New Vinyl (A Draco Malfoy Story)

VI

In a shocking twist, his face contorted into a self-deprecating smile. Even more shocking, he laughed. I dropped my hands to my knees, and only then did I register how comfortably they rested against his. I noticed how the denim of his jeans felt nice against my skin. How long had I been noticing? Did he notice me noticing? I felt myself lean forward and gripped the side of the bar, pulling myself up straighter. Draco's hands clasped my shoulders to stop me from falling into him. I giggled again, and noticed how much more than usual I giggled here than in everyday life, how foreign the sound was coming from me. "I'm drunk," I whispered.

"Yes, you are," he said.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" I asked. He rolled his eyes, as though the question were too stupid to dignify with a response.

"Believe it or not, Hill, I enjoy doing fun things in my free time," he said. "Like seeing one of my favorite bands, for example."

One of his favorite bands. Which happened to be one of my favorite bands. Draco and I had something in common. The thought rocked me to my core. Before I managed to say anything more, cheers filled the small pub as the members of Fairest filed on stage. Not bothering with cordial greetings, they each picked up their instruments. I hopped down from the barstool, half my drink sloshing to the ground. The wood vibrated beneath my feet and the lead singer led into their first song with a shrill cry that energized the crowd, everyone jumping up and down, the group in the middle jumping in any direction that found themselves knocking into one another. I held my drink up high in the air, lost in the chaos of it all.

I enjoyed the music most with my eyes closed, though it seemed silly with a live show going on right in front of me. The feeling of the energy around me, swaying along with the beat, so free and alive. When I did open my eyes, Draco was there beside me, his head bobbing somewhat. I set my empty glass down on the nearest ledge and moved closer to him. I tugged his shirt sleeve, gesturing toward his hands buried deep in his front pockets. He shook his head, a smirk appearing on his face though his eyes never left the stage.

"Dance with her!" A petite blonde beside me stepped forward, shouting across from me to Draco. I held up a hand to wave her off, but she persisted. "You bring your woman out and don't dance with her?" she shouted. Draco gave me a peculiar glance, unable to hear a word this girl said.

"No. No, I'm not his woman!" I said, waving a hand toward him in indifference. "I was just trying to loosen him up a bit!" She mouthed an 'oh' of understanding, but caught me by my arm as I turned away.

"But you'd like to be, eh?" she asked.

"Actually, no I—"

Her fingers lingered on my forearm. Suddenly, she stepped in front of me, taking the back of my head with her other hand and speaking into my ear for only me to hear. "You want to roll with me?" She leaned back, and I felt her hand mussing up my hair, tangling it, attempting to feel every strand. Her eyes sparkled in the blue lights, her pupils seeming to eat her iris', growing with each passing second. In that moment, I envied her. To feel the energy of this place times a thousand; to radiate joy and freedom and love. She took my silence as my answer and reached into the front pocket of her shorts. "He'll love this," she said. She slipped the pill into her own mouth and I didn't fight her when she pulled me in the second time.

Sticky sweet lip gloss, she smelled of the beach. Pineapple with some coconut in there somewhere. Our tongues ran over each other, lingering after the pill had passed between us. She pressed herself against me, only to feel something, anything at all against her body, I knew. I entertained her, my hands brushing her neck and her hair, and when she pulled away I nipped her lip a little, to her distinct pleasure. By then the pill had gone down and there was no turning back.

"The fuck?" Draco's wide-eyed wonder greeted me, but I simply raised my arms into the air and carried on as if nothing happened. Blondie had already flitted off into the crowd again. "What the hell was that, Hill?" he asked, pulling me toward him to keep my attention. The smile on his face, his hands no longer buried in his pockets but holding me, I grabbed them in my own hands and swayed in time with the music.

The pill kicked in by the fourth song of the night. Everything got brighter. Sharper. Almost overwhelmingly so, and I vowed to keep my eyes open from then on so as not to miss a thing. The guitarist thrashed back and forth on stage, and I felt it deep within myself that I needed to match his passion and fervor. Twirling, gyrating, anything that moved me because damn it I needed to move. And well into the set when Draco pulled me by the waist asking, "Are you alright?" and I felt that tingle in my nerves, I smiled. The first genuine smile in a long while, one that seemed to spread wider than my whole face if something like that were even possible. "What?" he asked. Except all questions left him when I touched his face. He felt amazing. Skin soft and rough at the same time, his 5 o'clock shadow well grown in now, that I imagined rubbing my own face against his and it took all my will power not to. And when that slow song I often listened to alone in bed came on, and Draco's hands found my waist and my nerves sang in pleasure beneath his fingers at the same time the singer sang my favorite words, my arms around his neck and my head against his chest and my entire body on fire; in that moment, I understood why they called it ecstasy.