I don’t remember getting my first pair of glasses. I must have been two and a bit at the time, as I am clearly wearing them in the photos from my third birthday party. The only other people in the photo who wore glasses were my grandparents. My brother has never had glasses, and my parents only started wearing them occasionally for reading a couple of years ago. I wore my glasses all the time until I was ten, but because I really loved my sport, they kept getting broken, so when the optician suggested contact lenses might be a better idea, my parents agreed willingly as it saved them frequent journeys into town just to get my glasses fixed. I don’t know how strong they were then, but I could not live without them, so it was always an urgent trip, whether it was convenient or not. Since then, visits to the optician have only been for annual check-ups.
My last visit was last month. I had to admit to getting a few headaches when studying when asked about my general health, so after checking my distance vision, I was made to read a card close up, and given some more lenses to try out. In the end, I was told that, although my distance vision was virtually unchanged, I was being prescribed bifocals and that I should also consider getting reading glasses to wear over my contact lenses. At least this meant that I would get new glasses and not have to make do with a three-year old, slightly scratched pair that I got when I was 14.
As always, choosing the glasses was a bit of a nightmare. I didn’t really know what I wanted, so I ended up trying on what seemed like 30 or 40 pairs, and half the time I could not really tell the difference between one pair and the next. In the end, I chose a dark brown hipster-style frame. I knew the lenses would be pretty think as they were not the smallest frame going, but empty, they looked good, and there was nothing I could do about my eyesight. I opted for a second pair just to act as reading glasses. I was told I could have picked up a £10 pair at the local chemist but the extra tenner trying to choose something that I liked was not worth the hassle, so I chose the same frame again.
I went to pick up the glasses after school when they came in. I was wearing my contacts as usual, so I could see that the reading glasses looked pretty good, but could not see anything much through the bifocals, so they adjusted them to my face, and told me to come back if they did not feel right once I had had time to get used to them. I got the opportunity to wear them later that evening. They were thick and heavy, but the reading part certainly made a difference when I was doing my homework, and I didn’t even get the start of a headache.
The following morning, I slipped the reading glasses into my school bag. I should probably have put them on at the start of the first lesson, but was hesitant about doing so. There were a couple of people in my classes who would have remembered me wearing glasses from primary school days, but the rest of the group had never seen me in glasses, and I was nervous about starting now. In fact, they remained in my bag for the best part of a fortnight at school, although I did use them when doing homework.
Amanda Singletary was about 5 foot 3 – 6 inches or so shorter than me. We were in history classes together, so I had spoken to her a few times. She had a really bubbly personality and had been out with one or two of my friends, but had split up from them as she did not want to be tied to a serious relationship. Her most notable feature was her long, blond hair. When she had been younger, it was long enough for her to sit on. Now, it merely came down to her waist. Whether that was because she had had it cut, or she had grown, I did not know.
One Thursday lunchtime, a group of us were discussing what our plans for the weekend were. I really wanted to go and see the latest James Bond film when it came to our local cinema the following day. I suggested it for the Friday early evening showing. A couple of my friends said no as they were already planning on going later in the weekend with family members. When Amanda said that she’d be happy to go with me as her family were not really into James Bond, the rest of the group also seemed to be busy. Whether I was being set up by them, or their excuses were genuine, I did not know. I ended up with an “arrangement” to go to the cinema with Amanda – I could not call it a date as I didn’t really know her very well and she had given no indication of what she thought of me either.
The following day, we walked the half a mile home to my house after school. Amanda lived too far away to get home, get changed and get the bus into town, so she came around to my house. We had an hour to kill before catching the bus, and Amanda’s dad had been given instructions to pick us up from outside the cinema at quarter to eight, so we sat chatting in the lounge.
Amanda was the oldest of three girls. Her middle sister, Julie, was a couple of years younger and at the same school as us and Sophie was still at primary school, and would be moving up as Amanda left. She had been born in London, but had moved out into the country when she was a year and a half. When I asked her about her hair, she explained that her parents were big Crystal Gayle fans, and that she’d love to have knee-length hair, but she had had to keep it at waist-length as it was just too heavy, especially when it was wet, and it took hours to dry.
It was quite easy to talk to Amanda, and half an hour flew past. Whenever I became a bit tongue-tied, she always seemed to find a way to keep the conversation going, until she, too, ran out of things to say and, in desperation, asked me what was beyond the gate in our back fence.
“There’s a riverside footpath,” I answered. “The view is great, but we had the high fence and gate put in as the path is busy, and we got fed up of people looking in when we had the patio doors open. You can see much better from upstairs.”
“Can we go and have a look?”
“Sure.”
We spent about 5 minutes looking out of my bedroom window, with me pointing out everything we could see. We worked out that we could just see the edge of Amanda’s village away to the extreme left, and possibly her house, and watched as a couple of small cargo vessels passed each other as well.
“Do you want to have a shower and get changed before we go out?”
“No. You can have the shower. If I get my hair wet, it will never dry in time, so I’ll get changed in here while you have a wash and brush up – and make yourself look like James Bond.”
Ten minutes later, I emerged from the bathroom and knocked tentatively on my own bedroom door.
“Come in,” Amanda called. “I was just watching the boats going past on the river. You were right about the view – and the people. So which Bond are you dressed as?”
I blushed a little at the thought. I was dressed a little more smartly than I would have been if I had been going to the cinema with my footballing mates, but as I was still not sure whether this was a date, I had tried not to go overboard. Amanda, on the other hand, looked very different out of her uniform. Her ivory-coloured top was almost sheer, and her figure-hugging jeans made it clear that she, also, had wanted to make a good impression, without going over the top.
When we saw each other, it was clear that neither of us knew quite what to say about what the other was wearing. It was Amanda who broke the silence.
“I didn’t know you wore glasses,” she said, pointing at the red glasses case by the side of my bed.
I blushed a little, as I explained that I always wore contact lenses outside the house.
“Come on, show me what they look like, then.”
I was rather reluctant to do as I was asked, as no-one outside my house had seen me in glasses for many years.
“Are you sure you want to see what I look like in glasses?”
“Yes. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Loads of people wear glasses. How long have you had them?”
“This pair? About two weeks, but I have had glasses ever since I can remember.” At that, I put the glasses on, and Amanda disappeared in a blur.
“Wow – they look strong. They make your eyes look enormous.”
I knew that comment was coming, but at least she hadn’t commented on the bifocals – yet. As I took them off, I wondered which comment was coming next.
“Can I try them on?”
“Why not? You won’t be able to see anything with them, though – except if you hold it right in front of your eyes.”
I passed the glasses to Amanda. The frames really suited her, as they were unisex frames, and it was a chance for me to see what it made my eyes look like behind the lenses.
Amanda got her phone out of her pocket and took two or three quick selfies. She then examined the pictures at a distance of about six inches, through both parts of the lens, and without them.
“What’s the bottom part of the lens for?” she asked, as she carefully folded the glasses up and gave them back to me. “It seems to make everything a bit bigger. Why do you need that?”
“It’s to help me read without getting headaches. When I told the optician I got quite a lot of headaches, he said I needed to wear bifocals. They’re a bit ugly, but they seem to work, as I haven’t had a headache since getting them. He also made me get reading glasses to wear over my contact lenses.” As soon as I said it, I knew what Amanda was going to say next.
“Can I try those on? I get headaches sometimes.”
“They’re downstairs in my bag.”
We made our way down the stairs and I produced the glasses from near the bottom of the bag. Amanda put them on and got her phone back out to take a few more selfies. Although they were my glasses, they really suited her. The slight magnification of her eyes made her look really attractive, which caused me then and there to decide that this was going to be a date – even if she didn’t know it yet.
“What do you think?” she asked. “I can see my phone really clearly and the bottom of the garden is only slightly fuzzy.”
I didn’t dare tell her what I actually thought, but what could I say without blushing?
“They suit you,” seemed appropriate. “There’s a proper mirror in the hallway, if you want to see for yourself.”
“Thanks.” Amanda went to have a look. “I think you’re right. The frames may be a little big for my face, but that’s fashionable at the moment.
At that point, I spotted the bus coming down the road towards our house.
“Quick, grab your stuff and run. The bus is at the stop before ours, so we’ve got less than a minute.”
And that was exactly what we had to do. I did notice that Amanda was still wearing the glasses, but as they made her look hot and we would have missed the bus if we had taken the time to put them away properly, I didn’t say anything until we were on our way into town.
“So I am,” she said, not entirely convincingly. “Would you like them back?”
“They’re as safe on your face as they would be in my pocket, as I haven’t got the case, so if you want to keep wearing them for a bit, you might as well.”
During the journey, Amanda kept comparing what she could see with and without the glasses. Some things she could see better, others not as well. She asked me more about what happened when you had your eyes tested. I was slightly surprised that she never had, but as she said, no-one else in her family wore glasses, and she thought she could see pretty well without them, so there really had never seemed to be a need.
When we got off the bus, she made me hold her hand “in case I trip while wearing your glasses”, and we selected seats several rows from the front, where Amanda said she could see just as well with the glasses as without. She continued to hold my hand during the film, seemingly as often as possible and when we left, she gave me the glasses back (“in case my dad sees me wearing them”), but did comment on the difference after taking them off. She also asked me to put my arm around her as she was a bit cold. I didn’t object.
When we got back to my house, the rest of my family was home, so with a quick “Thanks for tonight, James. See you Monday,” and a rather unexpected peck on the cheek, Amanda got back into the car and set off to her house.
We exchanged a few texts during the weekend, but as we were both busy with other things, we didn’t get the chance to chat, and although she called me just before 10 on the Sunday evening, I was already fast asleep, and missed the call.
“So, how was your date with Amanda?” was one of the first questions I was asked on Monday morning.
“It wasn’t a date,” I objected. “We just went to the cinema because we both wanted to see the same film and the rest of you were busy on Friday, and neither of us could go on Saturday or Sunday.”
“You really think so? You can see she really fancies you. What did you get up to?”
“Nothing at all. We just watched the film and then her dad gave me a lift home.”
At this point, Amanda arrived, so I was saved a further grilling, and as the group gradually grew, the conversation reached much safer ground. It didn’t give me the opportunity to find out what Amanda thought of me, but when it came to our History lesson together later in the morning, she did take advantage of the empty seat beside me to come and sit next to me. She also made me get my reading glasses out of the bag and wear them. Needless to say, lunchtime was filled with others wanting to try my glasses on, and asking me all the usual questions about them. Amanda put them on for a couple of minutes and looked around the room, but fortunately she kept quiet about the bifocals. She did say that she was getting her eyes tested the next day (which was news to me) so she was wearing them to see what it was like to wear glasses. She also got a lot of compliments about how they looked on her.
When I did get the chance to talk to her without other ears listening in, I asked her about this.
“I didn’t realise you were wearing my glasses the other day because you were getting your eyes tested and wanted to see what it was like to wear glasses.”
“I wasn’t planning on going to the optician, but I was interested to see what I could see with your glasses on. I realised at the end of the film that I could probably see better with them than I ought to be able to, so I mentioned to my mum that I had tried your glasses on and thought I ought to get my eyes tested. She booked us all in to see the optician tomorrow. Julie was furious with me because she said there was a programme on the telly that she really wanted to watch, but when I pointed out that she could watch it on Plus One, she was not at all happy.”
With that, we went our separate ways.
We hardly got the chance to chat the following day. I had to rush off at the end of school as I was going to meet my dad up in London and go to watch a football match, although I did get the chance to wish Amanda “good luck” before I went.
About 6 o’clock I received a text message from Amanda. It was a selfie she had taken with her wearing a very similar pair of glasses to mine and the simple hashtag #gettingglasses.
We exchanged a few more messages, but it wasn’t very convenient, so we said goodnight at half time in the football.
I woke up in the middle of the night, feeling sick, so took Wednesday off, and although I was feeling a bit better by the evening, decided that an extra day in bed would probably be a good idea, so did not go into school on Thursday, either. I was woken at about two o’clock by my phone beeping at me. It was a text message from Amanda.
“Cinema again tomorrow, like last week, if you’re well enough?”
“Great. Bus in, lift back from your dad?”
“Yes.”
When we got back to my house after school, I had a number of thoughts running through my mind. It didn’t really help having been told that Amanda fancied me, but the two days off had given me the chance to think about her, and I had decided that I wouldn’t be averse to a relationship developing. I got even longer to think about what to say as Amanda needed the toilet, and took the chance to get changed as well. She was wearing the same clothes as last week, so I couldn’t help noticing that she was wearing a black bra this time. Whether this was by accident, or by design, I didn’t dare ask.
“There’s just one more thing I need to complete the look,” she said, when she came back into the lounge. “May I borrow your reading glasses as well? Do you know how strong they are?
“The thick ones, I have no idea. I know the contact lens with +9.50 on the packet goes in my right eye, and the one with +9.00 goes in my left, and my reading glasses are an extra +1.50. Tell me more about your new glasses.”
Amanda explained that she had chosen a pair which might even be identical to mine as they looked good on her, and that she was to pick them up on Friday or Saturday next week. She was longsighted with a little bit of astigmatism. Her left eye was a +1.25 and her right eye was a +1.50, like my glasses, although there were some other numbers as well. Her sister, Julie was very shortsighted in one eye and just a bit in the other, and had been told she absolutely had to wear her glasses all the time when she got them.
“Do you also have to wear your glasses all the time when you get them?”
“I’m not sure. I was told to wear them as much as possible for the first month, and that after that it’s up to me. We both have to go back in 6 months, and have been told to expect to need stronger glasses by then. Anyway, as I think they suit me, I’ll probably wear mine all the time. It might make things a bit easier for Julie if she’s not the only one. You can come and pick them up with me next Friday if you like, and then we can go on to the cinema after or whatever.”
My mind boggled at the thought of spending next Friday with Amanda while she was wearing her own glasses. I handed her my reading glasses, which she inspected carefully before putting them on.
“It’s funny wearing these and knowing I’ll have my own in seven days’ time. Most things look clearer with them on, although the distance is a little blurry still.”
“I need to go and have a shower and get changed. I’ll leave you to get used to my glasses for a few minutes. What are we going to watch at the cinema, anyway?”
“I have no idea, James. We’ll see what’s on when we get there. I just enjoyed last Friday so much that I wanted to do it again.”
The evening at the cinema was great. I could not tell you what film we watched; it was some sort of rom-com. Amanda and I held hands throughout the film. Afterwards, we had a bit longer to wait for her dad, so she asked me to help keep her warm, even though I didn’t think it was that cold. The goodbye kiss at the end of the evening was full on the lips; this had definitely been a date.
The next week seemed to drag. Friday could not come fast enough. I saw and spent as much time with Amanda as possible, but we got very little time alone together as there always seemed to be a friend or two checking up on us. At least I was able to wear my reading glasses in class without fear of further comment, and Amanda borrowed them a couple of times when I was doing sport and she was doing computer work.
On Friday, we got changed and went into town straight after school. Amanda had received a text message a couple of days earlier to let her know that her “spectacles are ready for collection,” so we knew it was not going to be a pointless journey. As expected, they looked fantastic on her, but when we got to the cinema, the only films on were the two we had already seen and a couple more that neither of us really fancied, so we decided to go back to my house, and get Amanda’s dad to pick her up from there.
This time, there was no need for Amanda to remove her glasses when her dad came to pick her up. We had compared hers and mine; the only difference seemed to be the lenses themselves, as she could see better with her own glasses. I could say that her glasses stayed on all evening, but that would not be true, and when one thing led to another, they started to get in the way – especially as she had made me take my lenses out so I was also wearing glasses. I wasn’t sure whether this counted as a first, second or even third date, but if we hadn’t been a couple at the start of the evening, we definitely were by the end of it.
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