Close Your Eyes to See

“Are you sure you don't want to stop by your apartment and change?” Edie shouted from her bedroom as she put in a fresh pair of earrings and wiped off some of the makeup she had on her face from the dinner.

After spending the entire evening at the event with the Whites, Edie and John were heading to a house party at John's friend's house. Dying to get out of her dress and heels from the night, the two of them made a stop by Edie's apartment so she could change.

“Nah, I'll be fine.” John stood in her apartment, Harley rubbing against his legs, as he ripped off his tie and took off his coat jacket. Suits weren't his thing.

Edie couldn't stop smiling as she pulled a oversized red sweater on her shoulders, finally feeling comfortable in the material on her body. Edie was feeling like a school girl who was finally getting her crush, she couldn't stop her smiling or happy thoughts.

Although her parents' constant question and nagging towards John at dinner was kind of awkward, she was glad they were all at least past the awkward meeting of the parents phase. Edie slipped on her brown oxfords and grabbed her purse as she exited her bedroom to see John standing there with Harley in his arms.

He was walking aimlessly around the room, petting Harley's little head with his white shirt untucked from his black pants. He had slicked his hair back slightly for the night and it was starting to get messy, a few stray pieces falling by his forehead.

John still made Edie nervous. So so nervous. She felt like he was just going to disappear and this whole thing was going to turn out to be a dream. Guys never liked her, never.

“Ready to go?” Edie asked as she cleared her throat. John looked over at her and smiled before carefully setting Harley down on the ground as she let out a meow and skittered off into the kitchen. She watched as John ran his hand through that messy hair of his and nodded. He reached his hand out for Edie to grab with a smile as their hands interlocked and they walked out of the apartment together.

As Edie and John descended the stairs, she felt awkward. She didn't know how to act around boys or anyone for that matter, she was the shyest person in the world, but she knew that John knew that.

John easily knew this wasn't easy for her and in fact, it was weird for him too. John had been with a lot of girls, but in his twenty three years of life, he had had two girlfriends.One when he was sixteen and, of course, there was Aly. But needless to say, John didn't really know too much about relationships either.

“Did I mention you looked beautiful tonight?” Edie rolled her eyes at John as they walked down the quiet sidewalk to his truck.

“Only about fifteen times, John.” She teased, squeezing his hand. Squeezing his hand was a habit that was already beginning to stick. John walked over and unlocked her side of the car and held the door open for her.

“You know, we don't have to stay there very long. I just told Eric I would stop by for a bit. I know you don't like parties too much these days.” It was true, Edie was tired from tonight and her parents drained all of her energy. The last thing she wanted was to go to a party, but John wanted to go so she would do it for him.

Edie went to get into the car, but John's arm kept her from moving. She looked at him, the butterflies in her stomach again. John was a good four or five inches taller than her, the top of Edie's head reaching just above his shoulders. When he looked down at her, his eyes said it all. John slowly leaned down and placed his lips onto Edie's, their first kiss since that night on Edie's couch.

Edie kissed back, but she had no idea what to do with her hands or her body or anything. All she did was stand there and even though she felt the kiss throughout her entire body, she felt so awkward. She found herself laughing against his lips before laughing at the ground at herself.

“Why are you laughing?” John asked with a chuckle, his girlfriend's spur of the moment outburst taking him by surprise.

“I am the most awkward person ever, I'm sorry.” She rubbed her forehead in almost sheer embarrassment as John began laughing at her words, lifting her chin his his hand so she looked at him.

“Trust me, I'm not doing any better.” They both shared another moment of laughing at one another before John kissed her once more and allowed her to get into the truck.

John had decided earlier this morning that if things worked about and he got Edie, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure things turned out okay. He was afraid of her, he was afraid of hurting her again. He was afraid of how fragile she was and how she never used her words to describe how she was feeling. If he did one thing wrong, it could be over.

However, the high that Edie was feeling since dinner time slowly disappeared as soon as her and John entered the house. Not that she had any experience, but Edie wasn't exactly a fan of public displays of affection. Her and John's hands were locked together as they walked into the room and it took ten seconds for multiple pairs of eyes to fall on them.

Edie glanced at John who seemed oblivious to it all. He was happy to finally be able to hold her hand out in public, it was a good feeling. Edie was the only one who noticed everyone staring at them and she could only guess what they were saying.

John was the main guy. Every girl swooned over him. He had this captivating ora around him that drew everyone in. John was a good looking, musician who knew how to woo people and gain friends in a blink of an eye. He was everything that she wasn't.

Edie was still the quiet girl who followed Eric Halvorsen around at parties. She never talked to anyone other than him or Amber nor did anyone ever talk to her. She was the girl with the social issues who can from the bucks deluxe mcmansions in the southern part of town. She was the girl who dressed modestly and rarely got drunk at parties. She was the basketcase of Phoenix. The basketcase was the dating the prince.

The girls stared with judgement and envy, things that John still didn't notice. The stares were tearing Edie down from the small amount of confidence she had built up these past few hours. She averted her eyes to the ground and followed John into the kitchen where she could hear Eric's voice over the loud chatter.

“HEY! How was the dinner?” Edie's instinct told her to let go of John's hand as soon as she saw Eric, but John held onto it firmly because he knew she was thinking about letting go. John didn't want to let her hand free, he wanted to show her off to everyone who looked their way.

“I think me and Jean really hit it off.” John joked as he reached for two beers, finally letting go of Edie's hand and using the bottle opener to get the caps off the bottles for him and Edie. She took it graciously and gulped some of it down, hoping that it would ease the feelings in her body.

As John wrapped one arm around her and held her in close, she watched as one girl stared her down and whispered something on the sly to her friend next to her. Edie tried not to believe she was overreacting, but she could tell in the girl's face exactly what she was thinking – how did a girl like Edie end up with John?

“Isn't that right?” Her ears tuned back into the conversation the boys were having and gave a little smile, nodding her head as she took another sip of her beer and pretended to be listening to what they were saying.

Edie set her beer down on the counter, the alcohol not satisfying her as she looked around the room while John continued to tell Eric about the evening they had. The same girls continued to stare at her and John, causing Edie to shift awkwardly in her stance and the weight of John's arm feeling a million times heavier.

“I need to go to the bathroom.” She shuttered out as she left John's embrace and booked it as fast as she could to the nearest empty room in the house. She set down on the empty bed and rested her head in her hands, feeling overwhelmed with emotions she couldn't even think of. She was overreacting and freaking out over nothing. She had John, what more could she want?

Back in the kitchen, however, John knew instantly something was wrong. He excused himself from the kitchen, Eric refraining from follow his friend, as John checked every bathroom in the house, but still not managing to find her.

It took him five different rooms to finally find Edie sitting on the bed in one of the bedrooms with her head in her hands.

“What's wrong, Edie?” John took a seat by his girlfriend, instantly feeling sad for seeing her like this. He could tell by the sound her sniffles that she was crying. He rested one hand on her back for comfort as she continued to hide her face.

Edie didn't know why she was feeling this way or why these thoughts were running through her head, but she couldn't help it.

“Will you take me home please?” She wiped the last of her tears and brought her face up to look at John's whose bushy eyebrows were scrunched together in confusion. He nodded his head and got up from the bed, reaching for Edie's hand.

John knew that Edie was going through something that she didn't want to talk about. But he was going to get her to speak, he needed to know everything.