“I lined up each bottle and my dad had a baseball bat, near my house there was a golf course and sometimes the balls would come out of the place and I would grab them exclusively to break bottles. I know golf balls are soft and don’t break anything, so I would make a small hole in them, fill them with rocks that fit and practiced. I got to a point where every throw was completely accurate. When my dad found me out… Why the hell didn’t I stop at the golf course part? what do we do now?”
“He used to hit you?” I was surprised he came to that conclusion so quickly. His eyebrows went up just a bit, showing at least a bit of empathy.
“Only once he did and never again. I threatened him with going to the police and if he had one more report he would stay there for years.”
“So?”
“I didn’t eat for four days.” My father disappeared because of that, he knew that if he stayed I would get some money from him.
Donovan’s pity face could be seen from here to the damn Antarctica. Well, I thought he, more than anyone, wouldn’t have this kind of feelings towards me, I thought he would understand. Well, nobody understands.
“Stop, don’t pity me, I’m okay and at that moment I was too so…”
“I feel many things right now, none is pity,” he lets out and looks at me now serious, not wanting me to think that way for nothing in the world. “I never thought you were like this.”
“It’s horrible that you say you like me now because of my shitty past,” I already want to leave, this conversation is getting too sentimental and deep for me. I don’t like where this is going.
“I just thought you were a spoiled girl, that’s all.”
“You judge people quickly.”
He keeps looking at me as if to say “You’re the same.” Although I’m not the same, in the short time I’ve been with him, I see things that Donovan didn’t see in himself.
“It’s getting dark. I think it’s time to…” he hinted with the hope that I would tell him I’m right. I want to stay longer talking to him and that makes my escape more urgent.
Contradictory, I know.
“Start the party,” he finishes my sentence and smiles.
“Eh?”
“There’s one last place we’re going to go to.”
He skillfully runs out of the park entrance and I follow him with difficulty. He seems excited, which terrifies me… he’s going to kill me, right?
“Where are we going?”
“Don’t get scared now Alicia,” he gets into the car and I hesitate before doing the same.
“I’m not scared, I just don’t trust you much.”
“Keep it that way, never do.”
“Trust you?”
He doesn’t answer and starts to drive. He turns on the radio and the song Wonderwall by Oasis starts playing. I start tapping the window following the rhythm of the song and Donovan does the same, but on the steering wheel. Well, at least we like the same music, that’s good.
We were on the road for at least thirty minutes and we stopped at a rather shabby bar, like those biker bars in movies or something like that, although I have to admit that it’s very big. Now, the million-dollar question is, why the hell did he bring me here?
“Come,” he orders me getting out of the car and I do nothing more than follow him, although I’m a few steps behind him, that way at least I have some chance to escape for any murderous reason.
We enter the place and it was full of people. At least a thousand people were around us and I think I’m falling short with the figure. In one corner there was a large bar full of people ordering alcoholic beverages and we were among the people who were dancing with the least danceable music in history, since when is rock danced? Okay, I love almost all genres in the world, but I can’t find a way to dance to rock. In front of us, there is a stage and a band of three boys are playing on it.
“Stay here and if you tell anything about what you see here… I’ll hunt you down and kidnap you and you’ll live off dog food,” he says in a threatening tone as he leads me near the bar.
“Everything a girl wants to hear,” I whisper in his ear and he shows barely a smile.
“I know, I’m some kind of Romeo, aren’t I? I’m charming,” he yells over the deafening music.
“As charming as the days when my period comes,” I yell back. Giving a spin he goes and I really don’t understand what I can see here… Is it some kind of orgy or something? Probably at any moment they will turn off the lights and they will all be with everyone doing things not suitable for all audiences. For the moment, I see my escape routes.
“Friend of Donovan?” A girl yells behind me. I turn to see her and she has a flirtatious smile on her face, similar to Donovan’s, but a thousand times worse. “I’m Vanessa, his best friend I dare say, or well, we’re more like siblings and he knows it, but he won’t admit it.”
The girl has long, blue hair, she’s very pretty and has a nice smile adorned with a lip piercing.
“We’re acquaintances,” I replied immediately and she puts her arm around my shoulder, bringing me closer to her.
“Look at you, he never brought any acquaintances here, you’re the first,” she whispers in my ear, brushing her lips with mine. Yes, I think she’s drunk.
“New friend Vanessa?” A girl stands in front of us and has a few friends’ face.
“Hey Lara! How are you? This is… um… What’s your name?” Vanessa asked in my ear and I laughed with her. She’s quite given, the girl.
“Celina,” I clarified directly to Lara.
“Celina of course!” Vanessa yells very loud over the music.
“Are you with Den?” Lara crosses her arms and looks at me inquisitively and with a touch of acid in her voice.
She’s pretty, like Vanessa, Lara has her hair dyed purple, but the difference is that it’s short. She’s pale and very thin, tattoos on her chest and neck, doesn’t leave much to the imagination about what’s under that short shirt she’s wearing.
I wish I had her self-esteem to wear the same.
“Lamentably yes, I don’t know why he brought me here,” I answer her avoiding any problem with this girl. I don’t want to fight and less with a girl who has a tattoo saying “Get on your knees” on her neck.
“So, you don’t even know what this place is?” The acid in Lara’s voice is now even more noticeable. Well, I don’t like her.
“No, a club?”
“God, you should get out of your castle a bit,” she yells in my face and I see the challenge in her eyes. I straighten up and get closer to her… this won’t end well.
But why did she say that? Does she know where I’m from? How?
“Excuse me? How do you know…?”
Before I could finish, the lights went out and people started screaming like crazy, some guys came out and took their places on stage, the drums and the bass.
The last thing I expected is that Donovan would come out on stage with a guitar and with the expression of taking the world by storm. He doesn’t smile or show any gestures for the thousands of compliments he’s receiving right now from the girls. Shit, if I weren’t in total shock and didn’t know him, I’d also yell something at him, he’s even more beautiful when a single spotlight shines on him and I can see every movement of his body. Every step is so perfect, so confident, so accurate.
Lara, unsuspecting, offers me without a word a glass of what I think is beer, I take it with my guard totally down at this moment.
Donovan looks great.
*Donovan sing: Andy black – we don’t have to dance *
He sings incredibly well, his voice is simply wow. Never in a million years would I have imagined him singing like that, in such a way that it would give me goosebumps.
A couple more songs from Green Day, TSTM and MCR and I’m completely blown away. This guy is a genius with the microphone. After a while, I take my eyes off the stage for a few seconds to look at the glass in my hand, and I see it’s empty. Did I drink everything so quickly?
Donovan finished with the last song and left the stage without saying goodbye. For my part, my stomach started to twist and I was dizzy. I’m almost sure it’s not because of the experience a few seconds ago with Donovan. Anyone would be stunned to hear him or even look at him, but I was sure it would provoke everything in me except the urge to vomit.
Leaving Vanessa without saying goodbye and pushing through the crowd of people around me, I ran to the exit and vomited right next to the entrance. Well, Celina, perfect. At least I was able to get out of the place, or well, the threshold is the farthest I could get.
Two minutes, I was still vomiting, exhausted and wanting to lie down on the floor and writhe there.
Some fingers touched my neck and held my hair.
“It was Lara,” declared the same person who was helping me. It was Donovan. “She put something in your drink, for sure. Haven’t you ever heard the saying ‘Don’t accept things from strangers’?”
If we’re going to be specific, ‘don’t go with strangers’ applies to you, you cynical jerk.
“Well, I liked Vanessa better from the beginning,” I managed to say before letting out another load from my stomach.
“It’s weird how you still joke while you’re vomiting.”
“Do you want to know what’s weirder? That you’re holding my hair.”
“I think the same.”
With that day, it could be said that the real nightmare began.