Blind Dating: the movie 1/? (R) Star trek RPS Zach/Chris
Kat is the most awesome sister ever. This is in spite (not because) of all the times she used to put colorful barrettes and hair-ties when he was sleeping and let him leave the house that way. Hell, because of that he now keeps his hair short and runs his hands through it a million times a day, even though Kat’s been out of the house for years. He’s also not thankful for all the times she used to put something disgusting in a bag and tease him into putting his hand into it. Hell, he’s glad she’s enough of a girl that it wasn’t something totally disgusting like dog crap, but he will never forget the sensation of putting his hand in cold pasta while his sister yells, “brains!” in his ear.
But still, Kat is awesome. She got married to a nice guy, and together they created the most awesome little guy on the planet. She is also bound and determined to get him laid, which he appreciates because everyone else in the world is convinced that being blind makes you too vulnerable to date other gay men. But not Kat. She is totally onboard with his plan to lose his virginity now that’s 22.
“So who is this guy?”
Kat shrugs, making a slight scoffing noise she learned to make a long time ago so her brother would pick up on the facial expressions he can’t see. “Just someone I met at work.”
“Work?” Chris says suspiciously. “I thought you worked at a women’s center. You’re not fixing me up with abusive husbands, are you?”
“No!” Kat sounds horrified, and okay, maybe that was seriously unfunny, but still. “But we have these cops and EMTs that come by, and one of them is this great guy…”
Chris nods his head and lets her fix his shirt cuff. “Okay, I can do a cop or EMT. But remember, if this doesn’t work, no hookers.”
Kat laughs. And then laughs louder when he giggles and tells her, “this is really a blind date, isn’t it?”
*
The thing is, Chris doesn’t know what he looks like, but he’s pretty sure he’s cute. Everyone says so, even Karl if Karl is drunk enough and Chris asks him ad nauseum. And that, coupled with the fact that he’s killed in a handful of plays and local theater productions and he’s third generation actor, is why no one has outwardly completely dismissed his idea of being an actor. But though he’s heard that his hair is light blond, that his acne scars faded into something rugged and sort of sexy, that his eyes are blue and he’s pretty, he can’t put that together and come up with a face.
He can live with that. He finds it harder, though, to put up with the fact that his mother is a voice and a lap and the smell of rich merlot and a neck that is somehow still perfectly shaped and sized to tuck his face into, but that if his eyes worked tomorrow he couldn’t pick her out of a crowd. He hates the fact that if you asked what his dad looked like, all he’d be able to say is that he has broad shoulders, he seems to be shrinking a little, his voice is warm, and that he’s the strongest man Chris knows. And maybe he’s a little bitter that Kat managed to change into a whole person and little Max is growing up every day, and he can’t see any of it. That’s why he’s volunteering for this super-secret test that his family knows nothing about.
But when he’s on a date, which granted isn’t that often, all those regrets fade away in the face of one overwhelming thing that drives him crazy. He really wishes he could see these guys.
This date doesn’t start too badly. The guy is a decent guide, lets Chris put his hand on his shoulder, which is a few inches higher than Chris’s, and he sort of likes that. But then they sit down, and the guy starts lecturing Chris. “So, you don’t use a cane?”
“I do,” Chris objected. “Just not right now.”
“Know how many blind people I have to pick up off the streets because they’re not careful? Man, I don’t get you. Why don’t you get a dog and use your cane?” He doesn’t stop and he just gets louder.
Chris flushes, and feels as if he has a neon sign over his head that is telling everyone in the restaurant that he’s blind, and of course, he’s the only one who can’t see it. When the guy, Brick or something like that, moves on to pointing out that Chris obviously doesn’t color-coordinate his closet because his socks don’t match and he’s combining grey with brown, Chris wishes he could sink into the floor.
That’s when Karl stops everything. Karl is always Chris’s man-that’s why Chris came to this restaurant on a date he was nervous about. He’s the guy who used to pull Kat’s hair accessories off and tell Chris when he had stuff on his face at school. But he’s also moving forward and away. After this summer, he will quit his night job waiting tables at this Italian restaurant and go to his fellowship at the hospital at the University of Southern California. Chris gets it, he does. He knows that Karl would rather not leave the Bay Area but this fellowship is a big deal, and no one deserves it more than Karl, who works nights and still is the top med student at UCSF. But nights like this, when Karl snarls at Brick to shut up and guides Chris out the door and into a cab, these are nights when Chris wonders how he will ever get by when his best friend isn’t there to pick up the pieces.
*
The next day, he goes to the doctor’s office. He’s in a bad mood about the date the night before, which is his only excuse for being a total bitch to the guy at the front desk. It’s not Doris, the normal receptionist. It’s a guy, who sounds only a few years older than him.
It starts out badly. Chris used his cane getting there from where the bus dropped him off but as soon as he steps in, he folds it up and put it away. He walks in, trips over a kid’s toy, and goes flying. “Oh, fuck!” he yells.
“Hey, watch the language. There are children present,” a man’s soft voice admonishes.
“Yeah, well tell them to stop fucking putting toys on the floor when blind people are coming in for a test,” he growls back. He’s upset and embarrassed, and if his mom could see him, she’d wash his mouth out with soap. She may be an actor, and the daughter of actors, but as she always says, that is no excuse to forget that they come from class.
The guy tuts and then asks him what he wants. “Doctor Perkins, Doris.” He growls.
“Doris isn’t here. Are you blind and deaf?” He has to hand it to the guy, he gives as good as he gets. “I’m Zach, and Dr. Perkins will be right out.”
“Thanks Doris.” Okay, he’s a smartass. Sue him.
*
Kat isn’t going to let it end there, and well… Chris is horny enough to try again. But this time, Chris asks her to find someone who isn’t an expert on being blind.
He has to hand it to her, Kat delivers. This guy squeals at how amazing Chris is. And brings as much embarrassing attention to Chris by squealing constantly over dinner as Brick did.
“Oh look,” Jaden spies Karl’s namebadge and squeals, “Karl! Isn’t he amazing? He just ate his food without any direction at all. It’s like he could see the food in front of him. Isn’t that amazing?”
“Sure,” Karl agrees, horror clear in his voice. “Amazing.” He brushes a hand over Chris’s shoulder in sympathy.
It doesn’t stop there. Chris thinks his virginity is there to stay. Because as much as he doesn’t want people to think he’s a freak and not sleep with him, he hates the idea of them sleeping with him because they think he’s a freak just as much. At the end of the night, he goes home and lies in bed, pretending he can stare up at the ceiling.
*
The next morning, it all goes to hell. Apparently one of his mom’s friends from the club for parents of blind kids mentions that she saw Chris at the doctor’s office, and heard that he was trying the experimental therapy Dr. Perkins and some Asian guy came up with. “Chris?” Gwynne says, tears in her voice. “How could you not tell us you were thinking of getting brain surgery?”
Robert Pine sounds no less shaken, but he tries to calm his wife down. “Gwynne, he’s fine.” The second her breath evens out, he turns back to his son and grasps his chin. “I want to know what’s going on, Chris.”
Across from him, Kat jumps in. “You could see, Chris? If it works, you could see?” He hears her jump up and down and her excitement is contagious. His family calms down a bit and asks for details. “It would be black and white, and not totally clear. I wouldn’t be able to drive or anything. But I could see your faces, I could see what you look like.”
Karl is there, of course. Karl is there for most of the important moments in his life, and he has a place at the Pine family table as much as Kat and Chris do. But while Karl normally pitches in, this time he stays silent. Because he’s a good friend. Because he hasn’t spoken a word to Chris since he heard about the Perkins treatment. Because more than anyone else, he knows the risks. He loves the Pine family, and he loves Chris, so he won’t tell them about it until Kat presses him for details later. And then together they’ll try to talk him out of it, remind him of all the reasons why they don’t care that he’s blind, and then ultimately come to terms with the fact that it’s always been his decision, always been his burden to bear. And when he goes through with it, like he knows he will, they will be standing by his side, whatever comes.
PART 2- soon