Writing Prompt Wednesday #41

You fall in love with every person you make eye contact with. https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/500-writing-prompts-to-help-beat-writers-doubt/
    Jackie had been wearing this stupid blindfold since she had hit puberty. She couldn’t see anything, people made fun of her, and it made life ten times more difficult than if it weren’t there. She just wanted to live a normal life, but she knew she couldn’t.
    She had had this curse for forever, but it had only manifested about five or six years ago. She would fall in love with anyone who she made eye contact with. This had led to an endless amount of heartbreak and torment. Of course, she had gotten over each person eventually, but she had decided that it just wasn’t worth the trouble. And so, she adopted the blindfold.
    She’d gotten many questions about it, of course, and eventually she got tired of answering them. Everyone thought that she was off, and it led to a lifetime of solitude. Or so she thought.

    It was midway into freshman year that she had appeared. Sat down next to her at the lunch table. Jackie had awaited the endless stream of questions that she’d have to deflect, but they didn’t come.
    “Hi,” the girl said. “I’m Faith.”
    “Hi, I’m Jackie.”
    “Nice to meet you, Jackie,” Faith said. “I saw you sitting all alone over here and thought you might like some company.”
    “Oh,” Jackie said. “Okay.”
    “If that’s okay with you, of course.”
    “Oh, it’s fine with me,” Jackie said. And she was smiling. She couldn’t remember the last time she had smiled. “It’s better than fine.”
    After that day, Jackie and Faith had become fast friends. They were inseparable. They could often be seen roaming the quad, arm in arm, as Faith described the world to Jackie. All of the different colors, where things were, how they looked. With Faith’s words, Jackie could create a clear picture in her mind It was like she could actually see the world again. It was beautiful.
    But, of course, all good things have to end.
    It was late January of her Sophomore year. Faith took a seat next to her at lunch, like always. But Jackie could tell something was different. 
“What’s up?” she asked
“Oh, nothing.”
“Come on, tell me. I’m your best friend,” Jackie smiled at her, although worry was growing in the pit of her stomach.
“Oh, uh, well, I was wondering…”
“Why I wear this blindfold?”
“Yes.” 
Jackie had known Faith would ask eventually, and to be honest, she was surprised she hadn’t asked sooner. She sighed and dove into the story of how she’d fall in love with anyone she made eye contact with, of how she had been through so, so much pain, all of it. Faith listened patiently through all of it, until Jackie had finished speaking.
“Will you fall in love with other people if you’re already in love with one person?” Faith asked.
Jackie shook her head. “I don’t think so. You can only be in love with one person at a time, you know?”
Faith said that she did, and life went on.
One day, at the end of Sophomore year, Jackie’s blindfold slipped off of her face. Faith had dropped her binder, and Jackie hurriedly picked it up and ran after her. “Here you dropped-” Faith’s arm had come back and hit Jackie’s temple, pushing the blindfold off of her face. And they made eye contact. Jackie’s gaze immediately dropped to the ground.
Nothing had changed.
“Oh my god, are you okay?! Did you see anything?!” Faith asked, panicked.
“Uh, yeah. I mean yeah I’m okay, I didn’t see anything,” Jackie lied, sliding her blindfold back up over her face.
She spent the rest of the day contemplating. Why had nothing changed when Jackie made eye contact? Why was she not hopelessly in love with Faith right now? Had her curse disappeared? She didn’t understand.
“I need to talk to you,” she told her brother that evening. He listened patiently as she explained the whole scenario. 
He thought for a moment, carefully, and said, “Maybe you’re already in love with her.”
“What?” Jackie asked, startled.
“I mean, it’d make sense, wouldn’t it? If you were already in love with her you couldn’t fall in love with her again.”
Jackie had to admit, it did make sense. She thought back on the last few years. How happy she got when she was in Faith’s company, how much she enjoyed spending time with her, how she gave Jackie’s life meaning.
Later that night, she called Faith. “Hey.”
“Hey! How are you feeling?”
“Good I guess,” Jackie shrugged. “I need to talk to you.”
“About…?”
“I’m in love with you.” Silence. “Hello?”
“This isn’t about the whole incident today, is it?”
“No, no, of course it isn’t. When my curse affected me before, I felt nothing but when I looked into their eyes everything was there all at once. Nothing changed this time. I felt the same I’ve been feeling for years.”
Faith was quiet on the other end. “Please don’t hate me,” Jackie said. “You’re my best friend and I can’t lose you.”
“I-”
“Please, Faith, I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”
“I-”
“You gave my life a meaning I didn’t know it could have. I’m happy. I can’t remember a time before you when I was happy.”
“I love you too Dipshit,” Faith said. Now it was Jackie’s turn to be stunned into silence. “Hello?”
“You...what?”
“I love you too. I have since the ninth grade. But are you sure it isn’t because of your curse? I don’t want to trick you like that.”
“I’m positive,” Jackie said.
The next day at school, Jackie didn’t wear her blindfold for the first time in years. Faith walked up to her and her eyes widened in surprise. “Where’s your blindfold?”
“I don’t need it,” Jackie shrugged.
“Oh,” Faith said. Jackie studied her face, finally able to see it. Sandy blonde hair and sea green eyes, staring back at her. She was rather pretty.
“To first period?” Jackie asked, holding out her hand.
“Yeah,” Faith grinned. 
And together, they walked. Jackie looked around her in awe at the world that was blind to her before. But she looked the most at the girl who stood next to her every step of the way. She thought about how lucky she was to finally be able to see this beautiful world she lived in, and how she was even more lucky to have this girl to see it with.