Fortune's Fools

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

I pushed back my hat, suddenly bothered by the mask in front of my eyes. I gazed at the multi-coloured fish twirling around the aquarium, they seemed to be dancing to the pounding beats while the lights from the dance floor reflected in the water and against the white sand on the bottom of the tank. A bright blue big fish swam past me, making me follow its movements as it shot up and down, left and right. I felt a jolt passing through my body when I noticed a pair of bright green eyes at the other side of the tank. They hadn't seen me yet, but somehow I couldn't stop myself from staring at them. They peeked through the two holes in a simple black mask, a dark brown curly fringe almost hanging over the right one. A gasp escaped my lips as the person on the other side caught me looking, and I looked away, trying to concentrate on the fish in front of me. It was as if gravity itself changed as my eyes found their way back to his. I could tell he was a boy now. He had taken off the mask, revealing his face. The beauty of it fitted his eyes, which glistened as he bit his lip, as if he was suppressing a smile. I felt a widening smile tugging on my own lips as I couldn't stop gazing into his green eyes, until I noticed he smiled back at me. God, was he one handsome bloke.

Not long after that, I found my hand next to my face, pressing against the tank, answering to my body's urge to touch the face at the other side. I saw the boy chuckle when I moved my own face closer to the glass. I smiled shyly at him and saw him tilt his head a bit before returning my smile. Who is he? The thought shot through my mind, feeling sorry I hadn't seen him before, which I would certainly remember. It wasn't all that strange though, the parties at our house were always full of strange faces, business relations of my parents and people who were invited as the plus one on the invitation. He seemed to be here alone though, or his date had ditched him, which seemed highly unlikely if they weren't a complete moron.

“Lou!” I heard Fizz shout into my ears as she pulled on my free hand, the hand that wasn't resting against the tank, that is. Pulled out of my trance I turned to face her, shooting a glance across the tank every once in a while as she whined about me staying here forever, looking at those stupid fish, while we could've been dancing the night away. I let her pull me behind her, reluctantly leaving the stranger I hadn't even properly met. I had to run to keep up with her fast pace, trying not to stumble while I looked back to see the boy who had now turned around to face me as I ran past him. Our eyes met, without the bright blue of the aquarium in between us this time and he shot me a wide grin. I chuckled as I noticed his costume, the superman T-shirt showing through his ripped open white shirt, a black tie loosely around his neck. Sexy.

We lost eye contact when Fizz pulled me along through the crowd to end up on a small open space in the centre of the dance floor. She grinned at me as she started to swing her body to the beats. I grabbed another long shot glass of vodka-coke from a tray that passed by and swung it back before joining her. I couldn't keep myself from thinking about that boy from earlier though, and caught myself as I kept on looking around the room, trying to spot him again.

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I found myself drawn towards the big tank at the side of the dance floor, mesmerised by the swirling colours of the fish that mixed with the shooting spot light's reflections. The colours were so intense, the pounding drums brought a trance upon me as they invaded my ears and my mind. I ended up in front of the tank, entranced by the beauty of it. I spent a minute or so, maybe less, maybe more, Niall's pills seemed to affect my sense of everything, including time, looking at a small yellow fish that seemed to have lost the way around the swaying plants. I chuckled as I followed it up, where it managed to escape from the green, only to be met by a pair of dashing blue eyes that were looking directly at me. They were rimmed with black eye liner and the eyelashes that framed them were extremely long and probably set with mascara, but I could still tell they belonged to a boy, around my age, maybe a little bit older. Quite a handsome boy too, who now looked away. I pulled down my mask as if it would pull his gaze back to me, or make it easier for me to see him through the water that separated us. However, it didn't take long before our eyes found each other again. I had to bite my lower lip to stop my face from cracking with the wide grin that was threatening to take over. A big smile crossed his lips as he saw me again, at which I allowed myself to smile back at him. I brought my face closer to the glass, still mesmerised by his beauty, wanting to kiss him but forgetting about the fish tank that stood between us until my lips touched the cool surface. I smiled as I noticed his hand next to his face and chuckled as his face neared the glass at the other side. Apparently the attraction was mutual. He looked a bit embarrassed as he shot me a smile. He is so beautiful. I silently thanked Niall and Liam for taking me here, for letting me meet this handsome stranger. A pang of disappointment shot through my body as his face was suddenly gone. I tried to look through the tank and could make out the outlines of his tall and slender body as he stood on the other side, talking to a smaller figure until he was suddenly gone. I turned around, trying to figure out if I had been imagining all of this when he ran past me, pulled forward by a girl, about 5 inches smaller than he was. My green eyes locked on his blue ones, a grin taking over my face as I realised I had not been imagining it. Puss in boots, so cute. It took me a few seconds before my feet started working again and I dashed behind him, trying to locate him and the girl in the mass of people grinding and dancing to the music. A blur of drunken talk and some moans reached my ears as I found my way through the crowd.