Floodlights

Chapter 3

"I'm singing in the rain, singing in the rain!" Matthew and Jack start singing as they prance around in the water while walking home. As Jack swings around a slippery

pole reflecting a Matrix-type fighting kick leaving himself laughing, flat on his face in the rain, Monique shouts at Matthew who has started looking at the water with a little fear and unease in his face.

"So, what about Beth then? You seemed extra chirpy tonight!"

"Ah she is amazing!" Matthew replies.

"I am so psyched, she is stunning. Seemed like a good laugh too!"

"I sent her a text during the night when I went to the loo."

"You cheeky mare! Oh ok, what she say?" Matthew interrupts.

"She seemed equally as positive, I'm not allowed to say what she really said!"

"Oh come on Monique, you can tell little ol' me. I won't tell. Honestly!" A playful Matthew replies.

"Nope I'm sworn to secrecy I am afraid! But she is certainly glad she met you! Thought you were quite charming in fact."

"Obviously doesn't know me then!" Matthew jokingly comments while Jack storms up behind the two and starts doing a monkey walk in front of them and goes off into the distance. Somehow Jack does a walk with his arse stuck out abnormally far and his chest mirroring its distance in the different direction. His arms are let loose straight down by his sides as he trots from foot to foot making noises.

"Is that supposed to be a baboon?" Asks Monique.

"Well" Matthew pauses, "yes. He has a baboon like nature as you know; just don't ask to see his trick with a banana."

As Jack runs like an ape to their front door, Monique and Matthew walk behind with a little pace but not too quickly as they are already soaked to the skin and more rain will not make much difference until they can dry off. As they pass the Taj Mahal Jack already has their door open so they can all go back into their cave looking for warmth and a dry set of clothes.

"Didn't you see Jenny a while back?" Monique says through a grin. Matthew looks at Monique with a distinctly squinting eye stare and a tongue pointing into his cheek.

"I certainly did! Next question."

"Was she that bad?"

"Well she can be very kinky at times! But she is a lovely girl once you get to know her and is very kind and loyal."

Matthew runs into the warmth of his home as a drowned Monique staggers into their hall.

Matthew goes to the bathroom, strips off and dries off with a red towel. He is completely made up. His mind, normally moving at a million miles per hour seems to be focused on one thing for the first time since university; he is thinking about Beth. As he dries his hair vigorously, he starts going over they way she turned and looked at him with the bill. Although he has put creative licence on the moment making it like a Hollywood movie, he knows that this could finally be a lightning strike. His heart begins to feel like it never has before. Instead of a dull painful ache that overshadow a life's search dragging his soul under, it is a new yearning feeling. The aches are still there but now they are for the next meeting. The ache feels like an electric current running through a circuit and eventually running through a buzzer completing a circuit. It makes his heart vibrate and make good working noises instead of his emotions chugging along slowly and moving just enough to stay alive like a battered out old Ford Escort. He moves around the bathroom with a bounce in his step and imagines their next meeting; what he will say, what he'll wear and in turn starts worrying on impressing. He says to himself to "Jesus man, what are ya like!" and starts laughing to his self.