Falling Awake (5 page)

Thank god for that.

"Okay. Mellissa and I are going to head out to jets tonight.”

It was Friday night and I would soon be meeting the elusive Drake who had my best friend so smitten.

“Have fun then, but not too much. And don’t stay out too late, got it?" He kissed the top of my head. “See you girls later."

"Not if I see you first!" Mellissa shouted after him as he left the kitchen and the front door closed marking his exit.

"What is wrong with you?" I asked her.

"Nothing’s wrong with me, I was just enjoying the view. And seriously who is Jenny?"

I took our plates away and dropped them into the dish. Turning to her I said, "It's not Tamara that bites it's you."

“
S
o," I said to Mellissa as she sat at my dressing table and I ferociously sprayed her ruby red hair with hairspray, occasionally turning my head away to gulp some fresh air. "Are you excited to see Drake tonight?" She looked up at me through the mirror in front of her.

"I'm practically shaking I’m so nervous." I bent over her setting down the can of hairspray. "I've never heard you say anything like that before," I said to her. She shrugged her shoulders. "I told you, he’s different. He makes me feel…sort of special." She smiled as she spoke and I could tell that this wasn’t just any ordinary guy. This one might actually be good for her, and believe me, she’d had her fair share of losers.

"So how do I look?" she asked, standing up and giving me a seductive twirl. She was wearing a black elasticated mini skirt, short enough that I could probably see the pizza she’d eaten for dinner if I looked hard enough and a green chiffon cami top with black strappy stilettos.

"You look great," I told her.

"What about my hair?" Her hair rested on her shoulders with her bangs brushed over to the side covering most of her left eye.

"Great also. Drake won’t know what's hit him when he sees you," I reassured her.

She always looked amazing. She was like a flamed haired buxom siren. Friday Harbors very own Jessica Rabbit.

"Okay, now let me look at you," she said turning to me.

"Why would it matter what I looked like?" I asked accusingly.

“I hope this is not one of those meet my boyfriend things, where his not so good looking friend turns up who you have not so cleverly, secretly set me up with.” I pointed a finger at her finally having it all worked out. She was always trying to set me up and it ended miserably every single time.

“Calm down. This is not a set up, but you want to look nice don’t you?” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. I assumed she was talking about Caleb and it hadn’t even crossed my mind we might bump into him. He would probably be at the garage enjoying the adoration of throngs of middle-aged women whilst they threw their underwear at him. 

I looked down at my plain outfit. I’d chosen to wear my long sleeved tight white V-neck top that my dad hated, saying it accentuated my um uh breasts. God he could be so awkward it was painful. I teamed it with my best fitting pair of bootleg jeans over my brown cowboy boots. 

“Here sit down," she said, guiding me by the shoulders onto the stool at the dressing table. She rummaged around in her make up bag and started applying mascara and blusher to my face.

"Is there any need for all this?" I asked her as she emptied the contents of the bag across the table. “I mean, I’m not the one on a date here."

I usually enjoyed getting ready to go out, but the conversation from earlier still lingered and I was festering from it. Damn Jealousy.

"Hush will you? People still have to see you for god sake. Would it hurt to make a little bit of an effort? I don’t want Drake to think I brought along the local homeless vagabond.”

I laughed loudly. “Okay calm down, Jesus. I’ll make an effort." She picked out a black tube of lipstick and opened it up.

"Here it is. This colour will look amazing on you, what do you think?" It was a soft dusky rose. I liked it.

I normally didn’t wear much make up. I was lucky enough that I inherited my long silky dark brown tresses and olive complexion from my mother who was of Native American descent. People were always telling me how my beautiful hair and flawless skin were my best qualities.

My hair now spilled over my shoulders and settled down my back in thick waves.

"Fine. Yes, it's nice. Just hurry up will you?" She carefully applied the lipstick and then insisted on running the brush through my hair and fluffing it up with some hairspray.

“It’s a shame about that lip, but you look hot Jensen," she said, eyeing me up and down. "Those jeans make your ass look amazing." She slapped my behind. I laughed and squatted her hand away.

My lip had gone down a considerable amount, but the small cut was still a visible reminder of what happened.

A car sounded its horn outside my bedroom window.

"I wonder who that is," I said, walking over to the window. Sitting outside was a golden orange Pontiac G8. Mellissa hurried over to my side beaming.

"Drake's here," she announced.

"What do you mean Drakes here?" I asked confused. "How does D-r-a-k-e," I pronounced his name slowly, exaggerating each letter, "Even know where I live?" I was slightly annoyed at her just handing my address out to random strangers she had known all of two minutes, whether she was in love with them or not.

"I told him where you live," she said, dragging me out of the bedroom and down the stairs into the dining room, where she picked up her black clutch from the dinner table and threw in our phones and her purse.

"I'm not real happy about you telling him where I live Mellissa. God, does he even know where you live?" I asked, fully aware that I was acting a little uptight.

"Keep you panties on will you? I promise as soon as we get out there I will make him swear an oath not to come back here while you are sleeping and cut your throat, okay?" she said mockingly.

"Your hilarious you know that?" I told her, following her outside.

"I do try," she said smiling, then ran over and climbed into the front seat of the waiting car. I locked the door behind me and headed over to the car, getting in the backseat. A rock song I'd never heard before thrummed quietly from the radio.

"You look gorgeous tonight," Drake said to Mellissa, smiling like a lovesick puppy as she stared back at him with the same soppy expression. Twisting his body around from the driver’s seat giving me the once over he said, "You must be Pria."

He was good looking I would give Mellissa that. He wore his blonde hair brushed back into a short ponytail that sat on the crown of his head, and a small gold cross hung freely from his right ear. His eyes were the most fantastic shade of cobalt blue; they practically took my breath away. How unusual I thought to myself.

"And you must be Drake," I said with a smile.

"I must be," he said smirking and I got the strangest feeling he’d just shared a secret joke with himself at my expense.

I looked away as Mellissa kissed him like he was a soldier just returned from war and told him how much she missed him, and then revving the engine loudly, he pulled away. Mellissa had never mentioned Drake’s age and I’d never asked, but I was guessing he must be older than us. He looked it anyway, and I wondered where all these gorgeous guys had turned up from all of a sudden.

"That's not really a good idea to rev your engine like that," I said to Drake as he swung a right onto Spring Street. He looked at me with his eyebrow raised in question through his rear-view mirror.

"I mean, it's fine if your only doing a few thousand, but you’re going way past the red line and that will cause valve damage over time," I said matter of factly.

"Oh yeah? And what do you know about cars?" he asked dubiously.

"Enough... I help my dad out at his garage sometimes when I’m bored."

"Impressive," he said.

"Hang on a minute," Mellissa interrupted, twisting back in her seat. "You've missed the turning for Jets. Its way back there." She pointed over her shoulder towards the neon lights hanging over the green building.

“I thought we could go somewhere a little more lively,” Drake said, grinning more like a wicked hyena than a cat.

***

We stood in the makeshift gravel filled car park, outside of what I can only describe as a dive bar, on the outskirts of town. I didn’t even know this place existed. It was nestled on a dead end street, secluded by the tall shrubbery that lined the road making it invisible to see if you were driving past. The light wooden structure sadly boasted the half-lit sign, ‘Sully’s’

I looked over to Mellissa who just shrugged and followed Drake inside with great difficulty in her ridiculously skinny heels, and I was grateful I was wearing boots. Reluctantly, I tagged along; dreading what kind of people inhabited a dump like this.

As we walked through the door, I was instantly greeted by a thick cloud of stale grey smoke that penetrated the dimly lit room, and I coughed as it became lodged at the very back of my throat. Apparently, you could smoke in a place like this. Great, I would probably leave here with acute lung cancer.

“Come on let’s go and sit down,” Mellissa said, grabbing my hand. I looked at the people around me occupying the grubby wooden tables as we passed them. It seemed there was a certain criterion to fill to drink here, and it seemed to be male, dirty, and quite menacing. 

A group of longhaired bikers stared at me as we passed, and I quickly averted my eyes when one of them blew O’s with his cigarette smoke in my direction.

Mellissa dragged me up a small set of about ten rickety stairs, over to an empty table on the second level next to the pool table.

We sat down and I let my eyes wander over my surroundings. There was a gathering of men opposite, on the other side of the pool table, huddled around a small-overcrowded table. I let my eyes wander over their head's idly and I froze. I couldn’t believe it. Caleb sat there glaring at me from in the middle of a card game.

“Here, I got us some drinks.” Drake set down a beer bottle and two small glasses filled with a clear liquid and ice.

“It’s vodka and lemonade. That’s the closest thing Sully has to a cocktail,” he said taking a swig of his beer.

“Thanks babe,” Mellissa purred, visibly impressed that Drake even knew what a cocktail was.  I glanced over at Caleb and he stood up and stormed over to where we sat.

“What the hell’s she doing here?” He barked at Drake, flicking a dark glance in my direction.

“She’s with Mellissa man. Chill out.” There was a spark of amusement in Drake’s eyes and he didn’t bother hiding his self-satisfied grin.

“Can I talk to you a minute?” Caleb turned his attention to me.

“Uh, you two know each other?” Mellissa asked Drake in bewilderment. He ignored her and looked from me to Caleb waiting for the next move.

“Go ahead,” I said, wondering what he could possibly want to talk to me about.

“Outside?”

“Fine.” I stood up and followed him to where he led me outside into the crisp night air.

It was a relief to breathe something in other than stagnant smoke and my lungs thanked me. I stood impatiently as he dragged his hand through his hair and paced the ground in front of me.

“Well…” I said. “What do you want? You brought me out here so go on, speak.”

He stopped and stood directly in front me, his lean frame hovering over me so close, his warm minty breath danced over my skin, leaving me covered in goose bumps. “What do you think you’re doing in a place like this?” I could see he was annoyed, but he was doing a pretty good job of keeping himself calm.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied, crossing my arms in front of me stubbornly.

  “Don’t do that. I wasn’t the one being mauled the other night. What is it with you? Are you looking for trouble? Cause’ I tell you what, you’ve come to the right place,” he fumed. “This place isn’t for people like you.”

What was that even supposed to mean?

  "I’m just here with Mellissa," I said. "Not that it’s any of your business, but she was meeting Drake and we were supposed to go to jets, but he decided for whatever reason, that this place would be a better idea.”

  I looked over at the dreary building. “Not saying he has no taste or anything,” I said sarcastically.

  He looked at me like a light had been switched on in his head, and his face softened a fraction. “Oh he did, did he?”

  I nodded.

“Why does what I do, or where I go, concern you anyway? It’s a free country in case you didn’t know. So unless you live here, in this grotty bar,” I said, waving my arm at the eyesore behind me. “Then it’s really got nothing to do with you me being here.” I was really trying and failing to find the connection as to why he had such an aversion to me. It was mindboggling.

  His eyes switched a shade darker and his features hardened.

“You’re right; it’s none of my business. I would just hate to see you get hurt that’s all.” The slyest of grins tugged at his lips, and his words felt like a secret threat slithering their way up my spine. This time, I shivered for all the wrong reasons.

  “So this won’t be a problem for you?” I asked. “Because I would hate to ruin your card game.” The sarcasm was clear in my voice and only drew more of Caleb’s smug self to the surface.

  “Should we go back inside? Or stay out here all night arguing?” The words tumbled out of my mouth uncontrollably.

  “You can go back to losing, or winning, or whatever it was you were doing, and we don’t have to speak to each other for the rest of the night, deal? In fact make that the rest of our lives.”

His smile widened and he motioned towards the door.

“After you.”

My head was buzzing from all the hot and cold he was blowing me. One minute he’s saving my ass and the next it’s like he find’s me the most irritating person on this earth. I was actually starting to feel like his annoying little sister, and the thought was sobering. I desperately needed a drink.