I Like Your Shoes | ✓

Chapter 5 | Pink Paint and Green Eyes

"Hey, Ambrosia."

"Hey, Benjamin." I blush.

"What are you doing Saturday night?"

"I don't know. I'll just watch a show or somethin'." I say in my squeaky, girly voice.

"Oh, okay. Wanna join me for a movie with my friends?"

"What, me?"

"Of course! Is that a yes?"

"Okay."

"Okay, Am! Meet me at seven at the parking lot. I'll see you there after my game.

I remember putting on my best outfit, my blue shirt and my best pair of jeans. I remember my mother warning me to be home before eleven. I remember Neave driving me to the school, giving me a few tips to draw my first crush in. I remember being a bundle of nerves as I walked out of the car searching for Benjamin.

I also remember the note stuck to his car, urging me to meet him at the gym. I remember being confused, but then being happy when Neave suggested he could be planning a surprise for me. I remember walking into the dark gym and the lights turning on and the huge bucket of pink paint tumbling down on me.

I remember the catcalls of 'fatso', 'chub', 'cow' ringing around me as Natalia, the cheerleader, gave a huge smooching kiss to Benjamin, the guy I thought was the only one in this whole purgatory I called school, who liked me. As if my mother didn't say the words to me enough, they called me a dimwit.

"You can be so oblivious, Ambrosia. How did you even imagine that Benjamin would like to be with someone like you?" Natalia sneered.

She made it seem like I was something particularly nasty.

I hid inside the Janitor's closet after I'd changed into the clothes I always stashed in my locker. The closet was dark and stuffy, but it felt like my safe place.

When it was time for Neave to pick me up, I convinced her that Benjamin would get me home.

I walked home that night, sneaked into my room through the window, cleaned myself thoroughly, answered my sister's questions about the date by content sighs and bright eyes. If she noticed the smudges of pink paint I couldn't scrub out, she didn't say it.

I graduated a month later, and never had a reason to think about Benjamin Earlswood anymore.

~•~

Until now.

I stare at the boy sitting next to me on the flight. My head hurts, and my eyes burn, but I forget the pain as I recall the features of the man sitting next to me to the face of the young boy I used to know back in high school, the guy I'd a major crush on since I was thirteen.

I try to form the words, but the way his eyes look into mine are unnerving. I finally make myself blurt out,"Benjamin?"

The look of absolute befuddlement is apparent on his face.

'Maybe, maybe he's not Benjamin.' A part of me argues.

'But, look at those eyes.' Another part insists.

That was true. I'd never seen eyes blaze like that of Benjamin's or whoever this guy with an uncanny resemblance to him is. Shiny, green orbs of light, a special treat from God to those who are special. I wasn't special, because apparently, I'd been bestowed with the same boring, blue eyes every two out of four blonde girls have. But that isn't what concerns us now.

What concerns me now, however, was that Benjamin, the guy who pretended to be my best friend for two months before finally humiliating me in front of the whole school, was sitting right next to me. And I didn't know if this was a blessing, or a curse.

"Benjamin?" He echoes.

"Ambrosia? Remember me? The girl you ditched for Natalia bitch McCoy?" If he turned out to be someone else, I'd be in for a lot of humiliation.

A look of understanding finally crossed his features, and I gave an inward sigh.

"Benjamin? Yeah, I'm Benjamin." He tells himself.

Okay, that wasn't exactly the reply I'd anticipated.

"So, how have you been?" I try again.

He snaps his gaze back to mine, and I try to breathe.

Wow, those eyes.

Someone, they'd become even more beautiful since I'd last seen them. Even brighter, and softer.

"I'm good." He says simply.

And he'd turned into a taciturn, sour faced man.

And that is how I, Ambrosia Bellemore got stuck between a raging hangover and a man who was going to change my life forever, probably for the worse. Or maybe not, I wasn't a carot card reader afterall.

~•~

*Not edited.*