Reel Love

Chapter 2

"Hello beautiful." a hot breathe is on the back of my neck. I smell the strong stench of beer and hear the slurred words. It sounds like "hellooo bautiful" I turn around to face a very drunk Lucas. Shocked he would dare flirt with me, my eyes dart around the room looking for Ana.

It's been about four hours since we arrived and Ana is nowhere to be seen.

"Marie..." Lucas is being absolutely disgusting right now. My surroundings are blurred around the edges. But I can make out a bar to my far left. Wood panels in the walls. Framed pictures of Ireland lining the walls. And of course, crowds of drunk people. Rough hands touch the exposed skin on my arms. My sweater is sitting behind the bar. My family is close with the owners, so they have a small basket for me under the bar. Ever since I was young, my stuff has been placed there.

I try to push away from Lucas but my hand slipped and I ended up touching his back. Which I guess is sending a "I want you" message. Lucas is a pro-futbol player. He was quite fit. But he was perfect for Ana, not me. And he seemed like a jerk.

"Mmmhmm Marie, you look really good" Disgust and anger fill me. With my blurred vision and not so clear thinking, I did the unthinkable. Lucas's rough hands grabbed my waist. I tried to pull away. My legs wobbling.

"Marie, oh Marie. You're so pretty." he whispers in my ear. I have the urge to vomit.

"You're absolutely disgusting!" I shout. Hoping someone will pull his hands off of me. But nobody does. And he keeps pulling me closer until our bodies touch. I decide there's only one way to get rid of him. I wrap my arms around his neck. I lean in close to his face and whisper in his ear.

"You wanna get outta here?" I pull back, trying to not vomit. He looks at me and doesn't skip a beat when he replies.

"I know just the place" his words still slurring. How can this be? Just a few hours ago, he was acting as if I was the third wheel. Now he can't wait to get me alone.

Four hours earlier

I push open the door, relieved to get away from Ana and Lucas. I look around and see unfamiliar faces crowded everywhere. I smile at strangers and wave when I finally found Erin.

"Happy birthday!" I shout over the live band and noisy people.

"Why thank you Marie!" she shouts back.

The music is blaring. And there are people just about everywhere. I turn away. I look for a seat in the massive swarm of people. I find one. I sit down and dig in my bag searching for my hard shoes. I find them slip them on, then tie and buckle them. Then satisfied, I carry my bag to put under the bar. Making my way to the makeshift dance floor I count the beats in the song.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, one." I see Ana and Lucas standing by the stage. He has his arm wrapped around her and she laughs at something he whispered in her ear. They must really be perfect.

" So you're one of the dancers?"

My thoughts were interrupted by a deep voice. I turn to look, a dark haired man is standing behind me. He was built and tall. He seemed to be comfortable and fit in with the crowd. He looked about my age, and he gave off a very caring vibe. His face was rough and defined yet there was something about the honesty in his perfect green eyes that made me want to trust him.

"Yeah, it's my friend's birthday and I offered." I speak quickly, my eyes roaming the room. I feel pretty nonchalant, but I can't miss the thumbs up from Ana; or she will not be happy.

"Then you must be Marie," he acknowledges knowingly

My head snaps to look at him. Pure shock fills me. How does he know me? Who is he?

"Uh, yeah that would be me." I speak with a mix of uncertainty and fear. "And you are..." I leave my question open, while I rack my mind of where I might have seen him before, if I have ever seen him.

"I'm Brandon, I just joined the Irish Dancing world, so I was told to come watch, and I know Erin." He introduces himself and I still want to know how he knew me.

"And you knew who I was because..." I am extremely curious at this point. And normally I would let it go but, I'm a little creeped out.

"Well, I didn't have any idea of what it would be like, so I contacted Erin a couple days ago and she had said her friend Marie had organized the entire thing, so I just guessed." Brandon talks as if this is just normal conversation. He then shrugged as if it was no big deal.

I was still a little surprised. I looked over by Ana, and she had been trying to get my attention. It had seemed there was something a little deeper to the annoyance in her face than my lack of attention. Maybe Lucas said something. She gave me a thumbs up. It was time to get the performance started.

"Well, Brandon, I have to go get this jig started, maybe I'll see you around" I told him, actually being sincere.

"I'll see you around and good luck!" He was very sincere and part of me wished I would meet up with him again.

I smiled before turning to the stage.