Clementine had become a wild child. Born in America but raised abroad, she now had little regard for the expectations of high society. But her reckless ways eventually catch up with her when she is kicked out of college in New York City and forced t...
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13
Intoxicated on the rush of the night and the touch of Zico's hand, Clementine followed him out the tiny club and onto the old, cobblestone paved street.
It had been a whole week since she last saw him. And much longer since she has felt anything remotely like this. Not since she left for sure, and now that she thought about it, she decided that even before, she wasn't sure she even ever liked someone the way she liked Zico.
And she had a feeling that he felt it too.
They ran through a couple of side streets, no taxis this time.
"Wooo!" A few of their friends screamed, running past them, also holding hands, yelling out for no apparent reason other than for the fact of their blissful existence at that moment.
It seemed that their group shrunk in size, leaving some people behind in that club. And most of these people were already in front of them.
"I have an idea," Zico said, his cheeks slightly flushed from the running and the outside air.
"What?" Clementine asked? She was wordlessly following them and was up for anything now.
And just as they turned a corner, and were against a dimly lit street, Zico grabbed both Clementine's wrists and pinned them against the stone wall.
"This," he said simply, before leaning in and closing the space between them.
He kissed her, and it only took her amount to register what he was doing before she kissed him back. It somehow managed to be both assertive and gentle at the same time, and Clementine remarked that it was a unique combination. That it somehow indicated a quiet strength internally.
But then her mind went blank, and she was completely in the moment. Unable to think of anything else save for his lips on hers.
The kiss must not have lasted that long, but it felt like a small lifetime that she lived in that moment.
When he pulled away, they just looked at each other and smiled.
Hearing his friends calling his name up ahead, Zico took her hand again and nodded towards the street, as if to say let's continue.
It felt that now that this border was crossed in the night, this moment that the whole tension of the night was leading towards, she could safely and completely abandon herself in the feelings that she harboured for Zico. As foreign as they were to her, they were also somehow familiar. Like a dream she once had, without knowing where it came from.
Finally, the haze was broken when they arrived to the doors of the new place.
The new place seemed a lot like a place you wouldn't know about unless you knew what you were looking for.
Specifically, Clementine thought that without a sign on the door and only one, conspicuous looking bouncer standing in the hallway inside the metal door - this was place was going to be different.
A part of their group was already exchanging words with the bouncer and being let in.
Zico stepped casually in front of Clementine, still holding her hand behind his back.
He said something in Portuguese, Clementine did't catch, but it was more like a greeting than a permission to be let in. He also nodded towards Clementine, and the bouncer took her in, in a way that she didn't particularly like but she didn't care. She was with Zico, that much was clear.
There was another hallway, that looked like an entrance into a cave. Then it hit her like a sudden change in weather.
The music was loud, the lights sliding and the atmosphere heavy. This was like a secret, underground club and Clementine didn't need to read a sign to understand that much.
Her first instinct was to step back, to run away. To leave him.
But then she looked up at him, and he somehow looked so at ease and comfortable and exactly where he belonged, that she stayed if only to see somebody look like where they should be.
They came to a much smaller seating area, where they managed to snag a few tables.
"Stay here," he told her, "I'll be back soon," Zico said. And as Clementine looked at him a little wide eyed, almost a little bit incredulous that he was going to leave her here alone, even if it was with his friends, he added "going out for a smoke."
It was odd, to see this shift in him. Being so sweet just moments earlier on the street when it was just them, to this odd, harder looking persona he was putting on. Almost like he was here with a goal, and it wasn't just to impress Clementine, if it ever was.
"I'll go too," piped in the girl with the crazy hair and intrusive comments from the taxi. Zico didn't seem to pay too much attention to it, but it slightly irked Clementine and she couldn't even put her finger on why,
As much as she wanted to go with him, Clementine followed him with her eyes, as he made his way across the platform, though it was hard to see with all the flashing lights, it looked like he stopped to say a few hellos on his way out the back door to go smoke.
She wasn't sure what all this had to do with her, but she had a feeling that there was more going on that she couldn't quite pinpoint.
