I say his name, but it’s nothing more than a soundless rasp moving silently on my lips. His eyes drop there for a beat as if pulled by a string. His brows pull in and just when I think he might do something crazy and stupid and wonderful, and please, please, please, his head snaps up.

“I think maybe it was your eyes first,” he blurts, catching me off guard. Face flushing adorably, his throat bobs as he darts his gaze between mine. “I didn’t know blue eyes could be so...dark. So steady...so...” He sighs into a frustrated, deep groan, shaking his head. His hand tightens on mine. It’s clammy and nothing’s ever felt so good. “Fuck, I don’t even know what that means. I just...I liked how you looked at me,” he finishes quietly.

My jaw tightens, bordering on painful with the amount of restraint it’s taking not to just grab him and kiss the shit out of him and finally make him mine, once and for all.

But what he’s saying is what I’ve been secretly waiting for over ten fucking years to hear, so I don’t dare stop him now.

He forces another swallow, dragging his eyes down my nose. “Then one day, it was your smile I was noticing,” he says faintly, face scrunching up as his eyes dart to the pinched corners of my lips. “What it did to me...I never knew a smile could make me feel so full. Like I was worth something. Like I mattered. And I remember wanting to see it as often as possible.” He chuckles, and it’s raw and it’s watery and it’s everything.

A heart can jumpstart at the sound of that laugh. Trust me, I’d know. Pretty sure my heart just launched from 0-100 in the span of the single breath of air it took for me to gasp.

“I remember acting like a complete and utter moron,” he goes on, a small smile lifting his face. “Always following your lead, despite knowing the cost. Doing whatever I could to keep your attention. Your interest. I felt so fucking big in your eyes, and I was so scared you’d one day get sick of me. Find someone who wasn’t so angry and weird and—”

“Way,” I croak.

His eyes look greener than ever right now as they find mine once more. “And then Izzy kissed Mason. Smack on the lips right in front of me and everyone in the middle of science class,” he says, shaking his head fondly. “And all I could think was that I wanted to kiss you. Because who else other than my best friend with the eyes like the ocean I’d always wanted to see, and the smile that made me feel like I was something—”