Eye Contact

PROMPT: Eye Contact: write about two people seeing each other for the first time.
This was a little ficlet I wrote during a writers' meetup based on a prompt. Just thought I would share!

“Um… Blake?”

Her amber eyes flicked up from her phone, not able to immediately see the one speaking from behind the black rim around her thick lenses. She didn’t want to see her. This moment had been steadily creeping up on her for months, and she was terrified of what this would be like. Maybe she would think she was hideous. Or boring. Maybe neither of them would find the other one attractive and this would all be a huge waste of time. Or maybe…

“I’m Ilia,” she whispered, and Blake finally had no choice but to turn her head further up. To meet the gaze that would pin her to the uncomfortable plastic chair in the noisy café, too noisy, too annoying, so many- “You’re Blake, right? The, um, the shirt...”

Blake glanced at her Ninja Turtles shirt. Donatello. Just like she had promised she would be wearing. She bit her lip, turning away, hoping her face wasn’t turning red . She hated that.

“You said… you’d be quiet, and it’s fine! You don’t have to say anything. Just… I can sit with you until you can, if that’s okay. Um… I brought your favourite.”

Seeing it in her hands surprised the words out of her: “Pocky. Y-you r-r-rem… you rem...” Her eyes closed for a moment as she took a deep breath. “Remembered.”

Setting the box between them, Ilia took out her tablet and began to tap on the screen. “Do you want to play? Would that be better?”

“Y-yes.” She swallowed, opened her mouth to speak again, and failed. She wished she could get her lips to move, her tongue not to feel like sandpaper. That today was a good day. Then she held up her phone, smiling very cautiously… but she felt better about that once Ilia smiled back.

“Game on.”