Alice - WIP

Chapter 1: A Strange request at a Piano Bar

      In a small ordinary town called Levitt, there are all the typical strips of small businesses in the downtown area. There is a particular bar in the middle of one strip called Tuesdays Bar. This bar is different from the rest in the town since it contains a piano on the stage, while the other bars in the town are your usual type of environment. All the other bars in the town have your jukebox playing in the background or a radio station being blasted in the cheap old speakers the owners purchased. The Tuesdays Bar was always packed closer to the eight o'clock hour and up until midnight, but it got the most business during the weekends. On this Friday night there was a theme to the bars attire, everyone who wanted to attend and reserved online must wear a mask to hide their identity. This too included the pianist they booked for the weekend. The pianist decided to wear the Phantom of the Opera mask in honor of the character from the famous literature and the pianist was open for requests of any kind to play this night.

      The bar started to pick up with bodies and all of them wearing masks as requested. Many of the masks were cheaply bought or made and others were fancy to the point of the decorations as elegant as Mardi Gras designs and colors. Every single of the bodies there were having fun, dancing slowly, and enjoying their time with drinks of their choice at hand. The pianist was playing "Piano Man" by Billy Joel to keep with the theme for now and was keeping focus with his professional self. One girl was sitting in the back corner by herself and viewing everyone else in front of her while being a wallflower. She felt awkward in the position she was in since this is the first time she has ever attended an event of this nature. She wanted to get out of her comfort zone and think outside the box once in a while and this time is one of those moments. Her eyes caught a gentleman across from her about 20 feet away from her and their eyes meet. The man was standing by the bar and just finished ordering his drink, an apple martini, when their eyes met. His mask was an oxidation type of color with some purple beads around the rim and hers was purple with a shimmer within the color and green beads around the rim. The man started to take steps towards her and in each step she would make juvenile movements of nervousness. "Is my makeup on fleek?", "I hope my scar isn't showing!". "Do I have something in my teeth?! God I hope not!", she thought of all this to herself all while he was approaching her.

        By this point, the pianist was asking for requests from the audience through the microphone. Someone from the crowd yelled out, "Sobredosis by Los Titanes!". The pianist was confused with the strange request. Not in the intention to say that he wasn't able to play the tune, but because the beat would be off a bit since there are no other backup instrument players that will go along with the tune, to pick up the extra beats. The pianist thought for a second these thoughts and then proceeded with a nod towards the audience, but mainly to the person who shouted the request. And then he began to play the tune. The girl grew even more nervous and threw more juvenile movements and all while thinking, "I don't know how to dance to this type of music!", "what if he still comes near me!", "Oh my Goodness, no!"She snapped back to reality since the man in the mask was in front of her with his hand and palm reaching out to her at this point and asked, "Care to dance?". She only nodded slowly to him and reached to his hand slowly. Most of her weight is on the grasp of the hand connection that they both created and she stumbled a bit. "I-I don't know how to dance this type of music!", she said under her breath towards him. "No worries, I can help!", he replied with confidence.

          As the beat started to pick up more, they both started to follow the beat of the song. It was obvious that he was leading while she was following, at the best of her abilities. He, without notifying her, made her do a twirl and she was caught off guard. During her twirl, she was smiling and enjoying herself, not realizing that she was about to bump into a sassafras potted plant and tripped over it. She landed on her behind and her mask came off during her fall. "Are you okay ma'am?!", "Are you hurt?!", asked her dancing partner as he bent down to reach for her to assist. She slowly moved her right leg and an loud "Ouch!" came from her. "Yeah, I think I sprained my ankle," she mumbled. Her dancing partner bent down to help her out by aiding her right arm over his shoulders, while his other hand was around her waist. He aimed to place her on a nearby unoccupied chair to continue to check up on her. Someone from the crowd yelled, "That is the most dumbest place to plant a tree! Who the hell thought of that?!". A whole lot of snickers and side conversations started to emerge. Most of the conversations were turning into a controversy regarding the planted tree. "It's just a baby tree, get over it all!", another voice emerged from the crowd.

        While the conversations continued, the man kept checking on his dancing partner while still having his mask on. The girl kept looking at him while he was examining her leg and was trying to figure him out. "Are you a doctor of some sort?", she asked. "I'm in school to be. So I know a thing or two about this. You must've just sprained it," he explained to her. "Well Thank you for checking up on me, my name is Alice. What is yours?", inquired Alice. "I'm Shaun. Nice to meet you", he replied back with a smile as he removed his mask from his face. Alice nodded and gave a smile back as a reply to him. "I don't think you broke your ankle, so are you well to stand up on your own?", asked Shaun. Alice tested the waters with her injured leg and she was able to stand up on her own. "Yes, I am. Thank you Shaun!"."I should've told you that I was going to make you twirl, especially when you are new to this type of dancing". "Yes and it's okay. I needed to break out of my comfort zone sooner or later in one way or another", she replied with a giggle. "To make up for it, there is a carnival in town. Would you like to go to it one of these days with me?". "I would love to! I love carnivals!". "Then it's a date. How about...". The conversation continued with Alice and Shaun throughout the night in the bar, to come into an agreement between the both of them of when to meet up and to get to know each other more. The pianist picked up another slower melody request this time, during their conversation, so no other issue arise this time on the dance floor.