Kaleidoscope Eyes

Isabella was a morning person.

Even if she had a hangover, which was a very rare thing, she would be up and moving even before seven. She enjoyed watching the world wake up slowly and get to its groggy feet, she liked watching the calm being taken over by the bustle of activity that came with each new day.

The night before felt unreal to her. This was her reoccurring thought as she took stock of the food that was still in the fridges. She had stayed with John well into the early hours of the morning. They hadn’t spoken much, just sat next to each other enjoying the silence. At around three in the morning Isabella had grudgingly gotten up and dusted the film of dust off her shorts and announced that she had to go to bed. John graciously walked her to her bus and bade her goodnight with the wave of a hand.

As she watched him trundle on his way, she had to suppress a giggle and also a growing anxiety. She felt bad that he as the slightly intoxicated one had walked her home.

However this fear was swiftly eradicated as she straightened up and shot a quick glance to the parking lot through the large side door, where she saw a tall gangly figure stood in the growing morning light. It was John.

With a curious smile on her face, Isabella ventured outside towards John, who was stood with his hands in the pockets of his jeans and a pair of Ray Bans hiding what Isabella assumed were hungover eyes. But despite the headache that must have been plaguing him, John shot her a wide and awake smile.

“I didn’t think you’d be awake at this time,” Isabella said, genuinely impressed that someone who didn’t have to be up at half seven in the morning was.

“I like the mornings,” John said simply. “And also I wanted to ask you if you wanted to hang out sometime today maybe, go for an ice cream or something in town?”

A small wave of relief fell over her, she was glad that he didn’t ask to her come to his set or meet his band as a way of hanging out together. Despite the circumstances of their first meeting being rather unorthodox, Isabella felt comfortable with nodding her head and agreeing to John picking her up once her lunch shift was over.

Now all she had to do was hide away from Travis for as long as possible. However this was proven difficult because the moment that the kitchen and outside stations were open for breakfast, his bright ginger hair was the first thing that she saw. He strode past the pancakes and spurted past the waffles and made a beeline for Isabella.

She panicked a little, fearing that she would have to explain her whereabouts the night before. The main reason why this was the first thought that entered her head was because she knew how men thought. She knew all too well about the little green demon that lurked inside every person, but when brought out in men and in conjunction with women, it often proved to be a messy affair.

But before she could put down the tin of golden syrup and compose herself Travis was stood in front of her, his eyes wide and pleading.

“I’m so sorry I left you behind last night! I just couldn’t find you again I was looking over and over for you but you just disappeared!”

He seemed almost hysterical and was very obviously deeply apologetic. It did make her smile, but at the same time she felt resentful because he had left her alone at the party: a place that on the whole was not good for her.

“It’s okay Travis really,” and before he could say anymore she tied an apron around her waist before pausing to move.

“I’ll make it up to you I promise. How about I buy you dinner tonight?”

It was the awkward situation that she had expected to occur. Of course he would ask her something like this, and of course it would happen just after she had agreed to meet John. If Isabella had been at home and had been surrounded by the friends that had not been any good for her, she would have lied. But because she was trying to reinvent herself she wanted to be honest.

“I’m meeting a friend later on today and I don’t know if I’ll be back for dinner,” Isabella said, genuinely sorry for having to turn Travis down like this.

“Oh, who are you meeting?” He was trying to not sound disappointed but he was failing badly.

“John,” Isabella simply said, really not wanting to rub more salt into the wound.

“John O’Callaghan?”

Isabella nodded again, feeling increasingly sorry for what she was putting Travis through. John’s name was obviously a surprise to him and also the effect it had on him was astounding.

“Oh well in that case have fun,” and before Isabella could even say anything else Travis was gone, leaving her with the sinking feeling of guilt in her stomach.

She kept herself busy right up till her lunch break, trying to think of various ways of approaching Travis later on. She hated being made to feel guilty when in theory she had done nothing wrong. There had been many occasions in her life where she had been made to feel in the same way, and she deeply resented it. However as her lunch hour came closer and closer, Isabella found her thoughts drifting away from Travis and instead her mind became occupied by thoughts of John.

He made her nervous as well as exuding the sense of comfort and safety. It was a paradox that she yet had to understand, and she hoped that with spending more time with him this dilemma would sort itself out. As Isabella clocked out of her afternoon shift, she saw John stood just a few feet away from the kitchen trailer looking at the kitchen with a smile on his face. With a slight jitter of the heart, Isabella straightened out her usual attire of jean shorts and oversized v-neck before leaving the trailer.

In life there are always those kinds of people that astound you because they appear at exactly the right point in time and are those blessings in disguise that everyone always talks about. People work in mysterious ways, and one of those mysterious ways was John O’Callaghan. He was the kind of boy that mothers loved and that dads took out fishing on Sundays. He was the shy and intuitive boy who at the same time was able to front a band and present himself to sold out crowds on a regular basis.

And this was also the boy that set aside the time to take Isabella Yates out to town to buy her favourite scoop of vanilla ice cream and to ask her questions and in return listen to her answers.

“So why cooking?” John asked as the two of them settled on a bench not too far down from the ice cream shop.

Isabella smiled to herself and had a small spoonful of her ice cream before looking up at John with her bright green eyes.

“My sister was badly anorexic a couple of years and she used to cook for us all and not eat anything herself, so cooking was the only way to get through to her so I’d help her out and I realized how much I loved to cook.”

It wasn’t a story that she shared with everyone, Lorain’s eating disorder was something that wasn’t easily accepted within the family but speaking to John about it felt right. He didn’t have a surprised look on his face, or that expression of horror whenever Lorain’s situation had to be explained; instead his face was all patience and understanding.

“I thought people who had eating problems hated food?” John asked carefully.

“They don’t hate food, they are obsessed with it, and in the end it got her through so it’s all okay now,” Isabella said with a smile, trying to squash all those resentful feelings that were frequently dredged up when talking about Lorain. But this she was not ready to share yet” along with that other secret that she had been carrying around with her for a while now.

John let the story and explanation sink in as the comfortable silence ebbed out between the two of them. He had know before that she was a special girl, that there was something that set her aside from all those other girls that constantly milled around him. Maybe it was because she didn’t do this, she didn’t seek him out demanding his attention by waving ticket stubs at him or flirting with him over the merch table. Her presence and character spoke for herself.

John smiled down at Isabella, and for the first time since Warped started he felt at home.