Lingering Melody

“What do you want?” He asks, shouting in my ear because I wouldn’t have heard him otherwise. I stare at him for a minute, and then realize that he’s taken me to the bar.

I shake my head furiously. “I don’t drink!” I respond. He gives me a confused look, so I repeat it louder.

He nods a moment, to show he heard. “All right, just a sec,” he says and lets go of my hand, to talk to the barman. Or lady, I should say. Bar lady. I glance around nervously, and I feel completely out of my zone. I’ve never been a fan of parties. Usually because I’m asked out of politeness, and I’ve no friends, but I’ve never been for getting together with a bunch of people at once- you can’t be with all of them at once, anyways. Only a few, and keep switching…which, instead, you could spread over an amount of time, which I think sounds better.

Anyways, a minute later, he has two drinks and hands one to me. I give him a cautious confused look. “I said I don’t drink!” I shout in his ear.

He nods with a smile. “It’s water,” he responds with a grin. I glance as I take it from his warm sweaty hands. There aren’t any bubbles, so it looks pretty safe. I take a cautious sip. It can’t just be water, I figure- there’s a small sweetness in it. I give Sebastian a questioning look. “Sparkling water,” he corrects himself, and takes a swig of his own drink.

I’ve never had sparkling water. I take another sip and decide it’s really good. We go to look for a table to sit at, but all have some people at it- except one. Lait’s sitting there, looking sulky. I glance at Seb, but he’s looking fine and casual, so I guess the argument ended on good terms before.

“Mind if we sit?” Sebastian asks, as we come up. Lait shrugs so we sit, setting our drinks down. Sebastian turns to me, ignoring Lait, and starts talking about some of the people here that he already knows. I nod and make small comments while sipping my sparkling water.

“Hey, you want to dance?” Seb asks after a while. Maybe he had realized the conversation was getting really dull, since he was the only one really talking. He nudges my leg, cocking his head toward the dance floor.

I hesitate, nervous. I can’t really… “I don’t really dance,” I explain. “I tend to get really clumsy and it tends to end bad…” I mumble while pulling at my fingers embarrassed.

He shrugs. “It’ll be fine, come on.” He takes my hand and leads me there. I swallow hard, glancing around. Sebastian immediately starts dancing like everyone else. My breath seems to fall a little short because my stomach is feeling funny, but I keep it down and I start to sway with the music.

Sebastian laughs, because I must look awkward. “Come on, it’s not that hard,” he jokes, and starts waving my arms around high like everyone else. I keep my eyes down for the first while, feeling like an idiot, but by the next song, those thoughts tumble out of my mind and I can dance.

Song after song was playing and Sebastian was always there, very close to me to dance with. I was feeling light-headed and very sweaty after a while. I was beginning to wonder when it would end and my eyes roamed around for a clock.

“Eh, gotta run,” Sebastian says a little surprised, checking his watch. He gives a sheepish shrug. “I forgot we’re singing and I gotta go get ready. See you in the crowd,” he grins, gives me a full kiss on the lips and disappears.

“Oookay,” I say even though he’s already gone. My eyes follow to where he was and I realize I’ve stopped dancing, and I’m just standing there, so I hurry off and find Lait still sitting there.

I sit down, wiping away the sweat and gulp the rest of my drink, still feeing odd- that feeling hadn’t gone away, but I was learning how to ignore it. Lait’s looking at me, I can feel his eyes. My stomach flutters, and then I feel sort of… ashamed and embarrassed. Should I ask him to dance, or something?

It’s he who finally talks. “I didn’t think you were a drinker,” he says mildly.

I look up in surprise. Where would he get that idea? “What?” I blink, having no idea what he’s talking about. “And- hey, aren’t you supposed to be getting ready?” I ask, when it comes to mind suddenly.

He shrugs. “I checked everything before. I have ten minutes.”

Silence.

“I’m not a drinker,” I say, recalling his words. I shake my head. “I don’t ever drink.”

His shoulder jerks and I look at him, still clueless and confused. He’s staring hard at me now. “But… you were just… how?” He peers and I realize my stomach is feeling very odd, more than before. My skin is beginning to feel sickly clammy and the music is making my head hurt.

Lait is quiet for a minute. “But…” he pauses, as though arguing with himself. “You just… that drink. It…”

“Was sparkling water,” I finish for him helpfully.

He stares, and now he’s clueless and confused too. “No it’s not,” he says plainly after a minute. “That’s a crystal ice Mary. It’s also…” his eyes widen in surprise then it turns into a scowl. His eyes shut for a minute then flared open. Like his nostrils, which looked absurd and I had to blink several times.

“Hmmmm?” I managed. My tongue was feeling… swollen? Something like that. “Wha…”

I noticed his hands were in fists. “Shy,” he muttered through his clenched jaw, “that drink was pure alcohol and drugs. That was no sparkling water.”