Just a Kiss Away

Lily

He somehow gets past security and tells the guard I'm with him, as he pulls me inside by my hand. The loud music blasts and I can feel the waves of sound flowing through my body and synchronizing with my heartbeat. I'm in a club. At age 19. I wonder how I got here, how suddenly I'm not that uptight, mousy, studious, girl. I look at his hand holding mine, and trace his arm with my eyes, up to the back of his head. He's the reason why. I walk faster, lowering our hands to my side, and meet his pace. A couple. He looks at me and smiles, going along with it. He leads me through the crowds to the bar. The bartender greets him as if they're old friends, and his gaze shifts to me. He looks back at Noah approvingly. I feel myself smiling. He orders his drink and looks at me expectantly. When I don't order anything, he looks confused and asks me what I want to drink.

"I don't know," I want to say, I have never drunk a day in my life, but I don't want him to bully me any more than he already has. "Surprise me," I tell the bartender, smiling. Noah looks at me for a while, confused but smiles and takes me to an open seat.

"Surprise me?" he starts, "haven't heard that one before." He studies my face even more and I swear I can see the light bulb switch on above his head. "You've never drank," he asks, "have you?" I look away, embarrassed. He laughs, "You're so innocent."

"I am not," I say. A light bulb appears above my head too. Maybe I can be risky, just for tonight. Standing up, I walk over to him., I lower myself, whispering into his ear, "It would surprise you how not-so-good I am." My words are steady and confident, and his face looks shocked. To prove my point, I walk over to a random guy at the bar and whisper something into his ear, not breaking eye contact with Noah. Just for tonight. The guy gets up smiling and lets me take him to the dance floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Noah starting towards me, so I pick up the pace. Me and the stranger weave our way to the center of the club and start dancing to the music. His hands are on my waist and my back is pressed against his chest. I sway to the music. Just because I've never been to a club before doesn't mean I don't know how to dance. After a few minutes, he quickly turns me around and I get a strong whiff of alcohol. His hands travel lower, and lower, and lower until I realize that this man is completely wasted and is probably not the best candidate for this. I press my hands against his chest, in an attempt to separate us, but his grip only gets stronger. I see him smirk as he looks down at me, but his eyes don't look right, they look far off, scary.

Suddenly his hands are forced off of my waist and I see someone punch him in the face. Noah. He swings and swings and knocks him to the ground. "Noah," I say after 6 hits, "that's enough." He looks back at me and scoffs, passing right past me. I follow him back to our seats and see 3 empty glasses of beer lined up. That's why he didn't come immediately. He reaches for the fourth glass that the bartender slides to him and before I can tell him that's enough drinking, he chugs the drink in a matter of seconds. So this is how he used to be. "Noah," I say, he ignores me. "Let's go outside for a second," I beg for him to get up, I grab his hand and he finally looks at me. "Please?" I say, softening my voice. He finally shuffles to his feet and lets me drag him outside.

We stand together in the dark street outside. I look up at him and he looks at me.

"Why'd you have to do that?" he asks me, in a confrontational tone, "I wasn't planning on drinking tonight, you know?" he adds.

"So why did you," I ask, confused about what he's hinting at.

"Because I was mad!" he states, almost yelling, "I'm mad that you went with that guy just to prove your point, I believed you, you know?" I smile in my head, knowing that anger isn't the only feeling in his head.

"Just mad?" I ask him, gladly taking advantage of the alcohol in his system. One thing alcohol is good at is getting the truth out of people.

"I'm jealous," he admits, with no emotion and no hesitation. I smile. "Stop smiling," he says, but I can't. He grabs my arms and pulls me closer to him. I stop breathing as he tilts my face to his with a sad look in his eyes. "I'm serious," he says, a stern look quickly taking over. "I-" he says. "We should go home." That's not what he was just about to say but I ignored it.

"Okay," I say.