Prologue
The human race tends to believe in things that relatively seem impossible. We choose to believe in mermaids, little green men from mars, even unicorns and magic. But what no one knows, is that up in the heavens, there is a person of mythical belief, but is very much as real as you and me. Some call her the mistress of the moon, the ancient Greeks and Romans called her the white witch that made day turn to night and night turn to day, but she is simply known as The Star Dancer. Ancient scrolls told stories of her, but all was lost in the library of Alexandria when she burned to the ground, and so all knowledge of her was gone.
She is a being very much like you and me, but she lives a life dancing among the stars, with every star she touches it burns brighter in the night sky making any one who gazes upon it have an epiphany of some sorts, they get inspired to do things they never thought they could.
But one time, she got tired of her life among the stars, always dancing from star to star, doing the tireless routine from day to day. She was cursed with this life. So, she stopped dancing and for the first time, looked down at the world. It was busy and chaotic, every one running around never having time for one another. But what really caught her eye, was a young man who seemed to never find the happiness he longed for. And this is where our story really begins.
Chapter 1
New Years Eve, 2006, 11:55 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. A night of partying, romance, and happiness, a time for every one to look back on the year of their lives that has just passed and remember the good times they had and how much they've changed. All I could remember was the heart ache and pain I had to endure. It was always the same sob story we all know so well, you meet a girl, you fall in love with her, and she cheats on you and runs off with your best friend.
Yes we all have had that happen to some of us at one point or another, it hit me like a semi truck flying down the road at full speed and hits you square on cause you were stupid enough to stand in the middle of the road, or at least, that's how I saw it. I considered myself that stupid pedestrian standing in the road for allowing myself to fall for her, for all she brought me was pain for Christmas when I got her a diamond ring which I was gonna give to her on Christmas eve and ask her to be my bride. Andrea, however, had different plans for her life.
"Danny, this just isn't working for me."
"What? Andrea, sweetheart, what are you talking about?"
"I think we should see other people."
At that moment in my life, every thing went down hill for me. I sort of fell in to a depression for a few months, managed to alienate all my friends, and locked myself up in my apartment avoiding the world around me. My name is Danny, and this is my story.
"Hey, this is Danny Thomas, I can't come to the phone right now but if you leave your name and number after the beep, I'll get back to you as soon as I can."
"Danny, hey man, its Tyler. I haven't seen you in a long time, how are you been lately? Listen the reason I'm calling is because a bunch of us are getting together tonight and I thought that if you felt up for it, maybe you would like to come with us, we're gonna be at `Luke's' on Fifth Avenue at eight tonight, I hope I'll see you there man, later."
I received lots of calls like that from Tyler, we've been best friends all my life and Tyler was sort of a big brother to me, always looking out for me, always there for me, and even though he said he knew what I was going through, I knew that he didn't, since he's been married for at least three years to his High School Sweetheart and has a kid coming along in May.
After flipping through a few channels, I decided there was nothing on TV and turned it off, walked into the bathroom and stared at my reflection in the mirror. The man I saw was completely different from the man I used to be. After Andrea left me, I became some what of an alcoholic, and I didn't give a shit about how I looked. But I found myself missing my old life, and my friends. As seven o'clock rolled around, I hopped in the shower to clean myself up.
"Hey! You made it!"
While walking down Fifth Avenue, I was beginning to wish I brought a scarf or some better clothing to keep me warm as the night air was biting cold. When I turned the corner I was greeted by shouts of surprise and hugs from what seemed like a hundred people. After Tyler got over the initial shock of seeing me out of my apartment, he too went up and greeted me with a hug.
"Hey Tyler, what's up?"
"Nothin' much man, wow you look good. Glade you decided to join us."
"Tyler, c'mon it's freezing out here let's get inside where is warm... oh my god, Danny!"
Erika, Tyler's wife, came bouncing from Tyler's side and wobbled up to me and gave me a hug. She did look bigger then when I last saw her, which was a few days after she found out she was pregnant, but also more beautiful then I would have suspected.
"Hey Erika, How's it goin?"
"It's good, we're good, got everything set up for when the baby arrives, and Tyler here is more then excited to be a father."
Tyler looked a bit embarrassed, and I had to laugh.
"So, you two excited about the baby?" I knew it was a stupid question but I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Oh definitely!" she shrieked. "It's gonna be great, I know it." She was practically beaming after saying that sentence.
"Alright, alright, enough standing around in the cold, let's get inside where it's warm."
I followed Tyler, Erika, and the rest of the group inside the bar, once I was in; I smelt the strong odor of beer and cigarette smoke. We all decided that we'd get a table in back for a little reunion party or so, since I was joining them. After some meaning less small talk, me and Tyler decided to go up to the bar and get some beers.
"So, Danny, what's goin on with you man?"
"What do you mean? I'm fine."
"C'mon man, don't try to bullshit me. I know you, you're not as fine as you think you are, so c'mon man, talk to me."
"It's nothing really...I just miss her, Ty."
"Hey man I know, it's just that you can't..." I cut him off before he could finish his sentence.
"You know? Ty you don't know shit alright, you've been dating the same girl since high school and now you're married to her and have a kid comin along, you've never had to deal with this kinda crap, so don't be sayin you know unless you've been through it."
"I don't have to go through it to understand it Dan, okay? I've seen this kinda shit all the time with all our friends. No, I may not know how you feel but I can understand a little bit of what you're going through. It doesn't take no rocket scientist to see what you're turning into."
"Oh yeah? What then? What exactly am I `Turning into'?"
"A fuckin loner, man you keep yourself locked up tight in the little apartment of yours cause you don't want to face the real world, how are you ever gonna find anyone else if you keep living like that?"
"I don't want to find anyone else, she was the one."
"No, she was a fucking gold digger who was only in it for sex and fancy gifts and shit like that, she was just playin with you man, that's why you got to let her go, I mean look around you. This is the first time you've been out of your apartment in weeks. We never see you anymore, Erika is always worried that your never gonna be around anymore, you lost your job and half your friends cause of this girl. Let her go."
"You know what? Fuck you Ty. Fuck you and the rest of them, I don't need you to tell me how to run my own god damned life okay? So why don't you turn around and go preach to someone else and leave me the hell alone, you know what? How about you just stay the fuck out of my life."
I was so pissed that I just grabbed my coat off the bar stool and walked out the door. This was this first time me and Tyler got into it like that, we fought about stuff yeah but never like that. I feared that I just lost him as a friend but at that moment, I didn't care. He was sick of me, they all were and they didn't have the guts to say it to my face, well then they could all just go to hell. I was so pissed that I wasn't looking where I was going and as I turned the corner I walked right into someone, knocking us both over.
"Whoa! Shit, are you okay? God, I'm so sorry about that, wasn't lookin where I was heading."
"No, it's my fault don't worry about it."
"I'm Paul, Paul Bryan." He offered out his hand to me and I grabbed it and lifted myself from the ground. That was the first time I looked at who I ran into and for a moment I couldn't find the words to speak.
"Okay, so are you sure you're feeling okay? You're not hurt or anything are you?"
All I could do was just stare at him, and for some weird reason I forgot how to talk.
"Okay...well, I'll see you around."
He started to walk around me and then I remembered I hadn't even said a word to him.
"Danny." I said and he stopped and turned to face me.
"I'm Danny, Danny Thomas." I said as I extended my arm for a proper introduction. "Hi."
"Hey. So you're okay right? Cause for a moment there you weren't sayin anything."
"Yeah I'm okay, sorry, just had the wind knocked out of me there for a bit."
He looked at me and smiled, there was something about his smile that made my knees a bit weak and my stomach had butterflies, or so.
"Well I better get goin before it gets to cold out. I'll see you around okay?"
"Yeah, sure thing." I said and I smiled back at him. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.
When I got home that night, I found it a bit difficult to sleep. I had thoughts of the fight between me and Tyler all night which made it hard to rest. Then I decided to take my mind off of it and immediately Paul's face swam into my vision. I rested my head against the pillows and slowly but surly drifted off to sleep, dreaming about a complete stranger who would be more to me then anyone ever was.