Feel the Sun

3. Magic Tricks

As the sun set in Bloomington I made my way into the local pub, scanning my surroundings.

It was everything I had seen in the movies. Small round tables surrounded a stage just left of the door. The bar was long and was decorated with multi-colored bottles of alcohol and hanging champagne and shot glasses.

It was busy tonight. People gathered at the tables to watch the comedian on the stage with their partners, friends and families. It was noisy as well. On top of the firing jokes coming from the microphone, the room was full of laughter, chatter and the sound of low jazz music.

"What do you think?" Victor smiled down at me.

"It's amazing! It's exactly what I imagined it would be!" I replied and he laughed in response. I walked over to the bar and hoisted myself up on a stool. I heard someone whistling in my direction but couldn't pinpoint where it came from.

"Hello!" I waved at the woman behind the counter.

"How can I help you?"

"Get us a couple of shots!" Victor sat down beside me as his brother (I forgot his name) wandered off to watch the show.

"Coming right up." I saw her expression change when she saw Victor. There was an undertone to her voice that sounded like flirting if I wasn't mistaken. "Who's your date?"

"We're not on a date," I clarified.

"This is Amara. She's new to town."

She shot me a look that I couldn't read. She didn't look too friendly at all. But why...? What did I do?

A few moments later she served us two shots of clear liquid.

"I've never had alcohol before!" I exclaimed, picking up the glass.

"You haven't...? You might wanna-"

But it was too late. I had already thrown back what I expected to be a delicious drink.

It burned. Sliding on my tongue and down my throat, filling my mouth with the most awful thing I ever tasted.

"EWWWW!" I spit what was left of it out and coughed desperately.

Victor was staring at me in shock. "Amara... Are you okay?"

"I'm not!" I coughed some more. "Get me some water NOW! This was a huge mistake!"

The bartender looked even more irritated than before as she handed me a glass of water and began to clean my mess.

"Why do people like alcohol?" I shuddered. "It is DISGUSTING."

He laughed. "It makes you feel good."

"Yeah right! That must be an illusion invented by people that like burning their insides for fun!"

He continued to laugh at me, this time harder than before. I didn't understand why.

"Now I know why my mother said I wouldn't like it. I thought she was just trying to keep me away from her wine stash."

"Out of curiosity... How old are you?"

"Twenty two."

His eyes widened. "And you've never had a drink?"

I frowned."I lived a VERY sheltered life. Lets leave it at that. Where I lived I couldn't just go get a drink."

"Where did you live?"

Instead of answering I decided that I was done with his questions for now. I didn't want to say too much. I slid off of the stool and walked away without another word. Ignoring him when he called after me.