Shut Your Eyes

*Sid POV*

“What’s wrong with you?” Kris asked me. I was fixing a drink in Marc and Vero’s kitchen, all too aware of Max’s eyes on me from all the way out on the patio.

“Why is Max staring at me?” I asked back. I couldn’t help but be confused. Max was watching me like a hawk watches a mouse – very carefully. He was being stealthy about it too, cutting his dark eyes back and forth between me and whoever he was talking to, all the while keeping an eye on Maggie who was standing beside him.

Kris shrugged and scooped some ice into his drink. “Did you make him mad?”

“I don’t think so.” Kris shrugged again and gave me a firm clap on the back.

“I don’t know what to tell you, man. He doesn’t look angry though so I wouldn’t worry about it.” Nodding, I followed him back out into the living room and away from Max’s line of sight. We attached ourselves to the edge of a group containing Geno, Jordan, and TK, along with some girls that had obvious spray tans and bottle blonde hair.

“Hey! We were wondering where you guys went!” Jordan exclaimed, a bright smile on his face. Forcing himself in the middle, he wrapped a long arm around each of us and began the introductions. “Tanger, Sid, this is Brittany, Krystal, Avery, and Tara.”

They each flashed sets of pearly white teeth at us as they smiled, and I cringed inwardly as the one Jordan classified as Avery visibly looked me up and down.

“They’re all students at the University.” Jordan explained further, watching Kris and I with a sly smile. I knew what he had in mind. Tanger seemed less than amused. Not that he didn’t have a reputation with the ladies, but these girls seemed a little trashy – even for Jordan’s standards.

“Sid, why don’t you show Avery where the kitchen is. She doesn’t have a drink yet.” Immediately, she latched herself onto my arm. I said nothing, but led Avery away from the circle, glaring daggers at Jordan as I looked back at his smug grin.

We wandered into the empty kitchen and over to the bar. There were many different bottles of liquor, along with sodas in a cooler off to the side. Sighing, I turned to Avery and lazily pointed my finger in the direction of the alcohol. “Would you like a drink?”

She pursed her lips and I found myself thinking about how much cuter Maggie’s habit of biting her lip was. “I’ll have a white wine spritzer.”

She began chattering about something unimportant, or at least unimportant to me, while I got a wine glass out of the cabinet and fixed her drink. Glancing out at the patio, I noticed that Max was no longer staring at me but was immersed in a conversation with Geno about something. I also noticed that Maggie wasn’t attached to Max’s side like she usually was. My eyes scanned the patio for a moment before I leaned back to look into the living room; I couldn’t see her anywhere. My eyebrows furrowed involuntarily. Where was she?

“Looking for something, Sid?” Vero’s voice caused my head to snap to the left to where she and Maggie were standing at the bottom of the stairs in the foyer that sat off of the kitchen. Maggie was wearing a hoodie that I’d seen Vero wear before – they must have been up in her room.

They were both staring at me expectantly. My mouth was open slightly as I thought of an answer to Vero’s question. Maggie looked between Vero and I slowly, cocking an eyebrow at Vero as I stared at them in silence.

“No?” Smooth Sid. Real smooth.

I didn’t mean for it to come out as a question, but under Vero’s watchful gaze and Maggie’s ability to unnerve me simply with her silence I turned into a pile of mush. Max’s little sister was single-handedly responsible for taking the person I was on the ice – confident, collected, good under pressure – and turning me into someone with an extremely limited vocabulary and absolutely no game. Whenever she was around, my whole body knew it. I’d keep talking and stuff, but I had no clue what I was saying. I keep wondering if there’s a term for this.

In the background, we all heard something break. Vero rolled her eyes and scooted herself into the living room to see what had happened. There was a moment of silence before it was broken by her shrill yell. “Tyler Kennedy, have you lost your damn mind?”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit, TK was always breaking stuff. Avery picked this time to sidle back up to my side, wrapping a perfectly manicured hand around my forearm. “What’s so funny?”

Not gonna lie, she scared me a little bit. I’d forgotten she was there. I threw on a pleasant smile and went back to fixing her drink. “Nothing, just TK getting in trouble.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Maggie walk over to the fridge and pull a water bottle out of it. I wondered to myself how she managed to walk without making any noise. Max was the complete opposite, when he entered a room he made sure everyone knew he was there – you could practically hear him coming from a mile away. Maggie was a different story entirely, she did everything quietly.

She gave me a small smile and walked into the living room, probably going off to find Max and give him the other water bottle that was tucked under her arm. I could see Vero in the living room yelling at Tyler next to a broken picture frame.

“Did you hear me?”

I turned back to the annoyed blonde that was next to me. She didn’t look very happy.

“I’m sorry, did you say something?” She huffed and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. I knew enough about women to know that stance wasn’t good, and other nights I might have cared, but not tonight.

“I asked who that girl was.” Looking behind her through to the window, I saw Maggie back out on the patio with Max and Geno. She had her camera hanging around her neck and was taking candid shots of everyone. Her mouth was stretched into a wide smile as she took a picture of Geno and Max goofing off and making weird faces at the camera.

In the moments where her camera wasn’t at her face, her large blue eyes were scanning the area surrounding her like they always did. Every so often she would look behind her, even though nothing was ever there. Suddenly, her eyes found mine and locked onto them. The calm expression on her face never changed, but the amount of intensity in her casual stare unnerved me a bit. I decided to do the only thing I knew how to do when I was uncomfortable.

................................................................................................................

*Maggie POV*

I stifled a giggle as I walked past Sid and his…friend and into the living room. He looked like a fox stuck in a trap – ready to gnaw his own leg off to get the hell out of there. The girl on the other hand was looking at him like a piece of meat. She had an arm wrapped around his as he’d fixed her drink, making sure she was as close to his body as she possibly could be. Sidney would have an interesting time trying to get rid of her.

Wandering through the living room, I gave TK a sympathetic smile as Vero yelled at him in French. A million pieces of picture frame and glass were scattered across the hardwood floor, and TK and Kris stood there looking quite guilty – Tyler more so than Kris.

I juggled the two water bottles in my hand as I opened the door to the patio, scanning the small crowd that was out by the fire pit for Max. He and Geno were standing right where I left them, leaning against the waist-high stone divider that kept people from falling off the patio and into the bushes. Max and Geno smiled when they saw me, scooting over a bit to make room for me against the brick.

“Did you get lost on the way to the kitchen, Maggie?” Max teased with a smile. I rolled my eyes, but gave a small grin back as I handed him his bottle of water.

“Vero gave me a sweatshirt because I was getting cold.” Max nodded and unscrewed the cap off of his water bottle before taking a swig. Geno nudged me with his shoulder and smiled down at me, his wide doe brown eyes twinkling.

“Did you have fun at game?” It was clear that he chose his words carefully, trying to make as much sense as possible – a trait I found incredibly endearing. I made sure to smile brightly at him as I answered.

“So much. I haven’t been to a home game in a long time.” His smile widened.

“Good! I am glad.” He pointed at my camera that I’d brought along. I was wearing it around my neck like an accessory, taking candid pictures of people throughout the night. “Why you have camera?” He asked curiously, much like a child would.

“I’m a photographer, remember? This is what I do. I take pictures so I can remember everything.” I surprised myself with how much information I was giving out to Geno. I hadn’t said this many words to any of the other boys on the team, Marc-André clearly excluded. Maybe the language barrier had something to do with it. Maybe it was his eyes, and how incredibly honest they were – like he had nothing to hide. Whatever it was, something about Evgeni made me feel safe.

“I can try?” He asked and I chuckled a little bit at his enthusiasm. Lifting the camera off of my neck, I gave him the camera and some simple instructions on how to work it – where the button was, how to zoom, and so on and so forth.

He immediately turned the camera on Max, who gave him a bright smile and flipped him the bird. This went on for a few more minutes, Geno snapping random photos of everyone. After he handed me my camera back, I took a photo of him and Max mugging for the camera.

I grinned a little bit, knowing that when I got home that would be the first picture to go up on my wall. Scanning the area around me, I saw plenty of people I didn’t know and some that I did. I could see Jordan in the living room chatting it up with some blonde girl. Marc and Vero were sitting together on the couch talking to Kris. I looked into the kitchen and saw Sid staring straight at me.

His bright honey colored eyes stood out against his dark hair. Next to him a blonde girl was watching him with an annoyed look on her face. Sid didn’t seem to notice her though, as his amber eyes never left my blue ones. And then he did the most perfect thing – he smiled.