In Your Eyes ↦ Lauren/You

Chapter 1

I huff and puff my breath out as I ride my bicycle around the city. The stars are still visible in the night sky, the sun hasn't even rising yet. I'm used to waking up every single morning, during the dawn and before everyone wakes up. This is my way of helping my mom. She cooked a pumpkin porridge every day and I will be the one delivering it to her customers every morning. And I'm working at the cinema in some mall in Miami, serving the customers some popcorns, drinks and other snacks.

My mom and I are working hard for our small family. I told her that I can just do it, she's not that old, her age is at around mid-forties. But still, I want her relax and let me do the work but she told us that she have to work too, by cooking pumpkin porridge, so that she can provide everything Hailee and I wants.

Hailee is my younger sister and she's only six, and she's also diagnosed with leukemia. My mom is trying her best to save money for Hailee's surgery. My mom's sister that lives in Boston was offering us to move in with them, but I told my mom, don't. I know I can still save money for Hailee.

And my dad? Well, he died. He died when I was twelve and my little sister was only two. We were just having a family dinner, enjoying each other's company and having fun. Then moments later, someone called my dad, apparently it was an emergency. We did not know that was the last time we will be seeing him. He was trying to help and rescue everyone that's stranded inside the collapsing tunnel, since he's a part of the rescue team and he was the team leader. He couldn't just leave if he knows that there is still someone who needed his help. My dad was helping a woman, the mother of the girl they saw before they made their way out, that's what his other rescue team said. My dad's former workmate also told us that my dad was the one who saw a girl crying and looking for her mom and that he is so persistent on saving the kid's mom who's still stuck inside their car. And obviously they didn't make it both. What my dad was bravery and ever since I was a kid, I already looked up to him. He's my role model. That's why when I heard that my dad died, I vowed to myself that I wanted to be a part of the rescue team, and be just like him.

And now I'm sixteen. A sophomore student in one of the most prestigious private school in Miami. But my family is not filthy rich, I only got in Pine Crest School, because they offered me a scholarship not for sports but for academic scholarship, that's why I got the chance to study at this kind of school. And who am I to declined it right? And I'm not your typical nerd who wears baggy shirts and pants and wears eyeglasses. I don't wear glasses and I definitely wear baggy shirts and pants. I don't have any problem on wearing baggies, I just think it's not my style.

So as speed up with my pace, and I can feel the air hitting my face as I continue making my way to the last house to deliver the tasty porridge, my mom made. And before I got the chance to go back at home and prepare myself to school.

I make a left turn and hit the break. I glance at my wrist watch and it's already four-thirty in the morning. As I look up... I saw her, there she is and it's just in time. She's standing outside their balcony. She's so effortlessly beautiful. Maybe I have a tiny, little crush on her. Like who wouldn't? And yeah, I'm gay, my mom and sister knows. I can't stop staring at her. She's like the goddess of the goddess. I haven't seen her face up close, but I know she's beautiful in every way. She turn her back on me and I heard her sigh.

A smile creep on my lips as she started reciting the thing I usually heard from her every single morning. I saw her twisting her body around and my eyes widen, she might caught me staring at her and think that I'm a creep. I duck and I put the bicycle stand, I lean my body on the wall near their front gate.

"A winter night sky is brighter than and has more large stars than other seasons." I heard her say. Her voice is so husky. And I can definitely listen to her speak all day.