Shine a Light

“Vera?”
I turned around from the edge of the bed to see Marcus finally sitting up and rubbing his eye with his left hand. It was morning and I hadn’t slept a wink.
“Hey you okay?” I asked sighing.
“I feel awful” Marcus groaned stretching out his arms.
“I’m not surprised; Tre dropped you off here last night after you got wrecked.”
“Oh God It feels like a pneumatic drill is pounding through my skull” Marcus made a noise like a cat being strangled as he shifted forwards to perch next to me at the end of the bed.
He looked down at the floor, I had laid two outfits across the carpet and the letter was sitting in between them with another piece of paper. Marcus’ eyes shifted to the left, there lay a black dress and some shoes while to the right lay my dressing gown and a bottle of vodka.
He finally rolled his bloodshot pupils to me.
“Did I miss something?” he croaked.
I shrugged, too tired and too entrapped in my own thoughts to answer him. I watched him reach down and pick up the closest bit of paper.
I stared at him as his eyes scanned the page; his mouth formed the words as a frown threaded across his brow.
Pros and Cons of meeting him:
Pros:
He makes me laugh
He is incredibly beautiful
He is such a nice person
He is very talented
He smells nice
He dresses great
He has nice friends (apart from Mike)
He has the most amazing eyes ever
His hair is gorgeous
I feel happy with him
Cons:
He lied to me
He smokes

Marcus looked up from the paper, “What do you mean he smokes? You smoke you fat hypocrite.”
“I know. I ran out of Cons” I sighed running my desperate fingers through my hair.
Marcus frowned, “What do you mean he ‘lied’ anyway?”
I nodded towards the other paper; Marcus reached forwards and picked up the letter before reading it slowly. His eyes went wide at the words on the page.
He softly put it down on his lap before turning to me. I daren’t look him in the face. I couldn’t bring myself to. I was such a fool.
“Vera, can I just ask you something?”
I turned to Marcus with a raised eyebrow half expecting him to throw up on me and half expecting him to ask for a pill to relieve his headache.
“I take it you like this guy lots yeah? Well obviously whose to blame you because goddamm anyone who can squeeze himself in jeans as tight as…”
“Your point being?” I snapped. He swallowed and stood up dramatically tossing his head like he had long locks of hair to flick. Walking between the two outfits laid out on the floor he sighed.
“My POINT is that look at this side…” he pointed to the dressing gown, “You can choose little old woman with the vodka for company as you are bound to turn into if you don’t meet him…OR…”
He pointed to the left, “You can get this fuckin awesome black dress on and go downstairs and meet the guy who only has TWO fuckin cons! You always do this and most guys get at least 12 cons. Billie has TWO! TWO! Doesn’t that tell you something Vera?”
I sighed, he was right…but…
“Marcus you neglect the letter and the fact he lied through his teeth to me.”
Marcus stomped his frustrated foot, “He wrote this fucker to try and get another chance!” he screeched waving the paper around in the air.
I sighed running my palm across my face.
“Vera, for god’s sake, you find fault in every guy ever, if they are not Welsh then they are too needy if they are too needy then they are too short or too old or too tall or too fuckin stupid! I’m not letting you let this one go. Do you really want to be that boring old bastard who sits in the pub talking about how she let THAT one get away?”
I made to protest but eh cut me off…
“Please, for me, just give this guy another chance, he lied because he liked you, isn’t that obvious?”
“A lie is a lie Ricky Lake” I spat shifting upwards on the bed.
“I’ve had enough!” Marcus yelled picking up the black dress and throwing it at me.
“Get that on, get some make-up on, get downstairs and see him and while your at it get me some strong painkillers and a gallon of water.”
I rolled my eyes, telling myself that I was only doing this for my annoying gay friend lying on my bed in the next room, the only consolation being that he had a bitch of a hangover.

I decided to take the stairs, it would calm my nerves, and well I thought it would until Marcus had rung me half way down. On his way home he had spotted Billie waiting in one of the chairs in the lobby to the left of the elevator. I could have cursed him for that phone call, it made me want to vomit and I had stopped for a second half debating whether to race back up to my room and forget all about it. I knew I couldn’t, I knew in my heart I’d see him again somewhere in the hotel and I couldn’t avoid him or his friends for the duration of my stay. Why did I have to get myself in these stupid situations?
I opened the door to the lobby, damn it was busy. There were people loaded with luggage checking in and out as the bell boy tried to build a suitcase tower amongst the rabble and shouts. I squinted through the chaos to see a group of people congregated around the lobby stairs waving pens, papers, phones and arms. I knew it was Billie Joe in there somewhere, all this idea of celebrity craziness made my stomach toss over. I hated all this crap. I waited next to a pillar in the lobby, gently leaning my left side on it and watching the waves of hands fly and soon enough thin out. In next to no time, all that was left was a small girl in a black t-shirt grinning at Billie like he was a chocolate bar waiting to be demolished as he signed a piece of paper for her.
She backed away still grinning at him clutching the pen he had just touched like it was gold. He gave her a friendly wave from his seat and looked around the lobby. His eyes stopped when he saw me and he stood up, a look of uncertainty on his face. He had a black suite on and shoes that were stacked three inches from the floor. I grinned at the shoes as they slowly approached me.
“Vera, I…I didn’t think you were coming” He whispered.
“Neither did I…” I said almost dryly.
His eyes blinked at my words and I cursed whoever decided to bless Billie with those hypnotising green crystals of his.
“So…err…how’s Marcus, I heard he got a little worse for wear.” He grinned at me almost pleadingly, begging me to communicate with him.
“Marcus is okay, he left for his apartment not long ago. You have him to thank for me being here.”
I stood up straight, half surprised at how tight I was being towards him. He didn’t look too comfortable, he glanced down at the floor his fluffy black hair being exposed in all it’s spiked glory.
“Nice shoes” I spat, raising my eyebrow sarcastically.
“Want some?” he asked looking back up and grinning at me.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to walk in them, I’m no good with heights” I mocked, not being able to resist the grin forming on my face. He eyes snapped at my own, at last they shot a warm light into mine.
“Shut it” he chuckled, “so…err…you…wanna…get something to eat then?”
He stuttered scratching behind his ear.
“Yeah sure, lead the way” I smiled following him into the hotel restaurant