Chapter 1
Still, she didn’t move even a bit. Well, she did. She ducked her neck out a
bit to see if her bus was approaching but still no respond to her name.
Nicky’s thought was racing. Was she angry with him for some reason? He tried
to remember but as far as he could remember, both of them had been fine. He
bit his lip, like he always did when he was nervous, and started chewing them.
He saw her tossing her jet-black hair and suddenly felt like an idiot when
he saw a black little thing that was attached to the inside of her ear. It
occurred to him that she was listening to her walkman. He still managed to
slap his own head and cursed himself loud enough to make people around him
turned their heads. ‘Oi Em!’
This time Nicky tapped her shoulder and she responded to it. Her chocolate
brown eyes brightened when she turned her head and found Nicky standing next
to her. Well, at least that was how Nicky felt at them time.
‘Hey Nicky! How are you?’ ‘I’m great, thanks.’
Well *you* make me feel great, he thought as he replied her. Nicky had been
so nervous since last night. He couldn’t even close his eyes to let himself
doze off to Lala Land. At school, he was driving his friends absolutely
crazy when he acted like a complete deutz all day. Little did they know what
his mind was thinking. He didn’t want to tell his friends because if he did
then they’d make fun at him. At lunch, in between their usual football game,
Ralph managed to bring up the dreaded topic, their upcoming formal. Everyone
was going on about their dates. Most of his friends had had steady dates or,
even better, girlfriends. But him? Not even a short fling. He was too busy
with his football, with his training and with his mam’s swinging mood since
she was pregnant again.
‘Nicholas Byrne, hello, where are you? Calling Nicky back to earth,
beep-beep.’
Nicky gave his head a little shake when he realised that his mind was
wandering off somewhere. Great, just about time your mind wander off Byrne,
he thought. ‘Umm yeah, sorry. I’m back.’
He laughed nervously and was back at biting his lips again.
‘So how have you been today huh? You seem like you’ve got a lot to think of.’
‘Umm, yeah, I’ve got a lot of practice for a coming football game.’
‘Oh really?’
He knew she wasn’t a massive football fan but at that time she sounded so
sincere and purely excited he nearly jumped for joy.
‘Yep, it’s next Saturday and Mr. Lynsaght is making us practice as if we
were going to go and play the World Cup or something.’
‘Oh jeez, sorry about my dad.’
Nicky widened his eyes and realised what he had just told her. Mr. Lynsaght
was Emily’s dad for Heaven’s sake! You eedjit, Nicky! He felt like slapping
himself for the second time. He had made himself looked really careless just
then. Great.
‘Hey, hey, no need to feel bad about it. At least you don’t have to live
with him. Don’t worry, Nix.’
She laughed as she tapped his shoulder. He saw her small eyes turned into
slightly curved lines when she laughed. He loved it, he hadn’t seen a lot of
people with eyes like that. And with curled eyelashes she looked even more
unique, not like pictures of people with the same sort of eyes he had seen
in books. ‘Listen Emily, would you like to go with me to my formal?’
He didn’t know what made him blurted it all out like that. She had stopped
her laughter all of a sudden and looked at him with the same small chocolate
eyes he admired. For a moment, he refused to hear the sounds around him. He
wanted complete silence so he could hear what her answer was.
He could see from the end of his eyes that his bus was approaching him and
if he didn’t catch it, he’d be late for training and Mr. Lynsaght would
practically hung him since William, the other goalie, was injured so Nicky
was HomeFarm’s only goalie.
He saw her mouth was about to open when he realised that he misread her body
language. As soon as his bus left and the bus behind it came forward, she
jumped in without looking back.
His eyes followed her, hoping for another glance back, and he was right. She
turned her head back, smiled and waved at him, before taking her seat and
threw her gaze to the other side of the road.
Nicky tore his gaze from her, feeling he didn’t need to see more. But he was
wrong as the afternoon sun reflected its shine on a crystal clear tear, hers.