{"id":315,"date":"2025-09-11T10:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T10:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo.everestthemes.com\/viable\/demo\/?p=315"},"modified":"2025-09-22T07:04:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T07:04:42","slug":"hey-where-are-your-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/?p=315","title":{"rendered":"Hey,Where are your eyes ? HUH !"},"content":{"rendered":"
The gym\u2019s fluorescent lights hummed, and I stood at the edge of the balance beam, my purple wristbands twisted tight in my hands. But my focus wasn\u2019t on the beam\u2014it was on Lila, sitting on the old wooden bench across the room, her notebook open, a pencil tucked behind her ear. She was biting her lip, staring at a sketch I\u2019d drawn of her the night before, and the way the light hit her hair made it look like honey. I didn\u2019t even hear the coach call my name until a voice cut through my daze.<\/div>\n
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\u201cHey, Where are your eyes? HUH?\u201d<\/div>\n
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I jumped, spinning around to find Lila standing behind me, her hands on her hips, a playful grin on her face. \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to be practicing your beam routine, not staring at me like I\u2019m a new gymnastic move.\u201d My cheeks burned, and I glanced at the beam, then back at her. \u201cI\u2014sorry. You just\u2026 look like you\u2019re thinking about something important.\u201d She laughed, stepping closer, and I could smell the lavender in her hair\u2014same as the gym\u2019s odd, cozy scent. \u201cI was thinking about your sketch. The one where I\u2019m sitting on the bench, purple ribbon in my hair. It makes me look\u2026 soft.\u201d I reached out, brushing a strand of hair from her face. \u201cYou are soft. Even when you\u2019re yelling at me for not focusing.\u201d<\/div>\n
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That was the start of it\u2014her teasing me for \u201chaving eyes only for her,\u201d my pretending to be annoyed, but loving every second of it. We\u2019d practice together every afternoon: she\u2019d spot me on the beam, her hands steady on my waist, and I\u2019d pretend to trip just to feel her laugh against my shoulder. \u201cYour eyes are on my face, not the beam,\u201d she\u2019d say, grinning. \u201cHey, Where are your eyes? HUH?\u201d And I\u2019d say, \u201cRight where they belong.\u201d<\/div>\n
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One evening, after the gym closed, we stayed late to practice a new flip I\u2019d been working on. I stood on the beam, taking a deep breath, and Lila called from the mat below: \u201cEyes forward! Focus!\u201d But when I jumped, I didn\u2019t look at the beam\u2014I looked at her. I missed the landing, crashing onto the mat with a thud. Lila ran over, kneeling beside me, her hands hovering over my arm. \u201cAre you okay? I told you to focus!\u201d I laughed, wincing a little. \u201cI was focused. On you. You\u2019re better than any beam routine.\u201d She rolled her eyes, but her smile gave her away. She helped me up, and as she brushed chalk off my shirt, her fingers lingered on my waist. \u201cYou\u2019re impossible,\u201d she said, her voice soft. \u201cBut\u2026 don\u2019t stop looking at me.\u201d<\/div>\n
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A week later, we found a box of Lila\u2019s grandma\u2019s old gymnastic videos in the attic. We sat on the bench in our apartment, watching them together\u2014her grandma coaching a young girl on the beam, yelling, \u201cEyes on the end! Don\u2019t get distracted!\u201d Lila laughed, leaning her head on my shoulder. \u201cShe sounds just like me, doesn\u2019t she?\u201d I nodded, wrapping my arm around her. \u201cBut she never had someone worth distracting her.\u201d Lila kissed my cheek, and I looked at her\u2014the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled, the purple ribbon in her hair, the grandma\u2019s pin I\u2019d given her (shaped like a heart, tucked into her shirt). My eyes were exactly where they belonged.<\/div>\n
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The gym held a small showcase that month, and I decided to perform a routine dedicated to Lila. I wore her grandma\u2019s old purple leotard (it fit perfectly, somehow) and tied a purple ribbon around my wrist. When I stepped onto the beam, the crowd went quiet\u2014but I only saw Lila, standing at the edge of the mat, her notebook in her hands, her eyes on me. I did the flip I\u2019d messed up before, and this time, I didn\u2019t look away. When I landed, the crowd cheered, but Lila was already running toward me. She pulled me into a hug, whispering in my ear: \u201cYour eyes were perfect. On the beam. On me.\u201d I kissed her, right there in front of everyone, and heard someone whistle. We both laughed, and I thought: This is it. This is love\u2014messy landings, teasing, eyes only for each other.<\/div>\n
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Now, we coach kids together at the gym. Every Saturday, we sit on the old bench (we brought it back, after begging the coach) and watch the kids practice. One little girl, Mia, kept staring at her friend instead of the beam, and Lila walked over, hands on her hips, and said: \u201cHey, Where are your eyes? HUH?\u201d Mia blushed, and Lila laughed, kneeling down. \u201cIt\u2019s okay to look at people you care about. But sometimes, you have to look at the beam too. Balance, right?\u201d Mia nodded, and I smiled\u2014because Lila gets it. Love isn\u2019t about never being distracted. It\u2019s about finding someone who makes the distraction worth it.<\/div>\n
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Last night, we sat on the bench in our apartment, drinking tea, watching the sunset. Lila was flipping through my sketchbook\u2014filled with drawings of her, the bench, the gym\u2014and she stopped at one of me on the beam, my eyes looking toward her. \u201cYou drew this?\u201d she asked. I nodded. \u201cThe day I messed up the landing. I wanted to remember how it felt\u2014looking at you, even when I fell.\u201d She leaned over, kissing me, and I closed my eyes, savoring the moment. When we pulled away, she said: \u201cHey, Where are your eyes? HUH?\u201d I opened them, looking right at her. \u201cRight here. Always.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Love isn\u2019t about perfect routines or steady landings. It\u2019s about the person who teases you for staring, who helps you up when you fall, who makes you want to keep looking\u2014even when the world around you is loud. It\u2019s about Lila, with her purple leotard and her grandma\u2019s heart, and me, with my sketchbook and my eyes only for her.<\/div>\n
And I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/div>\n
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The gym’s fluorescent lights hummed, and I stood at the edge of the balance beam, my purple wristbands twisted tight in my hands. But my focus wasn’t on the beam—it was on Lila, sitting on the old wooden bench across the room, her notebook open, a pencil tucked behind her ear. She was biting her…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":598,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}