If I fall if I die, know I lived and missed some bullets
“This is unreal,” Amanda shrieked as she jumped to her feet with the rest of them.
I stayed sitting, watching him with a small smile as he finally looked up and locked eyes with me through the crowd. He was suddenly so confident like something had transformed him. Something that neither he nor I expected. Maybe it was the music…
I raised my hands with the rest of them and joined in as everyone shouted the chorus.
There was some subtle dancing now up on stage. Even a few little body rolls as Marcus placed the microphone back in the holder and rocked his body back and forth against the stand.
The crowd went nuts. Even I couldn’t help but laugh as he straddled the stand like a pro, keeping one finger pointed at me the whole time. I was impressed. The entire room was. Then, with the bewildering confidence of a rock star, he held up one finger for silence. The room quieted itself instantly as he grabbed the mic back off the stand and weaved his way slowly back through the crowd.
The lights blacked out completely as the entire room erupted in applause. I felt his forehead pressed up against mine. His shirt was damp with sweat, and even though I couldn’t see his face in the dark, I’d swear he was smiling.
“Rebecca—”
“Shh,” I pressed a finger to his lips, “you were incredible.”
His face shifted, and I felt him lean in. I could feel the heat coming off his body as his lips brushed softly against mine. Whether it was an accident or on purpose, I didn’t know. One hand snaked around my bare waist, and I caught my halting breath. Then the lights snapped back on, and he took a huge step back. He turned and raised his arms to the delight of the crowd, then laughed and tossed the microphone up to the next performer.
I sat down abruptly in my chair. Whether it was the tequila or the sudden chills running up and down my skin, I didn’t think my legs would hold a second longer. Marcus slid down next to me, pressing his leg inadvertently against my own, and he turned his attention to the stage.
Neither of us said anything. Not a single word. We just sat there, flushed and intertwined, and listened as a native Russian began an ear-splitting rendition of ‘I’m a Believer.’
It was the perfect end to a perfect night.
***
“Bex, we’re going to be late!”
I jumped in my skin as Amanda pounded on the door to my bedroom. Pulsing, sweaty images faded from my mind as I leapt out of bed and shimmied into the white sundress she and I had picked out for the occasion the night before.
Today was the day I was picking my mother up from the airport. Best to make a bit of an effort to win myself back into her
good graces.
“I’m ready!” I declared a second later, pink-faced and breathless as I yanked open the door. She looked me up and down, and her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“You just got up, didn’t you?”
“No,” I said with a false frown, “why would you think that?”
Her eyes rolled, and she spun me around toward the bathroom mirror. “Your dress is on backward. Honestly, Bex…” She tugged it the right way around and nodded at the finished effect. “It’s a good thing you don’t really have any breasts, or that would never work as often as it does.”
“I have boobs,” I said. “Just not as much as you.”
She laughed.
My face fell as she simultaneously handed me some lip gloss and tossed me a pair of shoes. I put them on quick enough to be ready to catch the toast she threw the next second.
“So…” Her face popped back into sight from the kitchen. “Are we going to talk about last night? Steamy club in Korea-town? Anything…a-ringing a bell?”
There was a hitch in my breathing that I covered with an easy smile. “Nope. What’s it going to be today—car or bus?”
“Bex, I’m serious. I’d never seen you two together before but…” She continued on carefully, “You can’t tell me there’s nothing there—it’s just not true.”
I gave her a dismissive shrug. “So he was drunk, and we were drunk, and just because he can sing like a rock star, well, don’t read anything more into it than that.”
“Yeah?” She put her hands on her hips. “What about when you two kissed last night right in front of me?”