Too Blind to See It!

I pulled my earbuds out of my ears, knowing I'd heard Phoebe's knocks and her loud echos of "I know you're in there" bouncing off my walls. I had hoped to forget it was Halloween, electing instead to burry myself in my term paper that was due next week. I should have known that Phoebe would never let me get away with that.

I swung the door open.

"Jenna!" she screamed to me though I was only three feet away from her. She'd already started drinking, and it was only 9:00.

I rolled my eyes at her, a habit I had that drove her insane. "Pheebs, what are you doing here? You know I have to work on my paper."

"Come on Jenna girl; it's Halloween. You can't do homework on Halloween. Don't you know that?" She walked past me thrusting a bag into my hands. I took in her costume. She was a slutty devil. Her boobs were almost popping out of the red corset making her goal for tonight obvious. She wanted to get laid, then never see the guy again. It was her usual MO, no commitments, no conversation, just fun. I shook my head at her knowing that it wasn't worth my time to talk to her about all the reasons her lifestyle was so wrong.

What can I say about Phoebe? She was my best friend, my polar opposite, but I loved her all the same. She spent all her free time making sure I wasn't turning into a hermit, and I spent all my time making sure she wasn't getting arrested. I'm closer to her than I am my own sisters, but every lick of trouble I've been in has been because of her. To be fair, every truly exciting thing I've ever done was because of her too.

I opened the bag reluctantly and cringed at what I saw.

"Stop being such a baby and go put it on," she said using her voice of authority. Phoebe elected not to go to College, and why would she. She had a natural cleverness that made her great at everything she did. Her parents were loaded, not high middle class, rich as they come. They bought her a boutique in manhattan where she spent her days peddling designer lingerie to men who couldn't resist her charms and to women who wanted to be her. Her business, for which she did all her own accounting, hired her own staff, and worked at every day of her life was thriving. I was really proud of her for all she accomplished, but I still had one more year of school before I got my degree, and she didn't always understand that.

"There is no way I'm wearing that. Besides I don't need to be in costume to do homework."

That's when she used my weakness to get me to cave. "Jenna, you're not going to let me go out by myself on Halloween are you? Who knows what kind of trouble I can get myself into." I rolled my eyes at her again knowing her game. When she said, "On second thought, going out without you isn't such a bad idea," and headed for the door, I knew I was done for, and I'd be wearing this ridiculous costume.

****

When I agreed to go, I had no idea how skimpy this costume really was. It made me feel stupid to expose myself to others wearing something like this. I had so many attributes that were more important then the sex I had on display for tonight. Phoebe was way off base with this costume for me. When I told her that she said ,"it's fantasy night," and "it's fun to pretend to be something you're not." Yet, she was dressed as a devil, something of a double standard I think.

I had no business wearing thigh highs, and going to a club tonight. Not because I didn't look good. When I saw Phoebe's reaction to me in this costume, I knew I looked hot, but I would rather a guy fall for me because of my mind rather than because I was blessed with long legs. Tonight I just needed to be home working toward my degree in journalism, by finishing my term paper.

Truth is I love to write. Writing is my life. I like it so much that I sometimes get lost in my work. I not only write articles for the school paper, and term papers for class; I also write stories. My stories are my passion really. A couple years ago I started a story and somewhere between then and now my characters became my friends. They live the life I gave them and go on adventures that I control. I'd much rather sit home and spend time with characters that I know and love then smash bodies in a smelly club with half naked women and intoxicated men.

There were hundreds of people in the club, all in costume. I was relieved that my costume came with a mask, it let me hold on to the last shred of dignity I had left. I sat on the high stool while Phoebe stood swaying her barely covered ass at unsuspecting men. Her ass seemed to do the trick though and our drinks kept flowing, as several unsuspected men sauntered up to us to buy drinks. I kept mostly quiet sipping my vodka and cranberry juice while she flirted shamelessly and then sent each group on their way uninterested in her options so far. Someday, I was sure I'd be writing her life story; I laughed at the thought as two men approached, one was dressed as a cowboy and the other a vampire. I could see that Phoebe had found her prey for the evening by the looks she was giving the cowboy. I almost pulled him away to warn him, but then the vampire spoke to me.

I don't know what he said, but I was frozen in horror recognizing his Minnesota accent. I knew this guy. Crap, crap, crap. It was my neighbor, Zach, a friend actually. Did he not recognize me? What was I saying, of course he didn't, I was by all accounts a bookworm. What would I be doing in a club dressed like this, and I was wearing a mask. Come to think of it, didn't he have a girlfriend? Where was she? Why was he trying to pick up women? He so didn't seem the type. I made a snap decision. He didn't need to know it was me. Soon Phoebe would blow these two off, and he wouldn't be the wiser. Maybe then I could face him in the hallway tomorrow and not feel quite as embarrassed. It seemed like a good plan...at the time.

After half an hour of flirting with the cowboy, Phoebe hadn't blown him off. Instead they were practically making out right in front of us. I squirmed uncomfortably as my neighbor made small talk with me. The music was so loud I couldn't really even hear what he said, at least not until he asked me if I wanted to go someplace a little more quiet. WHAT? With him? I looked at Phoebe hoping for some help, but she was sucking face with the cowboy. In my haze of vodka and cranberry and trying to figure out how to hide my identity, my neighbor had slid his hand into mine and pulled me off the bar stool. What was I doing? I have to admit I was a little relieved that "someplace a little more quiet" was the VIP lounge and not his place. He found a booth in a corner as far away from the thumping music as we could get.

"You seem like a nice girl. What are you doing in a place like this?" he asked.

I wanted to rip off my mask to let him know who he was putting the moves on, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So instead I hid behind it and remained as coy as I could manage. "I could say the same about you." I replied softly.

"Well my friend, the cowboy, dragged me here."

I wanted to ask where his girlfriend was, and if she knew he was here, but of course I didn't. "Me too. I was dragged here against my will."

"I could tell. You didn't look like you were having a very good time."

"I wasn't." I replied and smirked at how perceptive he was.

"Look there is something I wanted to do since the moment I saw you, and it may be a little forward, but I just feel like I have to do this."

What? What did he want to do? Did he want to kiss me? It seemed like he might want to kiss me. I'd be lying if I said I never thought about kissing him. I actually thought about it a lot, even had one of those dreams about him once, but he had a girlfriend. He was not turning out to be the man I thought he was at all. Again being wrapped up in my thoughts made me late to react, and because I hadn't said no, he turned me toward him. I was wrong... it wasn't a kiss he was after, and I nearly passed out when he put his hand on the my thigh and disconnected my stocking from the garter belt.

"What are you doing?" I sounded appalled, but was feeling jolts of electricity running through my body from the soft way he handled my skin.

"Shh, just one second more." I bit my lip as he rolled my white thigh high down to just above my knee revealing a small scar that I had gotten from a bike riding accident when I was eight.

He softly ran his fingers over the scar. "I never would have pegged you for a french maid Jenna." He looked up at me and smirked.

Jenna? Did he just call me Jenna? I'd never been so mortified in my entire life. He knew it was me. He knew it was me all along, and he was just playing with me to see how I'd react. Well now I was going to make sure that he'd get to see me react badly!!! I pushed his fingers off my leg and stood up, pulling up my stocking. "You're an ass Zach Parise!" I said and turned storming down the stairs and out of the club.

****
I should be home writing my term paper, but instead I was scurrying out of a club wearing a french maid costume ready to burst into tears. I heard him calling me. "Jenna, Jenna!" he called out from behind me, but I had no intention of stopping for him. I jumped into a cab before he caught up and yelled for the driver to go. He did, and I thought I'd escaped Zach, that is until...

An hour later I was comfortable in my NY Jets Pajamas trying to salvage the last few hours of the night and make some progress on the term paper from hell. There was a soft knock on the door. I wondered for a moment who it could be at 1AM. In theory it could have been Phoebe, but I ruled that out just by remembering the way she looked at that cowboy. I was about to fling open the door (not really the smartest thing for a woman who lives alone but I'm very trusting) when I heard another knock and the Minnesota accent.

"Come on Jenna. Just give me a chance to explain." His voice was pleading, but the last thing I wanted was to see him. Hadn't he embarrassed me enough?

Something you'll learn about me is that I always do the right thing, Leaving my neighbor in the hallway begging me to let him in and waking up the rest of the building was not the right thing. I took a deep breath and opened the door just enough so I could see out. "What Parise? Haven't you done enough?" My tone was bitter, but calm and soft.

"Jenna. Please just hear me out. I'm sorry. Can you let me explain?"

I closed the door hoping he'd just go, but guilt took over, and I opened almost as quickly as I'd closed it. I took note of the relief on his face as we came face to face. Why was he making such an effort to apologize?

I wondered for a moment if he was drunk, but he didn’t seem to be. He held up a brown bag. “I brought pie,” he said and smiled from ear to ear.

I grabbed the bag from him and walked away taking it into the kitchen. I took the two boxes out of the bag and opened them. One slice was cherry and the other was coconut cream. I smiled and looked up at him staring at me.

“The coconut cream is for you. I remember you saying that you only like cream pies. Fruit pies are too fruity, I think you said.”

I giggled wondering why he remembered that. I had told him that once ages ago at one of his girlfriends apartment parties. I pulled out two forks, and we sat on either side of the breakfast bar. I was enjoying the creamy goodness, eyes closed almost in heaven, when Zach began his apology.

“Jenna, I’m sorry, really. My friend Travis saw your friend wiggling her butt and wanted to go meet her. When we got to the table I didn’t know it was you, but the more I looked at you and heard you talk I started to figure it out. When we went upstairs, I still wasn’t sure, so I thought I’d be cute and not just ask you, I’d check for myself.”

“You remembered that I had a scar above my knee.”

Zach rubbed the back of his neck, and I could see his face turn a little pink. “Yeah, I’m not sure why but I did. Look, I know now that it was really stupid, but I’d been drinking. You know…”

“Yeah I guess I know.” I replied

“So I know you knew it was me. Why didn’t you just say ‘Hey Zach, it’s me Jenna?’ We could have avoided all this mess."

Now it was my turn to blush. “Because I didn’t want you to know it was me. I looked like an idiot in that stupid costume. All Phoebe’s idea by the way.”

“You did not look like an idiot. You were smokin’. I actually told Travis I didn’t want to go to your table with him. You know girlfriend and all,” he said rolling his eyes.

I wondered why he did that. Zach and I were friends, not great friends, but neighborly. I did notice that on every occasion where his girlfriend came up he rolled his eyes. Not my business I decided and went back to my pie. “Thanks, but I felt like an idiot. I’m not that type of girl.”

“And what type is that exactly?” he asked licking cherry off his fork.

“The type that wears slutty outfits to clubs to hook up.”

“I like that about you Jenna,” he said smiling sweetly. “It’s actually one of the reasons I was so unsure if it was you in that costume tonight. Right up till I saw that scar I wasn’t 100% sure.”

“So let me ask you something? What if it wasn’t me? I mean playing with some random girl’s leg? You might have gotten more than you bargained for. You know girlfriend and all.” I used the same tone he had when he said it.

He laughed. “I actually thought of that. I probably would have pretended I wasn’t feeling well and made a quick exit. I’m a good boy Jenna. I don’t cheat.”

“I like that about you Parise,” I replied, but was maybe just a teeny tiny bit disappointed. It was a stupid really. The biggest reason I found him attractive (besides that gorgeous smile) is because he wasn’t that kind of guy.

“So are we good?” he asked. “You’re not mad?”

“Nope, you fed me coconut cream pie. I’m good.” I replied with a little wink letting him know that his explanation and apology helped too.

He got up and headed toward the door with me following behind. “Zach,” I said as he was getting ready to cross the threshold out of my apartment. He turned and looked at me. “Why did you care so much that I was upset?” It may have seemed like a stupid question, but he was way more concerned than I would have imagined him being.

“I like you Jenna. I just wanted to make sure you knew that I’d never do anything to hurt you on purpose.”

I smiled at him and watched as he walked down the hall to his apartment. With a little sigh I closed the door and went back to work on my paper.