AM

Mad Sounds

The night is dark but the city is alive with color. Bars and other buildings breathe out smoke like the people in them puff out their cigarettes. Inside of these bars called 505, sits Cole Fisher, drinking his fourth beer of the night. His hair covers his face as he looks down and plays with the bottle caps. There's a few people causing chatter around him, but all he can hear is Ryan, his ex-roommate and ex-best friend inside his head:
"I'm sorry, Cole. I can't afford to keep you here if you have no money to help pay the rent."
Someone walks onto the stage in the corner of the bar and mentions an open mic night. Cole looks up and watches a girl push up her significant other, telling him to go sing. The boy laughs on his way to the microphone, taking the mic off the stand, "Hey everyone! How're we doin'?"
The girlfriend smiles and waves her arms in the air. Cole roles his eyes as the eager boy continues to talk and dedicate the song to his girlfriend.
"Can I get another one," Cole asks the bartender.
"Sure thing, bud," she replies, reaching under the counter. Cole slides her the remainder of his money and opens the bottle and starts to drink.
"Rough night?" the bartender asks, placing her elbows on the counter.
"Ryan kicked me out. I have nowhere to go now, and I've got no more money left either."
The bartender looks at Cole sympathetically and says, "I was wondering why he wasn't here with you. I'm sorry."
"That's what he told me. 'Sorry,'" he said, taking a swig, "Like that's going to fix anything." Cole turns the stool away from the bartender to watch the boy play his guitar.
"Alright, once again, thank you, and this is Mad Sounds," he says, starting to pluck his guitar.
"Mad sounds in your ears, make you feel alright. They bring you back to life..."
The boy's girlfriend starts to slowly clap, and he smiles to her as he sings, "Love buckles under the strain of those wild nights. Run but you cannot hide. Mad sounds in your ears, they make you get up and dance, make you get up. All night long, reappear. Make you get up and dance, yeah they make you get up..."
Slowly, Cole stands up, starting to walk towards the small crowd surrounding the stage, leaving Cole in the back.
"Suppose you've gotta do what you've gotta do. We just weren't feeling how we wanted to. You sit and try sometimes but you just can't figure out what went wrong..."
Cole starts to think of Ryan. What went wrong? Why did his best friend betray him like this?
Suddenly the door opens behind him. A girl walks toward the counter to order a drink, but hears the music and draws toward the stage and stands next to Cole. He stares at her as she watches the boy sing.
"Then out of nowhere, somebody comes and hits you with a ooh la la la, ooh la la la, ooh la la la, ooh... Ooh la la la, ooh la la la, ooh la la la, ooh..."
Cole started singing, "You got those mad sounds, in your ears to make you get up and dance. Mad sounds, in your ears, they make you get up and dance. Hold on to make you get up, ah yeah they make you get up..."
The boy kept singing in the back, the same soft "ooh la la la."
The girl turned to Cole and watched him sing. Once the boy strung the guitar for the last time, the audience clapped and everyone sat down eventually. Some people went up to talk to the singer, but Cole and the girl stayed planted where they stood.
"Hey," the girl spoke.
"Hey," said Cole as he smirked.
"I'm Bella," she said, smiling back.
"Cole."
The two of them made their way to a table and sat down. It seemed so unusual for a girl like this to come to a small bar like this one. Her chocolate hair was like a tidal wave off the top of her head, and her eyes were greener than a garden. Her lips were perfectly symmetrical, slightly naturally parted. Her lipstick was a bright red, and she wore a cheetah print shirt with a mini skirt.
"You seem pretty drunk, you know," she said, looking at Cole, "It must've taken something pretty tragic for you to be drinking so heavily."
"I'm fine," Cole assured her.
"I could smell the liquor on you from 50 miles away," Bella joked.
"Really, I'm fine."
"Why don't you come to my place. I'm not trying to come onto you or anything but you seem like an alright guy and you look like you've had a rough night."
He did have no where else to go. She didn't look like she was going to do anything wrong.
"If it's okay with you."
"If it wasn't, why would I be offering?" Bella laughed and stood up and opened the door for him, "I don't live far from here."