Blue's Eyes

BLUE’S EYES

Prologue

I ground my teeth as I sealed up the final cardboard box, feeling hopeless. My stormy eyes stared at it with hate; hate because it was the last box. I wished that maybe, if there were another ten or twenty, that we wouldn’t be leaving so soon. But it would only hold us up for half an hour or more.

My rigid hands took it from the ground, and I quietly walked through the front door and to the moving van parked behind the rusty, old, faded blue Ford van that held my three siblings and my mother in it.

I dropped the heavy box on the mover’s foot, and I heard him grunt. But I simply dusted my hands and went over to lock the houses door with the key. The old, oak door stared back at me as I slid the key into its golden lock. The stained window’s colours swirled with the texture, as if it were waving goodbye. A sigh escaped my mouth as I gave the door a little smile and jogged off to the van.

Sliding in, I handed my mother the key. “Done?”

I stared at her, giving her a curt nod. Her skin was unnaturally pale, and her eyes were sullen. My mother’s hair had once been beautiful, long and wavy; but she’d bleached it and cut it at her shoulders. “Yeah, we’re done,” Was all I said.

She flashed me a forced, half smile and started up the van. It rattled and complained, but then jumped forward and began to move. I turned towards the window, eyes saluting every house that I’d memorized over the last seven and a half years. Every post box, garden bed, lawn – it was all printed in my mind.

“Do you think there’ll be any cute guys in Florida, Ma?” Violet asked curiously.

I shifted in my seat to look back at me sixteen year old sister and puckered my eye brow. Her ebony hair in a messy bun, black nails tapping away at her iPod touch. She glanced up at me and glared, then went back to her game.

“Aren’t there always cute boys?” Mum suggested, turning onto a main road.

Valentine snorted, “Better watch her; she’ll be in trouble in no time.”

I rolled my eyes at my seventeen year old brother. “Are you calling me a slut, Tiny?” Violet growled, using Valentines nickname.

“I’m just saying you have an obsession. Guy’s will jump your bones, Goth or not.”

“Are you saying that there’s something wrong with Goths?”

“No, I’m stating that guys don’t have preference.” Valentine sighed.

“Blue?” My youngest sister asked, “What does ‘slut’ mean?”

I turned in my seat, again, sending my argumentative siblings a dead panned expression, “Don’t worry about it, Daisy. Just don’t say it.” My arms shot out to grab the collars of their shirts and I brought them closer to my face, “Tiny, Omelette – shut up and stop swearing.”

My hands released them and I went back to the front, fetching out my iPod to find some sense of sanity in amongst the moving houses, schools and constant bickering of my family. Nirvana started playing, and I shut my eyes, not wanting to see more of the town that I’d be saying goodbye to. I’d lived in Watertown, Massachusetts since I was ten. We’d flown from Ireland all the way to America, for God knows what reason.

But I didn’t mind after a week or two, because I soon found Sunny. I’d given him the name Sunny because he always seemed to brighten a room with his presence. Tim Thompson. So maybe his nickname started with the end of his last name – son – but he was still my sun.

He’d been my best friend, all through primary, middle and now high school. But now I was moving. I ground my teeth again.

I reached into my jean’s pocket and pulled out the old, silver flip up phone. Two missed calls and seven messages. Unplugging the headphones from my iPod, I slid them into the phone and pressed ‘play’

“I know it’s early, Blue; but I just thought that maybe we could go down to the farm and ride the motor bikes before you leave. I mean, yeah, its two days away but I can’t sleep. So call me back as soon as you get this. Bye, don’t die.”

The phone asked if I wanted to save it or play it again, but I pressed save and scrolled down to the next voice message. Guilt started to eat me up as I stared at the contact number. He’d sent the message about the bikes last night. I let out a breath, knowing that I hadn’t heard him call because I’d been packing at the time. Mum had decided that we’d leave earlier, cutting out two precious days left in Watertown.

“Valentine just told me that you’re leaving this morning! What were you thinking, not telling me, Blue? I thought you’d at least let me know. Just call me back alright?”

Again, I saved the message, and then turned to Valentine. He was looking out the window, so I slapped his knee. His head swung around and he puckered his eye brow – the family trait. “What?” He sighed exasperatedly, as if I were the most annoying thing in the world.

“You told Sunny that we were leaving?”

Valentine’s expression turned sheepish, “Yeah?”

I glared at him for a moment, then rolled me eyes and shook my head before facing my mother, “Why are we leaving so damn early? It’s five in the damn morning and we’re two days before we’re supposed to---“

The car jerked forward and swerved a little, before stopping on the roadside curb, violently sending us all back in our seats. My door flung open and I clenched my fingers together, ready to make them leave with a black eye. But a hand caught my fist and I opened my eyes. Sunny was pouting at me, huffing and puffing as if he’d run the whole way to us from his house on the farm.

“You could have---“ I threw my arms around him before he could guilt trip me.

“I’m sorry.” Was all I said.

He gave my ponytail a tug and broke the hug, “I just wanted to give you this,” Sunny said, taking off his backpack. “I’ve been saving all of this for our graduation and your birthday, but I figured that you’d better have it all now.”

In Sunny’s lovely hands – he had really nice hands – was a large, cardboard bow with my name messily scrawled on it. My heart swelled and a lump formed in my throat. I didn’t want to leave him, I didn’t want to leave Watertown. Looking up at Sunny, I gave him a sad smile, “I’ll miss you.”

“You’d better,” He threatened, lightly punching my arm as he always did. “But don’t open it till you move into your new home, alright? Promise me that.”

“I promise.”

“And you’ll go to the library and find a computer so you can email me every day; and text me whenever you can, or call me when you need help with your maths. Oh, and don’t forget to write. Promise me that,” He blurted in one breath.

I hugged him again, “I promise.”

 “And---“

“Our flight is leaving in an hour, Tim.” Mum said.

Sunny looked at me after nodding to her, “Promise you’ll stay safe.”

I dead panned him. “No.”

Mum started the engine and Sunny shut the door, “Just don’t die.” He stepped away and shut the door, so I wound the window down.

“I promise,” I said, “You too!” As mum started to drive away, I leaned out. “Promise me that!”

I saw his lopsided grin as I got further away from my best friend, “I promise!”