Crowd Spotting

Chapter One

Phil had been looking for his soulmate ever since he knew what it meant to have one. Ever since he'd been able to reach the mirror and see the two colors of his eyes- one a deep blue (his own), and the other a dark brown (that of his soulmate), and ever since he's seen his parents gazing into each other's (now no longer mismatched) eyes with a love that no poet or writer had ever been able to accurately describe, Phil had wanted that, too.

His quest, of course, wasn't exactly one he had planned down to science. It was trial and error, finding your soulmate, but he was determined none the less. His method was this: if a person had a brown eye on their right, he would stare them down until the looked back at him, even if their left wasn't the color of his own. After all, his eye could maybe look green in some lighting. Maybe that was the case. The staring, really, only lead to many awkward encounters, and weird staring contests. One time, it even turned out that he'd seen wrong, and had been staring at the soulmate of a rather burly dude in a club. How was he to know that she just liked wearing mismatched contacts?

He'd been on the hunt his whole life, and honestly, after twenty two years, he was about ready to give up. There were a billion people in the world with brown eyes; how was he to find the one in a crowd of them. He was determined, but he wasn't a magician.

He chronicled this worry in one of his vlogs. "I mean, it isn't like everyone finds their soulmates, and they live happily ever after, right?" he asked no one in particular. One of his subscribers would reply though, probably. They were good at making Phil feel like he was actually having a conversation, even if it was delayed. "Anyway, if you have any stories about finding your soulmate, or a funny mishap along the way, leave them in the comments! And, if my romantic turmoil fuels your soul, be sure to click subscribe." He leaned forward and turned the camera off, taking it over to his computer so he could begin the arduous task of editing and uploading. At least he wasn't entirely alone in this.

Later that night, once everything was uploaded, Phil's beliefs were confirmed, as the comments started pouring in. One in particular made him smile.

danisnotonfire: i don't have any search stories of my own, but one time this girl in primary school thought that she could make this kid think he was her soulmate by wearing a green construction paper eye patch. it was hilarious.

"Dan", as Phil assumed that was his name, was a frequent commenter on pretty much all of his videos, and was an almost constant presence on his Twitter. It was nice, honestly, that someone liked him that much to try and talk to him. When he checked it, Phil was a little too pleased to find that Dan had also replied to his Tweet about the video.

Dan Howell (@danisnotonfire) said: loved it!!

It was a sort of accidental brush of the finger that actually lead him to Dan's actual profile; he never really was one to go through the social media of his fans, even the seemingly devoted ones. He was there now, though, and the pictures at the bottom caught his eye. He scrolled through a bit, eyes widening as he noticed a trend.

Right eye- brown. Left eye- blue; he couldn't tell from the shoddy lighting in the pictures if it was his blue, but oh my god, it could be. All this time, his soulmate could have been lurking in his comment section.

He took a deep breath. There was no reason to get too excited, it hadn't done him any good before. He didn't know this kid- and a kid he seemed to be; barely even eighteen, probably, Jesus Christ, Phil- and he could be a horrible, terrible, serial killer for all he knew. Baby steps. He'd get to know him, and then he'd find a way to meet him, and then he'd find out if it was true or not.

Baby steps.

Phil Lester (@AmazingPhil) said: @danisnotonfire Thanks a lot! Your story about the eye patch made me smile.

Baby steps.