Spiders and Butterflies

Magnets

There were no words. Their eyes held each other and all the noise of the crowd fizzled until a dull hum. Her fingers tingled and she felt slightly light headed. She didn’t even realize her feet were moving until she was halfway to him-their gazed still locked.

She stopped-knees shaking slightly, and he smiled-OH! What a beautiful smile!-and began to make his way toward her. He stopped-his face a mere inches from hers-and simply said ‘Hi.’

His voice rang in her ears and her breath quickened as if she had run to him though she hadn’t.

‘Hi’ she breathed so lightly, she wasn’t sure he had even heard her.

He was wearing a giant goofy hat and a black T-shirt with baggy jeans. A thick silver chain around his neck. His eyes were a dull green with golden specks that entranced her. She couldn’t look away; couldn’t blink.

Oh, what was this feeling? Was it real? Was she getting sick from spinning too much on that last ride?

Where had he come from? Was he even real?

Jon and Aaron suddenly appeared interrupting her euphoria. Aaron had passively tossed his arm over her shoulders as Jon clapped the new guy on the back and said ‘Hey! I see you met my boy Draven.’

Draven…she thought, committing it to memory.

‘Yeah I guess so’

‘So how do you know him?’ Aaron asked Jon.

‘I was hanging out outside The Music Shop waiting for Ash to get off work and this weirdo-‘ he said, clapping Draven on the chest-‘just walks up to me and starts talking about randomness.’

They turned and started walking toward a pavilion with picnic tables as they continued the conversation while she made mental notes. She wanted to know everything about him.

He had recently moved into town when his stepdad got a job offer. He didn’t know anyone yet and ran into Jon and thought he looked like a cool guy he might want to be friends with and made it so.

He had siblings but they lived in his old town which she didn’t catch the name of.

They found an empty and of a table and sat down-Aaron and Renee on one side, Draven and Jon on the other. She stopped hearing any of their words. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. The way his head tilted slightly to the left when he was answering questions and straightened when he was asking. There was something about every tiny move he made that she felt the need to memorize.

Every few minutes he would glance at her and give a quick flash of that smile that affected her in ways that made her blush. She was grateful she was sitting as her knees surely would have buckled had she been standing.

Suddenly Draven slammed both palms on the table and stood up.

‘I’ve got an idea-let’s go.’