Rainbow Eyes

The next morning was a Saturday. And more importantly, visiting day. It was the day where family members and friends of the orphans visited, such as uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins. We had one visiting day ever 3 months. Rephaim’s aunt always came to visit us. I loved Rephaim’s aunt. Her name was Arna. She was like a mother to me. Whenever she came to visit, she would always bring me things such as pads, tampons, some clothes she found for me, etc. She wasn’t interested in adopting, though, mainly because she didn’t have enough money to support two teenagers and that she was barely twenty-three. She always told me how bad she felt about it, and that was why she splurged on buying stuff for us.

A few hours before the visiting hours started, Ms. Chaley called me down to the lobby.

“Aurora, we’re going to need you to switch rooms and move in with Hanna,” she told me.

My heart almost stopped. “What? Why?”

She grabbed the front of my shirt and flung me across the room, and I slammed headfirst into a lamp. “I don’t owe you any explanations,” she snarled.

I nodded, glancing down.

She sighed. “Well, if you had any common sense, you would be able to figure out that you and Rephaim can’t share a room anymore because you’re older now and you’re a girl and he’s a boy.”

I paused, stepping back. “Well, you’ve never cared about that before!” I blurted.

She grabbed me by the hair, slamming my head into the wall violently. I stepped back, feeling dizzy. Bad move, Aurora, I told myself.

“Whore,” she hissed in my ear before slamming my head into the wall again.

“You have two hours to pack and set up in Hanna’s room,” she spit, and walked off.

I felt like crying. Lately, Rephaim was the only person that could ever make me happy. And she had to take him away from me too. Sometimes it just felt like, no matter how hard I tried to be happy, given my condition, the thing that made me happy would have to be ruined. What’s next, Ms. Chaley breaking both my hands so I couldn’t paint or draw anymore?

I walked upstairs, ignoring the throbbing in the middle of my forehead. I began to pack up my stuff, which wasn’t much. Just my clothes, art stuff, school stuff, toiletries, and a few personal belongings. I didn’t have much.

Rephaim glanced up. “Hey, hey, hey. What are you doing?” he asked me, grabbing my arm.

“Ms. Chaley ordered me to go room with Hanna,” I said miserably.

His eyes widened. “What? No! Did you try explaining to her that we’ve been roomies forever?”

I nodded. “Yeah, but she gave me this.” I pointed to the throbbing red welt on my forehead.

“Ouch. That’s starting to bleed, by the way,” Rephaim reached into his pocket, pulling out a tissue and pressing it against my forehead. What was I going to do without him?

After a minute, I pushed his hand away and continued moving my stuff to Hanna’s room. Dang, she had a lot of clothes. In our new shared bathroom, the medicine closet was crammed with things like leave-in conditioner, deep conditioner, mousse, etc. All I had was shampoo, conditioner, a diffuser, and some acne wash. It also had a lot of makeup in it. The only makeup I wore was occasionally eyeliner and concealer to try to cover up the bruises and scars I had gotten from Ms. Chaley.

After an hour, I had basically finished setting up, and I went back to my old room, the one I’d been sharing with Rephaim for the past years. Rephaim stood behind me as I took my one of my paintings off the wall. Rephaim could keep the rest. The painting I took was of a beach scene, the backs of a couple holding hands. It was one of my favorites.

Wordlessly, he reached out and hugged me. It felt so good, to have someone there for me and holding me tight. Suddenly, the door flung open and Ms. Chaley walked in. We sprung apart. She hadn’t noticed we were hugging, or else we’d get it.

“You’re packed?” she asked me. I nodded.

“Good. Now go line up for Assembly. Both of you,” she strode away, leaving the door wide open.

We lined up for Assembly, and surprisingly, Ms. Chaley only slapped one child, a six-year old who was picking his nose. But that was it. Now it was Visiting Day.

I was just as excited as Rephaim to see his aunt, maybe even more so. We sat on the couch, and I stared at my feet as we waited for Arna to arrive. She finally showed up, first attacking Rephaim in a bear hug and then giving me a bear hug and a kiss on the cheek.

She grinned at me, gushing, “Awwh, Aurora, I can’t believe how gorgeous you are! I’m jealous,” she smiled, playing with a strand of my hair and then turning to Rephaim.

“Hey, Arna,” I hugged her back, complimenting her as well.

“You’re so tall! And have you been working out?” she asked, squeezing his bicep. He blushed, meeting my eyes. I giggled.

“Well, how about we go up to your room?” she asked us.

“We’re not roommates anymore,” I sighed.

She looked sad and sympathetic. “Oh. That’s sad,” she told us, but then brightened again. “Well, then we’ll see both of your rooms! And I got a surprise for you,” she smiled, gesturing to two very large trash bags by her feet.

Rephaim led the way up the stairs, and as I turned, I saw Hanna sitting on the couch, crying into her hands.

I wanted to comfort her or at least ask what was wrong, but I didn’t want to waste any precious time with Arna. So I decided to ask later.

Arna dumped one of the trash bags at Rephaim’s feet, smiling at him. “I got you new clothes, cologne, deodorant, a new soccer ball, shin guards, and new cleats,” she beamed at him.

“Thanks!” he grinned, pulling his aunt into a hug.

“Oh, and Aurora,” she turned to me.

“I got you lots of new clothes, some girl stuff—”she winked at me, “and…a new bikini!!” she grinned proudly.

“Awwh thanks so much!” I smiled at Arna.

“No problem. But you’ll have to try on the bikini here. I’m not sure if it’ll fit. If it doesn’t, I’ll return it and bring a new one next time I visit,” she told me.

Now, this might seem stupid to all of the normal girls who wore string bikinis and hung out with their boyfriends, but I had never worn a bikini before. I always wore old racing one-pieces when I practiced swimming at the pool. I never saw a need for a bikini, since there were no guys I wanted to impress. But I didn’t want to be a freak. I wanted to be normal.

“Okay, when should I do it?” I asked Arna.

“Now! Go try it on in the bathroom,” she dug through the trash bag and pulled out a blue and black Pacsun bikini. The first thing I noticed was that it was skimpy. Really skimpy. But at least it buckled at the back and wasn’t a string bikini, because I would’ve died if it was a string bikini.
She placed her hands on my shoulders, steering me into the bathroom.

In the bathroom, I undressed slowly, pulling on the bikini top and bottom. I struggled to buckle the back, but I finally got it. Once I was done, I examined myself in the mirror. Whoa. Was that me? I actually looked…good. And it was a nice change from the baggy T-shirts and jeans I normally wore.

I examined myself from the side, and from the back, finding nothing wrong. I opened the door a crack, wondering if Arna wanted to come in the bathroom or if I should come out of the bathroom.

“Come out, Aurora,” she beckoned. Rephaim was standing next to her, listening to his iPod and playing on it, when I stepped out.

“Wow, you look great! It fits perfectly,” she beamed and then nudged Rephaim. “Doesn’t she look great?” she asked him.

He glanced up, and then I swear, his eyes nearly bugged out when he saw me in the bikini. “Yeah, she looks good,” he mumbled, turning his head. I could see red blush creeping up the back of his neck. Something he did only when he was really embarrassed.

I crossed my arms over my chest, now worried that the top dipped too low. “See, now when you go swimming, I bet you’ll catch a cute lifeguard,” she winked at me, oblivious of Rephaim staring straight at me.

“Yeah,” I murmured, disappearing back into the bathroom and quickly pulling on my skinny, ripped jeans and red-and-white baggy hoodie.

I folded the bikini, coming out of the bathroom and shoving it in the trash bag. Arna pulled out various articles of clothing she’d gotten me, holding them up to me and saying how cute I would look in them.

The three of us sat on Rephaim’s bed, and we answered Arna’s questions about school and we asked her questions about her boyfriend, Dave, and her work at the Nike store.
After awhile, when we had half an hour left to visitation time, she smiled at Rephaim. “We’re gonna go see Aurora’s room and put her clothes away,” she told Rephaim.

“Okay,” he said as we left his room.

As soon as we stepped into the room, she smiled at me mischievously. “Okay, spill. What’s going on?” she asked me.

“What do you mean?” I answered back.

“The whole time we were talking, your mind’s been on something else. Someone else. A guy. I can tell that. I don’t think its Rephaim, but you’re gonna sit down here and tell me who it is,” she ordered good-naturedly.

I smiled at her. Wow, she could read minds. “Well, you’re right. It is a guy and it’s not Rephaim.” I tool a deep breath and then told her everything. About ice cream with Ian. How protective Rephaim had become. Ian being the Moreaus’ son. And most importantly, Ian kissing me and what I’d said to him.

“So…did you like it when Ian kissed you?” Arna asked.

I was all ready to say no, but then I thought of the way Ian’s lips were soft and warm on mine. The way he’d smiled adorably after we’d stopped. The hurt and confusion on his face when I began yelling. The way his wavy brown hair flopped over his forehead.

“I…I don’t know,” I confessed. She had me second-guessing myself.

“Do you think you were a little too hard on him about the kiss?” she asked me. I nodded.

Wordlessly, Arna pulled out her iPhone and logged onto her Facebook, typing Ian’s name in the search box.

“That’s him,” I pointed to the second result.

His profile picture was adorable. He was in his soccer shirt, his hair wavy, his smile happy, his blue eyes sparkling. It was a great picture of him, and I couldn’t stop staring.

“He’s really good looking,” Arna grinned.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, smiling at the picture.

“Do you like him?” Arna asked me.

I paused for a second, staring at the screen of the iPhone.

“Maybe I do,” I said.

Great, now she had me falling for Ian. Hard.