Cheap Shots

00:30.2

UNEDITED

30 part 2.

It took more convincing than it should have to get Beckett to keep driving.  He kept glancing over at me with an adorable smile on his face, one that sent my stomach into overdrive and my heart scattering into a flurrying mess.  I felt like such a girl, and I wanted him to stop before I lost my entire personality and turned into a cuddly, romantic, dinner date loving, and gossipy teenager. 

Not that I had anything against those girls.  It just wasn’t me.

“Want to tell me where we’re going?”  I asked him after he cast a few more glimpses my way.

“You’re so impatient,” he told me bluntly, casting me another side-glance as he steered onto another road.  I fought off the smile on my face as I crossed my arms and tried to look mad.  “You look like a kitten.”

“A kitten?”  I asked incredulously, “Funny.”

“It’s true.”

He suddenly pulled up to a little building, glowing with neon signs that advertised “Laugh Out Loud Comedy & Karaoke.” 

I turned towards Beckett with an excited smile on my face.  “Comedy and karaoke?”

            He grinned.  “Told you it wasn’t that cliché.”

            “Karaoke is very cliché.”

            Snorting, he pulled into a parking space and turned the ignition.  “No, it’s not, you’re just saying that to get me to feel bad.”

            “Not to make you feel bad,” I said innocently.  “It was a statement!”

            “Bull!” He opened the car door and got out, almost tripping over the gravel.  “Get out of the car, Smith, we’ve got to go hear your pretty little choir voice.”

            I rolled my eyes.  Like I could sing.  “I couldn’t carry a tune if my life depended on it,” I mumbled to myself. 

            Following Beckett into the building, I was immediately hit with brilliant lights.  They were hanging from the ceiling in circular globes, and there were white paper lanterns littering the ceiling and hanging near the stage, which was really just a platform towards the back of the large area.  The theme was obviously neon, the tables and chairs the only thing not glowing a vibrant color in the whole restaurant.  It was a miracle I wasn’t getting dizzy from the amount of lights strung around, but it was beautiful to look at nonetheless.

            “You coming or are you just going to stand there?”  He asked me, pulling me from my haze and tugging my arm. 

            “You pull my arm a lot,” I commented, noticing he did do it frequently. 

            Beckett shrugged.  “I like touching you.”

            “Pervert.”

            Glancing behind him, his eyes met mine briefly before he shrugged again.  Before he could respond, the microphone screeched and all of the customers were quick to cover their ears, Beckett and I included. 

            “Sorry about that,” a man said from on the stage, holding the microphone a little further away from him.  “We’re going to start karaoke tonight with…” he paused to read the name scribbled down on his clipboard.  “Ma-Mandy?”  He said it as more of a question than a statement.