Love is Blind

Chapter 1: Misdirection

I'm looking at him right now, his eyes clear from the murky cloud of confusion that clouded them before, and I think to myself, no he's not perfect, in fact he's far from it. But, then I look again at the small smile reaching across his delicate features, and I realize that regardless, no one has ever seemed so perfect before

I always considered my life to be like a tiny goldfish swimming amongst sharks and beautiful koi fish. I just never considered my life to be useful; I was just there. Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't suicidal or anything. I very much enjoyed life and it's many wonders, and like most people I had dreams and expectations for how my life was going to turn out. One dream I had was especially Important to me and that was the dream of having a perfectly normal life.

I wanted to have a beautiful, caring wife to greet me when I get home from work and two kids. Following the family, I wanted a nice house to call my own with a white picket fence. Is that really too much too ask? I guess it was wishful thinking, when my eyes lit up after hearing PJ's plan of action that night. We were just sitting on my ratty blue couch watching Buffy, when I voiced my thoughts to him.

"Have you ever wanted more from your life Peej?"

He flung his head beck against the back of the couch exasperatedly and whined,

"Dan, not this again. Just live in the moment okay, and no more thinking for tonight."

"But..."

I stammered.

"No, no more thinking. In fact, I want you to go shove your head in some playboy magazine and pretend your actually with her okay? Okay."

He continued watching the show and completely ignored my existence. I smiled at the back of his head and considered tackling him, which of course i went through with. We ended up on the wooden floor with him glaring daggers up at me.

"Get your fat ass off me,"

he screeched while pushing me on to the floor beside him.

"Stupid, fat lard,"

he muttered as he left to go to the kitchen, which was really only about six feet away. I slowly lifted myself off the floor and shuffled to the kitchen, where PJ was getting an ice cream container out of the mostly empty freezer.

"Dude, you need to go grocery shopping,"

he said with an ice cream filled mouth.

"I don't have the motivation to leave this house,"

I sort of flopped on the floor and laid there unmoving. He looked a little concerned before smoothing his features with a cool expression,

"I can see that, but let me give you some motivation..."

He lifted his leg to jokingly kick me, but I quickly got up before he could.

"Seriously man, your existential crisis is putting a damper on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Saturday. What gives."

He jokingly knocked soldiers with me, while his eyes retained a serious look.

"I know I'm sorry. I'm just feeling a little hopeless in the love section."

I looked down to avoid looking at the most definite eye roll.

"Man you need to get laid,"

he sighed. Five seconds passed, and you could almost see the light bulb turn on in his head. He looked at me with wide eyes that just about screamed,

"I've got an idea! I've got an idea! Oh wait 'til you hear this."

"Oh no,"

I said, while slowly walking away. He quickly grasped my shoulders before I could run away and excitedly said,

"don't be a party pooper. I've got an idea that has the potential to cheer both of us up."

He smiled at me so brightly, I had a hard time saying no,

"fine what's your brilliant plan."

He literally jumped off the floor and hugged me tightly and exclaimed,

"you won't regret this! We're going to a...wait for it...bar."

I groaned,

" no, we're not. Dude, that never works."

He scowled but bit his lip and begged,

"Please Dan? She's out there, you just have to find her, and staying here is certainly not going to unless you use Christian mingle."

"Go right ahead. The lap top is right there."

He pointed at the Mac book sat in the middle of the chair. I groaned,

"fine, we can go, but once you're drunk, don't come near me."

I motioned for him to follow as I opened the door to the dimly lit hallway. He just scoffed as he grabbed his jacket and followed me out the door.

We entered The New Rose at a fairly quick pace, since it was pretty brisk outside. I looked around, noticing that is was pretty crowded and, sadly, most of the patrons were male. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. I returned my gaze back to my left side, where PJ was originally, but he had disappeared into the crowd, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Thinking it didn't make sense to go back to my apartment, I sat down at one of the bar stools and ordered a beer. After a couple minutes of sitting, looking lonely, I guess, the bartender looked compassionately at me.

"Penny for your thoughts," she inquired. I smiled shyly at her because she was so beautiful. Her eyes were a honey brown, and her hair was a bleach blonde flowing down her back in loose curls. I glanced at her name tag that read: Honey, and thought that it was rather ironic. It seemed like my whole life was full of irony nowadays. I was going to say as much, but before I could, another girl taller and prettier approached me and said,

"we'll hey sugar. What's a boy like you doing in place like this?"

It was an honest question, but it was full of flirtation. I was at a lack of what I should say or do, so I just gulped down the rest of my beer and asked,

"do you wanna dance?"

She smiled, showing off her straight, white teeth and led me onto the dance floor. The first song that played was fast, and I tried to keep up with the right moves. I also noticed that the mystery girl was trying to stifle laughter and failing. In order to change the subject, I asked,

"I never got your name."

"You can call me Jay,"

she said in my ear. Once the song turned into a slow paced one, I gracefully pulled her close to me, and she rested her head on my shoulder. She smelled like raspberries, and that's one of the scents I prefer in a woman. We danced for another thirty minutes before I went to leave her on the dance floor, but before I could go, she grabbed my wrist gently and had an expression of wistfulness and hopefulness on her once professional, poker face. She leaned closer to my ear and said,

"I know what you're looking for."

I think my heart stopped beating for a second as I asked,

"what?"

"You're looking for someone that understands you; someone who can grant your wish. Well, I'm your girl,"

she looked into my eyes and smiled at me. She looked so hopeful, so I decided to give it a try. If it backfired, it's not like I wasn't used to it. I nodded and she grabbed my hand excitedly.

"Your place, or mine?"

"Yours,"

she said, emphasizing by gripping my hand tightly. I led her over to PJ, who was grinding with some bearded dude in the corner. I shook my head at him and yelled,

"Peej, we're going to my place. Park your ass somewhere else tonight."

He smirked at me and yelled back,

"you up for a threesome?"

I scowled at him as I led Jay to the door. She snickered as he yelled after us, "Maybe we could have a foursome with this hot piece of yum,"

and to emphasize he grabbed the guy he was grinding with's butt. I pulled her closer to me,

"Come on Jay. Let's get out of here