Tainted Love

Two

         The flashing strobe lights and swinging disco ball cast shadows in every corner of the spacious room. Broken beams along the floor showed where a wall once stood years ago. No doubt someone had removed it in order to expand the room probably for some previous party thrown by drunken high schooler's. The band on stage was busy setting up and preparing for their performance when the girls walked in. Claire would have been surprised if Mitchell had noticed their arrival to the pre-party at all. Not that the young girl really cared that was the way that she had always preferred it, she had spent a majority of her high school life trying to stay off of people's radars.

         It seemed however that tonight luck was not on her side, one of her classmates in stage had noticed her staring up at them and smiled at her. Claire felt as though her stomach was riding the worlds wildest roller coaster as she watched Ricky turn to get Mitchell's attention. Claire couldn't seem to fight the feeling of blood rushing to her cheeks as her face turned a light shade of red. The boy who was standing next to her friend had been her primary crush since she had met the bad boy in the fifth grade. Not many people at Mission High could proudly declare themselves among Ricky's friends. Lots of girls felt drawn in by his dark wavy hair and eyes that matched the color if melted chocolates. His quiet and withdrawn demeanor gave him an aura of indescribable mysteriousness.

         Mitchell glanced up from the guitar he was tuning when Ricky tapped him on the shoulder. A smile lit up his face when he saw where his friend was pointing out into the crowd. Claire quickly fought to regain her composure  and waved back enthusiastically to her friend offering him what she hoped came across as an encouraging smile. Evidently the smile had been convincing enough to satisfy her friend as he flashed her a thumbs up even as his attention was reverting to the guitar that hung around his neck. Claire laughed quietly at her friends easily distracted attention. While Mitchell was one if the most desired boys in school Claire had never found herself attracted to him the same way the other girls were. Perhaps that was why Mitchell had chosen to befriend her rather then the hoards of girls who followed him.

       "You have strong feelings that one? The one who strives to be embraced by his classmates by being unliked?" Kitanya questioned taking her younger friend by surprise. Her presence had been unnoticed by Claire, she had been unaware of her friends silent observations.

      "Ever since they met in Elementary." Ashley chimed in helpfully laughing at Claire's expression. "Claire has always seemed to have a thing for the bad boy type." In that moment Claire felt as though she could throttle her best friend. Kitanya laughed at the sight of blush slowly creeping into her friends cheeks. A wave of relief flooded over the young girl when the first deafening cords were struck on the guitar in earnest. The band had started their first set drawing the attention from the embarrassed girl, if it was that obvious to her friends who else had noticed?

      Taking advantage of her friends lapse in focus Claire took her opportunity to slip away unnoticed. The crowd of High Schoolers had thickened since they had first entered the house no more then 30 minutes ago. The air was permeated with the scent of cheap booze. It was a chore to squeeze through the mass of bodies that crowded the first floor. The scent of sage wafted on a cold draft that escaped the poorly sealed windows, the scent was little more then a soft undertone to the pungent smell of cigarette smoke. Claire slowly made her way towards the source if the new smell hoping to locate a patch of fresh air to breath.

    A cloud of smoke rolled out of what Claire could only assume was at one time the kitchen given the amount of cabinets that lined the walls. A group of teenagers sat on the floor around the room they're backs resting against the decaying walls, a broken counter told that one of the group had most likely tried to sit on the rotted wood and quickly fell through.

    "Never thought that I'd find you in a place like this." A soft husky voice announced from over her shoulder. Claire jumped in surprise and spun to see who it was that had snuck up on her now. Ricky smirked broadly at the startled girl causing her heart to skip a beat.

    "I was just trying to find somewhere with cleaner air." Claire explained in embarrassment as she motioned to the smoke filled room that they had just exited. Someone assisting the band on stage had activated a smoke machine at the other end of the house making the crowded room seem even eerier, especially in the dark corners where no light seemed to penetrate. Ricky nodded his understanding as her looked back at the mass of bodies  moving to the music. Somehow in the shifting lights he seemed to have lost some of his hardened look and instead wore more of a thoughtful expression Claire had never seen him wear before. Claire couldn't help but to think that this sudden change of appearance looked incredibly good on him. His eyes were shifting around the room  as if examining every dark spot in the vicinity.

    Drunken teenagers stumbled around the house hollering and slamming into one another in hopes of starting up a mosh pit despite the fact that the song that the band was playing was far from being what would be considered a mosh worthy song. Thinking over this fact and listening to the guitar solo suddenly reminded Claire of the fact that she was supposed to be here to support Mitchell on his big night. Then again he had already acknowledged that fact that she was present and it was highly unlikely that he would be able to pick her out of the raging crowd anyway. Though Claire sincerely doubted that he would bother looking for her anyway. The only thought bothered her any was that her friends might be worried about her, though by now Ashley had probably had enough to drink that she wouldn't even register the fact that her friend had gone missing. Odds were that the girl was probably tangled up in the arms of some boy in one of the dark corners that Ricky was so busy studying. Kitanya might be worried but she had been the one to tell Claire on more then one occasion that she needed to put herself out there more often and to try and make herself happy. Glancing over at Ricky's solemn look she realized that in that very moment she was indeed happy.

    Ricky looked back over at Claire after she had fallen silent for a moment, he smirked slyly when he saw that she was in fact openly staring at him. Raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow he bit back a laugh at her sudden blush as she looked away in embarrassment at the fact that he had caught her staring. Obviously reaching a decision the sex god clothed in leather, a many a girl had called him in private flashed the dazed young girl his most charming smile.