Authors note - please vote and comment that's pretty much it otherwise I probably won't keep posting... ah I better write some generic story with a slight twist and a really long name so everyone gets sucked in by that and actually reads the stuff I care about... even though I feel like a sell out...

Ah well enjoy another will most likely get posted tomorrow.

Cat-eyes

2

Obsession

When I woke up the next day, I instantly checked the street outside. It was about half ten and there were quite a few people walking along outside or in cars, but none of them were James. Not even close.

I stayed perfectly still with one eye staring out the slats in the blinds for about ten minutes but no one came along, not anyone special. Then my door opened and I turned round to see my mum walk in. 'Good morning' she said brightly.

'Yeah' I said, not turning round. Keeping my eye fixed on the street outside.

'Honey' I dropped the blind and looked at her 'spying on the neighbours?' one of her eyebrows raised, blonde not like mine at all. My mum looked nothing like me.

'Not really' I said.

'Are you waiting for someone?' she asked 'a boy by any chance?' she was grinning.

'No' I said 'you know me mum, when have I ever had a secret boyfriend. And why would I invite him to the house if he was secret?'

'I thought maybe you were waiting for Michael' she suggested.

'Michael's not my boyfriend' I reminded her, starting to get tired 'remember I've been telling your that for three years?'

Mum shrugged, completely unfazed and unembarrassed 'maybe he's not your boyfriend now, but you want him to be your boyfriend right?'

I groaned 'no... mum. I don't. Just friends, get it.'

'Fair enough sweetie, I made breakfast if you want some.'

'No, it's fine I'll just hang out here' I said, as my stomach rumbled right in time.

'I'll bring some in for you. And make your bed and open the blinds properly, I think people will be more suspicious if you're watching them like that.'

She left and I opened the blinds fully, squinting as the bright light hit my eyes. The morning was crisp, not too cold and the sun was out, but not warm by a long shot. Mum came back in with a plate of breakfast. 'Michael's on the phone' she said.

'Thanks' I put my breakfast on the desk and ran downstairs into the living room to pick up the phone. 'Hi Michael' I said distractedly.

'Oh, hi Amy' he said.

'Isn't it a bit early to be calling?' I asked.

'You said call at ten thirty yesterday' he reminded me 'don't you remember.'

'Oh, yeah' I said, the chaos of yesterday had pretty much wiped my brain blank 'what was it supposed to be about.'

'Doing something today.'

'Oh... right' I said.

'I thought we could go to the cinema or something, you know I think there's this really dorky sci fi thing that we could laugh at' he suggested.

I suppressed a grin down the phone 'get dorkier Michael' I said.

'Your mean' he said, pretending to sound hurt.

'Seriously, do it's hardly going to hurt with the ladies.'

'What can I say, I'm a one trick pony' he said 'love me or leave me, that's my motto.'

'Yeah, well I'm seriously considering leaving you for greener pastures' I said jokingly 'what's it called?'

'I dunno, I'd have to check.'

'Come on Michael. Let me guess you know what it's called and you know what every planned sequel, threequel or prequel there ever going to make is called.'

'Well, yeah...' he said pathetically 'stop mocking me.'

'Sorry' I said, 'sounds cool.'

'The first showings at twelve' he said 'if we meet up at eleven ish at maccy d's before it should be fine, right?'

'Aren't you going to ask me if I can come?' I asked.

'Why would I do that?'

'What if I have something going on?'

'Amy, you have nothing going on. Like every Sunday. Either you'll spend the entire day in your pyjamas slobbing on the sofa watching friends reruns or you'll do something with me.'

'I'm not that black and white' I complained.

'Yeah, Amy. You really are.'

'Last Sunday I watched two episodes of the Simpsons as well' I replied.

'Thanks for proving my point.'

'Hey, that was a difference' I said.

'It doesn't matter what you were watching, do you think that sounds good?' he asked.

'It sounds brilliant' I said 'but I can't make it, sorry.'

'Why not?' he asked.

'Because I'm busy' I said.

'What, are you going on a family trip to the garden centre?' he asked sarcastically.

'No, but I'm busy. Besides I like the garden centre, the cafe there sells really good cakes you should try them some time.'

'What are you doing? I feel like we've sidetracked a bit.'

'Just to cakes' I replied 'that's not that far.'

'Why are you stalling?' he asked.

I didn't reply.

'Seriously Amy, what are you actually doing I'm actually interested.'

'Nothing much' I said 'I've got to go.'

'I will find the truth' he said in a dramatic voice as I cut him off, putting the phone down on the hook.

'Are you doing something with Michael then?' mum asked as she passed with a watering can for one of her thousand potted plants that were scattered around the house.

'No' I said 'he was busy.'

'I'm sorry honey' she said patting my arm sympathetically with her ever cool hands 'you were angry, did you have an argument.'

'No mum, it was a conversation. I have them from time to time if you believe it or not.'

'I remember my first argument with my boyfriend' she said, her eyes almost glazing over 'I was about the same age as you, I remember being so sad and I thought we'd break up. But we didn't, thank god. Then I met your dad a year later.'

'I thought you met dad after university' I said, then shook my head 'please can you listen to me. I'm not going out with Michael. We're friends.'

Mum shrugged, tilting her watering can into a plant pot. 'There was once this guy, in university. He said we were just friends, but-'

I sighed and walked away, leaving her to whatever memory she had and walking back into my room. I closed the blinds and got dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, just in case James didn't recognise my face, I wasn't exactly that noticeable. I have brown, reddish hair and green eyes which I suppose is a strange combo but I've never really liked it. I opened the blinds again and glanced outside, scanning the streets just in case he had appeared in the brief two minutes I wasn't checking but the streets were pretty much empty and none of the people had dark hair and beautiful eyes the exact colour. I wondered if he had passed while I was looking away, maybe he was looking for me.

As I ran down the stairs I reminded myself how stupid that idea was, he had forgotten me already probably he was probably only trying to tell me that my foot was soaking. But then again his eyes, I would never forget the way they penetrated into mine, looking deep into my soul... understanding.... I closed my eyes, feeling them looking into mine. So amazing and gorgeous. Then I felt him next to me and shivered in excitement, then my eyes snapped open as I tripped down the last two steps landing painfully in the living room, jarring my ankle as I fell.

'Are you okay?' asked mum, suddenly appearing above me and helping me up.

'I'm fine' I said gritting my teeth to stop from crying out in pain as I tried my foot on it. 'See look, it feels fine honestly mum it's just a tiny twist.'

'Hmmm' she said 'where are you going?'

'I'm just looking for someone' I said 'I'm not going far.'

'I hope not on that foot.' She sighed 'honey, what's gotten into you recently. You're acting really strange, it's like your waiting for something.'

'No it's not' I said.

'Are you feeling okay' she said, reaching for my forehead.

'I'm feeling fine' I said turning round to avoid her hand 'don't worry about me I'll be out in the street if you want to come and get me.' Not that I'll come, I thought.

'I don't think you should go out on that foot' she said, her face filled with concern 'I think you should put some ice on it.'

'I don't have time' I said 'outside it's cold so that's fine.'

'I don't think that's fine' she said, hovering nervously.

I cringed as I put on my wet trainers from yesterday and walked, more like squelched, into the hallway shivering already.

'I think you should at least put on a coat' mum called from the hallway.

'I'm putting one on' I lied, opening the door and feeling the cold chill of outside sting my skin. I hadn't been wearing a coat yesterday so James might not recognise me without one on. I stepped outside into the freezing air, cursing myself for not wearing something warmer or more noticeable yesterday. As my foot landed on the ground it jarred again and I bit my lip, eyes watering, and forced myself to walk forward into the street. People walked past me, but none of them noticed me and I didn't notice them because none of them were him, not even close. I stood still for a moment and scanned the street again, but I couldn't see him. I retraced the steps that I had taken last night slowly, looking from side to side in case I felt those same, amazing eyes on me that made a shiver run down my spine and me have to catch my breath. But the eyes were gone. My eyes slid to the street lamp I had seen him under last night but the street was empty, I walked over and stood under it myself closing my eyes for a moment to see if I could feel him. But whatever presence he had left was gone. His face appeared in front of my closed eyes, but a ghostly rendition of what he had looked like, what he had been. If he had even existed. I wished he had done something that let me know he was real, if he had only touched me for the smallest moment that had let me know he was real, he was alive. I wrapped my arms around myself, almost pretending that it was his touch, his perfect hands around me.

I dragged my arms off myself, because it wasn't him and I was on my own, wishing and dreaming like I always did. To escape reality. I crossed the road, ignoring the pain that shot down my leg every time I put my right foot down. I looked down at the floor and bit my lip until it bled because if James did turn up and I just went inside because my foot hurt I would regret it forever. I stopped at the place we had spoken yesterday, I looked up and remembered hoe he had walked towards me, that strange light in his eyes as he said hi to me. Then I remembered what he had said before we were interrupted, the sentence he had never finished. What had he been trying to say. I... love you?

I shook my head, because we'd never met before. He wouldn't just say that, it was too weird. He had forgotten me already, of course he had. Why would he remember me? Why would he say he loved me? He had probably just been telling me that my shoe was wet or something small that I was now obsessing about, what was wrong with me? I wasn't like this, I didn't fall in love with random strangers. No one did. Maybe he had been horrible, maybe he was a murderer or something terrible and I had just imagined him as being amazing because his appearance had captivated me. There were plenty of gorgeous guys, a hell of a lot of them were probably really awful, up themselves people. Why would he be any different? We hadn't even really met, but he couldn't be like that, he just couldn't be. I fumbled in my pocket and jammed my headphones into my ear and blasted loud music into my head to wash all my thoughts away as I stood completely still, watching the world go past and wishing the one person I wanted, needed most in the world would walk past and look at me the way he had yesterday.

'Honey you look awful' my mum looked worried as I stepped through the door five hours later 'what were you doing?'

I glanced in the hallway mirror. I did look terrible, my lips were purple and my skin was snow white, almost grey and when I touched it it felt like ice. 'Nothing much' I said, taking my shoes off and walking through the living room to the stairs. I had been stupid, stupid to wait for him. Five hours and nothing. Even if I had seen him, what would I say anyway? Hi, I know we met for like a minute yesterday but I've been thinking about you non stop for twenty hours. Please will be my boyfriend. I shook my head angrily, I couldn't believe how unbelievably stupid I'd been to think he would come past again just to see me. He probably didn't care whether he saw me again or not when it would mean the world to me. Stupid.

'Amy, your limping' said mum, coming up behind me 'please stop, your foot I knew it was hurt and it looks really bad. Why didn't you tell me?' She grabbed my arm and sat me down on the sofa, taking off my wet sock to get a better look at my ankle. I cringed as she touched it and she looked up and me worried 'I think it's sprained.'

Just forget him, I told myself as I walked, well.... crutched, to school the next day. I had a habit of living in my own head and with James in my head, well I wouldn't take in anything anyone said, I would probably walk into lamp posts.

'What happened to you?' asked Michael when I called on him.

'It's a sprain' I said, tiredly as I looked down at the bandaged foot.

'Cool' he said, closing his front door and looking at my leg 'how did it happen?'

'Umm, I fell down the stairs.'

He grinned 'that's such a dignified way to sprain your ankle. But then again it's also a very Amy-ish way to sprain your ankle.'

'If I wasn't handicapped I would kick you' I replied, seriously.

'So, how long do you need the crutches?' he asked.

'It's not really a bad sprain... a week I guess maybe more maybe less the doctor wasn't sure.'

'I still can't believe you fell down the stairs.'

I rolled my eyes 'I can't believe you keep mentioning it after you've been threatened.'

He shrugged 'what can I say? It's quite funny.'

I glanced at him. Michael's been my best friend since we were seven, eight long years of being friends and he still infuriates me more than any person I know.

'So, about yesterday' he said.

'What about it?' I asked, still privately embarrassed about what I had done.

'On the phone, you said you couldn't come out because you were busy but you never explained why and I said I would fin out, don't you remember?'

'Vividly' I said absently.

'What you don't know is that I followed you that day and saw you meet up with your secret boyfriend-'

For a moment I thought he meant James and opened my mouth.

'-Brad Pitt.'

'How did you know?' I said, jokingly 'it was meant to be a secret now you've ruined everything.'

'It was never going to last' he said, patting me sympathetically 'I'm relatively sure that he's too old for you, and has quite a few kids you couldn't handle.'

'Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.'

Michael went quiet for a moment then watched a car with go past, driven by a sixth former. 'Boy, I'm looking forward to getting a car so I don't have to walk to school anymore' he said wistfully.

'When you get a car there is no way I'm getting in it with you, sorry' I said.

'Ah well, I can just pick up other babes on my way' he said.

I laughed 'I can barely even imagine you picking up babes, sorry Michael I'm pretty sure the babes only exist in your mind.'

'Ah well' he said, grinning as we walked through the school gates or in my case just sort of staggered. People were already filing into queues for the morning assembly and we joined ours.

'Amy' I turned around to see the overwhelming blonde head of Chloe. 'Amy, guess what?'

'What?' I asked, wondering whether she was going to mention my crutches but she probably hadn't even noticed them her mind was too full of lipgloss thoughts.

'Someone new is starting' she said.

'Really' I said, uninterested.

'Yeah' she said 'it's a guy apparently.' I glanced at Chloe, she was a nice enough girl to me at least. In year five our parents thought it would be adorable if we became best friends, my mum was worried that only having a male friend was unhealthy. So they set up play-dates for us and we did get quite friendly, but never really best friends like me and Michael, and when we went into secondary school we became pretty much opposites but still stayed friendly. She was the kind of person into gossip, make up and boys while I was kind of, different I guess.

'When's he starting?' I asked.

She shrugged 'like next week or something, aren't you excited?'

'I guess' I replied.

'I hope he's really fit' she said longingly 'Shazz and Tazz reckon he will be, but no one's ever as good as you think there gonna be, right?'

'Right' I agreed, thinking about James, but then again I had no idea what he was like so I couldn't judge. I tried to think about other things as we filed into the assembly hall but how could I? It seemed impossible now to think, even for a second, about something that wasn't him, I'd dreamt about him for the last two nights, his eyes, his, voice everything about him that was so amazing. Every other guy around me seemed ridiculously plain, like a whiteboard compared to the perfect guy.

As a teacher noticed me and found me a spare chair to sit on because of my foot, pretty much no one noticed no one even looked. At school I was no one, nothing. Even the teachers didn't notice me. You got all the typical popular girls who wore short skirts, always went out with guys and pretty much got away with everything even though everyone knew they flunked off PE to smoke and snog guys behind the bike sheds. Then you got people like Chloe who were pretty much popular wannabe's, then geeks and that was pretty much the only types of girl you could be. Me, I didn't fit in anywhere. I wasn't particular clever, but I was hardly stupid. I got mostly B's which my mum was proud of, but no one else because it wasn't remarkable. I wasn't particularly pretty, or skinny, or tarty. I was just kind of normal, average at pretty much everything. That's why someone like James would never be interested in someone like me, because no one would be I was just an outsider really. A no one.

Then he looked deep into my eyes and I suddenly felt like he knew me, like he was looking into my soul and understood everything.

The end of day bell shattered my daydream and my eyes opened. All around me I could hear the shuffling as everyone around me began packing their bags. I quickly scribbled down the homework as Miss Wilberg wiped it off the board still talking about revision while no one listened. Everyone crowded to the door while I stood back letting the rushing crowd rush past chatting excitedly while I tried to get through myself unsuccessfully.

'They're all in a rush' said Miss Wilberg, watching them go past as I walked out myself.

'Yeah' I said, to get out of this classroom.

She smiled 'what about you Emily?'

'It's Amy' I said, sighing. Miss Wilberg had been teaching me for the last two years and it was good to know that she had really noticed me as an individual.

'Sorry Amy' she said blushing 'I've had a bit of a bad day.'

'Yeah' I said, knowing the feeling I had been thinking about James all day. I would have felt a bit better if this wasn't the eighth time I'd had to remind her of my name. 'I hear there's a new person starting' I said.

'Oh, yeah. He's actually in this class I think. Starting next Tuesday.'

'Oh right' I said 'well, see you.'

I dragged myself to the gates where Michael was waiting for me at the gates. 'I don't think I'm going to be able to get back home on these crutches' I said, breathing heavily.

'This is another thing that can be avoided when I get a car' he said, taking my bag. Once he had gone I found myself subconsciously following my steps on Saturday and found myself almost believing that James would be there, waiting for me under the street lamp but he wasn't of course. My mind shot back to those three people who had come, the girl with terror in her voice as she told me to run. Why had she been telling me to run, when her friend was the one with the gun? But maybe James had also had a gun, I just hadn't noticed. Maybe they were trying to protect me from him, maybe...

I shook my head, maybe anything because I had no idea of what had actually happened. All I knew was that I was desperate to find out.