Our Love Was Made For Movie Screens

Secret Stares

So after I first saw Joe, I couldn't stop thinking about him. I kind of started stalking him around school, memorising his timetable as well as I could so that I could secretly see him as much as possible.

I knew where he sat for lunch so I convinced my friends to move closer to where he was so that I could look at him during lunch.

He was much taller than me back then - black dyed hair and the most unbelievable blue eyes I've ever seen. But there was something about him that drew me in. Maybe it was his eyes. Or his broad shoulders. Or his smile. Or his laugh... My God, did I love his laugh. It seemed like it came from a place deep within his torso, echoing in the air around him, infecting everyone around him. But I'm pretty sure it was everything. I fell in love with everything about him... and I hadn't even met him yet.

Now I know this all sounds so shallow, me falling for his looks and whatnot, but he was by no means the hottest guy in our school. I was just a pathetic little moth, and he turned out to be the biggest flame this moth would ever be attracted to.

Now one day during lunch, the inevitable happened. I heard his echoing laugh, and looked up at him, and at that precise moment, he looked right at me, through everything I've ever been and through anything I would ever be.

His blue eyes locked on mine, it felt as though the entire world stood still. I could hear no one, I could see no one. All I saw was his eyes. The eyes I would long for for the rest of my life. (Spoiler alert)

I slowly regained consciousness and realised he wasn't just looking at me, but he was also smiling at me. I turned around to make sure there was no one else behind me, and there wasn't, so I smiled back and he looked away.

I was drawn back into the conversation that my friends were having and as the bell rang, I looked at him one last time, just to meet his eyes again. Yup, he was looking at me again. He noticed me.

I had quite a peculiar feeling inside me, and a few seconds after we left our table, that feeling became a shiver. My entire body shivered as if I had just emerged from an ice bath, teeth knocking against each other, the works. Luckily my friends didn't notice, and Joe had already left the cafeteria.

I felt quite pathetic, trembling just because some guy I never even talked to, smiled at me.

Day after day, Joe and I would secretly glance at each other during lunch, and if he saw me in the hallway he would smile. I could tell that he was really shy, because whenever we made eye contact, his cheeks would flush bright red.

Our secret stares became our thing. And for 6 months, this was all we did. Stared.