Dancing in Black and White Photographs

I was already tired after the show, and knowing I had to go to an after party wasn’t the highlight of my life. I’ve never liked social gatherings, even in high school. Now, ten years later I still know I’m a walking disaster, at least that’s how Nikki would put it. That is why I’m putting up a fight with DJ and his party idea. The rest of the guys were getting out of their sweaty clothes while DJ argued with me.

“Corey, why do you always have to put up a fight?” DJ sighed.

“Because I’m not easy and to make your life harder,” I said rather innocently. DJ glared at me. “Why are you so persistent on making me go?” I asked.

“You’re so rigid, you need to lighten up a bit,” he explained. I rolled my eyes. This was starting to sound a lot like Gemma’s clubbing idea. “When was the last time you actually had fun?” he asked.

I smiled. “I have fun everyday by making fun of Tattoos!” I said in fake enthusiasm. DJ just sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to get anywhere with me.

Nikki came out. “Bathroom’s open,” he said, sitting across from me with a turban towel over his hair. DJ rolled his eyes and stalked off to the bathroom.

“Just go to the damn party already,” Nikki said as soon as DJ shut the door.

“Why should I?” I asked him.

“DJ’s going to feel bad if he leaves you by yourself,” Nikki said.

“Why should he care?” I asked, actually curious about this.

Nikki sighed. “I would say you’re fucking dense, but that isn’t true. You’re just stubborn as hell.”

I blinked at him. I didn’t know whether to take it as a compliment or be insulted, for I felt a fine line between the two.

“Just look at the way he looks at everyone else,” Nikki said, getting up to most likely talk to James. I sighed. I hated guilt trips, and it seemed like Nikki had picked up on that. I tiredly got up and went to go lay down on my bunk; no one was there. Nikki and James were probably all the way in the back. I lay down, figuring I’d talk to DJ when he gets out of the shower.

I lay there half asleep before actually falling asleep. Even though I felt better that I was getting some sleep, it didn’t last long until I felt something heavy land on me. All the wind was knocked out of me.

“What are you doing!?” a voice called out to me, which was easy to recognize as DJ.

I opened an eye while trying to suck in air at the same time. “What am I doing? What are you doing? Besides trying to kill me,” I said in between even breathes. DJ looked expectantly at me, his hair still wet from the shower. Drops of water kept hitting me in the face and sometimes in the eye.

“You’re sleeping when you’re supposed to be getting ready,” DJ silently exclaimed, his blue eyes looking fierce with the shadowing over them.

“Don’t look at me like that, Vampire Eyes,” I said before turning onto my side.

DJ sighed. “Will you please go?” he asked nicely.

“Why do you want me to go so bad?” I asked, knowing I’ll probably give into his pleading.

“I would feel bad if I just left you here,” he said.

‘And here I thought Nikki was always full of shit,’ I thought to myself. “Why would you feel bad about that when I was left behind in some shit hole in the middle of nowhere?”

DJ rolled his eyes. “I didn’t leave you behind, and I apologized for that,” he said.

“You are such a saint,” I said sarcastically.

DJ gave an aggravated sigh. “Fine, just stay here,” he said, getting up to leave. I rolled my eyes and then shut them, happy for sometime to myself.

“So you’re really not going to go?” Nikki’s voice asked.

I turned to look at him. “No, I’m not going when all of you are acting like fucking assholes. Now, go to your stupid after party and leave me the hell alone,” I said and dramatically turned onto my side.

“Alright, fuck, you could have said it a little nicer,” Nikki said, his retreating foot steps made me happy.

I closed my eyes again but felt another weight sit beside me. I counted to three so I wouldn’t rip whoever it was apart. I turned around to face James.

“You sure you don’t want to go? I can stay if you want?” James asked.

I smiled slightly. “No, I think I need sometime to myself.”
“If you need someone to talk to I’m here, and I’m sure DJ would listen too,” he said.

I gave a polite smile. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

James smiled and got up to leave. When he left the bunk area I felt relief. I was finally by myself, except for the bus driver whom I still don’t know the name of. I decided sleeping was the only good thing to do right now. I was dreaming of nothing and, that usually meant I was really tired when I fell asleep. Stupid boys. A loud crash had woken me from this dreamless state, and I managed to hit my head on DJ’s bunk.

“Ow, fuck, even when he’s not here he’s giving me a migraine,” I mumbled. I stumbled into the kitchen area to see who had woken me up. I didn’t expect to see a woman. She was about five-four, brown hair, olive skinned and brown eyes. She reminded me of this Italian lady I had for a neighbor when I was in grade school.

“Hi,” she said unsurely.

“Hello,” I said just as unsurely. An awkward silence filled the air for a moment.

“I’m Ashley,” she said, extending her hand out to me.

“Corey,” I said shaking her hand.

She smiled. “Nikki said you were by yourself and that I should come see you,” She said. I blinked in surprise. She must have seen my expression for she explained. “He said you didn’t really have anyone to talk to and seemed to be getting angrier each day.”

I thought about it. Yes, these guy’s were driving me up the wall, but I did enjoy their company compared to others. I nodded to her. “Do you want to watch a movie?” She smiled and nodded. I let her pick out the movie which ended up being Mall Rats. At least she seemed to have a sense of humor; I could definitely work with this.

We had gotten well into the movie and it was already almost over. “Did you upset DJ?” Ashley asked.

I looked over at her, and she looked genuinely curious. “Maybe a bit,” I admitted, shrugging my shoulders.

She smiled. “He didn’t look to happy when he arrived, the first thing he did was take a shot,” she told me. “He usually never gets that fired up. What’d you do to him?” Ashley asked.

I shrugged, and looked down. “I told him I wouldn’t go to the party and he got all butt hurt,” I said tiredly.

She laughed. “He was mad over that? Kind of a simple reason,” she said with a knowing smile.

I nodded but before I could say anything a black haired and heavily tattooed man waltzed in. Ashley looked unimpressed, and I wasn’t sure on what to expect. DJ sauntered over to the couch and sat next to me. I raised an eyebrow at him, he looked a bit tipsy but certainly nowhere near trashed.

Ashley stood up. “Well, if you’re done partying, I should go check on Coby. You’ll be alright Corey?” She asked me. I smiled slightly and nodded to her. She smiled back. “I’ll come keep you some company tomorrow,” Ashley said before leaving.

DJ instantly laid his head on my shoulder when she left and closed his eyes. “How was the party?” I asked him, deciding to be civil.

“It was alright. How was the nap?” he asked in turn.

I smiled. “It wasn’t much of one.”

He moved his head from my shoulder to his lap. “What exactly do you think you’re doing?” I asked.

“I let you sleep on my lap, you should let me do the same,” he said indignantly.

I laughed. “I didn’t know there was a trade.”

“Well, there was,” He said smoothly.

I smirked. “I think those drinks have made you more self assured than before.”

DJ opened his eyes; he was flat on his back and was staring up at me. “I always thought Nikki was more of the self assured one,” DJ said.

I nodded. “Probably true.”

DJ nodded and closed his eyes again. “I kissed a girl and I liked, the taste of her cherry chap stick,” DJ sang loudly and randomly, scaring the crap out of me. It was actually a good singing voice though.

I laughed. “Why are you singing that song?

He shrugged. “I had it stuck in my head.”

I raised an eye brow. “Right,” I said sarcastically.

“It makes me think of someone too,” he said quietly. When he told me that, my heart actually seemed to cringe and shrink. ‘Ow‘ I thought; this isn’t good.