Eyes Unveiled

by Crystal Walton

  “Which would explain why you seem to treasure it.”

  I dropped the charm and tucked my hands underneath my legs. The leather seat pressed into my palms. A guitar solo on the radio waded into my lack of response.

  A. J. looked from the windshield to me. “I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?”

  “No.” Why couldn’t I find my voice? “Well, I mean, it’s just that tonight’s the first time we met, but it’s like you already know me.”

  He kept one hand on the wheel and rested his arm across the back of my seat. “I happen to know your best friend’s fiancé. And you might find this hard to believe, but you’re not exactly easy to overlook. You hardly let go of your necklace tonight. I figured it had to hold some pretty special meaning to you.” He pulled up alongside the curb in front of my apartment, his expression genuine and disarming.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have forced him into a stereotype.

  “For the record, A. J., I think you’ll make a great trainer. You have the right eyes for it.” Warm brown. Charming yet sincere. The kind that never held back but still made you feel known, rooted for.

  The sound of his seatbelt buckle clicking open caught the tail end of another laugh. “What do eyes have to do with it?”

  “Everything.”

  He continued to gaze at me, unknowingly confirming what I saw in him.

  “Well, I still think you could’ve won that showdown on stage.” He cocked his chin. “For the record.”

  A breeze flickered through my half-open door and carried my snickering on its way back out. “You definitely overestimate my skills.”

  “Then maybe you should prove me wrong.”

  With my foot already on the curb, I waved behind me. “Night, A. J.”

  He stretched across the seats toward the open window. “See you next time.”

  Next time? There couldn’t be a next time. At least, not if he thought it’d lead somewhere other than friendship. Okay, so Jaycee was right. He was a nice guy. Definitely on the charmer side, but sweet. He’d make a good friend. Hopefully that’d be enough for him.

  As Jaycee and I filed into our bedroom, Riley’s music kept flooding my mind, along with another wave of the feelings it had awakened. I stared vacantly at the wall above my dresser and unfastened my earrings. Were some emotions worth the danger of being swept away with them?

  Jaycee tugged my sleeve. “Emma? Hello?”

  “Sorry, Jae, did you say something?”

  “I was asking what you were thinking about, but, uh, I think that look on your face already answered my question. So, I take it that was Mr. Mystery Eyes from the other day.”

  “Yeah, Riley Preston.” What other mysteries did he hold?

  She ran her brush through her hair. “You know, I thought A. J. would’ve been a good match for you, but I can see why you find Riley attractive.”

  I whirled around, hand in the air.

  “Fascinating?” she said in exchange, but my hand-turned-stop-sign didn’t budge. She set her brush down and motioned for me to insert my approved adjective.

  “Intriguing.” I yanked my pajama top over my head. The static electricity raising my hair made me look as ridiculous as I sounded.

  Her earrings jingled, cackling at my response. “Right. Okay, clearly, I see why you find him intriguing, but I want you to be careful. You don’t know anything about him.”

  “Jae, really? There’s nothing to be careful about. He’s the kind of guy who can have any girl he wants—probably does have any girl he wants. Did you see the way those sorority chicks flocked to him?” So, he didn’t rise to the attention like most guys would’ve, which made him even more intriguing, but still. “He won’t remember my name tomorrow. And I doubt I’ll run into him again anyway. I’ve only seen him on campus that one time.”

  Jaycee didn’t answer my blabbering. She didn’t need to. Even after she turned off her lamp, her intuition continued to glow in the light from her alarm clock.

  I stared at the shadows sprawling over the ceiling. Maybe the darkness would send me straight to sleep. Of course not. I let out a long sigh and rolled over to face Jaycee’s bed.

  “Fine, I think he’s attractive. Really attractive. Which is exactly why you gotta help me not to get caught up putting his face onto some silly daydream of falling in love.” I couldn’t let myself go there. Especially not with someone like Riley Preston, who could undo my resolve with a single glance. I hadn’t dated the last two years for a reason.

  “You got it. But,” Jaycee warned, “don’t go getting all defensive on me when I step in if I have to.”

  She knew me so well. “I promise.”

  My mind retreated to Nuts and Jolts the second I closed my eyes. Riley center stage, his music weaving a connection I doubted anyone else there understood—a connection I couldn’t think about.

  No amount of tossing and turning helped. I held onto my necklace and the promise I couldn’t afford to let go of. Securing my future was too important. No distractions. But with Riley’s voice singing me deeper into a dream, all I could do was lug my reversible comforter over my head and wait for the escape of daylight.

  chapter four

  Collision

  My cell phone buzzed against my desk. With only one leg hoisted through my workout pants, I hopped across the room like the anchor in a potato sack race.

  “May I speak with Emma Matthews, please?” a man asked.

  I swatted the wreckage of hair away from my face. “Speaking.”

  “Jack Peters from Xander Technologies, returning your call about an internship opportunity.”

  “Yes?” Please don’t be taken.

  “The position requires a minimum of twenty hours a week. There’ll be some training, of course, but we’re looking for someone who’s self-motivated and hard working. This isn’t a work-study job where you’ll get to do your homework in between answering phone calls or—”

  “I’ll take it.” I pressed the heel of my palm into my forehead. “I mean, unless you require an interview.” Great first impression.

  “No interview necessary. Your advisor sent over your transcripts. Your grades speak highly of your performance.”

  Thank god. I slumped over the top of the chair. A prestigious computer company. Won’t Austin be proud.

  “Just to clarify, you do know this isn’t a paid internship, right?”

  My elbows slipped off the chair back. Unpaid? Why hadn’t Mr. Oakly told me some on the list weren’t paid? I padded around for my desk and the footing I’d just lost. Deep breath. It’d be fine. As long as it helped me keep my scholarship, everything would be fine.

  “No problem. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to gain on-the-job experience.” There was a scripted response if I’d ever heard one.

  “Well, then, you start Monday. My assistant will get you settled in.”

  Settled. The word made its way round and round my mind, searching for a place to sink its roots. So what if it was a boring desk job? It was an internship. Checklist, done. I should be relieved, not . . . unsatisfied?

  A sense of apprehension followed me the rest of the afternoon and set me off balance throughout my step-aerobics class. Techno music blared from a small stereo in the corner of our sectioned-off portion of the gym. Bass vibrated inside my ribcage, but Riley’s songs kept taking over my thoughts.

  “Where do you turn, where do you run, when the war for your heart’s already won? When rules hedge you inside a colorless page, while the notes and strings beg for an open stage.”

  I dropped off my step. When the war for your heart’s already won. Something stirred inside me. A call without an answer. What would it be like to have my heart spoken for?

  My classmate Megan tripped into me. Her expression whiplashed right along with her shiny blonde ponytail, rousing me from my half-dazed stare. “Jeez, Emma, try listening to the instructor. We’re doing around-the-worlds, not stand-arounds.”

  “Sorry.” Great. Riley had a hold on
me even when he wasn’t nearby. Definitely not good.

  In the locker room, a wave of chlorine and body odor threatened to knock me over. I held my breath while flushing the perspiration from my face. With my hands braced on either side of the sink, I stared at my disheveled reflection and let the air ooze out of me. So much for wiping away my tension with my sweat.

  Megan sauntered up to the sink on my left, undid her ponytail, and began twisting her hair into a loose side braid. “What’s up with you today, Matthews? You’re not lost in some Riley Preston daydream, are you?”

  I lost my grip on the sink. “Excuse me?”

  She erased the gleam from her brow with a stroke of mineral powder. “I saw you the other night. At Nuts and Jolts. I get the appeal, obviously, but don’t get your hopes up. Riley Preston doesn’t date.”

  “Excuse me?” Didn’t I know any other phrase?

  She turned in five different angles in front of the mirror, probably double-checking to make sure she hadn’t lost her curves sometime during class.

  “My roommate went to a football game with him once, and the guy didn’t make a single move. Nada. And trust me, the girl’s gorgeous. The entire football team would’ve trampled the bleachers to take the wide-open shot she gave Riley. But instead of taking it, he kept her at arms’ length all night like some delicate piece of china he thought he’d break if he touched her.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  She snapped her compact shut. A scrutinizing once-over equaled the sharp noise. “Maybe not for some of us.”

  What was that supposed to mean?

  My sneakers hit the back of my locker and fell onto the metal bottom with a thud. I shoved on my flip-flops, tied my jacket arms into a knot around my waist, and banged through the door leading to the atrium.

  Dozens of “Books for Sale” flyers pinned haphazardly on a bulletin board flapped in the breeze, stirring an irritating reminder of the international business test I had tomorrow. The one I hadn’t studied for yet. Perfect.

  I started for the exit and the urgent need for caffeine reinforcements. Midway into a turn, my feet anchored me to the floor. A crowd of students zipped by me as if I wasn’t standing there, paralyzed by the intensity in Riley’s gaze.

  In a pair of khaki carpenter shorts and a rust-colored T-shirt that matched the bricks behind him, Riley should’ve blended in with the crowd, not made me feel like he’d stopped inertia just to smile at me. He lifted off the wall and waved. “Emma.”

  He remembered my name.

  Someone crashed into me from behind and jerked me out of place. “Watch it,” a gel-haired kid in a navy blue SSA blazer yelled. A stack of papers spilled out of his hands and sprawled across the floor like a bucket of Pick Up Stix.

  “I’m so sorry.” I caught one of the flying papers with my foot and bent to snag another one with my hand. Wow. In case bumping into someone hadn’t drawn enough attention to the way I’d just been staring at Riley like some roadie, now I was having a one-man twister game in the middle of the hall. Classy.

  Riley knelt beside me and gathered the rest of the scattered papers. The corner of his lips crept up to the left and sent my pulse flapping with the flyers on the bulletin board. Why couldn’t the floor have a trapdoor right here?

  He tapped the pages into a neat stack and handed it to SSA Dude, who suddenly appeared to have learned some manners. “Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

  Riley seemed oblivious to the effect he had on people. He helped me up from the floor and eased me toward the wall—away from any more traffic collisions. “Thanks,” he said. “I needed a little rush to get the day going.”

  “Wouldn’t want to miss the chance to offer some more stellar conversation starters.” Stellar conversation starters? An edgy laugh chased a surge of self-consciousness up my cheekbones. One day, I’d say something at least halfway normal around him.

  Riley’s grin pillaged my remaining reserve of dignity. The exit sign yelled louder this time, but he blocked my path before I could make a run for it. “How was aerobics?”

  I twisted and untwisted the jacket sleeves hanging at my waist. “Oh, you know. Nothing like a few sets of pointed-toe leg lifts to really make things exciting.”

  “Who can argue with that?” He stuffed a small notepad into his side pocket. “Do you have any plans this afternoon that could possibly compete with that level of excitement?”

  Plans? This afternoon? Was there any time or space outside of right now? “Um . . . actually, I was just thinking I should probably study for an international business test I have tomorrow morning.”

  “Ah, yes, that’s definitely more exciting than leg lifts.”

  “A close second at best.” Genuine laughter. Finally.

  “If you have Professor Roberts, focus on the notes from his review session. You’ll do great,” he said without an ounce of question on the matter. Or in my abilities period. The strange part was, I believed him.

  “You’re a business major?” I asked.

  “Marketing.”

  Right. Same as Trevor. Hence the shared class. Speaking of which. “So, what are you doing here? I’ve never seen you in the Sports Center. Not that I’ve been on the lookout for you or anything. It’s just that I would’ve remembered seeing you. You know, well, you sort of stand out. I mean . . . um . . .”

  I dropped my jacket sleeves and waved at some random girl across the atrium. Seeming distracted had to be better than coming off like a nervous schoolgirl. Fat chance I’d pulled that one off. What was with this guy making me nervous? Just because he was gorgeous, talented, and carried more depth than anyone I’d ever met, that didn’t mean I had to literally trip over myself when I was around him.

  Riley tugged on his ear. “Actually, I was waiting for you.”

  My fingers slid down my ponytail, that single sentence down my body.

  “I’m not sure I can compete with all the excitement you’re trying to cram into one day, but I wondered if maybe you’d take a walk with me.” His gaze strayed to the floor long enough for me to remember how to blink again.

  A breeze from the exit doors blew across the hall, urging me to escape now before I pulled another Nuts and Jolts mistake. Giving into his attractiveness once was bad enough. I didn’t need to give him room to get any closer. Not if I wanted to keep my heart intact.

  He looked up at me again, head and hand pointing toward his unanswered invitation.

  “S . . . sure.” Apparently, I didn’t have any control over my eyes or my mouth.

  “Great.” A few paces ahead, he turned, arms splayed to his sides. “You coming?”

  Sliding one foot forward, I inched toward Riley and the beginning of an afternoon that had serious potential to leave me undone.

  chapter five

  Forfeit

  Riley held the door open to let four girls decked in soccer gear pass through in the opposite direction. They practically stampeded each other without garnering so much as a glance from him. Either he was blind or he really didn’t notice the way girls gawked over him.

  He motioned toward the Canyon Trail. “Ready?”

  I doubt it.

  Each time my flip-flops slapped my heels, I gave myself an internal head slap with enough force to knock my resolve back into place.

  “I wanted to thank you,” he said after a few minutes. “For the other night.”

  My memory catalogued through a rapid inventory from last Friday. “For?”

  “For what you said. I don’t perform for audiences that often. I’ve always sort of kept my music to myself.” He stowed his hands in his pockets and lifted his shoulders. “It’s not that I’ve been afraid people won’t like it. More that they won’t understand it, you know? That I’d open up the rawest parts of myself, and they’d miss the meaning altogether and just lump it in with any other source of entertainment.”

  An undercurrent of sadness followed the gravity pulling his head down.

  “I really appreci
ate what you said to me that night. I know most people come out to enjoy a nice atmosphere and listen to good music. And don’t get me wrong, I’m cool with that. I get it.”

  He dug his fingers through the top of his hair and faced the sky. “But as an artist, I always hope there might be something deeper. That people will connect like you did.” He released a gruff exhale. “It’s pretty rare anyone ever does.”

  His pause seemed to beg me to say something in return, but I didn’t want him to stop talking. He opened up with the kind of transparency he would with his best friend rather than a random acquaintance. My nerves around him all of a sudden felt completely out of place.

  Riley was a down to earth guy. The kind who helped uptight underclassmen pick up their papers from the floor, held doors open for girls without craving a response, and poured everything he had into his music simply because he was a true artist. Not some star with a celebrity complex, as A. J. had said. The kind of guy I could be friends with. Friendship didn’t mean losing my heart, right?

  He laughed, sounding almost self-conscious. “I’m sorry. I don’t normally talk about this with anyone. I didn’t mean to unload on you like that.”

  “No, it’s totally fine. I know what you’re saying. I mean, not that I have any clue what it’s like to have your kind of talent, but I understand the fear of being vulnerable with people, the reservations of opening myself up.”

  We stopped halfway across the footbridge leading to the other side of campus. Arched over the railing, I peered into the creek bed. “My dad used to tell me life’s a lot like being an artist. It has less to do with mastering technique or theory, and everything to do with risking the cost of opening your heart to the song you’re meant to share.”

  Amazing how he’d made that so easy to believe. That I had a song, a purpose. I’d do anything to prove him right. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to take the first internship available. But even if there was something else out there for me, was I brave enough to take the risk and go for it? What if I tried and ended up failing Dad? Myself?