A Beautiful Dark

him and began to sweep the floor with it. “I’m fine. But are you ?”
    “I’m okay. I’m a little shaken up, but—”
    “No,” he pressed. “I mean, are you okay ?”
    I stared at him. “Ian. I’m fine.”
    “So you’re, like . . . feeling . . . normal?”
    “Like I just said.” Why was everyone suddenly freaking out on me? “It was just a boiler.”
    “Yeah, it was just a boiler,” he said, his eyes boring into mine. What was going on? “But that’s not what I’m talking about.”
    “So what are you talking about? I promised my aunt I’d be home before next Tuesday, so . . .”
    “You really don’t know?”
    “Ian,” I said, getting annoyed. “Come on. What is it?”
    “Okay.” He put down his broom and came around the side of the counter. He had an excited glint in his eye, and his brow was furrowed with intensity. “Your eyes are gray.”
    “Yes,” I said. “Is that your big revelation?”
    “Come on, just listen. Last night they were silver.”
    My heart skipped a beat. He had noticed?
    “They can look that way sometimes,” I said casually. “Trick of the light.”
    “Skye,” he said, putting both hands on my shoulders. “Silver. Metallic. Like the stuff that’s inside those old thermometers.”
    I shivered as he brought up the exact imagery I’d thought of.
    “Can you put something over the window?” I said. “It’s freezing in here.”
    “Did you hear me?”
    “Yeah, I did. I just don’t think it’s that big a deal. My eyes can look silver in certain light. I don’t know why you’re freaking out about it.”
    “I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve seen your eyes in all kinds of light. I mean, they’re beautiful.” He paused, his cheeks flushing red. “But that’s not the point.”
    “Look, I really appreciate you letting me know.” I didn’t like where this conversation was going. I broke away from his hold and took a few steps backward. “But I’m fine. Do they look silver now?”
    Ian’s face fell. “No. . . .”
    I shrugged in response.
    “Yeah, you’re right,” he said, looking away. “I guess I sound crazy. It was probably just glass flying or something. It was some insane chaos in here. Forget I said anything, okay?” But his eyes still held that same intensity. I backed away. I had to get out of here.
    “I’d offer to stay and help,” I said, “but I have to go finish up some reading before the semester starts. See you tomorrow.”
    “You’re unbelievable. It’s still vacation! You are the only person I know who catches up on reading she’s not even behind on.”
    I smiled. “I want to go to Columbia. And that’s how you do it.”
    “Whatever works, Skye, whatever works.”
    “Good luck with the place.”
    “Thanks,” he said, still standing in the same spot, unmoving.
    “Later, Ian.”
    As I walked outside, I glanced over my shoulder, through the window. He was back to sweeping up the glass. He looked so alone. Guilt nudged at me.
    What was I running from, anyway? So my eyes had been wonky last night. And Ian had seen them. It didn’t necessarily mean anything bad. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe, like I’d told Ian, it really was just a trick of the light. Just because I always immediately thought the worst, didn’t mean I needed to stop being a friend.
    I took out my cell phone and called Cassie. When she answered, I got straight to the point. “I’m at the Bean, planning a little surprise of my own. You and Dan need to get over here.”
    “Um,” she said. “Doesn’t the Bean kind of look like an earthquake hit it?”
    “Cassie.”
    “Sorry.”
    “Are you going to make quips all day or are you going to help me?”
    “Make quips. . . .”
    I coughed loudly into the phone.
    “Fine.” She sighed. “I’m coming to help you. It’s not easy being so selfless, you know.”
    I snapped my phone closed, and stepped back through the gaping hole where the front window used to be. Glass crunched beneath my boots, and Ian turned to look at me. I smiled. “So, are there any extra brooms around here?”
    With Dan and Cassie helping, we had the glass swept up and the broken furniture hauled out to the Dumpster by the time the crew from Wylie’s Windows had arrived.
    Cassie broke out a thermos of her special hot chocolate sprinkled with chili powder. Then we sat on the couches and watched as repair people sealed the new plate glass windows into place. Beyond them, the dark clouds were rolling