Chapter 1: Blue Eyes
My best friend Heather and I were going to the movies at Hyde Park.
“Hugh Grant!” we squealed excitedly as we cruised around the parking lot, looking for a space.
I had had a thing for Hughie (as we dubbed him) much longer than Heather had, having seen him in one of the obscure English movies that I absolutely adore. I had convinced Heather to see his movie "Notting Hill" with me, and ever since then she’d been hooked too. We’d seen every one of his movies, old and new, together. Now we were going to see his latest, "Mickey Blue Eyes," a comedy about how he gets involved with the Mafia.
We were at the end of a long line for tickets, Saturday afternoons during the summer being a busy time for movie theaters.
“So how come John didn’t want to come with us, Ash?” Heather asked.
John was my boyfriend, a sweet guy who we’d both known since middle school. Heather used to hate him, but when she found out our story she totally melted. See I’d had a crush on him all through middle school and high school, not knowing he felt the same. Then we got to know each other better through a class we took together during senior year, and he asked me out at one of the school dances. Heather said it was “so cute,” like something out of a cheesy teen romance novel or a fairy tale.
“John says he doesn’t like to listen to us gush over Hughie; it makes him jealous,” I laughed. Heather snorted.
“I wish Peter had gotten jealous when I talked about celebs,” she said bitterly.
Uh-oh, I thought. Already back to Peter. Peter had been Heather’s boyfriend for nearly a year and had dumped her a few weeks ago. She was crushed and wasn’t anywhere near over him.
Fortunately, I was saved from having to respond by the arrival of two guys in line behind us. One was tall, probably nearly six feet, and wearing khaki pants and a button-down, dark blue shirt that was open to reveal a white undershirt. The other one was shorter, only a couple of inches taller than me, and was wearing dark blue baggy jeans and one of those shiny white soccer shirts with a v-neck. They both had brown hair and blue eyes.
We couldn’t help but notice that they were checking us out while they chatted. By mutual, unspoken consent, we stopped talking to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“No way, Jace,” the shorter one was saying. “Just no way.”
“You’re in denial, B!” the taller one shot back. “I got three inches on you!”
“I’d dribble circles around you!”
“Whatever, man!”
I could tell this was something they argued about a lot, and it didn’t seem to hurt either one’s feelings. In fact, I even got the vague impression that it was partly put on for our benefit!
“So what’s the movie that we’re seeing called again?”
“The something sense.”
“That’s catchy,” the shorter guy said sarcastically. “The Something Sense.”
The other guy chuckled. “Just shut up!”
Heather and I exchanged mischievous glances as we stepped up to the ticket window.
“Two for 'The Sixth Sense', please,” Heather said. We each paid for our tickets, and as we stepped into the cold theater a thought popped into my head.
“We’ve traded one set of blue eyes for two!” I whispered and we both giggled.
Chapter 2
Story Index
