There are those people in your life that you never really think much about. Now I’m not talking about the background people, those people that might as well be a chair in the back of the classroom for all you interact with them. I don’t mean this in a bad way, goodness no, surely they could be interesting people in their own lives.

I feel like I’m writing myself into a hole here. Thus the problem with honesty I suppose. At the risk of sounding rude I’m going to continue were I left off before being sidetracked.

Dacey is one of those people. At least in my life he was. Or should I say is? He always seemed to be around, more so than any of the others, but I think I might know him least. Funny how it is.

And then one day, as he was walking away from me, I had the strangest thought. What is it like to be Dacey every minute of every day? And that moment stuck with me from then on. It wasn’t until several months later that he told me a story, half in tears, that gave me a hint to the answer.

It’s really easy to spot a registered Other. You can see them walking around sometimes. They’re very conspicuous with the glowing O radiating through their clothing from their chests. Nathaniel Hawthorne has nothing on the Ministry’s low-level radiation tattoos. It takes several layers of clothing just to dim the letter. I’ve heard it said that topless, an Other can light up an entire room.

“Yo, look!” Aden pointed subtly over Dacey’s shoulder in a whisper. “No! No! Don’t turn around all quickly!”

My ears perked up but my eyes followed his casual gesture slowly, I had gotten better at this.

Black hair with white tips. Matching checkered and chained outfit. Bondage collar. Sterling silver piercing in his right ear. Blazing O over his heart, barely concealed by only a layer or two of clothing. And he was totally checking Dacey out.

There are two types of registered Others: the ones who bare it like an eternal mark of sin and shame and apologize their way through life. And the “magnets”, the ones who use who use being registered as a chance to attract Others that are in hiding. It was easy to guess where this one fit in as he pretended to struggle with the vending machine a half-dozen paces from our table.

Aden, who was considered wise in these matters, explained the situation to an awe-stricken Dacey as eloquently as he could, “Dude. That guy over there is totally checking you out. And he’s totally cute. If you don’t go over there, I’m going and inviting him over here.”

Emily grinned her “horny face”, “Dude, if you don’t go over there I’m going over there, and where I’m inviting him isn’t anywhere near this table.”

I snickered, trying to disguise the fact that I was jealous Aden was looking at someone other than me, even if it was just for a friend.

Nobody had to move though, cause the guy had managed to catch Dacey’s gaze and that was all the invitation he needed to come waltzing over.

“Is this spot taken?” he asked in a voice lower than I’d expected, pointing at the seat next to Dacey.

Dacey only sputtered a response but the rest of us nodded eagerly, exchanging less than subtle eyebrow gestures and gossipy smiles.

Practically ignoring the rest of us, he turned to Dacey and began talking in a rushed but casual tone, “I’m going to be curt, I don’t have much time but I did happen to come across these,” he withdrew two movie tickets from his jacket, I found myself wondering how around all the chains, “and I didn’t want to go by myself. My date for the evening flaked out and I’d rather not go alone. Interested?”

To all of our surprise Dacey nodded fervently, but more surprisingly, comprehensibly, “Definitely.”

“I thought you might,” he grinned. Something about the way his lips curled, the way his ice-blue lipstick caught the crappy mall lighting, creeped me out. But it was too late. He’d already dragged Dacey off, explaining, “Show starts in five minutes.”

Maybe I should’ve stopped them.

Author's Note: Dacey's Luck was origionally meant to be two chapters of my story Loveland. In retrospect, it was sort of a bad idea. I never took enough time to develop Dacey into a main-character but these two chapters seemed to give him way too much attention. I was just going to delete them but then I figured somebody might want to seem them. So consider this Loveland bonus content. :)