happy anniversary

6 . 17 . 2011

{it's eleven years today}

{i came across this piece of goodness last month, written by my friend Jill - back in the day...}

"Why wouldn't he wait for you?"

I asked my friend who was leaving the love of her life behind in the states to study for a semester in Hungary. Her eyes had sparkled before when she spoke of other guys but never like this. 

I remembered S, the Q-tip-headed sophomore whose blue eyes cooled pangs of college freshman awkwardness like a good back rub. She liked S, though I doubt she'll admit it now. He would pick her up from behind and pretend to throw her into the puddles in the walkways. I tended to trip into them all on my very own. Still, I always envied her pick-up-able-ness and the way she could hold a straight face when she teased him. And oh, he was easy to tease. Frankly, I found him annoying and was glad when this year she told me with waving arms that "church-boy" had spoken to her.

Now, flaky-ness was neither a characteristic of her, nor I, but I saw what being looped can do to a person. She was geeked - as we said back then - and I was wired from the second pot of coffee we'd just finished off.  That was when I looked up from the napkin holder I was fiddling with and glanced at her face.  I knew that is was a man's eyes that attracted her but I'm not sure she realized the effect Trevor's eyes had on her own.  

Or TJ, as she later called him in all playful affection.  She made me swear not to call him "church-boy" though that's where she first saw his eyes--at church.  I should know what color they are after all the times she would mention them and let her head fall dreamily to her shoulder.  She did.
But like I was saying, his eyes affected hers and I don't know if she even realized it.  

Her face was her trademark.
Her laugh, her smile, the way she could cross her eyes, and the way she listened to my deepest fears and joys.  She was, from the start, one of the most enjoyable people to talk with and I could hardly blame Trevor for his attraction to her.
Besides the fact that they both picked their feet, their eyes bonded them.

Now Daphne, that is her name in case I forgot to mention it, could look at Trevor and read his thoughts.  After all, they were often hers. She called him on his mistakes with her eyes and watched to see if they were in fact laughing about the same thing...or person.  

Now, when she was just about to leave, her eyes were alive.  Perhaps there was an inkling of doubt about their relationship in her mind, for as far as I knew they'd spoken of "companionship" but the words "I dig you" were never said, but her eyes shone with one-hundred percent pure life.

To any outside viewer their eyes seemed perfectly normal - I mean, they weren't bug-eyed or anything - and each of them had two per nose, one per ear.  I don't want them ot come off as super-human, although I had seen Daphne's eyes bug out once in our reflection in the bathroom mirror when we filled the sink with toilet paper and lit it on fire.  Normally her eyes were fine.  This time they were lined with a little but of worry.  In steps turbo-friend. That's right, me the puddle-stomper.

In all seriousness, I did not see a reason why he wouldn't wait.  After all, not everyone graduates and gets married to the first person they meet on the street and Trevor had met Daphne in church.  Trevor seemed to be a good lad and loyal to the core.  I wondered if I had to put to rest her self-esteem doubts again but she had to see how beautiful she was when the mirror reflected healthy brown hair and a tan body.  She once said she didn't like the way she look much.  "Same way you wouldn't like child's tousled hair," I wanted to say.  I think Daphne is very beautiful and she's fortunate enough to have a hilarity about her to enhance it even more.  But I think she was more concerned about the wait.

Trevor is kindred.  She knows this.  

I also happen to know that she would wait for him forever and two days; two because he has two nice eyes. (Three because she's seen more than she'll ever let on).  That is a long time and, if I know anything about Daphne, she's been hurt before and would only wait if she knew TJ would wait for her.  And he would, for forever and four days--two because she has two nice eyes.  He would only not wait if he was sub-human but you will not find a worm with eyes like his and I told her that.  I think she may have taken that one wrong so I spread the butter out flat.

"Daph, Trevor will wait because he knows you wait for him as no one else does."

And I looked at her face and something clear and round and salty washed the life right back into her eyes.

{happy anniversary}