The Stories Of Them

Andie And The Labyrnth

|| Andie And The Labyrnth ||

I could feel the beat of the techno song thumping in my chest where my heart was. Drunken, sweaty bodies all swayed to the horrible music around me, holding clear glasses with brown liquid. Someone bumped into me making the liquid slosh over the rim of my own cup and onto the floor. “Hey sorry man,” the guy said. I shrugged. I didn’t care. I was just focused on the girl sitting at the bar.

Stunning; too stunning to even approach. She wasn’t alone either. A couple of guys sat next to her, chatting her up, but she didn’t seem at all interested. Her eyes wandered from corner to corner of the club, almost looking for a way out. Her eyes never seemed to travel to meet mine, in the center of the crowed room.

But just as suddenly as I’d seen her, she’d seen me. Her eyes fell onto me and an interested expression took up her face. She smiled politely at the guys and hopped off her stool, tugging her skirt down her thighs a little. My heart started to speed up as she walked through the bodies easily, and the people parted to let her through. She stood in front of me and crossed her arms. “Why are you staring at me?”

She had an amused expression on her face. I searched for an answer but I couldn’t find my voice. I sort of smiled at her, not knowing what to say. Finally, I mustered up the nerve to speak, “You’re just beautiful is all.” She looked at her shoes and then back up at me, giggling. I felt the heat rise to my cheeks some. She grabbed my hand and pulled me over towards the bar.

“Well pretty boy, my name is Andie.”

I felt my stomach twist at the name. It was fitting, a stunning name for a stunning girl. She pursed her red lips. “This is the part where you tell me your name.”

“Um, right,” I stuttered. She smirked. “Mack.”

“Mack?” she said. I nodded and she smiled. Buy her a drink.

“I’ll buy you a drink?” I asked. She smiled and nodded. I raised a twenty up to the bartender and he nodded. “Bud lights?” I asked. He nodded and set the two bottles on the table. He slid the change to me and popped the caps on both bottles. She took a swig from hers and her red lipstick came off a little on the bottle.

“Thanks Grant,” she said, smiling. I looked at his shirt. He wasn’t wearing a nametag.

“A regular here?” I asked her. She shrugged.

“You could say something of the sorts,” she answered, circling her finger along the rim of the bottle. I nodded in response. Don’t be awkward. Make conversation you twat.

“So, are you here alone or with friends?” I asked her. I sound so creepy. Dammit.

She shook her head, “All alone. Clubbing with friends isn’t really my style.” I didn’t say anything, just let the awkward silence fall between us. “Let’s dance?”

Who was I to say no?

“Sure,” I said. She grinned and set the beer down, only having taken one drink from it. She grabbed my hand and jumped up, tugging me onto the already crowded dance floor. A crappy techno song was playing and she started moving her hips. Dance. Don’t just stand there. You look like an idiot.

I started awkwardly moving to the beat and she laughed. She grabbed my hands and spun herself around, making me spin around. I laughed and she started jumping up and down to the beat. I joined her and she grabbed my hands again, spinning me around in a circle, her musical laugh ringing throughout the club.

“Mack,” she yelled over the music. I hummed and she stepped up really close to me so that our chests were pressed together and I just noticed how short she was. “I’m not drunk.”

“Neither am I,” I yelled back. She laughed and nodded stupidly. Of course you aren’t drunk you idiot. You didn’t even take a drink of your beer. I continued to “dance” to the shitty music. When I say dance it’s more like awkwardly swaying and jumping to the beat. Andie, on the other hand, looked as if she had forgotten I was even there; dance was her second language. It was her, beautiful and perfect, and me, awkward and just awkward, and no one else mattered.

“Let’s go, this place blows,” she said after a few songs and I nodded. I had just met the girl and it seemed like I had known her forever and I would spend all night getting to know her more. We left the club and she ran down the busy streets, the neon lights lighting up her pale skin. She laughed and smiled and I walked along after her, my hands in my pockets. It was summer, so the air was perfect.

Andie smiled at everyone she passed, and pet every dog. She didn’t let me fall much behind, grabbing my hand and dragging me along the streets of LA.

“Where are we going?” I asked her as she and I ran down the street.

“It’s a surprise. Don’t worry I’m not some psychotic ax murderer,” I laughed and shook my head. What’s the worse that could really happen? Who am I kidding I don’t even know her, anything could happen. But it feels like, somehow, I do know her.

She led me around a corner and down a few more streets and stopped us in front of this sign less shop. It looks rundown and out of business. “Can I ask where we are?” I said nervous.

“You’ve never been here before?” She asked. I shook my head, “Well then you haven’t lived.”

She reached for the top of the doorframe and grabbed a key. She unlocked the door and walked inside, I followed behind. She flipped on the light and I looked around, still somewhat nervous. It wasn’t rundown at all, but rustic and interesting. The walls were lined with shelves upon shelves of books. More books than I’ve ever seen in my life. “We call this the Labyrinth.”

It was a labyrinth. She ran her hands along the spines of the books on the numerous shelves and a small smile graced her lips as she pulled one out. The cover of the hardcover book had blue swirling letters that spelled The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.

“We’re all mad here,” she whispered. I smiled at her. This was the girl who made the world turn and the stars fall like rain. She slid the book back in and started down the rows of books, turning this way and that. “I used to come here when I couldn’t sleep. I found it after my dad died and I can just get lost in the shelves and stacks—literally—and just read.”

“You could get lost in here for days if you wanted to,” I said, wandering through the shelves trying to find where she had gone.

“That’s what I’d do,” She answered from behind me. I spun around and she giggled. “Every way does always loop back in a circle though.”

She was a mystery. Not like a novel mystery where it’s written out to be solved at the end. But a mystery without direction, without purpose but to stay a mystery until it wishes to finally be solved. And it never wished to be solved until the warm summer night that she led me into the Labyrinth. A labyrinth I never thought I’d escape.

(Written by Kaela and Wendy)