I know one of you guys guessed the scenario that would happen lol... anyway here's part 2 of 3 or their night out :D
(av's POV)
I feel Noah tense underneath my thighs and hands, he shakes his head.
"Yes way! Come on it will be so fun," he bounce on his back trying to get him to move forward. He swivels his head around to look at me, his face schooled into a immoveable visage.
He raises a hand and points, I follow his gaze.
"What? An ice cream shop? I'm not three... although I will have one of those when we get out of there," I point again to the biker bar.
A low growl rumbles through his body.
"Okay, okay let me down, I've got a plumbers' crack happening," I say in my so called giving in voice.
His eyes narrow and stare at me for a second before he lets go of my thighs and I slip down off his muscled back, if he was one of my brothers he would have never fell for that old trick.
Or the one I'm about to pull.
I jimmy up my pants and cast a surreptitious look in the direction of the traffic; the light is red so the cars are at a stand still. I've only got seconds though.
"Don't touch that car mate if you want your head!" I gasp pointing behind Noah, who as predicted swings around ready to pummel whoever would dare touch his car. I turn and dash as fast I can across the road to the bar, nimbly ducking through the big bikes parked out front to stand in the small cue waiting to go in to the bar. Thinking about it how protective is over his car, I'm actually lucky to be alive. Anyway.
Plaiting my hair in two plaits - I've gotta be stereotypical country for this scenario - I peek across at Noah who is not overly amused at being thwarted. I like watching him move, like a panther ready to pounce. His green eyes are focused solely on me.
He stands in front of me and gives me a droll look.
I shrug and give him my sweetest smile, "you should get another tattoo while you're here too Noah, maybe a motto like 'if you can't beat Avalon ... join her'," I giggle at his expressionless face.
He places his hands on my waist and I can't help but swallow at their warmth and touch, he lifts me up like I'm a light as a kelpie and moves me back a space in the line.
I can't help but grin as he huffs and stands in front of me, one of his hands reaching behind him firmly grasping my belt like I'm a crazy bolter of a kid.
I glance around him at the bouncer, who is one of the biggest guys I've ever seen in my life and believe me I have seen huge men. This guy is wearing a black vest with some skeleton thing on it. He's bald unlike a lot of the other guys standing around.
"Reed, what a surprise to see you out and about," the guy grunts at Noah who just shrugs and offers a slight nod at the guy.
I try to move around the side of Noah but he forces me back behind him, so I jump up on his back again. Well I try. He's grabbing my belt so tightly that I only get up into air about ten centimeters before my feet are slamming back down to earth.
"Ugh stop it!" I whisper fiercely, hitting him not too softly in the back. He ignores me.
"I hear you were promoted, good on ya mate, you deserve it," the bouncer says going to clap a hand of Noah's shoulder but thinking twice about it and dropping it back to his side. I'm seeing all this under Noah's arm pit.
Noah moves his head and the bouncer moves to peer around at me, his eyes widen in I guess, surprise.
"I don't think I've seen you with a girl before mate, and I can see why you're holding tightly to that little one, especially around here," he winks at me. "Are you over eighteen sweetie?"
I give him a smile that says I'm not but let's just say I am. "Yup!"
He raises an eyebrow at Noah, "Just watch the blue light, if it flashes take her out the back way."
Noah pulls me forward, "Thank you," I wave at the bouncer as I pass. He just stares at me looking me up and down. No one smiles around here.
Inside its pretty dim and everything is black, wooden or stainless steel. The air is thick with smoke or something and it stinks like a road train has smashed in to a liquor store.
Noah continues to pull me along as I look around; men are staring back at me or nudging each other to look.
Rapunzel, in Dell's all time favorite Disney movie Tangled is the basis of this scenario so I'm off to a good start, there's not smiles here just watchful eyes following my every move. I don't think I could've chosen a better place really.
Noah gently pushes me in to a seat at a table for two; the table is sticky and has rings of foul smelling liquid on it. He leans back in his seat and just stares at me with raised eyebrows, his green eyes kind of glowing in this weird light.
Letting my eyes drift away from him I plan my attack, I need to achieve two things here and I think I can get them both done in one shot. All the men here have that crest thing on there shirts or vests. I point to the big picture of it over the bar, "what does that mean I wonder?"
Noah says... nothing.
"So," I lean forward in an upbeat voice, "you want a drink sugar?"
He doesn't find it as funny as I do; his eyes scan behind me and around me every few second. I don't know why he is so tense about being here, they aren't too bad.
"I'm gonna get one," I stand up only to be forcefully pushed back down in my seat.
Now my eyes narrow because I need to do my thing soon and I need to get up to do it.
"Yeah, here's the thing—"
I'm cut off as Noah stands up and slams his hands on the small table, I don't flinch but I give him a glare from hell. 'Stay!' he mouths. He walks off to the bar turning often to check if I'm here. I wave to him sweetly.
"Noah!" I yell out really loudly getting the attention of most of the men around me, there are women too and they look just as tough as the men, they actually look less pleased about my presence than the men. I see him pause but he doesn't look around. "Can you get me a Banana Moove please? With ice!"
I laugh to myself at his fists clenching by his sides. Dell would say 'no one puts baby in the corner." I snort wishing they were here for this. It's a strange feeling I have, each day my pain grows a little stronger but there is also something else growing too and I'm not quite sure what it is yet but there's definitely a side of me that has found a silver lining here.
A big man walks by; he has some huge arms on him and a huge beard too. He reminds of Brutus from my fav cartoon Pop Eye.
"Excuse me mate?" I call to him.
He turns and his eyes lose any semblance of friendliness. He's cold and hard just like Noah; funny thing people is doesn't worry me.
"What does your picture mean?" I point to the skeleton thingy.
His eyes narrow and I just gaze back, I'm rarely intimidated and I'm not changing that today just because someone is bigger than me, I feel like saying, umm I'm 5'3 everyone is bigger than me. Working on the land day in day out isn't an easy job that's for sure it makes you harder than a lot of people give you credit for and because I'm a girl I reckon people even discredit me further.
"It's our crest, we have all served," his voice is quite soft but also quite gravelly, like he has yelled a lot in his life time or something. The way he puts it though is like music to my ears, he is insinuating I don't belong here which is a great start to my scenario. I don't want to be in a friendly atmosphere to do this; it has to have a hostile feel before I start.
It would be a crappy story if everyone was lovely and welcoming. I smile at him brightly and I see his eyes narrow quickly almost like a flinch. I wonder if I would get away with so much if I wasn't a girl.
"Thank you," I say really sweetly.
He just grinds his teeth together and moves on, I watch him as he goes only to have my attention bought back to Noah as he thuds two beers down on the table with a savage thud.
"No 'nana mooves here? That's terrible, what type of place have you bought us too?" I giggle at his dead pan reaction.
"I don't get why you're all tense," I take a sip of my beer which compared to a Banana Moove is not the nicest thing. A fleeting thought comes in that I should throw the beer against the wall, yelling out, that is watered down! Who did it? Whooooo? Gotta stick with the scenario though.
Noah is not watching me but is back to scanning the room again, he looks more on edge than I've ever seen him, his muscles are taunt and popping out, his jaw is clenched and his eyes are not dead but incredibly alert.
The singer of the band announces that they are going on their break.
Perfect timing.
My plaits are lifting up and lightly pulled, I look Noah who's clearly questioning why I plaited my hair.
"Why did I plait my hair?" I ask him just to make sure. He nods his eyes on mine. They are gleaming green in this dark atmosphere.
"I'll show you why!" I smile and get up from my chair and dash to the stage.
Noah's POV
I can't relax, not here, not with Avalon.
Avalon reminds me of a Volkswagen bug in a Monster Truck rally. She has no concept of danger. And this place is dangerous, full of men that have been trained in hand to hand combat, seen their mates shot, killed people. These guys are tough in the worst sense.
And the worst thing for me is that I won't be able to protect her from them if she antagonizes them. I can see in her eyes she's up to something, which would be fine but... somewhere else not here. If she says one thing wrong about anything war related I don't know what will happen... apart from word war three because little Miss Innocent here wouldn't back down if a goddamn bull charged her.
I lean in my seat and scan the area, if someone even looks at us the wrong way it will be on. There are some glances at Av but when they flick to me they casually move off. I've been here before; I've worked on a lot of the bikes out the front.
Feeling safe enough to check on her again I see it, the plaits, her hair wasn't plaited before we came in meaning... something. I just can't grasp what.
She is focused on something; I lean over and tug on her plaits gently nodding at them when she looks at me.
"Why did I plait my hair?" she asks me. I nod carefully watching her eyes for a hint to what she's up to.
She smiles and my heart falters, "I'll show you why!" she says happily as she springs out of her chair like bloody a high tensile spring, my outstretched hand misses her by inches as she sprints toward the stage.
SHIT!
I get up and get my body to indicate that I'm not afraid to react if something happens to her.
She grabs the microphone before I get to her.
"Hi everyone, my name is Avalon Smith and I'm visiting you special people all the way from Outback Queensland. I'm so glad I found your lovely establishment –even though it is missing Banana Mooves which I absolutely adore, I'll let that slide – because I have a dream! And this is the perfect place for me to achieve it."
The whole bar is just staring at her; my heart is beating like bloody steam engine.
"Get off!" someone yells kind of angrily. "We don't care about dream!"
A rowdy wave thrums through the men here. I can hear women's higher pitched voices joining in now to tell her to get down. I'm one second form just going up there and carrying her out over my shoulder when she puts her hand to her lips and shushes them really loudly. "That's better," she smiles. "Dream are really important." She's talking weird like not her normal voice instead she's all sugar sweet and extra smiley.
She bends down and grabs an electric guitar from the stand it was leaning against.
"Hey put that down!" some guys from the bar shouts out standing up. "It's not a toy Taylor Swift!"
Avalon pouts then, even I swallow. I can see the men looking uneasily and flexing their hands against their jeans not knowing how to approach this tiny girl that looks like an innocent angel. If she were a guy she's probably be hospital by now.
"Okay then, now that everyone is quiet and ready to listen, I have always wanted to sing in a bar. I hope you like it! Oh and Noah could you film it please so I will be able to remember it?"
She watches me waiting until I pull out my phone and start recording. She nods happily as she fits a mouthpiece around her head and walks over to the drums after hitting a beat out for a couple of seconds she starts to play the guitar.
I haven't heard of the song, but I can already tell it's not one that would ever be chosen to voluntarily to play in here. My hand rubs over my face and I take a huge breath in as I just stand there waiting to see who will have a go at pulling her down first. Instead they are just watching her and then looking around at each other for a cue on what to do. No one moves but I cant feel the tension.
"Oh Yeah
Come on!"
I don't know what this song is but I'm guessing a Taylor Swift one would definitely have been a better choice.
"You get the limo out front
Hottest styles, every shoe, every color"
(A/N - she is singing 'best of both worlds by hannanh Montana if you don't know it here it is lol)
This is not Avalon's normal singing voice if her singing in the car had anything to do with it, she's singing all preppy and high like a young teenage girl really taking this seriously and that everyone is here listening to her because they want to. I'm sure her face will break form the exaggerated smiles she's wearing.
"Yeah, when you're famous it can be kinda fun
It's really you but no one ever discovers"
I look around through the gaps in my fingers across eyes, the expression in these guys faces are crazy, some are like looking at her like an alien has landed, others are looking at her like she's a toxic germ... but most surprisingly are just staring at her with their mouths open. I just hope she stays on the stage. some of the women are pushing the guys forward to do something but they just stand there.
"In some ways you're just like all your friends (she points to the men in the audience like they are her best buddies in on the secret)
But on stage you're a star"
When Av sings that she opens her arms and twirls around on stage, I can't help the crazy laugh that escapes my lips. She's bloody insane. Beautiful but crazy.
"You get the best of both worlds
Chill it out, take it slow
Then you rock out the show"
"You get the best of both worlds
Mix it all together and you know that it's the best of both worlds"
I'm hoping she will stop there but no, she starts strutting down the stage steps to the beat of her song doing these little dance moves and pulling really enthusiastic facials.
"You go to movie premiers (is that Orlando Bloom?)Avalon is so near one guy that she taps on his chest and winks at him. He jerks away like he's been stabbed. She ignores him and keeps on moving around the bar.
"Hear your songs on the radio-o-o-o"
Livin' two lives is a little weird
But school's cool cause nobody knows"
Oh no, Avalon approaches the bar. NO No No. I just know what she's gonna do the little insane bugger.
"Yeah you get to be a small town girl
But big time when you play your guitar"
And she does she jumps up on a stool and gets on the bar.
"You get the best of both worlds
Chill it out, take it slow
Then you rock out the show"
And proceeds to do like some line dance moves as she sings, heedless to everyone grabbing their drinks off the bar.
I don't know how much longer these guys are gonna let this go on; some of these guys looked seriously pissed. There's one guy that is punching his fist into his hand and you can tell he's not gonna last much longer. She jumps off the bar and who does she make a bloody bee line for but that guy, the most fricken obvious agro guy in the place. I move just in case he gets any ideas.
"Pictures and autographs
You get your face in all the magazines
The best part is that you get to be who ever you wanna be"
She shocks him as she plants a kiss on his hairy cheek, so much so that he shakes his head like he's forgotten something, all the agro dissipates out of him as his friends rib him.
"Come on sing along" she cries pumping her arms in the air.
"(Best! Best!) Yeah, the best of both!
(Best! Best!) You got the best of both!
(Best! Best!) Come on, the best of both!"
She's in the middle of the bar now just doing the most crazy dance moves I've ever seen in my life then she runs and jumps up on some guys legs propelling herself on the middle of a table. She leans down and grabs a pair of sunnies of one of the bloke's heads and puts them on.
"You get the best of both worlds
Without the shades and the hair - she grabs a guys beard and puts it across her face as she sings it. The guy is so in shock that he does nothing.
You can go anywhere"
She jumps of the table and dances and twirls back to the stage.
" You get the best of both girls
Mix it all together
Oh, yeah
It's so much better 'cause you know you've got the best of both worlds"
She lets the sound of the guitar fade. It is dead silent.
"Wasn't that just the awesomest thing eveeeeeeeeeeeeer!" she squeals pirouetting.
Time to get her out of here now, Miss Teeny Bopper will push the edge to far any second. Her face changes then from a cheesy teen queen to the normal witty and sharp girl I know.
"And you know what was even more awesome," she says in her normal voice, the transition making eyebrows get drawn. "That you guys let me finish that whole song!"
She cracks up, not a good move.
"But just to make up for those few minutes of pain - it was a bet I had with my sister in law that I wouldn't ever get to finish a song like that in a place like this, it wasn't my dream – I will play something you will probably like, something that summed up most of your guys faces just then!" she points to the band guys."I need some help for this one kids," no one moves, everyone wary of what she is going to do.
She starts to move her fingers deftly over the guitar as she plays the opening notes to AC/DC's Thunderstruck. I get her quip now.
She moves the microphone and starts doing the naaaahhhh naaaaahh thing, the guys from the band jump on the stage and the drums come into and the singer starts to sing.
'Come on !" yells Av into another microphone calling on everyone to sing thunder.
Shit, she can play the guitar. She does that crazy walk leg thing the lead guitarist of AC/DC is known for and the bar just erupts in to shouts. She takes a second to take off he check top to reveal a blue truckie singlet, more shouts fly through the air. I can't help but join in with my arm fist pumping the air! There's aprt of my that wants to yell out to join in the singing, I almost do until I find that other prt of me the dark side clenching my throat shut.
Avalon gets off the bar and jumps on to the bar again and continues to that walk thing, everyone is up clapping and singing now. She jumps really high off and runs over the a large round table, she disappears so I push through the crowd to see her lying on her back spinning around she plays the guitar solo. She gets up again to play the last rifts of the song to a huge applause.
I sit back at our table as she walks up on stage handing the guitar back to a band member. The way she can just work herself in to a crowd is like something I've never seen before, the way she interacts, just he way she is...it's like looking at someone who could really change the world or whatever she put her mind to. I find her riveting.
"So I was wondering about something, we are so isolated that we aren't up to everything but sometimes on the news I see heaps of guys on motorbikes with toys? What's that?"
"That's the toy drive," a guy speaks up form up near the front somewhere. "We deliver to needy kids."
Avalon nods her hands fiddling with the microphone, "so a bloke before said you're crest was for all who have served right?"
There is a murmur of agreement from the crowd; I wonder where she is going with this.
"I recently have been visiting people in a Veterans' hostel, I even found one old guy that served with my grandfather. There's a few of them that love music in there but the instruments the place gives them were made before Noah floated the ark. I've already started to raise money for the instruments but was wondering if you guys might like to help, if anyone you know has instruments they don't use or wanted to donate some money there. I can give you guys the name of the place and someone to contact, if you're interested."
She smiles then, that devastatingly smile that makes you feel like you've seen something so beautiful that you can't move your body.
"If they are ex servicemen we will help them," the guy that looked like he was gonna go apeshit during her first song, who she pecked on the cheeks speaks up, clearly trying to get her attention now.
"Excellent, I'll give you the details. Any more song request before I get off. Britney spears maybe?" She asks throwing her head back to laugh. God she's beautiful.
She ends up doing three more songs before plonking down across from me, her cheeks rosie from the effort. She smiles at me and I shake my head.
A Banana Moove is placed in front of her, she leaps up and hugs the big fella who looks mighty uncomfortable about it but chuffed at the same time. Her people skills are serious, and there's the problem right there. What chance would I have with her when she basically can talk to anyone? one step at a time I tell myself as my heart sinks slowly at the thought of losing her from my life.
"So the plaits were just to add to the effect," she giggles in to her drink, reviving the conversation from before like nothing had happened in between.
I can't help but stare at her. She has more guts than anyone I know. A guy from the band comes up and places his guitar in her hand, "Give that to them, I've got more at home."
Again she jumps up and hugs the guy, he goes red. "You really are a great guitar player I haven't heard many people who can play Thunderstruck that seamlessly," he compliments her although he keeps throwing wary glance my way. I don't like it too much the way he leaves his hand on her bare shoulder and stare at it until he removes it and shoves it in his pocket.
"Yeah, it is my Mum's most hated song, that's why I'm good at it," she frowns and then flicks her gaze in my direction. I don't like that she thinks she has to watch what she says now and I also wonder why she doesn't like her mother. Avalon seems to like most people, I think but then I realise the first day I saw the hardness that's within this little slip of a girl, a hardness that resonates with something in me. I bet she can really dislike as well.
"Noah to commemorate this great day of two scenarios done and dusted, I want to get a tattoo! I'm gonna shout you an amazing one too!" she suddenly jumps on the table and yells at the top of her voice good bye to everyone.
She receives a roar back and as she pulls me out people keep saying to her that they hope she comes back. She just has this ability to bond people to her, I don't know what it is but to be around Avalon its feels like your... accepted... wanted... alive.
A/N - okay they will go off to get a tatt next lol - I wonder what tatt she will pick out for Noah lol, or if he will let her choose lol. how's how part of him wanted to sing then! Hope you liked this chapter... love votes and comments :D