This Year is My Year

The Third Element: The Exposition

When we stepped up to the Silver Dollar, I momentarily regretted my decision to take us there.

I thought back to Wayne trying to celebrate my eighteenth birthday two years ago, bringing me to this bar. He was so disappointed I was still in high school, failing history again, but he tried to make sure I had a good birthday. It was miserable, full of quiet tension between the two of us, rednecks who hated my look and one who tried to start a fight with my uncle – I tried to forget about it when we stepped in line to get in.

I was nervous, waiting for our IDs to get checked. I was convinced they would banish me, kicking me out, even though I was the oldest in the group. But all of us got through, walking directly to the bar. Steve asked me what I wanted, and when I said a whiskey coke, Robin squawked and changed my order to a rum and coke. I sipped at the drink that Steve bought us, annoyed that he even bought us drinks to begin with.

Any ill will was immediately dissipated when Y/N turned, smiling and taking my hand. My heart swelled, and I pulled her to me, kissing her forehead. She slipped her arm around my lower back, putting her hand under the shirt she apparently liked so much, scratching my back. I felt my body warm at her direct touch, flushing when she moved her fingers up and down. I put my arm around her shoulder, desperately trying to listen to Robin excitedly narrate the scene around us while Y/N traced designs on my bare back.

"Can you even believe that this many cowboy hats exist?" Robin gestured around frantically, almost spilling her drink. We laughed as she pointed to her favorite hats, insisting that we would all need to buy some together.

"I'm trying to picture Eddie in a ten-gallon hat, and I'm having a hard time imagining it," Steve was joking, trying to connect. I smiled.

"I'm trying to picture you putting any kind of hat on that head of hair, Harrington." Steve smiled and the girls laughed, Y/N squeezing my side under my shirt and making me blush again. Robin hooked her arm with Steve's, pulling him to the dance floor. She looked to the two of us.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do – or do, but just make sure you come to the dance floor later!" I watched her and Steve weave into the crowd, waiting for them to no longer be visible. As soon as I lost Robin's head of hair in the crowd, I spun Y/N into my arms, kissing her deeply, her hands still around my back. We pulled back and she smiled, her face flushed from the alcohol and my touch. I grinned back at her, slowly kissing every part of her face. I leaned close to her ear, putting my lips right on it, knowing how that always affected her.

"I wish we had our own cab on the way here," I was flirting, my buzz coming back from the finished rum and coke. Her blush deepened as she giggled.

"Eddie Munson, there would still have been a driver," she was flushed, thinking about our close encounter in the cab. I grinned wickedly at her, kissing her again before I spoke.

"And they would have enjoyed the show." She yelped, laughing as she punched my arm. I caught her hand, pulling her in again. We lost ourselves for a moment, my hands holding her face pulling her into me, and her hands around my waist, holding me close.

"Jesus, Paul, I wish you'd still touch me like that."

The two of us pulled away, arms still around each other, and looked to an older couple. The mustached man had his arm around a woman with red hair and a tight smile, pinched from years of smoking. They were smiling at us.

"I wish you'd still want me to touch you like that," he teased back, and we all laughed. Y/N put her hand out, always the ambassador to strangers.

"Hi, I'm Y/N. This is my boyfriend, Eddie." My chest tightened – it didn't matter how many times she said it, I always loved it when she called me her boyfriend. Paul took her hand, smiling back.