As Bizarre as It Gets

I wasn't sure I wanted to call Shin. Sure, he seemed like a nice kid, but... in my eyes he was a kid. I was obviosly about four or five years older than him and at our age it was still a big difference. On the other hand, according to Yu, it meant alot to Shin that I call him. They did return my not so cheap cell phone. And they were being nice to me. Plus, I was intrigued by their style and curious about their music.

'Fuck it,' I said to myself and started writing a text message that said: ''Hey. What's up? +Carly+''

About a minute after I' sent my message, my phone rang. Only it wasn't a message but a call. From Shin's cell phone.

''Hello,'' I said.

''Aloha. It's me again,'' said the familiar voice I didn't expect to hear.

''Oh, hi, Strify. Are you Shin's lawyer or something?'' I teased.

''Most of the time, yeah. Now, listen, Carly... Would you or wouldn't you come to the club with us tonight?''

''Is it gonna be like techno/house something?'' I asked with mild disgust in my voice.

''Oh, no, no, no. It's gonna be the '80s. What do you say?''

I was thinking about it for a few seconds. My rational mind was saying no. But all the other voices in my head were telling me I could use a night of dancing. And living the moment.

''Yeah, ok-'' I didn't get to finish my sentence because he cut in.

''Great! We'll pick you up at ten thirty!'' he said and hung up on me.

Before the line was dead, I could hear cheering on the other side. Looks like they love to go out.

@}--,---

By ten thirty I was dressed in a black silky skirt and a knee-length lacy black skirt. I wore fishnet pantyhose and simple black high heel shoes. I put some makeup on: mascara, eyeliner, grey eye shadow, and dark red lipstick. I didn't have a lot of hair so I didn't have many options except putting some wax on my fingers and comb them through a couple of times. I took my black plusk-shaped purse and put it over my shoulder.

I sat on my bed listening to Dimmu Borgir and waited for my cell phone to ring agai. When it did, I almost jumped.

''H-hello?'' I answered, still in a little shock.

''Hey, Carly. We're parked in front of your gate. You ready to go?'' Strify said with his trademark amount of positive energy.

''Yeah, I'll be right out,'' I replied and hung up.

I said goodbye to my aunt and once again explained to her that I'm going out with boys whose real names I didn't know to a club I didn't know (it didn't sound too good, right?). I understood her fear so I left her Shin's and Yu's cell numbers written down on a piece of paper.

''Don't worry about anyting. Look, I'll check in every hour,'' I reassured her once more.

She thought about it and said: ''Every 45 minutes.''

''Agreed,'' I said.

When I walked out of the building, I noticed a dark blue Audi from which loud music was coming. The song was All the Things She Said by t.A.T.u.

'You've got to be kidding me,' my mind said.

The boys inside noticed me walking towards them and one stepped out of the car and held the door for me. He had dark shoulder length hair with some blonde highlights. He was wearing pointy black shoes, a relatively tight pair of black pants and a pink t-shirt. The pink colour was so intense it felt like it was screaming at me.

When I got closer to him, I noticed he had a lip piercing and some lipgloss.

''Good evening, boy,'' I said to him.

''Good evening, Carly,'' he replied.

'Ok, so that's Strify,' my mind spoke to me again. By that time I could recognize Strify's voice with no problem. I put my hand out for a handshake but he pulled me into a hug. It felt a little awkward but I liked the warm welcome he gave me.

Strify motioned for me to get inside so I crawled in, scooting close to Shin so Strify could sit next to me. Yu was sitting on the passanger seat and turned around to say hello.

''It's great to see you again, Carly'' he said and flashed me one of those smiles, ''You're lookin' good. By the way, you haven't met Kiro.''

''Hey,'' the driver said and looked at me in the rearview mirror. He smiled and popped his chewing gum loudly.

The boy was obviously putting a lot of effort into doing his black-and-blonde hair. Actually, he was kind of cute.

@}--,---

Between midnight and one o'clock we were dancing to Billy Idol's Rebel Yell like bunnies on a Duracel commercial. Our energy was at it's peak. We didn't care if people were staring at us when we were trying to come up with the most retarded dance moves ever. My mouth was dry from constant smoking and shouting over the music so I signalled the boys that I was going to get myself a drink.

I leaned against the bar counter to rest a little and sipped my coke. I noticed a couple of pissed off looks I was getting from random females. That was making me a little anxious. My eyes wandered through the crowd. Strify and Kiro were posing with some chicks for a couple of photos. It looked like they were bigger stars than I had thought. well, good for them. I kept looking but I couldn't find Shin and Yu. They would come up sooner or later, they had been running around since we got there.

I suddenly heard a male voice say something in my ear. I turned my head and met a pair of milky white eyes that belonged to a skinny man who wore synthetic dreadlocks in green, black and blue colours. He wore some sort of a long black dress and platform shoes. Next to him was another man with mid-back length black hair, purple contact lenses, a few facial piercings and he wore a burgundy shirt with black pants and combat boots.

''I'm sorry, I don't speak German,'' I shouted to the first man.

''I was asking what is such a beautiful woman as yourself doing here all alone.''

''I'm not alone, I'm here with some friends,'' I explained.

''And where are your friends?'' he asked with a grin on his face.

The man leaned against the counter to my left and his friend to the right. They had strange shark-like looks in their eyes. As if they were hungry.

''They're on the dancefloor,'' I said and fiddled with the Coke bottle that was in front of me on the counter.

I took a cigarette from my purse and put it between my lips trying my best not to shiver. I wasn't allowed to show my fear to the predators. The one with purple eyes offered to light my cig with his Zippo lighter. His eyes were shamelessly fixed to my face when I was lighting it. I exhaled the smoke and the white-eyed guy took my hand in both of his.

''You have beautiful hands. Ellegant long fingers,'' he commented.

''There you are, Carly,'' said a voice behind my back.

I pulled my hand from that man's gentle grip and turned around. I was relieved when I saw it was Yu.

''Yes, I'm here,'' I said and tried to smile like nothing was wrong.

He exchanged a few sentences with those two men and put his arm around my waist tightly.
Then he took my hand and led me across the dancefloor.

''Thanx for getting me out of that situation!'' I shouted over the music.

''Don't mention it! I know those two. They're swingers and they wanted to take you to their apartment. I explained to them that you weren't interested! Now I want to introduce you to our fifth member, his name is Luminor!''

We reached Kiro, Strify and Shin who were standing and talking to a young man who looked like a giant raven with a pair of stunning blue eyes. Yu came closer to them and said someting I couldn't quite hear. The rest of them were suddenly laughing.

The raven-guy looked intensly at me so I extended my hand like a polite girl and said: ''Hi, I'm Carly.''

He took my hand and kissed it before he stepped closer and said: ''I am Luminor. It's a pleasure to meet you. Yu said you met my friends. Don't worry, they're not as scary as they look.''

''Yeah, and neither is he,'' Strify cut in.

We laughed and Kiro said he would bring me a shot of vodka to relax. He came back a few minutes later with two duoble shots and gave me one.

''Here's to a start of a new friendship,'' he said and we downded the shots in one gulp.
We smashed the glasses against the floor which earned us some curious looks from the people around us.

For some reason, Strify wanted to continue that idiocity with retarded dancing, only this time he wanted to divide us into pairs for a slowdance to Depeche Mode's Strangelove. Yu and Luminor started dancing just to please Strify and talked about something. Strify pushed Shin towards me and we danced together which felt weird because he was trying to make as little physical contact as possible.

He was being a little shy so I smiled at him and said: ''Don't worry, I don't bite.''

He smiled back and gently pulled me closer, putting his hand on my lower back. He was taller than me but over his shoulder I could see Kiro and Strify with their arms around each other, swinging slowly from side to side. They were laughing.

Was it the double shot of vodka or too many cigarettes, I wasn't sure. But I was starting to feel more and more dizzy.

''You wanna go sit down for a little while?'' I asked, surprised at how slurred my speech sounded.

He nodded and led me by the hand towards the booths in the far corner of the club. We sat down in an empty one. He put his arm around me and let me rest my head on his shoulder.

I felt warmth when he took my hand and said: ''Deine Hände sind kalt.''

The last thing I remembered that night was me telling him: ''I forgot to call my aunt, she must be worried.''