Her Eyes Gave Her Away

I was really starting to get angry with Jack, and how he wasn’t telling me anything. Who was always there for him when we were younger? Me. Who told him her every secret as a child? Me. So I didn’t understand why he couldn’t tell me his.

…

My name is Eden-Rose Miller and my eyes change color.

Not like some people who say their eyes change from greenish blue to blue depending on the light. No, my eyes are every color imaginable. 

They change color depending on my mood.

This is true for no other member of my family. Truly a wonder. I found out - my parents found out, rather - when I was a toddler. When I was happy, my magical eyes were orange. Not like a burnt reddish color, but literally orange. Like, highlighter orange. My parents found this unusual, but thought nothing of it, really. My mother's eyes were a vibrant green, and my dad's an electric blue. They thought I had just inherited the bright eye color trait from them, but with a slightly strange color. The truth is I did, but on a whole different level. While I was playing, my favorite stuffed teddy bear had torn, and stuffing was coming out. I began to cry, and my eyes turned a deep shade of navy blue. My parents were baffled by this, and a little scared. They took me to see every doctor and pediatrician within a hundred-mile radius of our house, and each one told them the same thing; they had no idea what the diagnosis was. So finally my parents accepted my eyes. And so I became the most famous child in northern Florida. 

I grew older, and I learned about each color my irises featured. Pink when embarrassed, yellow or orange when happy, navy when sad. They literally turned green with envy. Red with anger. Light blue with wonder. Brown with distaste. I drew up a key and everything, and planted it on the refrigerator, to make sure my parents knew what I was feeling, when to approach me, or when not to approach me. It became helpful, and I had very little squabbles with them.

My eyes turn purple when I feel love or affection, and that is the color they are turning right now. Luckily I’m just with my friends, so it won’t be too embarrassing. Pink doesn't really go with my outfit today. 

It's Friday of my second week of my sophomore year in high school. Naturally, I'm used to the larger school, and the bigger high schoolers. I'm nervous, but luckily I'm with my two bests friends: Olivia Wood, and Lucy Fisher. Olivia slammed her locker, across the hall from mine, and walked over, her long red hair cascading down her back in loose waves. I am in love with her hair. She has eyes almost as green as my mothers, and freckles all over her cheeks. Next to me is Lucy, chattering away like she always does. I'm a good listener, so it works out. She has brown eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair. Over the summer she put a pink streak through it, saying she wanted to be more daring. We’re quite a shy bunch, but we’re fine with that. They’re also totally okay with the fact that my eyes give away my mood. I looked over Lucy's shoulder, and my eyes immediately turned purple. 

"You see him, don't you Eden?" She said smugly. My eyes turned pink, the same shade as my cheeks. I’d recognize his shaggy blonde hair anywhere. It bobbed over the crowd, because he was so tall.

"Maybe," I said. "I can't help it! He's just..." I started.

"Amazing." Olivia finished my sentence. We were talking about Jack Thompson. He’s a junior this year at our school, and I am absolutely in love with him. I’ve known him for years, ever since we were children. Our families are extremely close, so we grew to be great friends from an early age. But, recently we drifted apart. He’s always been a year older than me, of course, but lately it’s really felt like more. I haven’t seen him since eighth grade, and I barely saw him then. He never really comes over when our families get together. I guess we kind of just forgot about each other. Until now.

I saw him again last Monday, the first day of school. And, I never really noticed this before, but, well, my eyes speak for me. I am totally, completely in love with Jack Thompson. My childhood friend for years. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him for the past week. I’ve lost sleep thinking about him.

“Your eyes are turning purple again, Eden. And he’s coming this way.” Olivia said, tossing me a pair of sunglasses.

“Thanks, Liv.” I said, placing the dark shades over my violet irises. I should probably mention something else; everyone in the school knows about my eyes, too. Not just my best friends. They all thought it was really weird at first, in middle school, and the teasing got so bad I bought brown contacts and wore them to school every day. My real eyes hadn’t been any color other than black for months. Finally the teasing stopped, and I found the courage to take the contacts out. Everybody accepts me now. Even Jack, though he knew about my eyes before anyone else at school did.

Which means he knows what purple means, and that’s why I’m putting sunglasses on. He walked past me, with a couple of his friends. I don’t want him to see my eyes, because they have a habit of giving my emotions away. He’ll know what I feel about him.

“Hey, Eden.” He said (dreamily) as he walked past. I stared at him undetected as he walked.

“H-Hey.” I say, when he’s clearly out of earshot. I slumped against my locker, and I could tell my eyes were bright pink.

“You really love that boy, huh, Eden?” Lucy asked me.

“Yeah.” I said, quietly. I looked up at my friends, and took Olivia’s glasses off. “Thanks again, Liv.”

“No problem. Wouldn’t that be cool, though, if you just looked up at him and your eyes were purple, and he was like, ‘I love you too!’ and we’re all like, ‘awww!’” She said, giggling.

“That would be awesome, but I wish his eyes did the same. Those gorgeous blue eyes….” I drifted off into dreamland again, but shook it off. “It’d be easier that way. Not that it’s at all easy now.” I sighed. Lucy was about to say something, but the bell rang. Time for third period, then off to lunch. I didn’t have class with either of them, making my eyes turn a cobalt-y blue. “See you guys at lunch.” I said, then walked away.