Second Draft

Twenty Feet Part 1: Julie

From twenty feet away, Julie fell in love with everything about Peter, before she even knew his name. He was the kind of guy she had always hoped she could somehow be cool enough to attract. The look of him made her try, through sheer force of will, to turn her mind’s eye into a camera—any kind of tool that would allow her to etch him indelibly into her memory the way Shakespeare boasted he could do with his pen.

From across the crowded living room her eyes took in every physical detail they could discern, from the shade of crimson he had dyed his hair—a red that Julie thought she’d be more likely to find in a crayon box than on a drug store shelf—to the holes in his worn acid-washed jeans, to the scuffs on his Dr. Martens boots. She knew the state of his clothing and the studied disheveledness of his hairdo had probably all been carefully cultivated, but somehow the fact that he would try so hard to look like such a mess somehow made him even more appealing to Julie.

It was natural for Julie to feel like a foreigner when she went to a party like this. She only ever went to parties because friends or coworkers invited her and she felt as though it would be either rude or pathetic to refuse. Large-scale casual social interaction never came easy to her, but she had been fine with not fitting in very well up until tonight. That guy, though… He made her wish for the first time that she was a bit more like these people at the party. She wanted the confidence they seemed to possess. She at least wanted to be able to speak to someone like him without fixating on the fear that her heart would immediately be ripped out and defenestrated without ceremony.

And then Laura was at her side, and she wrenched her eyes away from him, suppressing the irrational feeling that he would cease to exist the moment she stopped looking. Unfortunately, Laura was too quick for her.

“Have you seen something you like, for once?” She smirked knowingly. Laura had always invited Julie to these parties with the view of finding someone for her. Julie, however, doubted that Laura had ever had much hope of success.

“What? No! …Maybe,” was Julie’s awkward and half-dazed reply as she shook herself from her reverie.

“I see. Shall I introduce you?”

Julie was simultaneously ecstatic, impressed, and horrified.

“You know him? Wait, no. No! Really, Laura, it’s nothing.”

“Why do I not believe you?” Laura grinned and, before Julie could make a motion to stop her, moved back around the edge of the room towards the spot where the object of Julie’s gaze was in conversation with a couple of similarly punked-out partygoers.

Julie waited on tenterhooks with her heart in her throat. Half of her was hoping that the guy would blow Laura off and she’d be spared the humiliation of meeting him, the other half willing everyone but her and him to spontaneously disappear.

As Laura approached with the man who could not possibly be as perfect as Julie imagined in tow, Julie forced herself to breathe normally and attempted to look composed.

“Julie, this is Peter. Peter, Julie,” Laura said simply, and promptly disappeared in much the same fashion Julie had just hoped that all of the party guests would do just a moment ago.

“Julie,” said Peter with a winning smile, holding out his hand.

“Peter…” Julie replied, dazed, and put her own hand in his to shake it.

“You’re not quite as loquacious as Laura told me you were,” Peter said with a chuckle.

Julie reluctantly withdrew her hand from Peter’s and looked up at him cautiously, waiting for her image of him to be shattered.

“I hope she didn’t tell you too much,” Julie smiled, trying to figure out what color Peter’s eyes were without scaring him off.

“Don’t worry,” he replied dismissively. “Besides, I believe that sometimes you can tell a lot about a person from twenty feet away, if you know what to look for.