Chapter Three: The Story We Live Out
Cursed with reason in a world
So defiant without conclusion
This is the story, the story we live out
And it is the moral too…
Look at me, I'm falling for you
-Vertical Horizon
"Could someone please remind me why I'm
here?" Gwen sighed, working her fingers through her thick
brown curls. Her eyes darted around the dark room, searching for
any sign of familiarity. She found none.
"You're here," Adrienne reminded her, flashing her a
grin, "because you're going to start having a social life.
Because you want to spend time with us chicas instead of your
books. Remember?"
"Oh yeah," Gwen sighed. She leaned her chin on her
hand, her elbow on the booth's table in front of her, and
continued to probe the smoky air around her with her eyes. The
dance club was throbbing with the bass of the music playing over
the loudspeakers, the air pungent with the smell of sweat and
perfume.
I should be studying. I should be doing something
productive. I should not be here. She shook her head
subconsciously, as if in an effort to chase away the guilt she
felt.
Adrienne swayed along to the beat of the song in the seat next to
Gwen's. This was what she lived for. She was surrounded by
people, carried away by the music…she felt free. Liberated
from the burdens of school, magically transported away from her
problems. Everything was looking up - she was having fun tonight,
and tomorrow night she had a date with Chase. True, he wasn't
perfect, but he was decent. He was available for her, that was
what mattered.
She closed her eyes and envisioned herself dancing with him. Only
in her fantasy, Chase metamorphosed into someone else, and she
realized that she was dancing with a stranger who looked vaguely
familiar. When her eyes opened again, she found that the person
in her vision was dancing, oblivious to her stares, directly in
front of her.
"Hey Gwen," she said as quietly as possible to be heard
over the music, "Check out that guy over there. Does he look
familiar to you?" She pointed in his direction.
Gwen squinted her eyes. The smoke in the air was making them
watery, and everything in her field of vision was blurry. She
finally focused on a guy, about twenty-two or twenty-three years
old, wearing a yellow shirt and dancing with several women at
once.
"Not really," she responded. "Why? Do you know
him?"
Adrienne let out a sigh. "No. But I think I'd like to."
Gwen rolled her eyes, turning her body slightly away so that she
faced the wall. Sometimes Adrienne and her man-craziness drove
her nuts. She studied the nearly-invisible cracks in the plaster
of the wall and tried to remove herself from her surroundings.
The only thing that would make tonight tolerable would be if
Corrina were there.
"Adrienne, is Corrina coming?" she asked, not turning
her head. When she didn't receive a response, she glanced at
where Adrienne had been sitting only to find her missing. She
twisted to face forward and sat up in her seat, craning her neck
to look for her friend. Her eyes finally rested on Adrienne
dancing her way toward the stranger she had pointed out. "It
figures," she sighed.
Gwen excused herself and left the other members of her small
group sitting in the booth. She squeezed through the crowds of
people, avoiding those who were dancing or holding drinks, toward
the hallway in the back of the club where she thought she'd seen
a pay phone.
The minute AJ entered the club, he felt the outside world
slipping away from him. It dissolved from his body; it fled
without a second thought from his mind. There were no Backstreet
Boys. There was no empty house. There was only this night, and
this music.
He immediately made his way directly to the dance floor. No stops
at the bar, nothing. The song that was playing he'd never heard
before, but it grabbed ahold of him and he went with it. He
enjoyed a few precious minutes of anonymity, but soon three or
four women about his age recognized him and asked him to dance.
He gladly obliged.
After all, he thought to himself with
satisfaction:
They're gorgeous. And they all want me.
This had continued for almost forty-five minutes when he saw a
blonde girl about his age approaching. She had a determined look
on her face and, he had to admit, she was very attractive. He
excused himself from the fans he was dancing with just as she
reached him.
She looked him in the eyes and shouted over the music,
"Dance with me."
"Gladly." He was taken aback by her forwardness, but he
didn't mind. Usually he was the one to make the first move, at
least with a non-fan. The two of them started to move together
flirtatiously. With each passing song they found themselves
closer and closer together, until they were pressed up against
each other, dancing without speaking a word.
After a while - both of them had lost track of time - AJ
attempted conversation. "You're a good dancer, you know
that?"
"Yes," she grinned. "Wanna buy me a drink?"
He couldn't help laughing at her boldness. "What would you
like?"
"Vodka martini, very dry, three olives."
AJ nodded and then made his way over to the bar on the other side
of the club, leaving her to dance solo for a few minutes. When he
was halfway there, he glanced over his shoulder and noticed a
girl emerging from a hallway in the back. The darkness and smoke
clouded her features, but he was struck by the thickness and
color of her hair. She looked like the girl he saw by the river
that afternoon, but…
It can't be. McLean, you're a psycho,
he told himself.
He turned away before she had a chance to catch him staring, but
a few seconds later he couldn't resist a second glance. His
breath caught when he found that she was looking directly at him.
Their eyes held each other's for a mere moment, but AJ nearly
found himself drowning in their liquid darkness, even from twenty
feet away. His heart fell when her eyes moved on, and he realized
that she was looking for someone and had only met his eyes by
mistake.
He dismissed the incident from his mind. When he reached the bar,
he placed his dance partner's order. "And a shot of
tequila," he added.
Why not? he thought to himself.
One shot
won't hurt. After everything I've been through, I could damn well
use a drink.
The bartender placed a martini and a shot glass on the bar in
front of him. AJ paid, then quickly downed the shot. He wiped his
lips with the back of his hand and then picked up the martini
glass. He carried it to the edge of the dance floor, where he was
met by the girl he had been dancing with.
"Thanks," she shouted. "Don't you want
anything?"
"No, I'm not thirsty," he lied. "Let's dance some
more."
Gwen slipped a quarter and a dime into the slot on the front of
the pay phone. She dialed Corrina's cell phone number and let it
ring three times. She was about to hang up when she heard a voice
answer.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Corrina, it's me." She tried to speak at a normal
volume, even though she felt the instinct to yell over the music.
"Gwen? I tried calling you, but you didn't answer your
phone."
"I know, I left it in the car. Where are you?"
Static crackled over the line, and Gwen couldn't hear the first
part of what she was saying. "…club. I talked to
Adrienne earlier. Where are you?"
"What was the first part of that?"
"I said, I'm at the club. Where are you?"
Gwen smiled. "So am I! How come I haven't seen you? How long
have you been here? I didn't know you were coming!"
"What? You haven't been paying attention to my whereabouts?
Your bestest friend in the whole wide world? Gwen, muchacha, I'm
ashamed of you!" Both of them laughed out loud. "But
no, I don't know why you haven't seen me. I've been here a good
twenty minutes."
"All right, well then let's just meet over by the bathrooms.
Seeya in a few."
Gwen placed the handset of the pay phone back into its cradle.
She smoothed her hair down with her left hand and checked her
pockets to make sure her car keys and twenty dollar bill were
still there. Finding everything in order, she turned on her heel
and walked back out into the crowded main floor of the club.
She scanned the throng of people with her eyes, hoping to catch a
glimpse of where Adrienne had gone off to, but she couldn't see
her anywhere. She did, however, pause when she saw the guy that
Adrienne had run off to dance with. But where was Adrienne?
She was a bit startled when he turned his head almost immediately
to hold her gaze through the smoky darkness. She found herself
drawn in, mysteriously, and unable to move. Something about him
intrigued her, and she now understood why Adrienne had been so
enthusiastic when she had spotted him.