Easy

Chapter 1

She spotted him from afar, this guy who was trying so hard to fit in, even attempting to drink beer even though, from his facial expression, one would think he was drinking gasoline.

He was dressed in a dark polo shirt and denim pants that were so crisply ironed that she wouldn’t have been surprised if the texture was as hard as cardboard. Definitely not part of the usual crowd she encountered around here.

But she knew who he was, of course. She’d seen him across the street from her school, where his own school was located. He went to a private university, whereas she attended community college, but that never really bothered her. She would see him—-this guy—-walking out of his school gates in his fancy uniform to his fancy car. And he had a girlfriend, she knew as much. Slim, wide hips, brunette. Only, she couldn’t see her anywhere, she realized, as she scanned the people within his vicinity.

At this, her lips curved into a mischievous smile. She’d always thought he was cute, if you liked guys who seemed to always have something to say about everything, even things as trivial as flying cockroaches. But she didn’t mind that.

Pushing herself off the wall she’d been leaning on, she walked slowly toward him.

**************

He sensed her presence before he even heard her voice.

“Hey, cutie.”

He looked around and found his voice stuck in his throat. In front of him stood a girl. No, sorry, a young lady. Probably his age. She was dressed in a tight black, sleeveless dress. Simple enough, except that the neckline was so low, it almost reached her navel. Every curve in her body was emphasized, and she definitely had the curves where the curves ought to be. He was trying hard not to scan her body from head to foot with his eyes because he knew that that would make him look like a pervert. It didn’t help his cause, though, that she was wearing heels that were at least 4 inches high, making her buttocks firm and adding to her already curvy figure. She had long dark hair, tumbling in curls from her shoulders down to the front of her dress. Red lipstick, her only makeup, finished the look. No jewelry. Simple, like he said. But definitely sexy.

“Uhm…”

The young lady chuckled. “Lost your voice, there?”, she teased, tilting her head to the side as she looked at him, arms across her chest. Her almost bare chest. God, he had to stop staring.

“Sorry. Hi”, he tried again.

She shook her head lightly, with a smile. A really pretty smile. That kind of pretty that belonged to the face of someone who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a dress as daring as the one she was wearing now. “I guess you could start with a ‘hi’. And maybe you can buy me a drink, too. Jack and Coke”, she replied, moving closer now and standing beside him.

He frowned. Jack? Coke? Were those drugs?

“I’m sorry?”, he asked. He was aware of how clueless he sounded.

The girl smiled again, this time, a more seductive smile. “Jack Daniels mixed with Coke, honey”, she explained.

“Oh”, he said, nodding. He turned to the bartender and ordered the drink for her. He kept his gaze on the shelves of drinks lining the bar, but couldn’t help trying to size her up in his peripheral vision. She smelled good, like strawberry and peaches, but mixed with the smell of the bar: sweat, smoke and alcohol.

When the bartender came back, he took the drink and handed it to the young lady.

“What’s your name?”, he asked. It seemed like a good conversation starter.

The young lady took a sip of the drink and replaced the drink on the bar counter before answering with a shrug. “Stick with me and maybe you’ll find out”, she said, turning to him with a wink. “And you?”

He shrugged, trying to play her game. “If I stick with you long enough and I find out your name, maybe I’ll give you mine”, he replied. He couldn’t believe he’d said that. Was he flirting?

She laughed. “Wow, we’re getting clever now. Got over your ‘uh, sorry, hi’ phase now, I see. That’s good”.

The room was still filling up with people as they stood there. The music was blasting even louder than earlier, probably because it was almost midnight now and the place was almost full. He looked around and saw that most people in there were his age, give or take 2 years, but he didn’t really see anyone even remotely familiar.

“I take it you don’t like beer?”, she suddenly asked.

He looked back at her and looked at the significantly full beer bottle in his hand. “You want it?”, he offered.

A frown on her face, she said, “What makes you think I want to drink off something you’ve already touched?”

“Uhm..”, he stuttered. Was she offended? Or was she playing? A moment later, she chuckled.

“Relax. You look constipated”, she said, patting his hands that were on top of each other on the bar. “I was kidding. I wouldn’t mind drinking off something you’ve touched. Though, quite honestly, I don’t like beer”.

He smiled. “I don’t like it, too. Tastes like crap”, he replied.

She raised an eyebrow. “You’ve tasted crap before?”, she teased.

Before he could answer, the sound of shouting came from the far end of the room. They both looked up to see two guys arguing. They couldn’t understand what they were arguing about, but from the looks of it, both of them were pretty angry.

She clucked her tongue. “Another barfight. People become stupid when they get drunk”, she mumbled.

He turned to her. “You’ve never been drunk?”, he asked.

“Do I look like I want to become stupid?”, she asked back, the look on her face seeming to challenge him to agree to her question.

The sound of a gunshot broke their small banter. He felt her hand grip his wrist and tug.

“Come on! This is just gonna get ugly!”, she exclaimed, running towards the door.

Without thinking about it, he followed her out, the sound of another gunshot quickly drowned out by the screams of the people as they scrambled for the exits.

“Where are we going?”, he asked as they ran down the block, away from Club Paradiso. He couldn’t imagine how she could run in her high-heeled shoes.

“My apartment. It’s just around the corner”, she replied. They rounded the corner and was about to walk up the steps to her apartment building when he stopped and pulled her to a stop as well.

“My car”, he panted. “It’s still in the club’s parking lot…”

“You won’t be able to get it now. The police are bound to arrive and the place will be off-limits for at least a few hours. You can spend the night here and take off early in the morning”, she said matter-of-factly.

When he didn’t answer, the look on his face may have communicated to her that he didn’t think the idea was a good one.

She raised an eyebrow and a corner of her mouth turned up into a crooked smile. “Don’t worry, I have a couch you can sleep in. And I don’t rape guys.”

Before he could even protest, she pulled on him again and through the doors of the apartment building.