CHAPTER 8: KRYPTO–KNIGHT
“Really, Mia, an extra inch of eyeliner wouldn’t do any difference to the couple of pounds you have on there.”
Rolling my eyes, I waggled my finger at Adrian. “Be quiet. This is a concert we’re talking about, I can’t go looking bad. Must look my best at all times.”
“Whatever you say, but don’t forget to wear more than one square foot of fabric. You want to look decent,” he said sarcastically.
I sighed and tried not to let him get under my skin; after all, he’d gotten me the ticket some way or another. Apparently he could pay Tyler Cooke the money back through Pokémon trading cards. He did do me a favour, even if I didn’t know why.
I shut the lights off and skipped my way back to my room. Finally! A night to unwind, get my thoughts cleared out, party like there was no tomorrow. And I’d get to meet the best band on the universe.
I was way too excited.
Deciding to try to unnerve Adrian by layering lots of clothes, I picked up a long t-shirt with a lace back and a dark wool cardigan. The black leggings I chose seemed a little ragged, but after the night, there’d be no point in keeping them anymore. Ten bucks I’d be pushed against a bar table by at least half the crowd.
Just a little while later, the bubbly bath I was taking soaked its warmth into my skin and made little popping noises as I plopped my feet over the water, under the water. Even after I got out and the air in the room tickled at my body, I still felt boiling hot and relaxed. I teased my hair just a little, slipped into my clothes, and bounded over to Adrian’s room, where he kept my ticket.
Without knocking, I burst into his door and made a little twirl in my new ensemble. “You like? It’s about ten times more than your definition of decent.”
“Yeah, seems alright,” Adrian said with a sheepish smile as I smirked in his direction. The moon filled the room with a dull light and stars twinkled in the sky. Oh, the optimistic feeling.
I gave my brother a curious look. “Aren’t you going to give me the ticket? I said I’d pay you off next week. What are you waiting for?”
Adrian adverted my gaze and shifted his feet around, twiddling with his thumbs. Adrian was never like this when he was making business transactions. It was... inhumane of him.
“Well? Spit it out.”
“Er, well... You see, big sis, there were no more tickets. They were all sold out,” he whispered. My heart fell down to the ground, a miserable weight pressing down on any og my hope. But then he spoke again, “Instead, they gave me this paper that says you can get into the concert as long as you’re the highest bidder and win one of the items at tonight’s auction at Collector’s Paradise. I’m really sorry for the inconvenience, sis, but you can always try, right?”
The sadness suddenly left and anger infuriated me. This kid said he already had the ticket purchased, and now he couldn’t find it, or for that matter, even get a hold of it? He was a liar all along, telling me he had it. I’d just have to check out this auction; I still had two hours until the concert started. It’d be a race against time.
I didn’t let any thought burst into my mind, and snatched the paper from Adrian without a second glance. He seemed dumbfounded for a second, but then he rushed out the door, down the stairs, and to the entrance, step in step with me.
I thrusted my feet into my white pumps while grabbing my cell phone, and crumpled up the sheet before I placed it into one of my pockets.
I called Alec through speed-dial. After a couple of rings, which went by with myself gritting my teeth together, he picked up with an alert voice.
“You’re supposed to pick me up in a half-hour, but come now! I have an emergency,” I commanded in a hushed voice. “Er, sorry, I meant... Pretty please?”
“Alright, Mia, don’t get your panties in a bunch, I’m coming,” Alec joked and a long buzzing sound came from the other line.
Adrian sat opposite me at the dining table in the kitchen with a sympathizing look when the bell rang. With a last glare at him, I ran over to the door, seized my bag, and stepped over the threshold, outside. Locking the door quickly, I turned around to grasp Alec in an air-constricting hug.
“Thanks so much for bringing me to the concert; it really means a lot, Alec. But we have to make another stop before we get there,” I explained to him.
His hair dishevelled and shirt crumpled from my endearing action, he smoothed it out. “Hello to you, cutiepie. This is the emergency, I guess?”
“Yep. Think you can take me to Collector’s Paradise?” I asked, my eyes shut together in case he’d refuse. He probably didn’t have the time or the gas or the patience...
I arched my eyebrow as he said, “I was going there myself.”
***
“One hundred fifty!” I hollered at the top of my lungs. I regretted the decision instantly, knowing my voice would be gone by morning.
But I also almost regretted the amount of money I’d placed on a rectangular tube of... what was it? Special trading cards? Of all kinds? Whatever it was, all the other items at the auction were pretty much the same as what I was bidding on.
A scream emerged from the corner of the stuffy room. “One hundred seventy-five!” I turned around as much as I could with at least ten people blocking my view, and saw a middle-aged man with thick-set glasses throwing his paper with his number up.
In an almost bored voice, I boomed over the babble of the host. “Two hundred and that better be final!”
The host kept prattling in an irritating tone and I could vaguely hear him counting down.
Three. Only two more counts to go and I’d be out of this hole I’d dug myself into and out to inhale some real air.
Two. A count left. I could finally lock this item into my trunk without a care if I could just get a hold of it. Then I could go to the concert and I’d really have made the quickest errand of my life.
One. I breathed in sharply, and bit my cheek, knowing for sure that these trading cards were mine. I’d pay it off and get to go the concert! I could even swerve around paying the ticket if I won this auction, and the ticket was a whopping-
“Three hundred twenty-five dollars!” the man shrieked in an oddly high voice. I blew out of a puff of air, before throwing my shoes off and clambering onto the chair to stand up on my seat.
“Get back into your mother’s basement, kid, because this item is mine!” I said, then, turning to the host, I crossed my hands over my chest. “Four hundred.”
I watched in triumph as said middle-aged man frantically dug his fingers into his wallet, searching for money he didn’t have.
Victory was sweet.
By now, most of the crowd was watching us with amusement, as I smirked at the man and stuck out my tongue childishly, when the host counted down all the numbers and seemed satisfied with my offer.
“And the item goes to number...” he was on his tip-toes to see my number, as I rose my paper and flashed a thumbs-up to the crowd. “Sixty-two! Congratulations to our highest bidder, please come up to receive your prize.”
I walked up to the podium with my head held high and snatched the prize, waving it around, making special care the man, or should I say rival, got a close-up of it.
After being handed it, I felt someone nudge my arm. “Huh?”
“That’s four hundred bucks, kiddo. Pay up,” the host ordered. I rapidly searched through my wallet, brought out a cheque from my joint account with Mom, and with a pen, wrote down all that was needed to finally get out of here.
“Voila, sir. Your cheque. Thanks for everything,” I said, smiling.
Clutching the trading cards under my arm, I sped to Alec and grabbed him by the arm. I took long, sure strides to get to the entrance but he tugged back.
“I need to get someone something,” he said.
“From this shabby place? Alright, if you say so, I’ll be outside of the entrance.”
I kept walking, into the sterile white hallway, past other auction rooms, to the entrance. Once I got outside, I felt a humid wind brush over my cheeks, the weather nice and relaxing. If it was this clammy outside, imagine the concert...
Now that I had a paper signifying I’d been the highest bidder for an item, I could be admitted into the concert, with backstage passes, too.
I twirled my hair with my finger, thinking about absolutely everything in a general way. Spacing out of the world, and then tuning in.
“You ready to go, Mia?”
I started, but then relaxed, knowing who it was, and sprinted as properly as I could with heels on, to Alec’s car. My favourite red, beaten-up Chevy.
Hearing the familiar click of the door opening, I slid in and a while later, so did Alec.
“The Long Beach Convention Center. It’s actually really close to here,” I told Alec.
Alec shook a finger at me and gave me a side-long glance. “Tsk, tsk. Patience, young grasshopper.”
“I am patient.”
“Look at you. You’re fidgeting like mad, I’m afraid if I don’t close the window you’ll jump right out of it.”
“Ugh. Okay, fine,” I said, and stayed silent the rest of the ride.
Up until about ten minutes later, when I saw the Convention Center and pressed my palms against the window of his car. “Come on! We’re here!”
Alec found a parking space and then I seriously ran for my life to the entrance of the Center. The line-up was very short now, and Alec told me there was only ten minutes left before they closed the entry to the concert.
The line-up went inside very, very slowly. Checking tickets, double-checking those that were more expensive, triple-checking for security.
I was the last one, and the couple in front of me were finally done with their tickets and were admitted inside.
“Alright, Joanna, we’re closing up,” the burly man in front of me, who was checking the tickets, announced to his fellow bouncer.
Panic rushed through me. They couldn’t close now. They wouldn’t, would they?
“Hey, I’m right over here! I have a ticket, too.”
The man jerked over to where I was standing and looked utterly confused. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there, a bit short. No offense.”
“Um, s’okay, none taken. There was a little mix-up with the ticket, so I got sent to Collector’s Paradise for your deal? I was highest bidder, so now you have to give me a ticket.” I scrambled through my bag and pulled out the mystery sheet Adrian gave me, and the sheet the host gave me.
“Here’s the sheet that proves I was highest bidder.” I handed it to him.
He only scoffed, and gave me a look that could only possibly mean he was judging my sanity. “Is this some kind of mind game? It’s either you have the ticket or not, there ain’t no offer. Pass it up, it’s the other sheet you have.”
The other sheet? The sheet Adrian gave me? Was that the one with the ticket, the one I didn’t bother looking at? I was going to annihilate him mercilessly when I got home. The highest bidder business was all a joke, set up for me to get him the trading cards, perhaps. And get him a better deal.
Obligingly, I passed the ticket to the bouncer, and he barely looked over it before fixing his bored eyes on me. “You drunk? High?” he asked.
“No, sir, I’m only sixteen...”
He took my shoulder and led me to the entrance of the Center. “Get in, then, and have fun.”
“Uh, thank you! Alec! I’ll call you when the concert’s over to pick me up. Go to my house and drop off the trading cards! Bye-”
The door thumped shut behind me, and there was an open foyer to the concert. Patting down my wild hair, I slumped back my shoulders and stared in wonder at the concert.
Black curtains paraded the white walls of the room. Lights gleamed on the ceiling, sparkled on the floor. Laser beams zigzagged in and out of people, and I gasped when I realized how many of them there were.
I should have brought another change of clothes. These were going straight to the trash bin.
They lingered around, the people, then either moped to the bar in the next room or grabbed their friends and towed them to as close to the band as they could. I just stood there, stunned, and a bright beam of light pounced on my face. I shielded it with my arms and kept pushing further and further into the massive crowd, which was full of excited chattering and shrieks. Sure, it could damage my eardrums by the end of the night, but heck, I was here at a Rave concert!
Every step I took toward the band was a careful, precise decision as to not step on someone’s foot, or jacket, or... arm?
A bewildered look came from a young woman plastered on the ground. She grasped at my ankle, as I was about to step on her arm by accident, and swung it out from under me.
Thump. I was sprawled right next to her, having tumbled down from my encounter with her strong arm.
“Ouch,” I moaned, and warily got off of the floor, twisting my back. I dusted off my clothes and offered a hand at the lady lying on the floor. She shook her head at me and huddled into a ball, giving off the impression she was going to sleep.
The wonderful effects of one too many Martinis. I silently swore to myself that I wouldn’t drink anything tonight, no matter the circumstance.
There were so many people! Most of them were teenagers like me, the girls squealing over the lead singer’s snakebite piercings, or how normal and not-Goth the drummer looked, the boys naming the band’s latest hit songs and singles.
Me? I was enjoying the steady beat the drummer (who, surprisingly, did look quite normal, without face make-up and completely natural blonde hair) kicked in, which calmed down every inch of my body, and I ended up getting lost in the intro to their first song. A small riff of an electric guitar harmonized with the hammering of the drums, and I started moving along to the beat, bouncing around people, trying to get to the front of the band.
I was almost there, the lights blaring in my face, heart thrashing against my ribcage, confessing its love of music. Cautious, slow, easy steps as to not trample over another intoxicated woman, or man for that matter. Just a few more to reach the edge, the red velvet ropes clearly visible, then soft to the touch as my hands caressed their surface...
Another rope was situated underneath me, probably a wire for the speakers around the colossal room. A tiny little step over it...
Or, rather, a step being caught right in the wire and sending my pumps to whizz over my head, which was now going to give the floor a nice, splattering hug. As my face inched closer and closer to the ground, I braced myself for the impact, bidding farewell to a large quantity of beloved brain cells.
I imagined a pair of heroic, strong arms swooping under my waist, saving my tragic encounter with pain. I pictured myself falling into my Superman’s arms, thanking him over and over again. The mental image was enough to help my collision feel less excruciating; Superman was about to do his job.
My eyes went wide as I did feel someone grab onto my waist and spin me around. Superman was here! I collapsed into his arms, willing my heart to take a break from party-mode. So then I looked up at him, about to flash a flirtatious smile and a thank-you.
But I hadn’t been expecting him to be my Superman.
Or snap at me pointedly. “What are you doing here?”
~~~O~~~
Ooh, a hidden meaning behind the title? I'll leave it you. Leave your comments about what you think it signifies, I'm sure you'll get it. :D
Anywho, fun chapter to write, I think. My longest one yet, too. Next one is going to be very. Very. Interessant. ;) Don't forget to vote, my lovelies, if you liked it! I cannot stress it enough. See any mistakes? Tell moi, you know the spiel.
LOL (lots of love),
SnowWhiteSwan <3