Caught in the middle

Intro

Kai POV
My head is spinning. It's my first night out in a while with friends and my sister in my dirty little small town bar, the only dance floor in town. The only opportunity for me to grab my girls, head out, and down shots till I'm not so sad. I've been out for a few hours already so the people and the faces around me have started to matter a little bit less and my emotional trauma has faded to the background of my mind.

I'm standing at the rail of the bar waiting for the bartender to make the shots I ordered for my friends and I and I look over my shoulder and I see a tall, dark, and semi familiar face. I haven't seen it in a very long time. So long, I'm not even sure if it's who I think it is. He's taller and more filled out. He's got a black baseball cap with a black and grey American flag on the front, an unzipped leather jacket over a black sweatshirt and faded black jeans. His feet are covered in leather riding boots. His face, partially hidden behind the baseball cap, shows off well maintained but longer facial hair. He's with a friend I recognize all too well. Shorter, tanned skin, fitted dark wash jeans, a white graphic tee, with casual black loafers style shoes. Arms covered in tattoos and a clean shaven face give a night and day contrast between the unlikely pair. He hasn't aged a day since I last saw them both 9 years ago.

I make eye contact with the semi familiar face covered in the shadow from his cap. The lights in the bar by the DJ booth flash yellow and blue and green across his face and I see a hint of a smirk. I still can't tell for sure if this mysterious man is who I believe he is. So much time has passed and the flashing lights don't give me the best clear look at his face. I quickly break eye contact and look away back to the bar when I hear the glass shot glasses set in front of me. Green tea shots. The best of the best if made by the right person. I quickly gather all 5 shots and hurry back to my friends, careful not to bump into the other bar goers standing and dancing around me.

My sister and friends throw back the shots with me as quick as I set them down for us. The burn of the Jameson feeling not so noticeable in my already over indulged state. Hearing "Paint the town red" by Doja cat start pumping from the speakers, we set our now empty shot glasses down and grab our mixers and head to the already packed dance floor to dance and sing along to our new favorite song. The song is over too quickly and a slower song starts playing while we groan and make our way off the dance floor till another better dancing song comes on.

As we make our way back to our table laughing together over some senseless topic I havent paid attention to but laugh along with any way, I feel myself run face first into a tall wall of a perosn. I stumble back a step and immediately apologize quickly as I look up. And I look up. And I look up. Finally making it all the way up to get my first good look under the baseball cap at the mysterious man from my past. I see the corner of his lip twitch as if he was trying to hide a smile. He doesn't say a word. He doesn't take his hands he has shoved into the pockets of his leather jacket out to stop me from tipping over. He doesn't acknowledge I've run into him at all aside from a look and the twitch of his lip. I quickly look back down and move past him to follow my friends to our table.

It was a bit of an unsettling feeling in my stomach that he hadn't said a word or shown any reaction. Was he smirking at me? Was he smirking at my clumsiness and tipsy state that I'd run into him? Did he even RECOGNIZE me? After having gotten a better look I was sure I knew him from high school. But did he still recognize me? It was so long ago and while we had briefly flirted and been friendly and chatty, we hadn't really gone anywhere farther than flirty friendship. Maybe he didn't recognize me and he only smirked at me because he caught me ogling him when I was at the bar earlier. Maybe he didn't react when I bumped into him because to him, I was a drunk stranger in a bar who got in his way.

Shaking my head I hear my friend Cait squeal when one of our favorite songs come over the speakers and the late 90s beat of the music started all of us subconsciously moving our bodies to start dancing our way hand in hand to the dance floor. The other friends we were out with slowly made their way out to dance with us. We kept dancing through the next handful of songs till we were all out of drinks, our legs were screaming at us to take a break, and we were out of breath.

I check my phone for the first time since I came out, telling myself it was only to check the time but knowing it was to check for my ex's name. He always seemed to know when I was out having fun and would text me to rain on my mood. My phone showed it was 1:45am but no notifications. I'm not sure if the feeling in my chest was disappointment or relief or a mixture of both. Disappointment that I hadn't seen his name when deep down, I knew my feelings for him were still there. Or relief that  once, maybe just maybe, he wasn't going to rain on my parade. Anytime I saw his name it let hope seep in that maybe we could figure us out and work out, and then the conversations dissolved into negative feelings where I was reminded just how incompatible we were and why I broke up with him. Disregarding my conflicted feelings I hear the DJ announce last call and my group starts to gather our things and find our ride home.

We exit the bar into the cool April air breathing deep and enjoying the fresh air helping clear our heads. I glance around looking for the big fancy two tone Ford F-150 my friend Caleb drives, he's my always faithful hype man and sober ride home any time he knows I'm going out. I don't see his truck, but I do see my mysterious man across the street to my left leaned against his black Harley Davidson motorcycle. His arms are crossed over his chest and he's facing the doors exciting the bar. His cap pulled low over his eyes, but I can feel them burning into me. A shiver runs down my spine and an unusually tingly feeling settles in my stomach. I feel like prey being watched by a not so hidden predator in the distance. Just then Caleb pulled up between me and the man across the street with his window rolled down.

"I hear some ladies need a knight in a shinny pickup to take them home safe?" Caleb grins his puppy dog grin and we hear the doors click as they unlock. We all pile in and I immediately take over the music, switching the pickups Bluetooth to my phone before he starts driving. Nickelback starts blasting our ears as Caleb takes off to deliver all of us home.

By the time he has crossed town a couple times and dropped everyone off I'm exhausted and my face hurts from smiling and laughing and singing.  We turn the music down and drive to my house in the mostly quiet vehicle. The quiet seems deafening after the last 5 hours of pounding music, screaming voices, laughter, and singing. We quietly pull into my driveway and he puts the pickup in park.

"I hope you ladies had fun. I'm sorry I couldn't join you, I wasn't feeling the chaos of you ladies and the bar." Caleb teases as he looks over at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Us ladies? Chaos? I know you're talking about a different group. You know we're feral gremlins our for a relaxing girls night hanging out. No chaos involved." I laugh and smile at him.

"Did you have fun? Everything went ok? Nobody bothered you?" He questions me giving me a more serious look. He knows how my ex is. And he knows how my friends and I can be. We can get out of hand at times. That's why he usually chaperones us the whole night, not just taking us to and from the bar. We seem to have unusually bad luck with weirdos coming up to us.

"No." I shake my head. "Nothing very exciting happened." I made the conscious decision to not tell him about the intimidating figure with the face hidden in shadow. Not yet. That's for a different conversation at a different time.

"You're sure?" He asked again.

"I'm sure! Not a soul." I assure him, feeling the heavy feeling settling in my chest on my heart thinking about the times I cried and times he had to comfort me through my tears. It's easy reading into the deeper meaning behind his question. He wanted to know about my ex. Many times he had taken me home early or taken me outside to calm down in his pickup or hugged me while I cried over my ex both on nights out and days at home too. I lean over the center counsel and quick hug him goodbye while giving a reassuring smile and yelling thanks over my shoulder while I hop down out of the pickup and run inside.

My bed is calling my name. I quickly strip down naked and rinse the bar smells out of my hair and off my skin in the shower before throwing on the oversized dark grey long sleeve I secretly keep only because my ex forgot it at my house last year and when I feel sad it works like a bandaid for the moment. I drift off to sleep surrounded by the soft comfy blankets I pile on my bed to warm me up on the cool April nights.