yesterday."
"I know, but why not?" Dativa whined like a kid.
"How about a fruit salad? Might as well stay balanced." I made the plans, like a wonderful mom.
This was one of the horrible things about college. You got to buy your own food.
That’s where all the money went. We were regular low-lifers and here we were, dragged out of our homes to get an education and stick to one meal a day. Yes, one. We were starving demons and the food, for some stupid reason, was ridiculously expensive.
I sighed, thinking of how people still said college life was fun.
It was only the rich kids' territory.
We picked a table and Dativa offered to go get our meals.
She placed her handbag on her chair while I sat across from her.
Once she disappeared, I immediately turned my attention to my phone. Playing unreasonable candy crush.
Then I felt it again. A burning gaze on my forehead.
I thought of shrugging it off, telling my guts to stop being delusional, but once again, it appeared as if I was trying to defy gravity.
Giving up, I looked up.
And I regretted it right away, looking down again.
Blue eyes.
The burning didn't stop, so I stole a glance back up only to find her gaze still plastered on me. I stared back, my heart skipping a beat, but I managed to play cool. One of her friends looked at me, then whispered something into her ear and, without looking away, her lips curved into a smile.
I smiled back at her.
She was a beautiful sight.