Temporary Bliss

I ran my finger around the circular rim of my glass that held the fiery liquid that made all of the pain go away, at least temporarily. I picked up the cold glass, my hand getting wet from the water drops running down the side of the glass. I took in a shallow breath as I began to raise the glass to my mouth. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. I felt the glass hit my bottom lip and I parted my lips, letting the cold liquid rush in. I closed my eyes tightly, forcing myself to swallow. It burned my throat a little as it went down. It was disgusting. I didn’t care. I grabbed the glass again and took a bigger gulp –bad idea. I clenched my jaw shut and shook my head, making a face like you do when you eat something sour. I quickly put the glass down on the wooden countertop of the bar, pushing it away from me slightly.
I heard a laugh from the side of me and I turned my head to look at the person it came from. It was a guy; he had dreads that hung down to his shoulders. He was wearing flip flops, khaki cargo shorts –probably from Hollister, a vibrant blue v-neck that complimented his darker skin tone, and a single shark tooth hung on a thin black leather cord around his neck. He was attractive.

I furrowed my eyebrows giving him a confused look.

He laughed and smiled even bigger, exposing his perfect white teeth. “Sorry. I just…you don’t drink much do you?”

I broke a smile and looked up at him, he was a lot taller. “How did you know?”

“You looked like you just bit into a lemon.” I laughed and shook my head, looking down at the countertop. “So am I right?”

I looked straight ahead at the glass bottles of liquor lined up on shelves on the wall behind the bar. “Yeah, you were. I’ve only had a few sips.” My cheeks heated up from embarrassment.

He leaned his elbows on the counter, mirroring my pose. “I’m Nathan.”

I looked over at him, his brown eyes looking right into mine. “Charlotte.”

“So, Charlotte, why are you drinking tonight?”

I gave him a skeptical look. I had just met him, why should I tell him my problems. Fuck it. I took in a breath, “Rumor has it that alcohol makes life easier for a bit.”

He drummed his fingers on the countertop to the beat of the trashy pop song blaring from the speakers. “That rumor is correct.”

I nodded, taking sip of my drink. “Yeah, it wasn’t my idea. A friend suggested getting away from life for a bit,” I shrugged, “I figured why not.” I took a long gulp, finishing off my drink, and then set the now empty glass back on the counter.

“Well there’s nothing wrong with that. Just-” he was cut off by the bartender, asking if we needed another drink. We both shook our heads. He leaned close to me, “Between you and me, I’m not even 21.”

I laughed a little, “Neither am I.” I felt more comfortable knowing I wasn’t the only one sneaking in. I hadn’t seen Caroline since we first got here and she ran off to the dance floor. Nathan and I ended up talking more and before I knew it I had spilled the whole story about Michael and Cameron to him. In return he told me about how he broke up with his girlfriend just 2 days ago. So there we were, two heartbreakers talking about depressing things in one of the liveliest places possible.

“Did you wanna dance?”

His question caught me off guard and I looked up at him unsure. “I, uh, don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“I don’t mean it in a ‘I-like-you-so-I’m-going-to-grind-on-you’ kind of way, just in a fun way.”

“oh…well I feel awkward now. Yeah, that sounds fun.”

His hand grasped mine as he led me onto the packed dance floor. We squeezed through couples that were grinding up against each other until we finally found a spot that had just enough space for us so that we weren’t pressed up against other people’s sweaty bodies.

I was a terrible dancer so I waited for Nathan to start so I could somewhat mimic his moves. Halfway through the next song he started dancing really funny, flipping his dreads around and doing jive hands as he wiggled his butt around. I didn’t know what to do so I stopped dancing and watched him, holding back a laugh. He shimmied towards me which only caused my laugh to escape. He grabbed my hands trying to get me to dance with him. I shook my head and smiled up at him.

“What are you doing?” I had to yell it into his ear just so he could hear me because the music was so loud.

He shrugged and started dancing like Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. People were starting to stare and giving us weird looks, Nathan didn’t even care, but it was starting to embarrass me. I had always hated when a lot of people were looking at me.

Moments later Nathan ended up bumping into a guy behind him, causing the guy to spill his beer all over himself and the floor. The guy spun around, he was much bigger than Nathan, looking pissed and pretty drunk.

“Whoa, sorry man, I didn’t mean to bump you.” Nathan quickly apologized and started dancing only to have the guy shove him, causing Nathan to collide into me.

This was not good.

“I think he wants to fight you…” I muttered into Nathan’s ear.

“I think so too…and I think I am not a good fighter. So turn around and run…NOW.”

Once he yelled now I grabbed his hang to avoid losing him in the crowd and ran towards the door, I kept my eyes on the bright red letters that spelt out EXIT as I maneuvered through the crowd. Finally, I reached the edge of the crowd and I could breathe clearer again, I pushed open the door and the cool night air hit my body. I don’t think California air has ever felt so good to me. The heavy door shut and I leaned against the brick wall, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Holy shit,” I chuckled. “That was a close one. He was so ready to kick your ass.”

Nathan laughed and nodded his head, “I need to control my dancing a bit.”

“I don’t know if I would consider that dancing…”

His eyes widened as he stepped in front of me, “You’re so mean to me.”

I laughed a little and closed my eyes, resting my head on the wall behind me. I felt Nathan’s swinging our arms from side to side; I hadn’t realized we were still holding hands.

I opened my eyes as Nathan stepped closer to me, our bodies touching. I looked up at him as his face got closer to mine, soon our lips were touching. He pulled back and rested his forehead against mine. We both slowly opened our eyes and looked at each other.

“That was weird,” I said.

“Yeah, I didn’t like it.” He chuckled. “No offense or anything. The kissing was fine, it just felt wrong.”

“I agree.”

“Never again?”

I nodded, “Never again.”