Difference is beautiful

Flashback continued

As soon as we put a step in the pub, stuffy air that was filled with smoke striked me in the face. The pub was completely packed and considering the scent of alcohol throughout the whole place, I was perfectly sure that there was no person left with a low alcohol level.

Before I could even look around more, someone ran right into me and I felt a sudden moistness trickling off my cleavage. The person in front of me was holding his glass so tight, probably trying to make things better even though it was perfectly clear that nothing could safe this disaster. I was surprised the glass didn’t break as strong as he held it; you could see his knuckles turning white.
By the look on his face, he was shocked and I seriously couldn’t tell which one of us was more shocked... but in addition to shock, you could see regret written across his face.

“Mate, how much did yeh smoke?”

Curtis interrupted the sudden incoming silence and Mr Anonymous woke up from his trance-like condition.

“Oh no... shi’t. I’m sorreh... I`m so sorreh, I.. oh shi’. I’m gonna make i’ up ta yeh, righ’? Come on, let’s ge’ yeh somefhing dry... oh bollocks.”

He stared at my cleavage the whole time stuttering. It looked like he was just about to grab me trying to dry the wet spots on my dress; but it was still my cleavage and I sure wasn’t going to let him go that far. Just then I looked down and saw what a mess he made.

It was no good choice to wear a light dress like mine... and since I forgot to wear a matching bra- well, you can imagine the rest.

“Can you not open your eyes and watch where you’re going or have you, next to manners, never heard anything of coordination you dickhead?”

He jumped back a bit, surprised by my sudden outburst, and defensively held up a hand, the other one still around his half-empty glass. Curtis looked at me oddly as well, he seemed surprised for a moment but then without a word decided to just leave us alone so that I could fight with that guy a bit more – Traitor.
At that moment, I didn’t know that they knew each other.

“Come on, I’ll help-“

“UGH! I don’t need your help, I can do this by myself. Where is the bathroom?”

His mouth opened for a short moment but closed seconds after. It was almost time for me to feel sorry... If he wouldn’t be the one to blame for pouring beer all over me that was now sticking to my skin. Oh yeah, and I was practically standing in front of him in a see-through-white dress. He held up his free arm and pointed at a door at the other end of the room.

I wasn’t pleased with Sheffield’s Nightlife, how my cousin nicely put it, at all, if every female human being was welcomed with a beer shower once she stepped foot into a pub... and Curtis leaving me alone like he did was not a factor that could have made it all so much better. He could prepare himself to hear some yelling from me – definitely not the good kind.

When I stood in front of the sink trying to dry my dress with countless paper towels but failed, I was close to giving up.
I sighed loudly und let the paper towel fall out of my hand in the trash can next to the sink.
The stall in my back opened and a tall, brunette girl walked to the sink next to mine to wash her hands. I saw how she looked at me from the corner of her eye but didn’t say anything. In that condition, everyone would’ve looked at me oddly.

“Aye, are you okay?” I turned my head in her direction and saw how she looked at me with a worried look on her face.

“As long as you can feel okay when you’ve just had been welcomed with a beer shower”, I tried putting on a smile to not look as miserable, but failed again.

“Right, so no, hm? Come on, let me help you.”

I shook my head.

“Pointless. I tried getting that stain out for five minutes, or at least dry it a bit. It won’t change. Looks like I gotta get out like this.”

She put a finger to her lips and stared a whole in the wall behind me.

“Wait a second, I’ll be right back!”, with which she properly stormed out of the room.

I wasn’t sure why I trusted her and stayed sitting there, but I did. She looked trustworthy enough to come back with a good solution.

Not much longer she came back through the door... this time it was actually her. The person who stepped in there before she did was probably scared to death when I practically jumped at her. What can I say? I was desperate.
There was grey fabric in her arms, which looked a lot like a printed shirt.

“Look”, she handed me the shirt and reasoned her actions while I held it in front of my body and looked at it from every possible side: “You know, my boyfriend has his own company, if you can say it like that... He designs all the shirts and so on”, she rolled her eyes a moment and laughed lightly when she saw my surprised look.

“He’s here today too... I had the luck to get to drive him because he always exaggerates with all the drinking”, she drew exclamation marks in the air with her fingers as soon as she said ‘luck’: “And since I stay with him this week, we were at the printing-studio right before we came here, so that we could bring the shirts to the warehouse tomorrow morning.”

She seemed to get more amused the more she told me. I couldn’t ignore the accent I started noticing:

“You said you stay with him this week... Are you not from here?”

She shook her head: “I’m Scottish.”

“I knew I heard something like that! ... Um, I’m just gonna go try this on okay?”

“Sure. You don’t exactly look like their target group but I hope it will still work out for you.”

“Of course, I can’t thank you enough!”

I disappeared into one of the stalls and removed the beer-soaked dress from my body. I doubted that I would ever get the stench out because it soaked just so deep. But then I remembered that my mum was able to wash and get pretty much everything clean, so all the sorrows were gone.
All I was left to hope for was that she wouldn’t ask why my dress was smelling like beer, since she would clearly be not amused to hear that her daughter snuck out the reunion to drink beer with boys that she would not approve of.

“So?”

I unlocked the door and took a step forward, my light dress stuffed in my oversized purse.

“You look great!”

“You don’t think it’s too short?”, I tugged at the bottom hem of the dress and looked obviously uncomfortable.

“Well... it’s actually a long top, I have the same one and I always wear it as a dress. Trust me, you look great. You don’t have to hide anything anyways, do you? With that body you can afford to wear this!”

And that came out of the mouth of this perfect girl with the over dimensionally long legs and a body most people would kill for. Woah.

She looked at me approvingly and then the look on her face suddenly changed into one of surprise, realization and shock. Lightly, she slapped her forehead.

“I’m so smart, aren’t I? I’m Amanda.”

“Leah.”

“Hey, you’re Curtis’ cousin then, aren’t you?”

“You know Curtis?”, I was surprised that she knew him. Curtis was not a bad looking bloke, far more quite good-looking... but Amanda was a few leagues higher than him (I couldn’t deny that I was not at least a little bit jealous of her looks). Sorry Curtis.

And her being so nice and accommodating amazed me even more. It was obvious that she had to model, and it wasn’t exactly unknown that models are arrogant and rude... completely different than her.

“He’s in that band with Oli... my boyfriend.”

“Oh! I didn’t even know that Curtis was in a band...”, I recollected the memory of all the guitars and CDs in Curtis’ room and mentally slapped my own head.

I wonder why I didn’t get that thought much earlier?

“You don’t seem to be in that scene, but hey! That’s okay, this is a welcome change from the boys. Come on, let’s go before they’re going to send out troops to find us... or.. no. They can’t think straight anymore anyways!”, she laughed and I followed her out.

Let’s see if it was so obvious to all of them that I was not a part of their scene.