Heartache

Three new messages and seven missed calls.

The young women sighed, putting her phone back into her back pocket of her skinny jeans. She swallowed the seventh shot of alcohol. She was clearly drunk. She wore a loose fitting top with long sleeves and skinny jeans. She wore a small amount of make up, it was barely enough to cover rhe bags under her eyes. She was tired and her eyeliner was smudged. The young woman looked like she hadn't eaten in a while and her eyes were red and glassy, she had been crying.

The girl did not seem to notice the man that had been gazing at her for the past couple minutes. He had dark eyes, messy brown hair and a ginger colored beard that didn't match his hair. He was quite tall actually  He was sitting with a couple of his friends. It seemed like he was having fun but really he wasn't. He was actually quite bored. But there had been no other place he had to go to. He no longer had a girlfriend so he could make any excuses to go see her and his parents lived in another country.  He could see them either. So he only had one choice, hang out with his friends at a random bar.

Eventually he had made up the courage to go over and talk to the young girl. He told his friends that he was going to get a drink when really he was going up to talk to her. The man got up from his seat and slowly walked over to her.

After sitting down on the barstool beside her, he cleared his throat. The young woman suddenly looked up into his dark captivating eyes. Her face was blank. It was emotionless, empty and hollow. But inside she was the complete opposite, full of emotion, so confusing and dangerous. So many bad and terrible, untruthful things were embedded in her head. She started to talk, softly at first, "Um...hello?"

Her voice sounds a little drunk but it was soothing in the man's head. "Hello."

"Do you need help?"

"I just wanted to know if you were okay? I mean..." He didn't want to sound like a stalker or he had been watching her.

No I'm really not, she thought but instead she said, "Yeah, I'm okay." she tries to smile but it was more of grimace.

"Well, you didn't seem to be okay," he noticed.

How could she be okay? Her stepfather is abusive. She's got plenty of bruises and cuts to show.

"N-no, I'm okay," her voice gave it away. She was her tears were about to fall again. She was just so sick and tired of this; lying and hiding all of the marks her stepfather gave her.

"Are you sure?" he asks her again. He can tell she's sort of lying. Her hair is a mess and her eyes are lined with smedged make up. He knew he shouldn't be judging. She was just a stranger to him.

What was she supposed to say? the young woman bites her chapped lip. She couldn't cry...well...at least not in front of strangers, especially good looking ones like him. "I-I..." she couldn't speak. If she did the tears would start and she would look like a mess. Like she didn't look like one already. She wasn't that strong anymore. The tears starts to fall. She tries to quickly brushed the tears away. "I-I'm sorry," the young says, apologetically.

"No...no, it's okay, you can talk to me." He tried to console her.

"I don't even know you," she mutters, quickly.

"Okay, but we can start...what's your name?" The man starts, he sits in the stool next to her.

"I-I'm Juliette," the girl mumbles, staring down into the clear liquid of her drink, "What's yours?"

"James," he smiles. It sent shivers down Juliette's back. That smile could light up the whole world.

"So...um..." Juliette tensed up. It was so awkward.

"How old are you?" he offers.

"T-twenty-two," Juliette stutters, "What about you?"

"I'm twenty five," James said.

"Th-that's cool," Juliette said lightly, tapping her fingers against her jeans.

"So um...do you like it here?" James asked, as he drank his drink. Juliette almost said no. She honestly hated it. It was because of her mother and step-father. They treated her like shit.

"What do you mean by here?"

"LIke in Pittsburgh?" He explains.

"Well...sort of," It was half true. "I've lived here for a long time, it's really not the greatest."

"That's cool," he told her, "I've been here for almost 6 years."

"Interesting."

He grins, "Do you like hockey?"

"Well...no, not really...but sometimes my stepfather turns it on," Juliette spoke quietly. She had just mentioned the word, stepfather. Did she really want him to know that?

"So you watch it?" he asked.

"Sometimes." Rarely.

"Do you know the Pittsburgh Penguins?"

"Yeah...I guess," Juliette trailed off. Well, who wouldn't, after all Juliette lived in Pittsburgh.

"Do you want to watch the game in two days live?"

"Live?" Juliette was surprised. Why would he have tickets? Don't those games like sell out quickly or something?

"I might know some people," James said. He might know himself, he added in his head.

"Some people," Juliette repeated, softer. "Wait- you're a hockey player." Juliette realizes. 

"I thought you might have known."

"Well, I don't...so well, are you?"

"Yeah, I'm James Neal, I play for the Pittsburgh Penguins," James muses.

"Oh...really?" Juliette didn't seem very excited. Honestly, Juliette couldn't even care less. Her stepfather's brother was a hockey player. They both seemed like the same kind of peopl, her stepfather and her stepfather's brother. Both mean and bitchy. If you could call a man that.

"So you want to come to the game?" he asked.

"Well...um...I guess," Juliette smiles a little. It was a start or maybe it was just the alcohol.

"Okay, that's good, how do you want me to give you the details?" he asks.

"Text me...I guess, I'll give you my phone number," Juliette offered, without thinking. She was giving some random hockey player her number. This was so unlike her. Well when she was drunk.

They switched phones. She put her phone number in his contact. He noticed that her fingers were extremely bony like the rest of her body. She must be a model, James thought as he took back his phone. Juliette drank the last of her drink. She looked at her phone again. It was almost eleven o'clock. She couldn't go back home, not now. Her stepfather might yell or hurt her again. Juliette's eyes wandered to man sitting next to her. Maybe she could go to someone else's home tonight.