Amanda's Eyes - Chapter 15

 Fifteen – A Bad Day Turns Out Good

 
At lunch time Friday, Ken sat alone in the cafeteria, eating his lunch and thinking, “This is one of those days.”
 
 
To start, he woke up late. He NEVER woke up late. Evidently there’d been a momentary power failure that night and his alarm clock lost its settings. He had to rush through his shower and eat a banana on the way to school. He didn’t even get to check his email before leaving. That was a true crisis!
 
On the way to school after the rush was over, he thought about yesterday afternoon’s reading session with Amanda. The reconciliation and walk in the park had gone well, and he looked forward to more time with her after school.
 
First period, in physics class, he got back a quiz he’d thought was easy and found that he’d screwed up an assumption and gotten everything wrong. A big fat ZERO! He NEVER failed quizzes or tests in science; he never failed anything. Beside being frustrating, it was embarrassing since this teacher always handed tests back in grade order, and the class was used to Ken being first, not last. Fortunately, the teacher always ignored the lowest quiz score when calculating final grades, so the disaster wouldn’t affect his overall grade, but it still contributed to a bad day and a sour disposition.
 
After first period, he passed Kelly and Todd in the hall. He’d finally gotten used to seeing them together, and while he no longer felt physically sick, it still hurt. This time was different; Kelly smiled at him and said, “Hi,” before Todd pushed her -- a little roughly -- down the hall away from him. Since their breakup, she’d just sneered or smirked at him. This was the first smile and civil word she’d given him since the talk on her porch. He had no idea why she’d been such a bitch for the last couple of weeks or why she would change now. He wasn’t sure if it was a welcome change or whether he even cared. Kelly was history, recent history perhaps, but no longer relevant to his plans and future.
 
And here he was at lunch. He hadn’t had to eat alone at school in practically forever, but today, John was off on a biology field trip, Sandy was sitting with some of her girlfriends, and the rest of the computer club members were nowhere to be seen, so Ken was alone. He could probably have found someone else to sit with but it seemed like too much effort so he pulled a book out of his backpack and used the quiet time to read. Murphy’s Law seemed to be cumulative.
 
After lunch, as he was walking to his Calculus class, he was suddenly shoved hard from the side into the row of lockers. He bounced off them with a loud clang and fell to the floor looking up at Todd glaring at him, face almost purple.
 
“Stay away from my woman, geek.” The football player prodded him in the ribs with his foot as a further threat before sauntering away. Ken couldn’t think of any possible reason for the attack. Would that oversized, under-brained jock really take offense simply because Kelly said hello to him as they passed in the hallway, or was Todd, the Neanderthal, just doing his bit to make an already rotten day a little worse?
 
He wondered if life was just becoming too complicated. The computer competitions, breaking up with Kelly, getting to know Amanda, college application deadlines, classes, grades… was too much going on in his life? Could it be time to simplify? Then again, maybe this was just a bad day.
 
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The last few classes of the day went all right, or at least nothing happened to make the day worse, and when he thought about his reading time with Amanda his mood began to improve. They’d gotten permission from her parents and Miss Harris to go off campus for the reading appointment. He met her at the entrance to her school and after she greeted him with a hug and quick kiss, and they drove to her house.
 
Like all teenagers, their first stop was the kitchen, where Ken poured a couple of glasses of coke and dug a few cookies from the jar before they made their way to the living room to do their assignment. They sat on the couch next to each other, and, with permission, he reached into her book bag.
 
“I’ll get the book… no more drop-the-book games,” he said with a chuckle. She agreed and leaned on his shoulder, her hands holding his arm as he began to read, with feeling! He felt her slowly rub the side of her face against his shoulder while she moved her hand up and down his arm, and he couldn’t help but pause in his reading and kiss her head.
 
 “This is so much better than sitting in that stuffy little room.” She said with a soft sigh. He agreed and before he could start on the book again, she slid down until she was lying on her back on the couch with her head on his lap, cheek against his stomach.
 
“You look way too comfortable like that. I’ll warn you right now, if you start snoring, I’m going to tickle you.”
 
“I don’t snore,” she commented with a yawn.
 
It seemed completely natural for him to hold the book up in one hand and begin to trace little designs on her tummy through her sweater with the other hand between page turnings. More important, this just felt…right. He realized that all the frustrations over his miserable day were…well, they just weren’t there anymore. He didn’t remember the bad feelings going away, but in Amanda’s presence they just seemed to have evaporated. With Amanda lying in his lap, this didn’t seem like such a bad day at all.
 
Looking down at her face, he noticed a look of pure bliss -- eyes closed, face relaxed, edges of her mouth turned slightly up toward a grin. Except for the smile and an occasional comment, she looked like she was sleeping and enjoying a very nice dream. On second thought maybe this was a dream situation.
 
As he approached the end of another pair of pages, he realized that the hand on her belly had moved up, seemingly on its own, and was now gently caressing the underside of a breast. It really didn’t want to leave the sweet spot it had found to turn the page of the book, so he just leaned back on the couch and let it continue its exploration while he put the book down and sent the other hand on its own journey through Amanda’s hair, then to an ear, and then her face. When it reached her lips, she kissed his fingers.
 
“Ken, not that I’m complaining, but we don’t seem to be making much progress in the book right now.” She whispered.
 
“Yeah, I know. I think we’re done reading for today.”
 
Both of Ken’s hands went to her sides and pulled her up into a kiss. First just little quick dabs of kisses on her lips, then he moved to her cheeks, then her closed eyes, then on to her nose and chin. While they were good kisses, and the cheeks, eyes, nose, and chin appreciated every one, she finally managed to turn her head to again capture the kisses on her lips. Those lips were very soft and very cooperative as his pushed a little harder against them to feel their warmth and taste their flavor -- the flavor of strawberry lip gloss mingling with the taste of girl. His tongue peeked out of his mouth and touched those soft, warm lips, which immediately opened slightly to capture the intruder between them. He heard or maybe felt a sigh. Was it the girl in his arms? Was it him? He really wasn’t sure and it didn’t matter at all.
 
Just because the lips were so delightfully occupied didn’t mean the hands were idle. One of them held her close while the other found the bottom of her sweater and slid under it, up her warm skin to delicately traverse her side then move slowly to her back. Her skin was so smooth and warm. The only word that came to mind was “perfect.” He moved his hand up and down, from the waistline of her jeans through the hollow of the small of her back, up the backbone over her bra-strap, and up to her shoulders. Amanda started to squirm and shiver in his arms as the kisses and the touches had more and more effect on her.
 
Her arms went around his neck holding her to him. One moved slowly up to the back of his head, while the other began rubbing between his shoulder blades. That hand on his head left no doubt where his lips belonged as it held his tightly to hers. Within the joined mouths, her tongue began to dance with his -- first, just little touches, soon progressing into a full contact slow dance as sensuous as any ever seen on a dance floor.
 
Amanda shuddered and squirmed, causing the hand on her back to almost lose its hold on her and her lips slipped away from Ken’s.
 
“Ken…oh my God…what are we doing?”
 
He pulled her close to hold her more securely, and between quick kisses to her face he whispered, “You feel wonderful.”
 
“You do too… but...” and her face turned redder as she found herself too embarrassed to speak. After a moment she continued, “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…” and tears began rolling down her cheeks.
 
He wiped a drop from her cheek, “It’s okay; I don’t want to rush you, but you feel so good that I got carried away.”
 
“I got carried away too, but we need to slow down a little.” Then she smiled through her drying tears and with a giggle said, “Not too much though.”
 
“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.” He smiled, and the slight laugh in his voice let her know about the smile.
 
“Hey… my mom and dad told me I should invite you to dinner Sunday. I guess with you spending more time here, they want to get to know you a little better. If you can’t, it’ll be okay, but I think they’d really like it, and I’d know I would.”
 
“That would be fun. I need to work tonight and tomorrow, but I’m off on Sunday. Any idea what time I should show up?”
 
“We usually eat at around six-thirty on Sundays, but you can come anytime.”
 
“Maybe we can find something to do in the afternoon. Do you know if you’re free?”
 
“You know I don’t have much going on… I’m almost always free.”
 
That settled, they just cuddled on the couch, his arms around her shoulders and back, her face against his chest, until he had to go to work. They quietly talked about school and the weather and plans for the weekend. Since he was working both Friday and Saturday nights, they couldn’t go to a football game this weekend, but they would plan something for Sunday before dinner. He’d call her.
 
Talking finished, they just held each other for a while, and now and then he leaned down slightly to kiss her head, drawing a comfortable sigh or wiggle from her.
 
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That evening was the first time in nearly a week that Ken and Patty were working on the same night. He told her that her advice, as usual, was right on and promised to tell her all about his reunion with Amanda if they could arrange their breaks at the same time.
 
Later, when the crowds were enjoying their movies and the lobby was empty, he and Patty took their breaks together, sitting on a bench in an out-of-the way area of the theater. He told her about the grand plan he’d come up with for making sure he’d be able to talk to Amanda again, even if it did involve another two weeks of reader service. He chuckled telling her that Miss Harris had been relieved to let Ken take on another shift with Amanda. She hadn’t really wanted to inflict the girl’s temper on anyone new. Patty laughed a little when he told her how Amanda had dropped the book in surprise when she’d realized who her “new” reader was.
 
Patty thought the walk in the park was fabulously romantic, and when he told her that they’d gotten permission to move their reading sessions to Amanda’s house, she giggled and asked just how much reading they were doing. He assured her that they were making good progress with the book, and then had to laugh a little and admit that reading wasn’t the only thing happening those afternoons.
 
A sudden, serious look appeared on her face as she asked, “Really Ken… how do you feel about this girl? It sounds like you’re spending a lot of time with her. I hope you aren’t leading her on or setting her up for a big hurt.”
 
“I really like her. I never would have thought I could have fun with a girl who couldn’t see…in fact, I’d never really considered dating anyone with any kind of physical disability… most people probably never do. But it feels so right to me now that most of the time I’m around her, I don’t even think about her blindness. Sure, I remember that I have to help her, but even that feels natural and normal now. When I’m talking to her or walking around with her, or even when I’m reading to her, all I notice is the soft, warm, pretty girl I’m with.”
 
“Do you think you’d like her as a girlfriend?”
 
“I hadn’t really considered it but honestly, I’m thinking of her that way most of the time already.”
 
“Do you think she sees you as her boyfriend?”
 
“I don’t know but I don’t think she has too many options either.”
 
“You’d better be good to her.”
 
Later, after he’d returned to work, he kept asking himself if he wanted Amanda as a girlfriend. Did her blindness make any difference to him? Would there be a time when it would bother him? And he realized that just as he’d told Patty, he liked Amanda for who she was; what she couldn’t do made very little difference to him. He decided that, yes, Amanda would make a great girlfriend. Ken spent the rest of the evening with a happy spring to his steps, a frequent grin on his face, and a shining gleam in his eyes.

 

Thanks, Woody.

Thanks, Woody.

Good to see another chapter

Having read myself current, it is good to see further developments in this story. There are enough loose ends to keep my interest.

I can't help wondering if Ken is going to be able to use his computer skills to provide opportunities for Amanda in that direction.

Pleased Somehow

Amanda's Eyes 15

I love this story, perhaps because I can identify with Amanda. For me, it would be complete after Chapter 14 but I'm also delighted to see another chapter.

Susie

Woody, such a sweet treat for an early August evening

Seems our young lovers are back on course but what gives with his ex, Kelly? Is she just smiling at Ken to make her football star boyfriend Todd jealous and more attentive? She afraid even a dope like him will see through her shallowness or was she honestly being social and Mr Neanderthal misread it?

Todd needs to pay for his bad behaviors but like too many good athletes the school appears to lei his shit rode until someone get seriously hurt or he gets hurt and can't play anymore. And when will Kelly get her comeuppance for harming Amanda at the dance?.

Still tugs at the heart, Woody.

John in Wauwatosa

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