Her eyes

Chapter 4

The next day when I entered the same lecture hall, Archer was already sitting in the same seats we occupied yesterday.

He was wearing a tight black T-shirt from what I could see. And it enhanced his muscles so beautifully. I normally wouldn't describe a man's body as beautiful. But he was. He was built like the Roman depictions of the great warriors, his shoulders were broad and his neck was long and strong.

His  powerful arms had veins running down them, but not to the point where you wondered if he was on some type of body altering drug.

He had slightly curly golden blonde hair. And lastly his face. His strong nose and defined cheekbones made him look like an aristocrat. And his sharp jaw evened out his face in perfect symmetry. But my favorite part about him was his cerulean eyes.

They reminded me of the first few days of spring. You know after living in a perpetual downpour of rain and snow, during several months of a harsh winter. And the beautiful clear blue sky peeked out to bestow a gift to the inhabitants of its land.

It's like the sky knew exactly when us mere mortals were ready to keel over at any given moment, if it didn't grace us with its presence. That first glimpse of the sun and blue skies, that made life not as bleak. And it gave us a new appreciation for all things on earth, it made us inspect the growing green grass a few moments longer.

It forced us to pay attention to the yellow sunflowers that started growing again, from seed to plant to flower. Perhaps he was more like the sun that breathed life into all things living, it sure felt like he was the sun during spring, giving me a new chance to start anew after I had disappeared into the earth for so long.

He had planted a seed in me when he had smiled at me the first time and his sky blue eyes had brightened. And perhaps with every smile and brightening of his eyes, I would grow more and more. Until I was a sunflower standing steady in a field against unpredictable weather. He had planted seeds in my previously dead garden and I hoped he would stay to water it.

I approached him "Hi." I said.

He looked up from his phone, and gave me one of those smiles that brightened his beautiful eyes, and made me stand a little taller on my stem. "Hey, come sit." He scooted in to the chair I had occupied yesterday.

I sat down and the seat was still warm from his body heat, I removed my bag from my shoulder and took out my computer. But I wasn't as embarrassed of it as I was yesterday.

I looked over at him and he was already looking at me.

"I like, your dress." He said casually, as if it wasn't the first compliment I'd gotten since I could remember that wasn't from a questionable creature on the bus.

I instantly felt my cheeks redden, a blush I was sure he could see. I had picked this dress because the sun was out today. But also because I had made an effort to look pretty, I'd even added mascara and lipgloss to my lips. And a layer of blush. But what I now realized was that the skyblue summer dress was almost an exact match to his eyes. I think I subconsciously chose it because it reminded me of him.

I cleared my throat, "Thank you". My voice sounded small and I made up for it by shooting him a smile.

He looked towards the front of the class. Thankfully professor Radcliffe hadn't arrived yet. And I looked at the clock, we had about 15 minutes before we started.

He opened his mouth "How long have you gone to this school?"

I considered lying, because I hadn't talked to anyone here yesterday besides him. Not even to say hello. And I didn't want to risk looking pathetic. But I decided against it, it would be even more pathetic if he caught me in such a useless lie. I only ever lied when I needed to.

"This is my second year."

"Do you like it here? I haven't yet gotten the impression that it's a welcoming school so far." He added a muttered "except from Morgan, that is."

"Do you mean McKenzie?" I chuckled.

"Yeah, her." He nodded.

I decided to answer him truthfully. " It's okay, I'm not originally from Cambridge but I think that's just how people in big cities are. I haven't managed to make a friend, not including you."

"Where did you move from?" He ignored the most embarrassing part of my confession, and acted like it wasn't a big deal. Which made me feel better.

I didn't think he would know the name of my village seeing as he was clearly American. But everybody in the United Kingdom knew the name of Jaywick. It was a coastal town originally for holidays, but over time the village lost its allure. And when the tourists stopped coming, the village stopped thriving. And now it was ranked as the most deprived area in the country.

"Jaywick" I said simply, careful so my cadence remained steady. "when did you move from America?"

He smiled, " It's that obvious, huh? I moved just this summer. My family decided to relocate, because of my fathers job. And I decided to transfer schools, I couldn't leave my little sister." The way he talked about his family, his love for them easily shined through the words.

"H-how old is she?" I decided to ask.

"She's 8, but if you ask her she'll tell you 9. So she's practically already 10." He chuckled. "There's a large age gap between us, but we're inseparable. I just wish she would've existed sooner, so I would've had more time with her."

I blinked, "that's so sweet."

He reached for his back pocket and took out his phone when the screen lit up, it showed a picture of a little girl with both of her pointer fingers pulling the edges of each lip. So that her teeth were visible, her two front teeth missing, and the one at the bottom.

She was smiling into the camera with her eyes closed encased with a pair of pink glasses, her cute button nose with freckles on it scrunched up. She had dark brown hair that flowed down in soft curls.

My heart melted, she was adorable, if it was my little sister I would've moved across oceans for her as well.

Before I could say anything professor Radcliffe entered, and just like yesterday the students stopped chatting immediately. I gave Archer a small apologetic smile that promised we would resume our conversation after class.

The professor went a little more in-depth into the subject. And I was happy I'd read a few pages of the course literature already. The phonetic alphabet and syntax was confusing. He let us go a little earlier. After I had packed up my things I faced Archer again.

"You ready to go?" He asked.

"Mhm" I nodded and exited the rows of seats first. This time I waited for him on the stairs as he had done yesterday, so that we could walk beside each other.

"Are you hungry? I thought we could grab a sandwich somewhere that's not the school cafeteria." He asked, with a confidence that now associated with him.

"Oh...Sure" this time thankfully the students had figured out how to open both doors so the flow of people leaving weren't stuck like angry bees in a hive.

"Yeah?" He gave me another one of his beaming smiles, that showed his straight white teeth.

"Yeah... I know a place we could go."

He extended his arm towards the door "Lead the way."