"You're the most bizarre girl I have ever met, do you know that?" Linc asked conversationally as he took another swig from his shot glass, emptying it in one go. "When I'm drunk, most people run away from me, but you..." he waved his arm in a large sweeping motion, "you just won't leave me alone no matter how much I beg you to."
He slammed the small glass down on the brightly-lit white bar-top and waved at the bartender for another. "You..." Linc wagged his finger at me with a shrewd smile twisting his lips, "You like me."
I groaned and ran a hand down my face exasperatedly, "How many of those have you had?" I had already counted four since I had sat down next to him, and with every shot, his words blurred together more.
Instead of answering me, Linc continued on this little tangent, "You think that I am a stud muffin." He declared loudly, gaining the attention of Callie who was standing a few feet away. She glanced over at us, spotted me and waved her hand wildly over her head a gigantic grin glued onto her face. "You think..." Another gulp, another shot. "That I am a sexy beast of a man." He smirked at his own drunkenly slurred words, and poked me in the arm forcefully, "Don't you? That's why you won't leave me 'lone. You think I'll confess my undying love for you while I'm drunk." He pulled back suddenly, his chin sinking into his neck so that it seemed like he had two chins instead of one, "Well let me tell you, missy..." He thumped his chest forcefully with a fist, "This guy, don't love no one."
"This guy doesn't have very good grammar either, apparently," Callie chirped happily, taking a seat on Linc's other side.
At the sound of her voice, Linc's eyes widened and he swiveled around in his chair to throw his arms around her in a sloppy hug, "Calphurnia!" He crowed delightedly, burying his face into her thin neck. "I haven't seen you in forever!" He began to sob against her, the sheer force of them shaking both of them.
Callie's nose wrinkled and she pushed the drunken, weeping Brit away from her with one index finger, "How much have you had to drink, Linc?" She asked, looking him in the eyes.
"Juss two 'r three..." He assured her, patting her hand against his chest, "Don' worry abou' it."
Rolling her eyes, the small woman shifted her weight so that she was looking past him at me, "Aislyn, how many did he have?" Her whiskey-colored eyes were so intense that I immediately felt compelled to tell her anything and everything she could ever want to know.
"I counted four, and he was already drinking by the time I got here." I replied promptly, feeling as if I had just tattled on a sibling to our mother.
"Four?" She snorted and turned back to Linc. "You've only had four shots and you're already this drunk?" She smirked and pinched his cheeks, moving his head back and forth. "You are such a light-weight."
"Am not!" Linc complained indignantly. He shoved Callie away from him and turned in his chair so that he was facing me again. "Tell her I'm not a light-weight." He whined, pointing a shaking finger at her. "I'm a hun'red and," he frowned and started to count on his fingers. He reached a certain number and his face brightened noticeably. "Eighty! I'm a hun'red and eighty pounds." He smiled, proud of his counting skills and placed his hands on either side of his waist and swiveled again to face Callie, "I'm not a light weight. I'm fat!"
"Yeah, real fat..." Callie scoffed, turning in her own chair to set her elbows on the bar.
"Ms. Palmin thinks I'm fat, don't you, Ms. Palmin?" Linc turned to look at me with pleading eyes. The brilliant green orbs started to water and I started to wonder just how drunk he really was.
"You're the fattest person I have ever met." I said, trying to placate him.
"Ha! You hear that, Calphurnia? Ms. Palmin says I'm the fattest person she has ever met!" He stuck his tongue out at Callie's back and laughed hysterically.
"Well..." I started, inching out of my seat, "This has been," I paused, searching for the right word. "Interesting. But I need to get going." I was almost all the way out of my seat by the time I finished saying that, but Linc's long fingers wrapped around my wrist and held me in place.
"You're leaving me?" Suddenly, his eyes started to water again and I was reminded of a five year old who had just been told that their dog had just died. "But... But..." his face started to crumple painfully as he prepared to cry, "You said that you weren't going to leave me! You said we were friends!" Tears started to pour down his face in such huge amounts that it was a wonder he still had more to shed. "You said that you wouldn't leave me," he whimpered. "Don't leave me."
I shot a panicked glance at Callie, but she looked just as bewildered as I probably did. Mouthing 'What do I do?' to her, I searched for any signs of help that she might offer, but she did nothing but gape at Linc, wide-eyed.
As I realized that there was nothing I could do but comply, I settled back into the uncomfortable plastic chair with a sigh, "Alright, I'll stay."
Instead of the delighted outburst I had been expecting, like the one he had given when he saw Callie, he just let go of my wrist and drew his arm back slowly, eyes fixed on me carefully, probably searching for any sign that I could be lying. When he was satisfied that I was telling the truth, he let his hand fall back onto the bar, and closed his eyes wearily, "Thank you." And with that, his dark head slumped down and hit the back of his hand.
"What was that about?" Callie demanded, sliding closer to me, interest apparent on her face.
"I was about to ask you the exact same thing," I admitted. "I have absolutely no idea."
"I've never seen him so worked up..." she murmured thoughtfully, chewing on her full bottom lip. "It's just not like him at all." She mulled over her thoughts for a few minutes before completely abandoning the subject, "So! How are you liking working for Pierre so far?"
"It's okay, I guess," shrugging, I leant on the bar. "I just never imagined that I would ever have a job like this."
"I had guessed," Callie replied, looking at me appraisingly. For a moment I was afraid that a nasty comment was going to slip from between her lips, but instead she let out a very surprising observation. "You walk differently from the other girls."
"I do what?" Confused, I gestured for her to elaborate.
"You walk differently than the rest of the girls... you're more... slouched. Almost defensive." Her head tilted to the right, causing her bangs to fall into her eyes, "Like you're a caged animal."
I laughed tensely, is that really how I walked? "A caged animal?"
"Yeah. The rest of the people around here are more like peacocks, strutting around and showing off their feathers, but you... There's something different about you." She tapped her chin thoughtfully with her index finger, "You don't think you deserve this, do you?"
Her guess was totally random, but almost dead on. I blinked, surprised that she had surmised that just from the way I walked, "How on earth did you know that?" I demanded, leaning a little closer to her.
"Because you walk like a person who has absolutely zero self-confidence." Callie leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms across her chest at the same time. "So who was it? Ex-boyfriend? Parents? Peers? A total dweeb who wouldn't know his brain from a booger?"
"Pardon?"
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Who told you that you weren't good enough?"
My eyebrows knitted together as I frowned, and one of Callie's thin eyebrows shot up at that, "So I'm right." A small smile lifted one corner of her mouth, "You don't really need to tell me." She said, shrugging as she slipped off of her chair and back onto the ground, her ridiculous heels clacking as they hit the tile. Smiling, she moved past me, "But they were wrong."
I sat there, stunned for a few moments, and when I turned to ask Callie what exactly she meant by that, she had already disappeared into the crowd. Sighing, I turned back to Linc's sleeping form and prepared myself to stay where I was until he woke up.
~~
In the back seat of Gavin's car, my mom snored much more loudly than was safe for unprotected ears and I chuckled at the sound of it. If she were to have a noise competition with an army of brass instruments, she would still win. Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
It was half past eleven, and we had just left Pierre's party. As soon as her body hit the plush, leather seating, my mom was out like a light, her head lolling back and arms flung about.
The interior of the car, only lit by the soft, blue lights on the dashboard, was completely silent except for the occasional sound from my mother. Gavin and I rode in comfortable silence side by side.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
"It really wasn't." He conceded, nodding his head briefly. "Though your friend's little drunken outbursts were probably the highlight of the night."
"You heard that?" I groaned, sinking back against the seat and covering my face with my hands, embarrassed. How many people had heard him say that I thought he was a stud muffin?
"I think most of the people within a hundred foot radius heard that," Gavin laughed, shaking his head. "That guy is too loud for his own good."
I face-palmed myself as I realized I was so tired I was voicing my thoughts. I really needed some sleep.
"That Callie girl seems nice enough," I commented, and Gavin merely chuckled.
"If you call 'nice enough' giving two guys black eyes and stepping on another's foot with too much force than necessary, then yes, I guess she is 'nice enough'."
"She gave two guys black eyes? What for?"
"One of them looked down her dress, and the other dissed Linc." Gavin's dark eyebrows knitted together, and his lips pulled together thoughtfully. "She's really close to Linc isn't she?"
"I suppose," shrugging, I shook my head. "I really wouldn't know. You saw, we just met tonight."
We lapsed into silence and I nearly dozed off until Gavin broke the silence again.
"So why did you stay with Linc even though he was asleep?"
I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a moment before answering, "He asked me to."
The corners of Gavin's mouth turned downwards as he turned to look at me, "He asked you to sit at a bar while he slept?"
"Well, no... not exactly. He just asked me to stay with him." I scratched the top of my head, "So, I did."
"Let me get this straight. I guy--who you met three days ago--asks you to stay with him while he's drunk... and you just... did?"
"Sounds about right, yeah."
Gavin chuckled, shaking his head. "You're absolutely absurd, Ais."
"That's why you love me," I murmured sleepily, eyes drifting shut.
He laughed softly again, "One of the many reasons, I suppose."
"I love you, Gav..." I mumbled, slowly slipping out of consciousness.
"Love you too, Ais. Goodnight." I felt his large hand ruffle my hair fondly, and I sighed contentedly at the contact.
"G'night."