Brave Enough To Love Again

Chapter 8

Eden

We entered the crowded bar, the smell of alcohol wafted into my nostrils, mixed with people's sweat accompanied by innumerable different perfumes that failed to disguise the stench of body odor caused by the drinking spree all of the costumers were engaged in. There was music in the background that was mostly muffled by the many voices of people preoccupied with their friends' chitchat, as well as occasional loud laughters by tipsy drinkers engrossed in whatever humorous brain farts their opposites had disclosed.

It was a bad idea to choose a bar to discuss anything whatsoever, let alone something of importance. I was an idiot in thinking that a crowd would keep my body and mind from reacting so sensitively in his presence, because exactly the opposite happened when he had to stand so close to me and had to talk into my ear, for me to hear anything he was saying.

After answering his question spoken into my ear, of whether or not I wanted  a drink, affirmatively, I had tingling sensations rushing through my whole body, which defeated the whole purpose of going to the bar in the first place. He left to fetch our poison for the night. I watched him maneuver his 6'2 muscular built frame through the pool of people with ease and disappear behind the masses, and I felt abandoned.

As I stood there feeling lonely in a crowded place filled with strangers, nervous with anticipation of what my neighbor has to say, my body betrayed me, which it always did whenever I was stressed or anxious; I had to use the toilet. I looked around for a signpost that showed where to find the facilities and followed the direction.

On my way there I had to squeeze myself through a gathering of people blocking my path, and almost made it, but was unexpectedly shoved by a drunkard who suddenly decided to dance to the almost inaudible music. I lost my balance and fell on a guy's lap.

"Excuse me. I'm so sorry. I got pushed. Are you okay?" I apologized, while trying to lift myself up from his lap.

After the initial surprise, a grin began to spread on the man's face, and he stopped me from standing up by wrapping his muscular arm around my waist. I stiffened at the unexpected and unwanted embrace, and my heart started to race.

"Not so fast. Where are you going, sweetheart? You can sit on my lap for as long as you want! Hell, I would volunteer to become your personal chair, if you want!" he said and laughed a booming laugh, amused by his own wit, all the while looking at his drinking buddies, expecting them to join in his mirth, which never happened, because they were much too drunk to understand the situation, let alone his joke.

I inhaled the stench of alcohol leaving his mouth when I stared to look at the face of the molester, which made my stomach churn in the worst way possible. The urge to vomit was hard to suppress as well as the bile that seemed to have made its way up, leaving a bitter and burning sensation in my throat.

Then, all of a sudden, my surroundings blurred, all the people seemed to have faded away, my heart started beating thrice the usual speed, I heard thumping and the rushing of my own blood in my ears, my whole body was in full alert. I started to sweat, and was completely overheated when my eyes began to lose focus as everything around me appeared to move in a spiral motion. This moment brought images of my ex Vic pushing me against the door with his underarm and screaming in my face while smelling like alcohol and vomit.

I reacted instinctively out of self-preservation, when I knocked my elbow into the guy's face, causing him to start bleeding. Taking my chance to stand up from his lap, when he held his nose to inspect it, I stood there rooted on the spot, when all hell seemed to have broken loose.