Dive Deep into Creativity: Discover, Share, Inspire
It wasn't often that you got to stare at your classmate, he was usually nearly constantly moving around. But for the past ten minutes he'd been glaring down at his essay in concentration. His fingers carded through white hair as he tapped his pencil at a near rapid rate. Pale eyelashes nearly hiding the dark brown of his eyes as they flitted over the words he'd already written. Looking at him this closely you could see a faint indent on his nose as if he'd been wearing goggles. Eyes trailing over his face you watched as his eyes caught yours. Brows furrowing as a slight frown tugged at his lips- you couldn't look away. The light from the windows caught his eyes turning them a coffee brown instead of the nearly black color they were. Caught up in staring at them you were surprised to see the slight sliver of blue ringed around the brown. Gone in an instant as his eyes darted to the side and then back to yours.
"What are you staring at?" He hissed defensively, shoulders drawn up almost to his ears. You blinked at him as his words caught up to you. Months of watching him in your classes had taught you the best thing to do was to catch him off guard with honesty before he actually got angry and so you blurted the first thought that had crossed your mind.
"You have nice eyes."
He blinked clearly not expecting it. Perfect. His shoulders dropped from their defensive posture as he stared at you, face smoothed out in surprise. Again his eyes searched yours for answers that you didn't technically have. They dropped back down towards his paper as his pencil resumed its rapid tapping- just slightly harder than before. If you hadn't been watching him so closely you might have missed the slight flush that creeped across his face and towards his ears. Deciding to cut your watching short you looked back down to the book you were citing for your own essay. The compliment was small, something you'd tell any of your friends. You felt little shame or embarrassment in saying it. It was true, Peter had lovely eyes. Out of the corner of your eye you caught him biting his lip to hide a smile. You didn't bother to hide yours as you highlighted a quote. As the class crawled by slowly you watched the way his fingers kept coming up to rest just beneath his eyes and the way his lips would twitch with that almost smile. As if the compliment had been more than just simple observation on your part.
When class finally did end he was the first one out the door as usual. Always in a rush to get to the next thing. It hardly mattered to you, you only knew Peter as a hyperactive classmate. The two of you weren't friends and the most you'd ever talked to each other was during group projects. As you made your way out of the class to head to your last one of the day your mind was already wandering to the next assignment you'd be doing and the other classmates you'd be dealing with.
You almost missed the person who fell into step with you. But it was hard to miss his usual strange sense of style and that white hair. He seemed jittery as his attention darted from one thing to the next. But it was unmistakable that he was walking with you and not in the general direction you were going. He walked nearly in your own personal bubble seeming to step in and out of it as if unsure of what he was doing. It was cute. As you arrived to your next class your eyes caught a bit of string clinging to his jacket as he went to turn and walk back to his own class.
"Peter?" He froze mid step as you stepped closer to him. Plucking the string from the lapel of his leather jacket you took a moment to even them both out. "You had some string stuck to it." You explained simply. He continued to stare at you mutely- a rare thing from him. Usually he had a witty reply for everything. You watched in fascination as his adams apple bobbed as he swallowed. By now people usually called you a creep and tried to put distance between themselves and you. Instead Peter flushed in that interesting hardly noticeable way of his and cleared his throat.
"Cool." And as if he were never there in the first place he was gone. Frowning you glanced around the hallway, only seeing other students you hardly knew. Shrugging it off you went to sit down in your science class, hoping it'd pass quickly so you could go home. If it was another thing you'd learned in the months of sharing classes with Peter it was that you'd never understand him.