When I walked through the door to my dorm, I found myself greeted with silence- meaning Jess wasn't there. I shrugged and walked to the mini kitchen area where I grabbed a banana and hungrily downed it with half a bottle of water. This way my stomach would stop growling, but I would still be able to eat at the theatre.
I quickly dumped my school things and pulled my cross body purse over my shoulder, making sure that my wallet was safely inside. Then I unplugged my iPhone from where I had sat it to charge. Doing a mental checklist, I walked back out the door and down to my car. Once again, I checked the time on the dash. 7:00.
Yes, I still had an hour until the showing, but it was at least a thirty minute drive not including the fact that there would probably be a good share of traffic to make it take even longer than that. So, I turned my radio to 102.9 The Buzz and let my car smoothly pull out and made my way to the road.
"Oh, it's not that you should care. I just wanted you to know!"I belted out as my car swung into the empty space in the theatre parking lot, Not Your Fault by Awolnation dying out and being replaced with another song.
I quickly took the key out of the ignition, effectively stopping the music and the hum of the engine. I grabbed my bag from the passenger seat and got out, locking the door behind me. My shoes padded on the damp concrete, rain sprinkling down lightly probably frizzing my hair as we speak.
When I entered the building, I was happy to immediately spot Paige leaned against one of the ticket booths. She was talking to the guy behind the counter, probably someone from school. But, she stopped and turned around when I called a greeting to her across the almost empty theatre lobby.
A smile lit her face and she hugged me when I finally made it through the maze of ropes that they always have set up.
"Why are we hugging?"I asked after a while when she didn't let go.
She pulled away and gave me a serious face,"You looked like you needed it."
I just rolled my eyes at her and she handed me my ticket, bidding the employee a goodbye. Even as she turned away and started to walk off, the guy watched her, a small smile on his face.
I smirked as I came up beside her, giving her a knowing look,"You know that that guy likes you, right?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"she asked me like I was crazy, but I saw the color that filled her cheeks and the way that she avoided eye contact.
"And you like him too!"I sing-songed, starting to skip to the concessions place.
"Do not!"she called after me, whacking me in the arm which actually hurt.
I gave her a pouty face,"I didn't know that romance would make you so violent."
Now it was her turn to roll her eyes,"Whatever. Just get me some food so we can go sit down."
I ended up ordering a medium popcorn, two small slushies, a box of M&M's, and a box of sour gummy worms. The nice man directed us to our theatre and we eagerly headed in the appointed direction.
Once we had entered the dark room, which was about half-way full with people, Paige and I couldn't seem to agree on which row of seats we wanted to sit in. Paige wanted to sit closer to the front, while I complained that that would give me a headache from being so close and that we should sit in the middle.
I was horrified that Paige was making such a big deal, causing everyone to stare at us. But, then again, it was a good thing that the whole ordeal was taking my mind off of things. We finally ended up sitting in the middle after a couple sent us a glare and just told us to sit somewhere. My face blazed red but Paige just rolled her eyes and dragged me to the seats.
"God, that was so embarrassing,"I groaned.
She just gave a low chuckle,"But it made you focus on something other than whatever is bothering you right now, right?"
I gawked at her before narrowing my eyes and hissing,"You did that on purpose?"
"Do you really think that I care that much about where we sit?"she gave me a mischevious smirk.
"Thanks,"I finally mumbled, right as the previews ended and the movie started up.
I'm gonna go ahead and admit it, the movie scared the holy shit out of me. I seriously thought that I was going to pee my pants at some parts. I screamed at least a bajillion times and I would have been embarrassed by it if everyone else in the theatre wasn't doing the same. Even Paige, who claims nothing scares her, was cringing and jumping in her seat.
Eventually the credits began rolling and I slowly removed my hands from in front of my face.
"Is it over?"I hissed at Paige who was staring at the screen with wide eyes.
"I-I think so,"she mumbled, hesitantly lifting herself from the padded chair, the bottom folding up as she did.
I followed suit and we made our way out of the dark room, steering clear of any suspicious shadows. Unfortunately for us, it was pitch black outside and I don't know about Paige, but my car was towards the back of the lot and I was not looking forward to the nerve racking walk.
"Thanks for watching the movie with me,"I said to Paige, as we just stood by the empty fountain out front.
"It's cool. I had fun,"she turned and gave me a smile,"So, are you feeling any better?"
"Yes and no. I'm not thinking about what was bothering me, but I don't think that I'll be able to sleep tonight."
She just laughed and waved goodbye before heading in the direction of her car, which luckily for her, was close to the building.
Making it to my car didn't end up as difficult as it originally seemed and I soon found myself driving back to my dorm, the radio on low so that I wasn't driving in complete silence.
I was really thankful to have a friend as great as Oaige. She was willing to drop whatever she was doing to show up and watch a terrifying movie with me just to make me feel better. And she really did take my mind off of things. I had a really, really great night just hanging out with a good friend. And to top it all off, she didn't ask what was bothering me. She could just sense that i didn't want to talk about it so she never brought it up.
I sighed as I shut the door quietly behind me and thumped onto my bed. Even though I had told Paige that there was no way I was sleeping tonight, my eyes started to drift closed and I managed to fall asleep on the bed fully clothed, not even covered up.
_ _ _ _ _ _
The rest of the week went by in a flash. I was lucky enough to avoid anymore confrontations with the infamous Roy, but I doubted that that would stay true for long. He was persistent and who knew what his motive or intentions were.
Friday night I found myself in a pair of ripped up skinny jeans, my white Aerosmith band tee, and my red converse. Not the most stylish outfit, but it was comfortable and it fit the persona that I became when on stage.
I was super pumped to be performing at a club, where people actually paid to get in instead of an old sweaty bar. But the pressure was on to be even better than we've been before. The owner claims that he has heard us play before. This gig at least had a practice room and a dressing room for us to use, in stead of having to use the usually nasty bathrrom stalls and having to practice in the halls. It was actually pretty nice and I was pumped to perform in front of the cowd that was already getting pretty rowdy even though you'd think it would be too early for them to be really drunk yet.
"You guys excited?"Jace asked, a giant grin across his face.
I nodded hastily, my adrenaline pumping and my body just tensed to explode when I finally got to go on stage. We were in the middle of a song, me jumping up and down while Jace punded heavily on the drums when the practice room door swung open to reveal the owner with a big smile on his face, similar to Jace's from earlier.
"It's time,"he said, ushering us out of the small room and into the empty halls. He took us back stage and I could already hear the bustle of drunk people from behind the curtains. The guy gave us a nod and we entered through the side, our instruments already set up since we practiced with their equipment.
"Hey guys!"I said into the mic, causing some people to cheer, while others wolf-whistled. probably towards page who was wearing a tight black, leather dress with a fashionable rip on the side. At least her shoes were senseable-a pair of torn up white converse.
"We're going to play some songe for you tonight. We like to call ourselves Social Riot, but you can just call us awesome,"I winked at the crowd, the thrill of being on stage taking over as they laughed and I heard Jace start up the music in the background.
The sun is gone and the flowers rot
Words are spaced between us
And I should have been down in the rivers I've found of tooken lost
And I should have been down when you made me insecure
So break me down if it makes you feel right
And hate me now if it keeps you alright
You can break me down if it takes all your might
Cause I'm so much more than meets the eye
And I'm the one you can never trust
Cause wounds are ways to reveal us
And yeah I could have tried and devoted my life to both of us
But what a waste of my time when the world we have is yours
So break me down if it makes you feel right
And hate me now if it keeps you alright
You can break me down if it takes all your might
Cause I'm so much more than meets the eye
Hate me, break me down
So break me down
So break me down
So break me down if it makes you feel right
And hate me now if it keeps you alright
You can break me down if it takes all your might
Cause I'm so much more than meets the eye
I finished up the song and the crowd burst into cheers, causing my heart to swell. I continued on with the set list, the crowd only becoming more pumped up and excited as the night wore on. We ended up doing another half hour than we were supposed to, but the crowd loved it and the owner didn't seem to mind.
Once we exited the stage, we were each handed a small towel and a cool bottle of water, which I was very grateful for.
"You guys were great. I'd be happy to have ya'll perform again,"the owner said, causing me to have to hold in my shrieks and the urge to jump up and down.
"We'd love to,"Jace spoke up,"We'll keep in touch. You have our number when you find a time to fit us in."
"Will do,"the owner nodded happily before hurrying off.
In stead of leaving we all headed to the bar, being congratulated about our performance by random people that seemed to recognize us in the crowd.
We all took a stool, chatting animatedly about the performance until a warm voice that I instantly recognized said my name.
"Danielle! You were great up there,"Henry smiled, dressed up in a black shirt and pants with a towel slung over his shoulder.
"Henry?"I asked in disbelief,"I didn't know you worked here."
"Yeah, well. I have to have something to do at night,"I said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.
"We'll have three shots of whatever you recommend,"i broke the silnce that was beginning to settle over us, despite the rumble in the background.
"But you aren't legal-,"I cut him off, pulling out my wallet and flashing him my fake ID that Paige had made for me our Freshmen year in college which actually looked very real, giving him a sweet smile.
He just rolled his eyes at me and came back once again with three shot glasses balanced expertly in his hands.
"What is it?"Paige asked, looking at it suspiciously.
"Half red bull, half rasberry vodka. Drink up,"He smiled.
I laughed and quickly brought the glass to my lips, shooting it back before I could think about it longer. It burned slightly going down, but it immdeiately warmed my insides,"That wasn't too bad. We'll take another round."
Henry nodded and came back a few minutes later with three more in hand. I knocked back that one too. I don't know how it happened, but somehow we ended up doing Fireball shots and that's when it really starting getting blurry. I don't remember how long it was until Henry was announcing that his shift was over and that he had to get home to his sister. I just waved him off and turned to the new attendant.
"Have us some tequila shots ready for when we come back,"I giggled, pulling a wobbly Paige and Jace with me to the dance floor.
Jace immediately had a girl grinding on him, and his drunken state, he didn't seem to see anything wrong with that. Paige and I just giggled about it, returning to fetch our drinks that the bar tender had ready for us. I knocked back both mine and Jace's without a second thought.
I gave Paige a mischevious look, cluing her in that all common sense had left the building. I turned to the beefy man,"Another two. Make these doubles."
He gave sigh and fetched them for us. After that one, I could barely stand and Paige had to help me to my feet as we both stumbled, giggling and woozy, to the dance floor. I just started dancing, swaying my hips to the beat. I glanced to my right to see that Piage had attracted some attention, but that didn't stop my dancing. And soon I found a warm body behind mine and I finally had someone to dance with.
I grinded with him for a few minutes before spinning around and running my hands up and down his shirt, feeling his lean muscles tense under my wandering hands. He brought his head down and caught my lips in a passionate kiss, causing my already mind to unfocus and for my hormones to take over.
I disconnected my mouth from the strangers and looked up at the face that i couldn't even make out.
"Hey Danielle,"the stranger spoke in a husky voice.
My mind tried desperately to connect the voice with a face, but I came up blank. The last thing I remember before it all went black was the man's warm mouth once again on mine.
_____________________________________________________________________________
I hope you liked it! Please vote and comment! I promise it makes me update faster!
Song to the side is Breakdown by Seether>>>
Picture to the side is Brant Daugherty as Jace Manson>>>