Birthday girl (Dan Smith fanfic)

chapter 5

He got the car door for me. Wow, do they still do that? We went inside a bar, I lagged behind a bit, my bag got caught in the handle as we entered. I followed him as he sat down at the furthest possible table, right in the corner. Weird...

- What would you like to drink?- seriously? I just sat down, I don’t even know this place.

- I’ll go with a tequila, and orange juice- his eyes widened. I didn’t understand.-  You said you wanted to have a drink, didn’t you?

- Ehm, yeah, right, I’ll get it- And he disappeared behind some men.

I looked around, the place was quite big actually. There were a few people too, but there were some empty tables still. The music was coming off of a radio, the DJ just started speaking. There wasn’t much light, and there was writing all over the walls. Well, scribbles, rather. People were probably drunk when they did those. I saw a drawing of a pig and an arrow pointing at it, saying Hugo at the end of it. I found it amusing, my lips curled up. Hugo must have some real nice friends. Drinks appeared on the table.

- One tequila and a juice, here you go- and he pushed them in front of me. He even brought some salt and lemon, cool, I won’t have to send him back for that then.

- What’s in yours?

- It’s gin and tonic.

- Ew, that tastes rubbish- he laughed at me as I pulled a face.

- Oh, I didn’t even ask your name yet!

- It’s Lindsey- I held out a hand.

- Nice to meet you Lindsey. I’m.. ehm.. Dan- he shook my hand.

- Did you just make that up?

- What?

- Your name. No one has to think about their own name- I teased him. He touched his hair again.

- No, it is my name, really- he tried to smile but I could tell he was nervous, he sipped from his drink.- So it’s your birthday?- my balloon popped sometime during the night and I lost the bunny ears, but I still had a badge on.

- Oh, yeah, well, technically, it’s over now, since it’s well past midnight.

- Happy birthday anyways.

-Thanks- Now what? I hope he doesn’t plan on sitting here in silence. I’ll just down my drink then and leave ASAP.

- So ehm... what do you do? – Oh he speaks! Great!

- I’m an architecture student.

- Oh, I thought you were older.

-It’s my last year. And also, I started a year late. I’m above drinking age, don’t worry- I smiled reassuringly. He let out a small laugh.

- Yeah, that’s good then.

- What about you? You old enough to drink at all?

- Sometimes I wish I wasn’t – he smirked-I finished uni a couple years ago.

- What did you do at uni?

- English lit. I know, I’m really boring, nothing as fancy as architecture- aaand there he goes again with the hair.

- It’s not that bad, there are some way more boring courses, like Religious Studies.

- Oh one of my mates did that!- he laughed out loud. Even his friends are weird then?

- I’m sorry...- I felt a bit ashamed though.

- Oh don’t be, he’s the most boring person I’ve met in my life- we both laughed at that.

And so the chat went on, soon our drinks disappeared. He got us another round, I didn’t know why, but I didn’t object. And then soon after that drink disappeared too, and then one more round, and one more, and some more after that, and I stopped counting after that... I’ve been sitting for a while now, so I knew once I stand up it’s gonna hit in, but I really had to go to the toilet. So I got up from my seat. Now that wasn’t good. I didn’t expect it to hit this hard, the place started spinning around me. I could feel a hand grabbing me by the arm, and so I didn’t fall over.

- Thanks- I muttered, forcing myself to smile.

- Are you ok? – Dan asked.

- Sure, sure, I’ll be fine- I hope so, at least. Lucky there was no one else in the toilets, I kinda hit my head in the cubicle door when I closed it behind me. I tried to fix my makeup, but decided I shouldn’t, instead just wiped off the smudged parts. I stumbled back to where we sat.

- Maybe we had enough drinks for tonight.

- Come on, one more won’t hurt -and he reached for my hand to pull me back down to the chair.

-No no no, I can’t drink anymore- I still felt a bit dizzy but it was loads better, but I knew one more drink and I would just throw up right on the table.

-Alright, I’ll take you home then- he got up, and I saw he wasn’t that stable either. He grabbed the back of the chair for a second but then grinned at me- I’m fine- yeah, right, like me...

He managed to pay the bill, and then we walked outside.

-Now what? Don’t you tell me you wanna drive me home- I somehow found this amusing and started laughing. He laughed too.

- For the record, I am a very good driver and I would be very much capable of driving, but I don’t really feel like it, so I was thinking of taking a taxi. I know they usually park there- and he pointed down the street. Next he put his arm around me and made me walk with him to the cars. Then it hit me: I was here on my birthday night with a guy I don’t even know, drunk as fuck, and I don’t even know where I am. I lost it completely, I cracked up, I was laughing hysterically. He stopped and stared at me for a moment.

-Did I tell a joke? – he looked confused, like he was actually trying to remember if he did say something funny. His face made me laugh even more, I couldn’t speak a word. I shook my head to tell him no. Then he started laughing at me, next thing I know he’s hugging me like real tight and we’re face to face and I think he wants to kiss me? What the hell? I didn’t have any more time to think, because he did really do it. Damn, he was good, even this stoned. When I pulled away I couldn’t help but laugh again. He gave up, just smiled like an idiot at how stupid I was, and kept me moving towards the taxi.