The Vacuum

Part 3

Alex pushed open the chipping screen door to the Luna Mesa, listening to the aged jut box playing something intelligible but danceable. She slipped passed a grinding, dancing couple, stepping back as the girl's ass jetted out and hit her. She gave a quick apology and a smile as she passed by and moved to the bar. Looking around, she felt a bit more normal here than she had in her bathroom with the photos. Yes, she loved having her camera and not just for the pictures. It was easier to distinguish what was in her head and what was outside through a lens. But out here in the real world, with people around, she could tell what was real and what wasn't.

"Are you always here?" She asked Walter as he came up to her.

"Always little lady." He told her with a deceptively friendly smile. Alex smiled and leaned her forearms on the bar as she heard yelling from outside. "What can I get you?"

"Same as before," Alex told him as a blast of warm night air hit her back when the door behind her opened. Walter nodded and placed a beer in front of her a few seconds later. "Thanks." She told him as the rowdy bellowing became louder.

Suddenly she felt a sharp pressure on her back and was slammed full body up against the unforgiving bar, her hips pinned to it by another pair on the small of her back. The motion jolted the pint of amber liquid in front of her, sloshing it over the sides and rim in a frothing mess.

"Well ain't that nice." Came a voice followed by the stinking breath of a dehydrated, hadn't brushed his teeth in weeks, male.

Mac grinned as he watched the woman push back and turn around to face his 'friend' that had angled her in, effectively pinning her to the bar. "Shouldn't turn around sweetheart. Give him more shit to grab."

Alex glanced at him before looking back at the long-haired, grungy man in front of her. Mac watched with raised eyebrows as Alex narrowed her eerily green eyes at his friend Harley, as if daring him to try. His friend grinned toothily at her, looking like he was going to take the dare and try to eat her heart...or something else. Alex's arms tensed on the bar behind her. One of her legs, powerful from hiking, screamed to be kicked out in defense.

"Boys." Came Walter's voice in a warning tone.

There was a moment of palatable silence where Alex's eyes stayed locked with Harley's deep, brown, highly dilated ones, her body tensed against the bar and hand gripped on the thick, sticky glass behind her. Finally, Harley backed up, making mocking kissing noises at her that just caused Alex to roll her eyes. The motion in the bar resumed, couples going back to dancing and people at tables going back to their conversations.

"You're gunna have that whiskey now." Mac told her, reaching over the bar with his rolled-up sleeves to grab the bottle.

Alex took a deep breath and loosened her hold on her beer, now half spilled on the counter. "After having to smell your friend's breath, yeah, I think I will." She agreed, straightening the too big, open, button down, flannel shirt that she had used to cover her sun-drenched skin beyond the tank top.

Mac glanced at her out of the corner of his eye with a little, semi smug smirk on the corner of his lip at her being at least rattled. "Can't really blame him." He said as he poured the two shots and glanced over his shoulder at her ass again. He slipped his other hand around and coped a quick feel over her jeans.

Alex jumped slightly away as she felt his large hand engulf almost the entire left side of her ass. He smirked as she cocked her head at him and turned so that she was facing him, just out of arms reach. He raised his hands up innocently, her shot in the hand that hadn't just molested the perfect ass cheek that he could have sunken his teeth into. "Easy there sweet cheeks." He told her, holding out the shot. She took it slowly from him. "Just wanted to know if it's as perky as it looks."