Blind to Beauty

Chapter Nine

“Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight; but there is a beauty for the hearing too, as in certain combinations of words and in all kinds of music, for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above the realm of sense to a higher order are aware of beauty in the conduct of life, in actions, in character, in the pursuits of the intellect; and there is beauty of the virtues.” –Plotinus

     The week flew by. I had been spending most of my free time at school with Brice, and the rest of my free time with Seamoore and homework. Lacey was busy with her project for biology and didn’t seem to miss me much whenever I saw her. She kept trying to find a way to ruin the project and embarrass her partner, but still get a passing grade. Lacey wouldn’t actually go through with it, but it was the only way she could tolerate working with her partner. It was entertaining listening to her come up with these outrageous plans.

     “Maybe I’ll have a bear come out of the storage closet in the classroom and hand out baby pictures of her. Or maybe her fifth grade picture, I’m sure she looked just as bad in fifth grade as the rest of us did.” That was one of the more normal plans of hers. The others… well let’s just say they included bringing Hitler back to life, calling E.T. back to planet Earth, borrowing Russia’s nukes, etcetera.

     “I think you should just do the project,” I mumbled to her, rolling my eyes, “she’s not the bad guy in this; Scott is.”

     “She’s such a slut though jumping on him as soon as he’s single again,” she’d whine.

      “And he isn’t a man-whore for finding a new girl right after being dumped?”

     “Well he is, but it isn’t as obvious.”

     I never understood her reasoning for things like that. Why are girls considered a slut if they get a new boyfriend right away or jump on a guy who opens up right away, but when a guy does it vice versa it’s alright? It really irritated me. They’re both equally guilty in it, aren’t they?

     With not having lunch to eat with Lacey since she was busy at the library with her partner I was left eating alone; or that’s what had thought. Brice had come up to me when he saw me eating outside alone and decided to eat lunch with me instead of his friends. I thought it was a nice gesture and we got to know each other a little bit better.

     Our conversations consisted of small talk. Our favorite things, least favorite things, things like that. I didn’t have all that much in common with Brice, but he was fun to talk with. He made everything seem more exciting that it really was and was really good at telling a story. He could make almost anything seem interesting; especially football, something I had never really liked.

     “You see football isn’t just a sport to me,” he said, “it’s like family to me. I love it so much and without it I don’t think I’d be able to really enjoy life as much as I do.”

     “Sounds more like an obsession than a love,” I joked.

     “It’s a little bit of both,” he laughed, “but when I’m out playing there, I’m in a completely different world. I’m not even aware of the people in the bleachers. It’s just me, the team and the ball. And once I get that ball in my hands, I feel invincible. Like I could do anything, you know?”

     I smiled and nodded, even though I had no idea what he meant. I envied him that he had something that made him feel that way. I didn’t. The way his face lit up when he talked about football the thing he loved more than anything. He wasn’t like the other jocks that only played to get a scholarship to some party-college; or because he wanted to be popular at school. He played because he truly loved it.