I placed my handbag in one of the larger slots, sliding my phone and a small, glass, skull shaped bottle filled with vodka into my jean jacket before shutting my bag and stalking towards the vests. Only alcohol can get me through this. I thought, almost groaning in defeat as Sandra squealed in excitement, I say in defeat because I had been defeated, the entirety of Sandra's eighteenth birthday night had been defeated by that screech.
Everyone charged into the maze, running in eagerness forcing me to join them. I forced a chuckle and a grin towards Sandra as she yanked my arm into the maze, my arm almost popping out of the socket making me swallow down a groan. We disappeared into the darkness of the maze, no one else following us or at least as far as I could see. The flashing yellow, pink, blue, green, red, every single fucking coloured lights were already playing with my mind. Shadows appeared when nothing was their, interjecting walls seemed to disappear, crossroads had never seemed so dark and the constant tug on my arm made me want to scream.
We ran up ramps, ran down ramps, turned sharp corners, climbed stairs, all whilst Sandra shot at passing competitors with a concerning amount of precision. A young boy ran through the middle of us, releasing Sandra's strong hold on my shirt with an uncomfortable pull, then continuing to shoot both of us. Sandra only ran from that, leaving me in the dark with no where to go. It was astounding how quick the dark haired girl could dash away and with such quiet footsteps as well, I only strolled through the maze trying to search for her.
I was well and truly lost, nowhere to go besides walking forward, through the endless maze. I strolled aimlessly, turning each corner either colliding with a lost child or placidly walking through with no interruptions. The majority was the first one, little brats who sprinted around the corners to run into young girls such as i and shoot them whilst staring at their chests, silly boys.
I found a solid wall, not a jagged piece of plaster sticking out to make a regular rectangle an irregular one, a real fucking wall. It felt nice to lean against something without thinking the domino effect would happen in any given moment. I slid down the wall, falling onto the cool, concrete flooring with my oversized jacket splaying around me. The familiarity of the shaped glass in my palm made me settle, the pop of the cork from the crown of the skull made a smirk appear on my candy coloured lips.
I combed the falsely coloured blonde lock of hair out of my vision and took a sip of the foul tasting liquid, straight vodka in a stuffy maze wasn't exactly how I wished to spend a Saturday night in California. It was definitely a big change from the humble city of Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne, what a piece of absolute shit compared to this? This was voluptuous, this was full, not patchy and barely filled, it was thriving instead of dead. It was everything i wanted.
An obvious mother jutted out from the maze interior around ten metres away from me, looking from either side of her. Her eyes landed on my own, turning from excitement to visible disgust. It made my lips twitch into a fake smile, my hand waving her away with her turned up nose and three quarter length jeans. Obnoxious bitch. It made me turn my gaze the other way, looking down the empty corridor before taking another swig of the skull. My face contorted, a breath of disgust falling from my lips and echoing through the long walkway.
A man, only a few years older than me maybe sprinted out from a corridor only around three months to my right. He looked down at me, blue eyes hiding a burning inferno towards me. Great, a cute guy judging me too.
"Oh, you're just a bit too late. a bitch of a mother already judged me and not to be rude, but her glare was a lot judgemental compared to yours." I spoke, my voice being raspy in my throat from the strong alcohol that ran smoothly down it, I scowled.
He took steps forward, "I wasn't judging you, I was wondering how you hadn't got shot yet." He spoke, an Australian accent lacing his tone making my eyebrows lift.
"You're Australian?" I questioned, already knowing the answer but deciding to ask it anyway. He took slow steps towards me, menacingly slow steps with his long legs that were tightly covered in black, skinny jeans. Christ. He sat beside me, gesturing to the skull and watched with insightful eyes as I handed it to him, he took a swig of the liquid.
"No, just into girls." He joked, making me cluck a chuckle out, maybe this guy wasn't as much of a twat as i thought he would be.
He outstretched his hand, "I'm Luke, you?"
"Mia," I replied, gladly shaking his hand and staring into his ice blue eyes.
He smiled, leaning his head against the brick wall, I did the same, taking the bottle from his hand, making sure to linger the touch for a few treasured moments and sip it. We sat in silence for a good three minutes, watching as people ran from the corridors into the other and handing the bottle to each other until it was gone.
"Hey, I have a gig on with my band tomorrow, you wanna come?" He asked, surprise lifted my dark eyebrows that I had spent so much time on beforehand, they were become a nuisance in my life. I shook the thought off, the mysterious boy who hadn't criticised me about taking swigs of vodka when I could be playing a innocent game of laser tag and decided to join me was in a band? The boy had too many secrets for me to bear.
I chuckled, running a tamed nail along the cracks of the skull. "What do you play? Wait, let me guess, emo, no, boy band covers, that's the one." I joked, finding a fondness in the man sitting beside me who kept getting closer with every moment.
"Actually-" He was cut off by a siren going off in the corner, flashing a green light signalling for us to find a way to the exit. Projected arrows formed on the ground, leading towards the exit we entered from.
He stood up, helping me off of my feet with one tug of my wrist. He was like an angel in the green light, sharp jawline with patchy stubble, blue eyes shining and hair styled to perfection. No wonder he was in a band.
"I'll text you the details then?" He poked, I nodded and watched as he pulled out his phone, handing it to me and watching as I typed in my details. He seemed content watching me punch in words, my peripheral vision was cranking out the best it could. He was watching everything, every move, every flinch of my fingers.
He was either an extremely light weight drinker or in love.
For his sake, I hope for the first one.
