Eyes slanted, in the corner
of the bar, sat James, slanted not just because of the marijuana he
had recently smoked but because of his decision to remain discreet as
he watched Deborah with overwhelming desire and want, nay, need. The
question was, how to steal her affections away from Matthew. The
pair of them sat in the opposite corner of the bar. The two drinks
that Matthew had purchased, two shots of saki, sat in front of them,
mostly unnoticed, on the table before them. Their eyes were caught
up in each others, deep in conference with one another over the
intricacies of the others' souls. With each moment they grew closer,
James grew more distant, more repulsed, and more greedy. His friends
around him, namely Ray, Shaggy, and Thomas, seemed not to notice his
distant and foul, dark mood. They were too caught up in their own
high, their own busyness of their own minds and lives, to pay too
much attention to that of James' world. James saw Matthew laugh as
Deborah picked up her drink and downed it in one gulp.
“Shit,” Matthew was
laughing, in shock at Deborah before him.
“What?” Deborah asked,
questions of worry forming in her eyes.
“You aren't supposed to
chug it like that, only sip it!” Matthew explained and they both
laughed. Then, their eyes met again and Deborah, already feeling the
buzz, reached her hand up and stroked his red hair, tucking the longer
strands behind his ear.
“Such beautiful hair!”
she whispered longingly. The DJ started up a new song and Matthew
looked at her, hopefully.
“Want to dance?” he
asked.
“Yeah, sure,” she said.
He got up and reached out his hand to her. She took it, rose from
her seat, and followed him, past his friends, onto the dance floor
where only a few smattering of other dancers were already moving to
the beat. James watched her closely as she walked by, and noticed
how she seemed to respond to his focused attention, hiding herself
slightly on the other side of Matthew, away from James' view.
Matthew and Deborah danced
amongst the other dancers, facing each other yet not touching. Out
of the crowd, Barbara came bounding toward Matthew. She was dressed
in a short, slinky silvery dress and he could tell when she reached
him, by the smell on her breath, that she had been drinking. How, he
was not sure because she was not yet even twenty-one, not even how
she had gotten into this nightclub, but there she was. She pushed
herself hard against him, proving what he had known for awhile now,
she liked him. She began rubbing herself against him as they danced,
and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Deborah look down, dismayed,
jealous, worried. With that look, he pushed Barbara off of him and
moved closer to Deborah. It wasn't just for Deborah that he did
that, but he never really liked girls that were that forward, an
invasion of space more like. He did notice, however, Deborah's sly
smile peering up at him through the hair that had fallen into her face. God, how he wanted to kiss her right then and there.
The song spun itself out and
Matthew reached for Deborah's hand. She placed hers in his and he
led her from the dance floor, whispering into her ear, “You want to
take a walk?”
“Yeah,” she said back.
“My car's on the other side of town, you want to walk me there?”
He smiled down at her in
affirmation and moved back to their coats, their table, and their
sakis. Well, his. Hers was nicely slammed and empty beside his.
Deborah said nothing to Matthew at the moment they passed the table
with all his friends, nothing about the eyes that bore into her where
ever she went, nothing about how it made her feel somehow intrigued
and somehow even known. She concentrated mostly on the gleam of his
beautiful red hair as it danced among the low lights of the bar, his
soft blue eyes when they turned towards her, and the appeal of his
luscious lips. Oh, how she wanted to kiss him right then and there.
Matthew finished his saki
and then turned to her, holding out her coat and helped her into it.
After she had buttoned up, he handed her his purse, then put his coat
on as well, after she had taken it.
“All ready?” he smiled
down at her alluringly. She nodded. “Just want to stop and say hi
and bye to my friends, if that's all right?”
“Sure, sure,” Deborah
said, but nervously bit her lip. The friends thing kind of scared
her. The rebellious bunch of ragtag crew that hung out at the coffee
shop, even always wears a tie was there, and yes, he was wearing a
tie, even there. Yeah, he might have just come from work but Deborah
thought it was telling that here he was wearing a tie confirming his
nickname to be true. Mari who had pointed it out to her a few days
ago would laugh if she saw him. Mari, who was safely tucked away in
her room, asleep after a festive night at bible study, most likely,
scamming the room for a husband.
“Hey everybody,” Matthew
was saying to the table. “I want you to meet someone. Everyone,
this is Deborah. Deborah, this is everyone.”
“Hi Everyone,” Deborah
said with a shy smile and a little giggle. She looked around at
their faces, some rugged with the sun's burn from last summer only
now receding and leaving the traces of lines in its wake, others pale
with the absence of any sun, and all of them with eyes slanted and
red. Stoned, she thought, nice.
“Hi, Deborah, I'm Thomas,”
Always Wears A Tie was saying as he stuck out his hand.
“See, he does have a
name,” teased Matthew. Deborah punched him slightly and said a
short “Hi” to Always Wears A...no...Thomas.
“And, this is Shaggy,
James, and Ray,” Thomas introduced the rest of them, pointing them
out with his free hand, the other holding his mug of beer.
“Hiya,” was Deborah's
response.
“So, Deborah, what does
Ray remind you of?” Matthew wanted to know. She looked at Ray then,
quizzically and cocked her head to one side. “Look carefully, the
red nose, reddish hair, beanie atop his head...”
Deborah shook her head,
laughing.
“One hint,” whispered
Matthew. “Lawn gnome!”
Deborah laughed out loud and
exclaimed, “Oh my god, yeah!”
“King of the lawn gnomes,”
Ray exclaimed back to her. “They call me!”
She smiled to him, bowed her
head in reverence, and said, “Your majesty!”
He grinned at her and raised
his beer to her, before taking a huge swig. Deborah felt the eyes of
James upon her, boring into her, and a shudder went up her spine.
Danger loomed within her when she felt his presence, at once she felt
like running away while the other part felt like running
towards...him. She moved a few feet away from the table. Matthew
looked over at her, questioningly, concerned.
She nodded slightly and he
turned to his friends,
“We're going to just take
a walk,” he explained. “I'll see you guys around later.”
They nodded their good-byes
to both and turned into their beers. Matthew turned and reached out
for her hand and the two of them bounced out the door, across the
bridge that got them to the sidewalk, and out into the night for
their lovers' stroll, their feet instep with each others.
The cold night air felt
invigorating to Deborah as they left the stuffiness of the nightclub.
She took a deep breath in and held it, as if wanting to hold this
moment within her for all times. They began walking.
He took her along the back streets of the town, the town he had raised in and had so many memories. He told her so many stories about each place they came to, the crazy times he had had in each, and each time they stopped, he took a minute to pull her close, catching the scent of her hair as her face lay against his face.
When they finally reached
her car, parked outside another coffee shop across town, they stopped
and looked at each other, nervous yet wanting.
“Yeah, so,” Deborah sat,
biting her lip and staring at her hands twisting together.
“Yeah, so what are you
doing tomorrow?”
“I get off work around 3,”
Deborah blurted out. Then, blushed shyly and stared at the ground.
“How about a late lunch?”
Matthew offered. She looked up into his face, smiled, and then
nodded. With that, he pulled her towards him in a passionate hug.
Then, slowly they turned their heads to each other and their lips
met, at last. His tongue entered her mouth and explored within, hers
into his. His hands rubbed down her back and she leaned harder
against him. He liked the way she felt so close against him and she
was thinking the same. After a few minutes of the kiss, and a few
pecks afterward, he walked her over to her car and waited while she
unlocked it and got in. She sat and turned to look at him, without
warning, he pushed her against the seat and started again. She
wrapped her arms around him and embraced him.
“You want a ride home?”
she asked, breathless between kisses.
“No, no,” he smiled at
her and sat back outside the car. She sat up and put the key in the
ignition. He reached up and kissed her again, pushing her head
against the back of her seat. Her hand cupped the back of his neck
and the other hand ran through his beautiful hair.
“You sure you don't want a
ride?” she asked again, with a giggle.
He studied her for a moment
with a sheepish grin, then shook his head, “I'm sure.”
He stood up then, and
smiling down at her, said, “See you tomorrow,” then closed the
door of her car. He turned and walked back down the sidewalk from
whence they had come, she started her car, backed up, and then pulled
into the silent street, empty of any traffic. What he didn't notice
as he walked away from the coffee shop, what she didn't notice as
she drove away from the coffee shop, was that directly across in the
dark shadows of a tree, in an unlit parking lit, stood James.
Watching.
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