Boogie Wonderland

Pointless love story; just felt like writing about two people finally finding each other

 

My lips scrunched up in annoyance while Bradley hurriedly closed up his cell phone. I couldn’t believe Bradley could even hear who he was talking to over the loud music at the club.

 

“Sorry, had to take that,” Bradley said, slipping his cell phone back into his pocket. I couldn’t take my eyes off of his zoot suit outfit. His damn coat went down to his knees and he carried a wallet chain that hung out on a loop even though he kept his wallet in his back pocket. I knew he hated yellow, but he was walking around this club like a pachuco ray of sunshine; the sad part is that he’s white and doesn’t even have in-laws that are Hispanic, Latino, whatever the politically correct word is. Before he started dating Tiffany, he used to wear button-down shirts from Armani and Gucci (courtesy of his previous, rich, ditz of an ex-girlfriend), but one lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, and he showed up to clubs in suits like those. I was almost afraid to go into his apartment again.

 

“Don’t you think your girlfriend’s going to think you’re cheating when she hears all that loud music?” I asked as an a*s tightly wrapped in a suede halter-top dress passed by and hit me on the arm. I brushed off the last drops of my whiskey off my black dress pants.

 

“Jake, I’m not cheating because I’m out here with you, unless there’s something you need to tell me,” Bradley said wiggling his eyebrows at me. I shoved Bradley back and Bradley chuckled. “And no more talk about girlfriends tonight, you’re absolutely in recovery.”

 

“Yeah,” I huffed. “In recovery.”

 

“I thought getting out of that relationship with that b***h would get you all hyped up,” Bradley said, signaling to the waitress passing by and motioning for another rum and coke. “I sort of hoped that you’d be a lot less of a—”

 

“Kill joy?” I answered roughly. Bradley sat farther back in his chair.

 

“I was going to say stiff, but I can reconsider,” Bradley said lifting an eyebrow. I sighed and rested my face on my palm. I thought I would loosen up too. After Kiara walked out on me with her blond extensions falling on the wood floor, I really expected to feel a lot freer and actually could go out with Bradley to Boogie Wonderland. I saw myself letting loose, you know? I saw myself on the dance floor, picking out a hot chick, and maybe taking her home. For a minute though, I did feel happy when Kiara left; at least I wouldn’t have to deal with her tampons falling into the sink anymore, her bitching at me because she was in a permanent state of PMS, but maybe now that I wasn’t her boyfriend anymore, I wouldn’t have to waste a good punch to the jaw to another a*****e she cheated on me with.

 

Instead, I was sitting there at that table with my best friend chatting up for close to an hour with his girlfriend. My head was tight with tension and I hadn’t had this kind of headache or stomach ache since Kiara forced me to slug down three Smirnoff Ices in less than five minutes (and in strawberry flavor too; it was disturbingly reminiscent when my mom forced a tablespoon of cough syrup down my throat, but she at least had the decency to plug my nose so I wouldn’t taste it). I rubbed my head through my spiked blond hair, hoping to make the damn headache go away. Usually I needed two or three whiskeys to start feeling buzzed, but the next thing I knew, my vision was blurring, and I felt my head rolling into a circle on my neck, the neon lights in the club becoming hazy and dancing around in front of me and my pulse was pounding to the beat of the techno blaring through the speakers—

 

I had never seen Katie look that beautiful in my life. She’d never look like that before. I had no idea how taut her stomach was until I saw that leather halter-top she was wearing. I loved how it stopped an inch over her little belly button and I followed it as she shook her hips rhythmically even as the song bled seamlessly into another song over the speakers. Katie I know loved her sweatpants, but it looked to me like she bribed one of her friends into letting her borrow a black mini-skirt, and Katie made me wish the skirt was a lot more of a mini than it already was. The fact that she was wearing a leather halter-top was pretty amazing to me, but the fact that she owned black leather knee-high stiletto boots shocked me even more. Her dark hair was done in a fancy bun at the top of her head, letting me see her face completely for the first time. Her smoky eye shadow made me feel like it was really night and all I wanted to do was stare straight into her light brown eyes.

 

Another guy in a black, baggy button down shirt came up to her and began to dance in front of her, and she obliged by dancing a little closer to him and flashing him that smile that I was used to getting from her. She turned around, grinding her back against his front, never breaking contact for the next few minutes. I saw him put his hands on her waist and moving up and down the sides of her bare belly.

 

Before I knew what I was thinking, I could see my hands on her sides. I could feel her body pressed up against mine. I could smell her perfume even though she probably only wore it three times during the whole five years we’d known each other. Looking into her eyes, I realized she hadn’t looked the same way she used to when she was seventeen. Her face was a little fuller although you could see she was still so young. She hadn’t even finished high school when her older brother introduced me to her, but I couldn’t believe she was almost done getting her BA in Music. I didn’t expect this at all.

 

“Jaaaake,” Bradley said, waving his hand in front of my face. The loud yellow of his jacket made me blink my eyes. I didn’t feel lightheaded anymore after that.

 

“Hey, I didn’t say jack, you can’t tell me I was ruining the night anymore,” I defended. Bradley smirked, taking off his loud yellow flattop hat and running his hand over his previously long light brown hair.

 

“Guess we know what you needed to loosen up finally,” Bradley said knowingly and gesturing with his chin towards Katie. “I knew it for a long time, it was just a matter of time. Tiff saw it coming too, especially when Katie keeps her on the phone for hours at a time. I’ve known you since we were five, but I didn’t know you were THAT interesting.”

 

“She talks about me?” I asked, keeping my eye on where that guy’s hands were going on her body. She turned her head and my heart jumped, thinking that maybe she saw me.

 

“Well I if I got yelled at by my b***h of a boss at the firm because Katie was yapping non-stop about you to Tiff on the phone, don’t you think that’s a clue?” Bradley said.

 

“You have call waiting,” I said gruffly, watching that guy’s hands go higher up her stomach. I felt hotter all of a sudden.

 

“That sort of makes it worse,” Bradley said, leaning around the table, trying to make eye contact with me. “When she knows my boss is calling me and yet she stays on the phone and lets Katie go on and on and on and on…Jake? Dude? Your fly is down? I wanna have sex with you right here, right now, on this table? Dude!”

 

All I cared about was that guy to get away from her. I wanted that guy to get the message and leave her there before I left him on the floor. I wanted him to lift his hairy paws off of her, take a step back, turn around, put one foot in front of the other, repeat that until he got to his car, start the ignition and to drive until he was at the South Pole. My fists balled up tighter wishing I was squeezing his neck. I didn’t realize it at first but then I could hear my breathing getting heavier and I felt like I was in the middle of getting into a boxing match like I did in high school.

 

“Talk to her,” Bradley said simply. I turned around in my chair and faced him. Bradley must have been serious and wanted me to take him as such because he took off those stupid drapes and looked more like the lawyer who had just won a big case for a children’s hospital earlier that day.

 

“What?” I squeaked out.

 

“Talk to her, man,” Bradley said, crossing his arms and leaning forward on the table. “You like her. She likes you. Go for it.”

 

“I can’t,” I said, my throat closing up.

 

“Why not?” he asked. My heart was pushing blood faster through my veins, and if Katie had this effect on me, I didn’t know if I wanted to hold her to make it stop or to make it last forever.

 

“She’s too young,” I managed to get out. Bradley rolled his eyes.

 

“First off, that didn’t stop you that once I took you out for drinks because that’s how you wound up with Kiara in the first place,” Bradley said matter-of-factly. “And second, who the hell cares?”

 

“I’m twenty-seven,” I said, getting my voice back a little bit. “She’s only twenty-two. I’d be robbing the cradle.”

 

“She’s an adult,” Bradley argued. “You’re not robbing the cradle because she’s not a minor anymore and you haven’t robbed anything because you’re being a little p***y!”

 

“She’s not out of college yet,” I said loudly and standing up.

 

“She has a job and keeping herself afloat without her parents, she’s fine,” Bradley said, raising his voice without standing up. I took a frustrated breath and ran my hands through my hair.

 

“She’s not good enough for me,” I said louder than ever and Bradley’s eyes bulged open. “She’s not my type of girl, she’s not the girl I’m looking for, she’s not—”

 

“The girl whose heart you just ripped out and standing behind you,” Bradley said coldly but triumphantly. I whipped around to see the smoky eye shadow rolling down her mocha cheeks. Katie made an about face and began to dance with the other guy again, refusing to look my way again. I slumped down in my chair defeated.

 

“You’re scared of her,” Bradley said knowingly. “Gary’s little sister scares you.”

 

“She does not,” I argued.

 

“Gary’s little sister also has a guy’s hand up her bra-doubling-as-a-blouse,” Bradley said, nodding his head towards the floor.

 

Before I knew it, I was on the floor, ripping the guy away from her. All I wanted to do was rip the greasy, scraggly hair out of this a*****e’s scalp.

 

“What the f**k are you doing?!” Katie screeched, yanking me by the arm and slapping me across the face. I hissed, rubbing where Katie had hit me. I looked into her face. The last time she looked that angry with me was when I scratched up her Bowling For Soup CD.

 

“You’re not letting this dude feel you up,” I said. Katie shoved me.

 

“Since when is that your business, a*****e?!” she screamed at me. “I can have any guy feeling me up if I damn well want to and you can’t do jack about it!”

 

“Yes I can, he’s just going to take you home and f**k you!” I yelled at her. Katie’s eyes sharpened.

 

“Of course he will, I’m not good enough for you to take home and f**k,” she said coldly before shoving past me and walking arm-in-arm with the guy. I stood on the dance floor alone, some people passing by mumbling things like “kill joy” and “dickhead”. Bradley walked up behind me and put his hand reassuringly on my shoulder.

 

“I don’t think Gary wants an a*****e dating his sister anyhow,” Bradley said, before making an about face and answering his cell phone again.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

The police cruisers were too busy getting donuts at the Seven-Eleven, so I sped down the street, following the greaseball’s rust bucket of a car to his house. I stopped far enough down the street so they wouldn’t suspect me but close enough so I could see what was going on. The car remained still for a few minutes before the car began to rock side-to-side. My breathing quickened as adrenaline rushed through my veins. I had no idea what he was doing to her; all I knew was that she deserved more than cheap leather upholstery under her, and a good man on top of her.

 

Not that you’re a good man, a voice in my head berated me.

 

The passenger door swung open and Katie slammed it angrily before running down the street towards my car. The greaseball was barely able to get out without tripping over his damn pants’ legs, and he clumsily made his way towards my car. Katie ran to my car, jumped into the passenger seat and in a panicked voice, yelled at me to start the car and to get out. I sped off down the street, and it was so hard not to run the guy over before he could try to take her again.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

With my arm around her shoulders, I guided Katie into my apartment and I dropped her off onto my white couch before going to the kitchen to make her a drink. I opened the freezer to grab the big bottle of Smirnoff, but opted to simply grab my ice tray and closed the freezer. I took out my half-drunken liter of Coca-Cola and got two glasses and took it to the couch. I poured Katie the first drink and I watched her sip at it for a few seconds.

 

“Katie, look, I’m sorry about tonight,” I said sheepishly. “I’m sorry I got you mad. But I can’t say I’m sorry that I pulled you from that guy or that I followed you. He was bad news, and I wouldn’t forgive myself if I let him hurt you.” Katie continued to sip her drink.

 

“I just didn’t want him to take advantage of you,” I said, going off farther. “I mean, I know guys can get horny, I mean, I get horny myself, not that I am right now or I was tonight mind you, I just I know how guys can be, and I couldn’t think what I’d do if someone—”

 

“Why didn’t you tell me before,” she said in a low voice.

 

“That guys are horn dogs?” I asked clueless.

 

“That you like me,” she said simply.

 

I opened my mouth to tell her that I just wasn’t ready before and I was too scared to tell her. It didn’t come out. Inwardly, I panicked, and I know she did too. What did this mean? Why couldn’t I say I liked her? I did, didn’t I? I got jealous when I saw another guy feel her up, right? I followed her like a damn stalker to make sure he didn’t lay a hand on her. I took her back to my apartment so she could be safe. And I couldn’t say I liked her.

 

I looked into Katie’s soft brown eyes, filled with worry. My breath quickened again, realizing how much I wanted to touch her soft skin. She tried to read me, wondering why wasn’t I responding.

 

“Because I don’t like you,” I got out. Katie’s face fell before her eyes filled with tears and her mouth trembled. I made sure the look in my eyes was super soft when I dropped this on her.

 

“It’s because I’m in love with you,” I said tenderly. Katie’s mouth kept trembling, but her lower lip dropped, letting me see those pearly whites I wanted to run my tongue over. I leaned in, putting my hand on her thigh and moving my hand up higher. I loved the sound of her breathing and I wanted nothing more than to know what she sounded like when she screamed. Katie suddenly pushed me away and stood up.

 

“Nice try,” she said, anger coming to her face again. “I knew I was going to end up in some a*****e’s bed tonight, I just didn’t realize it’d be yours.” I stood up with her and held her by her arms.

 

“This isn’t what it’s about at all, and you know it,” I said, holding tighter the more she tried to break free.

 

“If you just wanted to f**k me, you could have just told me so instead of pulling all this emotional bullshit,” she snapped. I shook my head before pecking her on the lips. I moved my lips across her cheek to where her cheek and earlobe met.

 

“You’re not good enough to f**k,” I whispered. “So I guess I’m just gonna have to settle for making love to you.” I pulled her top over her head before kissing down to her chest. Katie made no objections when I started sucking her. Katie moaned and put her hand behind my head to keep me right where she wanted me. I let go before grabbing her breasts and pressing my lips to her ear.

 

“If all I wanted was a good f**k,” I said, “then why do I want to know if you love me too?” Katie buried her face into my neck and breathed into my skin.

 

“I thought you already knew, Jake,” she said, fumbling with the buttons on my shirt. I closed my eyes. I moaned and I pulled her towards my bedroom.

 

“At the risk of sounding cheesy, I’m a lawyer, you’re a musician, but what do you say you illegally download my information,” I growled as I fell back onto my mattress.

 

                                    *            *            *            *

 

I moaned as the morning light peeked through the curtains. My eyelids felt so heavy. That only happened when I didn’t get enough sleep the night before.

 

Katie looked so innocent lying with her head on my chest and her arm draped around my stomach. I wanted so bad to get inside her head to see if I was behind her eyelids.

 

Wow, very poetic for a lawyer, I thought to myself. Before we know it, Katie’s going to be in a tight business suit in the courtroom. I growled to myself. Another fantasy we would have to play out sometime.

 

I thought back to the night before. How Boogie Wonderland was supposed to take my mind off things like this. I looked down at Katie.

 

Something was telling me I’d never have to go back there ever again.