Stars in His Eyes
By: Jess
Disclaimer: If you recognize it. it isn't mine.
I carefully gathered up the materials I'd been painstakingly gathering from places around my apartment for over an hour. A couple of thick blankets, a winter coat, gloves, a hat, and a thermos of very hot cocoa were gathered haphazardly in my arms as I walked slowly to the front door, trying not to jostle anything out of place in the process. Tonight there was to a meteor shower that had been predicted to be numerous meteorologists and astrologers on the news to be spectacular even without a telescope and I was going to watch it all from the roof of my apartment complex.
After many unsuccessful attempts, I managed to get the door opened and step out into the hallway. My next problem lied in the trying to get the door shut once again, I just knew that thermos of hot chocolate was going to come crashing down if I tried to lean in a pull the door closer to me. First I tried catching the edge of the door with my toe and pulling it to me but that only resulted in my nearly losing my balance a few times. Then I tried to blindly swing my hand out like some sort of retarded chicken and catch the door knob with my fingers, but by doing that I managed to push the door even further away. Now I was getting frustrated, the shower would be starting in about an hour and I wanted to get settled before it started and I really didn't want to put down any of my things. I stared dumbly at the door, just trying to figure out a way to solve my problems when I heard a deep voice from behind me.
"Are you trying to be a Jedi?"
I sighed in frustration and exasperation. The voice was anything but unrecognizable, I knew in a heartbeat that it belonged to James Potter, the incredibly handsome and incredibly annoying man in the apartment next to mine. Turning my head slowly, I looked straight into his rich hazel eyes and started to run my mouth.
"No, James, I'm simply trying to figure out a way to close the door without dropping my stuff."
He leaned against the wall with mirth written across his smug little face and I knew he was enjoying the opportunity to laugh at my misfortune. You see, I've been nothing but horrible to the boy since I moved in. He tried to pull one of his slick pick-up lines on me as I carried boxes into my new drably decorated and sparsely furnished apartment. So, I brushed him off as an annoyance, something that wasn't to be bothered with or concerned about. Over the years he'd come to grow on me, but I'll never let him know that. No, it would cause the arrogant little jerk too much satisfaction.
"Well Lils, are you going to continue to use the force or are you going to ask me to help you out of this little. pickle?"
Rolling my eyes at him I mentally debated which was worse, swallowing my pride and asking for his help or the embarrassment when I failed miserably at doing it on my own. I sighed a little again and looked up at him, defeat clearly written across my face. And judging by his expression he knew it too.
"James, will you please close my door for me? I seem to be having a little bit of trouble."
He grinned cheekily and put a hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture.
"Hmm. I don't know, Lily. Why would I want to do something for you?"
Stomping my foot in aggravation, anger blazed through my very essence and I didn't need to see his face to know he could feel it. I wasn't very intimidating to his six foot plus frame, being at only five foot, four inches.
"Jesus James! Would you just shut the door for me so you can go back to your apartment and gloat that you have one up on Lily Evans? I don't see why you have to be such a jerk about it."
He finally shut my door and ignored my comment, instead looking at my things with casual interest. Oh joy. here it comes, he's going to ask what I have. Then he'll want to know why and then he'll find some reason to make fun of me for it and I'll never hear the end of it.
"What have you got there?"
"Stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Just stuff, James."
"What are you doing with it?"
"."
"Lils, what are you doing with it?"
"Going up to see the meteor shower."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
".Can I come?"
My jaw dropped in surprise and I'm sure I must have looked like a fish of some sort, what with me standing there gaping like that. But I knew he was serious, the usual arrogance was gone, well maybe not gone but at least diminished by a lot, and he looked almost bashful standing like that in front of me.
"I didn't know you liked stars."
"There's a lot you don't know about me, Lils."
Nodding a bit, I acknowledged the truth in his cryptic statement. I handed him the blankets and the thermos of hot cocoa and he looked at me quizzically. When I caught the expression on his face, I had to soothe a fit of giggles that threatened to spill out at his resemblance to a little lost puppy dog.
"You can come up with me, just promise to be nice, no wise-cracks."
He nodded his head enthusiastically. "Sure!"
With only fifteen minutes left until the shower was due to start James and I stepped out onto the roof where it had to be about fifteen to twenty degrees outside. Taking my things from him, I spread one blanket onto the cold, hard surface wide enough for the both of us to sit comfortably, and wrapped the other around my shoulders after I'd put on my coat, hat, and mittens.
When I turned back to James, he was sitting on the blanket and had his arms wrapped around his knees and shivering like a Mexican jumping bean. For some reason, it sparked something inside of me that made me want to be nice to the handsome little flirt. As I spread half of my blanket around his shoulders and sat close to him so we could share in the warm, I wondered what was coming over me. He smiled at me best he could through his chattering teeth.
"Thanks, Lils."
"You're welcome, James."
Silence consumed us and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Usually I loved to be alone with nothing but my thoughts, but tonight I just wanted to fill the void that had stretched between the two of us. Apparently, so did James, because he spoke first.
"So. Lils. why do you hate me so much?"
Suddenly, the fringe of the blanket became very interesting and I just couldn't help but stare at it in embarrassment. Green thread, red thread, blue thread, green thread, red thread. I looked up at him and shrugged a little shrug.
"I don't know, you just rubbed me the wrong way that first day."
"You never gave me a chance!"
"Well I'm sorry! But lord. you just stood there in all of your egotistical glory and used some cheesy pick-up line."
"I was joking around."
"How was I supposed to know that?"
He shrugged then, and got quiet. Maybe I wasn't the only one that thought that the blanket was actually very entertaining. I felt bad; my chest was constricted with some foreign emotion that I couldn't quite place.
"I don't hate you."
My voice sounded very small and very vulnerable in my ears. But when he looked up at me with his eyes sparking and shimmering with an emotion that I couldn't read I just knew it was the right thing to say. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, drawing me closer and pulling the blanket tighter around us.
A few minutes later the first meteor streaked across the night sky and we both cheered in excitement. Soon the whole sky was filled with shooting stars and James looked down at me with pure awe etched across his features and the flashes of light reflected in his bright hazel orbs. He brushed a strand of my bright red hair behind my ear and kissed the tip of my numb, cherry red nose. As we settled back down to watch the end of the shower I knew in my heart of hearts that I would never forget James Potter and the way he looked that night with the stars in his eyes.
By: Jess
Disclaimer: If you recognize it. it isn't mine.
I carefully gathered up the materials I'd been painstakingly gathering from places around my apartment for over an hour. A couple of thick blankets, a winter coat, gloves, a hat, and a thermos of very hot cocoa were gathered haphazardly in my arms as I walked slowly to the front door, trying not to jostle anything out of place in the process. Tonight there was to a meteor shower that had been predicted to be numerous meteorologists and astrologers on the news to be spectacular even without a telescope and I was going to watch it all from the roof of my apartment complex.
After many unsuccessful attempts, I managed to get the door opened and step out into the hallway. My next problem lied in the trying to get the door shut once again, I just knew that thermos of hot chocolate was going to come crashing down if I tried to lean in a pull the door closer to me. First I tried catching the edge of the door with my toe and pulling it to me but that only resulted in my nearly losing my balance a few times. Then I tried to blindly swing my hand out like some sort of retarded chicken and catch the door knob with my fingers, but by doing that I managed to push the door even further away. Now I was getting frustrated, the shower would be starting in about an hour and I wanted to get settled before it started and I really didn't want to put down any of my things. I stared dumbly at the door, just trying to figure out a way to solve my problems when I heard a deep voice from behind me.
"Are you trying to be a Jedi?"
I sighed in frustration and exasperation. The voice was anything but unrecognizable, I knew in a heartbeat that it belonged to James Potter, the incredibly handsome and incredibly annoying man in the apartment next to mine. Turning my head slowly, I looked straight into his rich hazel eyes and started to run my mouth.
"No, James, I'm simply trying to figure out a way to close the door without dropping my stuff."
He leaned against the wall with mirth written across his smug little face and I knew he was enjoying the opportunity to laugh at my misfortune. You see, I've been nothing but horrible to the boy since I moved in. He tried to pull one of his slick pick-up lines on me as I carried boxes into my new drably decorated and sparsely furnished apartment. So, I brushed him off as an annoyance, something that wasn't to be bothered with or concerned about. Over the years he'd come to grow on me, but I'll never let him know that. No, it would cause the arrogant little jerk too much satisfaction.
"Well Lils, are you going to continue to use the force or are you going to ask me to help you out of this little. pickle?"
Rolling my eyes at him I mentally debated which was worse, swallowing my pride and asking for his help or the embarrassment when I failed miserably at doing it on my own. I sighed a little again and looked up at him, defeat clearly written across my face. And judging by his expression he knew it too.
"James, will you please close my door for me? I seem to be having a little bit of trouble."
He grinned cheekily and put a hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture.
"Hmm. I don't know, Lily. Why would I want to do something for you?"
Stomping my foot in aggravation, anger blazed through my very essence and I didn't need to see his face to know he could feel it. I wasn't very intimidating to his six foot plus frame, being at only five foot, four inches.
"Jesus James! Would you just shut the door for me so you can go back to your apartment and gloat that you have one up on Lily Evans? I don't see why you have to be such a jerk about it."
He finally shut my door and ignored my comment, instead looking at my things with casual interest. Oh joy. here it comes, he's going to ask what I have. Then he'll want to know why and then he'll find some reason to make fun of me for it and I'll never hear the end of it.
"What have you got there?"
"Stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Just stuff, James."
"What are you doing with it?"
"."
"Lils, what are you doing with it?"
"Going up to see the meteor shower."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes."
".Can I come?"
My jaw dropped in surprise and I'm sure I must have looked like a fish of some sort, what with me standing there gaping like that. But I knew he was serious, the usual arrogance was gone, well maybe not gone but at least diminished by a lot, and he looked almost bashful standing like that in front of me.
"I didn't know you liked stars."
"There's a lot you don't know about me, Lils."
Nodding a bit, I acknowledged the truth in his cryptic statement. I handed him the blankets and the thermos of hot cocoa and he looked at me quizzically. When I caught the expression on his face, I had to soothe a fit of giggles that threatened to spill out at his resemblance to a little lost puppy dog.
"You can come up with me, just promise to be nice, no wise-cracks."
He nodded his head enthusiastically. "Sure!"
With only fifteen minutes left until the shower was due to start James and I stepped out onto the roof where it had to be about fifteen to twenty degrees outside. Taking my things from him, I spread one blanket onto the cold, hard surface wide enough for the both of us to sit comfortably, and wrapped the other around my shoulders after I'd put on my coat, hat, and mittens.
When I turned back to James, he was sitting on the blanket and had his arms wrapped around his knees and shivering like a Mexican jumping bean. For some reason, it sparked something inside of me that made me want to be nice to the handsome little flirt. As I spread half of my blanket around his shoulders and sat close to him so we could share in the warm, I wondered what was coming over me. He smiled at me best he could through his chattering teeth.
"Thanks, Lils."
"You're welcome, James."
Silence consumed us and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Usually I loved to be alone with nothing but my thoughts, but tonight I just wanted to fill the void that had stretched between the two of us. Apparently, so did James, because he spoke first.
"So. Lils. why do you hate me so much?"
Suddenly, the fringe of the blanket became very interesting and I just couldn't help but stare at it in embarrassment. Green thread, red thread, blue thread, green thread, red thread. I looked up at him and shrugged a little shrug.
"I don't know, you just rubbed me the wrong way that first day."
"You never gave me a chance!"
"Well I'm sorry! But lord. you just stood there in all of your egotistical glory and used some cheesy pick-up line."
"I was joking around."
"How was I supposed to know that?"
He shrugged then, and got quiet. Maybe I wasn't the only one that thought that the blanket was actually very entertaining. I felt bad; my chest was constricted with some foreign emotion that I couldn't quite place.
"I don't hate you."
My voice sounded very small and very vulnerable in my ears. But when he looked up at me with his eyes sparking and shimmering with an emotion that I couldn't read I just knew it was the right thing to say. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, drawing me closer and pulling the blanket tighter around us.
A few minutes later the first meteor streaked across the night sky and we both cheered in excitement. Soon the whole sky was filled with shooting stars and James looked down at me with pure awe etched across his features and the flashes of light reflected in his bright hazel orbs. He brushed a strand of my bright red hair behind my ear and kissed the tip of my numb, cherry red nose. As we settled back down to watch the end of the shower I knew in my heart of hearts that I would never forget James Potter and the way he looked that night with the stars in his eyes.