Mysterious

Chapter 3

At 9:30 pm as Bruno worked the stage, Anna and Arissa jammed out in their seats. They weren't front row, but they had a good view of him. Arissa was holding her phone anticipating tweets and facebook updates from friends about the concert. She got a handful saying how great the seats were. Then she got one from a 903456 number. "You won the 3rd row seats! Come to the front of the arena!" She hit Anna and showed her the text.

"What the fuck? Your luck, girl You know he did this. He wants to get in your pants." Arissa rolled her eyes not being about to believe the text message. They got up from the end of their seats, watching the people on their aisle watch them get up. One of the girls from the radio station was sitting near them. She gave Anna a dirty look. Anna shot her a look right back at her. A man led them toward their third row seats. "Oh my god, Anna! This is outrageous!"

"I know it, Rissy!"Anna screamed as he started singing again. He caught her eye and pointed at her. Arissa wished to be the Just the Way You Are Girl, but she couldn't win everything in one day. Or could she? After the song the lights went down and everyone started to scatter. And then he came back. And killed it. He looked right at her. And sang to her. Right at her. Oh shit. Oh lord. Oh my god. "He's looking right at you, Arissa. Dead in the fucking eye." she whispered.

"I know. What am I going to do?" He ended with "Somewhere in Housssttooonnnn." and then left. By the time there were only a handful of people left a big burly guy walked up to them and asked if they were Arissa and Anna. They nodded followed him through a maze. "It reminds me of the 'Dome..." she babbled.

"Yeah..it does...but there's not as many cute boys there." Anna pushed her.

"Ha! You're right!"

"Ladies..." the man opened a door for them. They peered in to see the guys that were at the hotel gym and then saw Bruno.

"Hi cute girls from the meet and greets!" one of them said. "I'm Kenji! And you're...?"

"Oh...oh..I'm Anna..and this quirky one is Arissa." Arissa looked at her feet before looking up at Kenji.

"Hi. Nice to meet you." she shook his hand and was still ridiculously nervous.

"Here girls..have a drink..."

"Oh my gosh. I so needed one of these. There was a 12 year old girl screaming her fucking head off next to us..." Anna said taking a glass and handing one to Arissa.

"It was kind of out of control..." Arissa responded.

"That's what I like! Out of controlllll!" Bruno came in wearing a purple shirt, denim vest, black skinny jeans and black vans with the same fedora on.

"Ladiiieeesss." he said grabbing them. "Are you ready for tonight?"

"Umm?" Arissa asked.

"Yes, yes, yes. You're coming with us!" Everyone started to talk and wander around. They almost stopped noticing Bruno and Arissa's conversation.

"Bruno...I thought we would just happen to be at the same place and you would be there. And that would be that. Anna and I would go back to the hotel. Sleep off our hangover until noon, eat some tacos and drive back home. The end. Great story. Tell everyone. Make them green with envy. What is this?"

"It's nothing! I want to dance with you!" he poked her in the chest and smiled that infectious smile.

"Okay. But at least let us meet you there. We'll drive my car and then we can leave by ourselves."

"No way! I want to know who I'm dancing with!" he said taking a sip of his drink. She gave him an odd look. "Then I'm driving with you!" he laughed.

"You're whaaat?"

"You heard! You, me, Anna anddd...andddd...Phil! we're going in your car. Heeey, heeey...heeey. I need the address. We're going to go with Arissa. Meet y'all there?"

Bruno walked away to get the information for Arissa and Anna.

"What am I doing, Anna? This is weird. Like not just kind of weird for me, but like out of control for me....."

"Calm down, honey bunny. He obviously kind of digs you. So just take a deep breath."

"I am...but I can't do it. I need to pass out. This is weird."

"He's just a guy...you're the one that said that earlier today...."

"But...but, no one that amazingly handsome has ever said one word to me ever, except maybe, 'excuse me, can you hand me the spray bottle?" Arissa started to kind of shake.

"Ready girls?" Phil said as he the girls started to talk a bit more quietly.

"Yeah, yeah. We're ready...."

They led the boys out to Arissa's bright Red 2004 Rav 4.

"Oh dang it. Give me two seconds. We have the cooler with water and cookies in there..." Arissa pulled her hair up as she opened the door to pull the cooler which was still full of ice.

"Woah. Have you done P90x and Insanity? You're a beast, Arissa." Phil responded to her ability to lift the cooler to the trunk.

"I'm training for a marathon...eventually." she smiled and pointed to the back seat.

"It's perfect."

"Just like you!" Bruno laughed.

"Oh lord. You are a charmer." Arissa said sarcastically. "Do you have the address? I have absolulatemente no idea where we're headed. I can get to 59, 610 and 10...oh and Fannin. That's it."

"Wait. You're not from Houston?" He asked handing her the address punching it into her phone's GPS.

"No! We came from San Antonio, silly. Remember the first meet and greet? We were at a hotel!"

"But...you could have just done it for the hell of it...." he trailed off.

"Oh no...." Anna started to tell the story.

"She just clicked enter online. The radio station called her on Thursday to say she won the tickets, a hotel, the meet and greet; the whole thing. And now she's driving Bruno Mars to his own after party. Oh and her birthday is in 5 days."

"Well, happy freaking birthday, Arissa!" Phil said from the backseat.

"It sure has been a heck of a birthday present...oh crap...we need to be over there..." she pointed toward the left lane. "Houston is so fucking crazy..." she moved over to the left lane and exited.

"Here..." she pulled up and valet parked her car.

"Oh, I see you have valet skills.

"It's the only way to go..."

"You've got extra class, Arissa. You know that?" he said grabbing her leg as they got out the car.

I don't know what I've gotten myself into. I have no idea what I'm doing. What am I doing? What the hell am I doing? What is going on? When will I wake up?

Anna smiled at her as she and Phil led the way upstairs. It was just a regular group of people walking upstairs until some rowdy drunk girl screamed, "Oh shit! There he is! He's so damn fine!" Then the screams started.

"Go upstairs, Arissa...Anna. We'll be up there in a second." he whispered in her ear. It made her tingle a little.