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Stop and Stare ~ Part Seven
Zoey
“No way.” I snapped my head to the side to look at Beth who was standing beside me. “It’s... it’s disgusting. Do you have any idea what could be down there? Rubbish? Stray dogs? Rats?”
Beth rolled her eyes and I turned to gaze into the heavy darkness. I could hardly see a thing, and judging by what my eyes were able to make out within the blackness, I was glad of it. The two buildings that created the alleyway were almost attached, lessening the width of the gap at a dauntingly great scale. It was suffocating just to look at. I didn’t even want to glance at the floor because I just knew that it would be covered in a blanket of grey chewing gum that was probably centuries old.
This alleyway was right at the end of Beth's street, and to be perfectly honest, it was the one place in the street I really didn't want my feet to touch. Occasionally, whenever I was sleeping over Beth's, the blaring music from the club could be heard faintly from her house. I was supposed to be sleeping over Beth's tonight, but her version of a sleepover was spending the majority of the night in a club full of sweaty teenagers. It was definitely a good thing my parents didn't know about us coming here tonight. The thought of me being anywhere near Amber Fountains would have ran their throats dry and accelerated their heartbeats, especially after what happened... I glanced into the alleyway once more. I couldn't have blamed them for worrying.
“Zoey, we don’t really have a choice.” Beth tried to nudge me forward, but my feet remained stuck to the hard concrete. She sighed. “We’re late enough as it is. The club doesn’t let anyone in past half past seven.” She lifted her watch up to her tanned face. “We’ve got fifteen minutes, and no way are we going to get there in time if we don’t take the shortcut.”
Beth was right. If we were to walk the long way, it would involve strolling through over ten streets. Despite us being a mere hundred yards or so away from Vertigo's entrance, the only way around the building was by walking all of those streets. Unless we took the shortcut through the alleyway, that is. No way was I doing that.
“Don’t worry, we’ll just do this another night then.” As I tried to turn away, Beth grasped my arm.
The wind roared and as it flurried through the alleyway, it caused a high pitched whistling sound. The wind reached us and my loose strands of hair began dancing around my face. No way in hell was I going down there. I shivered. Beth was wearing a black dress that hugged at every curve in her slender body, but there was no sign of any kind of jacket with her. I was wearing both a jacket--even if it was a thin one--and tights, yet every inch of my body was almost falling off with numbness. I had no idea how Beth hadn’t caught hypothermia yet.
“Zoey, come on. We haven’t been here since, like, forever.” There was a moaning tone in Beth’s usually sweet voice. “Besides, it’s been ages since you’ve had a good time. You know, after..." She paused. "you know.”
I didn’t say anything this time. Instead, I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and took a deeper look into the alleyway. Maybe it wasn’t that bad. I had some hand sanitizer in my bag, so it wasn’t as though I’d have to go through the entire night with filthy hands if I did happen to touch something foul. There’d be toilets in the club as well, and toilets meant sinks, and sinks meant soap and water. What if there was something dangerous down there though? I scratched my head.
I never should have agreed to this. I lifted my hand to my mouth and began nibbling on my fingernails. The rhythmic music coming from the inside of the club distracted me from my thoughts slightly, but I tried my best to drown the sounds out. If I’d had it my way, Beth and I would be watching a handful of films right now along with a never ending tub of ice cream, but no, she had to beg me to come here. For a best friend, she didn’t half know how to frustrate me. Beth nodded her head towards the alleyway, and as she did so, her dyed red hair bounced back and forth. I knew why she was doing this--she thought it would take my mind off things.
She didn’t understand though. I was perfectly capable of controlling my own emotions, and I had a good balance of things right now. If ever I got emotional about... what had happened a few weeks ago, I would inhale, count to ten, and then exhale. If that didn’t work, I’d keep doing it until my mind soothed into a comfortable state. It was a simple relaxation technique. I couldn’t let my mind wander into places that would only cause stress because I had enough of that in my life already. Right now though, Aimee’s face was fighting against my mind as it tried to imbed itself into my head. Inhale. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Exhale. My palms were beginning to sweat. Inhale. One, two, three, four, five, si--
“Zoey? You okay?” Beth’s voice interrupted my counting.
“Yeah, of course.” I forced a smile. “Come on, then. Let’s go.”
I stepped forward, and without turning back, I began sauntering down the alleyway. I almost fooled myself into thinking this was a perfectly normal action for me--the key word being almost. My hands stiffened. The deeper we went, the harder it became to lift my feet off the ground and push on. My forehead began to sweat, and the icy wind wasn’t able to cool me down, not even when it was roaring. I couldn’t be that far into this gaping hole of an alleyway, so if I turned around now, maybe I could make it out in no time. I shut my eyes for a moment before looking at Beth. She was humming to herself with a casual grin on her face. How on earth could she be so calm?
Voices.
I reached out and wrapped my arm around Beth’s arm. She came to a sudden halt before shooting me a glare. I lowered my voice into a whisper.
“Oh, God,” I stammered. “Can you hear that?”
Silence.
“No, Zoey, I really can’t.” She flicked her fringe off her face. “Come on.”
Before I had the chance to protest, Beth pulled me forward and considering my arm was locked around hers, I had no choice but to stumble after her. By the time she let go of me, there was no chance of turning back. My hands were shaking as I followed Beth and my strutting had turned into a toddling now. I had to calm myself. I was overreacting--the voices were probably just in my imagination anyway. I lifted my head up and locked my eyes into the distance. Was that a light? Yes! Not much longer now.
More voices.
“Beth!” This time, I jerked her backwards. “Listen!”
Beth groaned, but half way through her moaning, the sound of deep voices again stopped her. She was standing still now and despite it being dark, I knew there was a hazy look in her chocolate coloured eyes. After a short moment though, her lips curved upwards.
“Zoey, it’s just people. You know, those things with limbs and stuff?”
“Yes, but why are they in the alleyway?”
“I don’t know, it’s not against the law. Come on.”
She continued ambling forward, but I remained on the spot. Something ran past the corner of my eyes. My face dropped. I spun around and looked frantically around me. Was that a rat? Please, no. I began backing away as I watched Beth continuing to walk forward in her strappy heels, and as the almost non-existent moonlight shone on them through the gap of the alleyway, I was certain the shoes winked at me. Voices again. I froze. Another movement in the corner of my eyes. A scurrying sound. Something brushed against my leg. A pair of beady eyes stared at me from the ground. As I let out a terrified squeal, the eyes moved closer towards me. Oh, God, it was on my shoe.
“It’s on me!”
I bolted down the alleyway, passed Beth, and without turning back, I sprinted towards the neon lights that were brightening far more rapidly than before. The shape of two figures against the wall became clear, but all I was concentrated on were the lights in the distance. At the speed I was running, I'd probably just swish past them before they had a chance to do anything anyway. Blood rushed all through my head, and my breathing became uncontrollable. Just as I reached a pile of rubbish bags, someone stepped out in front of me. I couldn't even think to stop in time.
Then I hit something hard.
I came to a stop, stumbled a little, and everything happened at once. There was a thud as the stench of tobacco overwhelmed me. The sound of Beth’s heels racing towards me echoed in the alleyway as my body shook, and not from the cold. All of the noises merged into one disorderly symphony as I tried to catch my breath.
“Oi!”
I spun around to face the wall, and the first thing I saw was a pair of almost black eyes glaring at me. The boy who owned those eyes threw his cigarette to the ground, and his lips curled. His hair was an angelic blonde, but his expression was anything but heavenly. I didn’t mean to bump into him, I just... I... I winced as I finally noticed the slight pain in my shoulder from where I'd bumped into the boy. I looked back up to see him stamp on his old cigarette. His eyes hardened. Just as I thought he was about to swing his arm at me, he bent down in a rush. I followed him with my gaze. Lying on the concrete below us was a boy with dark, scruffy hair. His eyes were shut. It was him I ran into, not the light-haired boy. I began stammering as I held back a gasp. Oh, God, what had I done?
“Zoey!” Beth yelled, and soon enough, she was beside me. “Zoey, are you okay?”
“Is she okay?” The light-haired boy’s husky voice caused both Beth and me to turn to him. “What the hell is wrong with you? You need to look where you’re bloody going.” He removed his hand from the back of his friend’s head. “Fricking hell, he’s bleeding, you idiot. You better have a da--”
“Hey, don’t speak to her like that!” Beth pushed in front of me. “I don’t know who you think you are, matey, but I’d suggest for you to shut it. Your friend shouldn’t have been standing in the middle of a blooming alleyway.”
The boy looked taken aback. I was rubbing my shoulder as he tilted his head. His eyebrows were raised while he watched Beth before turning back to his friend on the ground. As he did so, I couldn’t help but notice a smirk appear on his face for a second. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have guessed that he looked impressed. He soon frowned again though.
“Charlie? Mate, you alright?” He cursed under his breath as he began tapping his friend’s cheek. “Charlie, wake up.”
The blood was no longer splashing around in my head now, but it had settled into a subtle, yet daunting, swishing feeling. I swallowed. As the panic began to rise inside of me, I made the best effort possible to control myself. In a situation like this, calmness was key. I nailed that thought into my head as I watched the boy try to wake his unconscious friend. Blinking slowly, I took in a deep breath.
“Here,” I said as I bent down while being careful not to touch the ground with my knees.
I unzipped my bag as I tried to ignore the way my head was still making the world dance around me, then pulled out a round bottle of perfume. The boy pulled an unimpressed face as he cursed for the second time. He shook his head and raised his eyebrows before opening his mouth to speak, but I interrupted him.
“What’s your name?”
“Err... Austin. Why? And no offence, babes, but I dunno what you expect the stink of berries and pine or whatever that stuff is to do.”
It’s wild summer fruits actually.
“Okay, Austin, hold his head up for me,” I said, nodding at the boy who I assumed was Charlie.
Austin was staring at me as though I was a madwoman, but nonetheless, he did as I told him to. I could hear Beth chewing at her nails as she was standing above me. I flicked the lid off the perfume, and within a second, an intense scent was released into the summer air. I glanced at Austin. The smell of wild summer fruits may have been strong, but it smelt tremendously better than cigarette smoke. As I pushed the open bottle towards Charlie’s face, I noticed that my hand was shaking. I had to relax. Inhale. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, then.. Exhale. I paused, regained some kind of composure, and placed the perfume under Charlie’s nose.
After holding the perfume there for a short few seconds, he started stirring. Austin began tapping his cheek again, then out of the blue, Charlie’s pale face was brought to life. He started coughing in frenzy as his face twisted.
“Fricking hell, what is that?” He suddenly flinched before lifting his hand to the back of his head. Austin quickly let go of him. “Ow...” Charlie groaned.
“Hey, you alright?” Austin asked as Charlie began pulling himself up from the ground.
Both Beth and I watched eagerly as we waited for his response. He sat himself up until he was leaning against the brick wall behind him. Lifting his left hand to the back of his head, he let out a heavy sigh. His eyes were stuck to the ground until he glanced to the side of him at where Austin was now sitting.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good. I’ve had worse knocks.” Charlie rubbed his hand on his scraggy jeans, and then moved it to reveal a stain of scarlet blood. “Lush. That explains the headache then.”
“I bet you wish we’d stayed with Jax now.” Austin started laughing. “I’ve gotta say though, mate, that was an interesting technique to hit on a couple of chicks.”
I stood up and turned to Beth. She appeared to be equally as baffled as me. His friend had just been knocked unconscious, his head was bleeding, he could have been concussed or something, yet Austin was joking around with him. If I was Charlie, I would have been furious. Instead of yelling at his friend though, Charlie started laughing before rubbing his hand across Austin’s face.
“Ew, that’s minging, you freak!” Austin pulled his head back as he rubbed his own face which now had a stain of red on it. “Share it with them! They’re the ones that attacked you.” He nodded at Beth and me.
"Attacked him? He was the one sta--" I elbowed Beth and shook my head. "Whatever," she muttered, crossing her arms.
For the first time since he’d regained consciousness, Charlie looked up at me. I stared back at him. As he lifted his head, light was poured onto his face and every single feature became clearer than polished glass. I felt myself smiling. The colour had returned to his face now, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. His eyes did that. His left one was a striking green, but the other one was a different colour entirely--a soft blue. As he ran his hand through his jet-black hair, a soft grin grew on his face to reveal a set of dimples in his cheeks. Those cheeks turned a pinkish colour as he glanced at the floor.
“Nah, it was my mistake,” he said before looking back up at me with the smile still intact. “I shouldn’t be such a prick.”
“No, I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going. I just... I think there was a rat...” I replied.
Charlie simply smiled, and then everyone was silent. If it wasn’t for the club’s music and the occasional laughter of people outside the building, the only sound would have been the whistling of the wind. Charlie concentrated back on the floor while mine wondered around the brick walls that surrounded me. They weren’t at all interesting, so I didn’t know why I was doing it. I just needed something to look at without feeling embarrassed, I suppose. I looked at Beth. Should we have left? Gone into the club? We couldn’t just leave these two though, could we? Beth’s blank expression showed no sign of anything to answer my questions. I turned to Austin. He was grinning. He glanced at Charlie, then glanced at me, then turned to Beth. It wasn’t long until his eyes were locked onto Charlie again, and by now, Austin’s smile had turned into a broad grin.
“I tell you what.” He looked back at us. “How about you make it up to us by buying us a couple of drinks.”
“You do realise that it’s normally the boys who offer to buy the drinks?” Beth crossed her arms.
“Someone’s a little bit sexist.” Austin winked at her. “I thought I’d mix things up a bit. I’m such a rebel, you see, babes.”
I had to admit, I’d never seen anyone respond to Beth quite like Austin had been doing tonight. I loved my best friend dearly, but I couldn’t deny that she was sometimes rather intimidating. She’d normally silence people with her snappy comments--she was like my sister in that way-- but all they seemed to do to Austin was egg him on. In fact, it was shocking that Beth hadn’t smacked him for calling her babes yet.
“Half and half then?” Austin stood up and leaned against the wall.
Charlie nudged Austin’s leg and shot him a glare. He mouthed something, but when he noticed me watching him, he instantly stopped whatever he was trying to say. Austin shook his head, winked at him, and then turned his attention back to us.
“Is that a deal?”
“Hmmm...” Beth forced a smile off her face. “Deal.”
#
My eyes followed Beth’s hand as it delved into her bag. When she brought it back out, she was holding a pallet of make-up. She kept her eyes on the boys as Austin puffed out rounds of smoke. She began applying everything possible onto her thin face, from striking black mascara to bronzer. Judging by the way Beth behaved towards the boys in the alleyway, most people would have assumed that she wouldn't be able to get away from them fast enough. I knew her all too well though. It was almost as if the more aggressive she behaved towards people when she first met them, the more she liked them. It was bizarre, but that was Beth for you.
Outside the entrance of the club was far more hectic than I’d hoped. Music blasted into my ears even louder than before, people were shouting and laughing, and the amount of sweat that was on the teenagers who’d come outside to cool down was unbelievable. We were queuing to pay for our tickets, and the boys were waiting just outside the opening of the alleyway so that Austin could have another cigarette.
“I reckon he’s so your type,” Beth muttered as her eyes concentrated on Charlie. She turned to me.
“Beth, how can he possibly be my type? I don’t even know him.” I tightened my ponytail. “Besides, he needs a good clean up. He’s scruffy.”
“He‘s your type as in the way he looks, minus the scruffiness or whatever you call it. Besides, it’s not scruffy, it’s rugged. Kind of like Robert Pattinson, minus the dodgy quiff thing Pattinson has going on with his hair. What I mean is, you have a thing for pretty boys, don’t you?” She turned her concentration to Austin. “And I like a blonde.”
"Ten pounds, please?" The flat voice of the security guard distracted me for a moment.
I hadn't realised that we were first in line now. I turned to face the security guard to see him with his skinny hand out in front of him. He was scanning me with his round eyes, an impatient expression growing on his face as the seconds ticked on.
"Oh, yeah." I pulled out a perfectly folded ten pound note, then handed it to the tall man. I turned back to Beth. “I guess I see what you mean.” I crossed my arms to tighten my jacket across my body. “I’d definitely say Charlie’s better looking, and he seems kind of... I don’t know. Sweet, I guess.” I paused and smiled. “He’s definitely not your type then.”
"Come on, Daniel wasn't that ba--"
"Hello? You do realise you're next in line, Miss?" The security guard interrupted Beth.
"Yeah, sorry." She handed him her money. She rolled her eyes at him as we moved to the side. "As I was saying, Daniel wasn't that bad. He just couldn't control what was in his pants." She raised her thin eyebrows. "Hang on, are you trying to imply that I have a bad taste in men, my friend?" Beth nudged me and grinned.
I tried not to giggle at Beth as she moved on to apply a coat of lip gloss. The fact that her last two boyfriends had cheated on her answered that question really. I chuckled as I watched my friend. After turning to the entrance of the club, I let out a long sigh. Aimee never would have believed me if I ever told her that I'd done this. She'd most definitely come out with some witty comment on how I'd probably gained a phobia of concrete after seeing an oddly coloured slab or something. There's no need to think about Aimee now, I thought to myself. It's all about control. She'd probably laugh at me anyway for getting so worked up about it. A grin formed itself onto my face as I let out a sigh.
There was still an uncertainty lingering in my mind about going into this place because, well, I'd never been here before. Me and new experiences didn't often mix all too well. There was a slight tingling in my body though, a feeling that was pushing me on, one that made me want to enter the club. Plus, it would be good to spend some time with some new people. I'd hardly seen any people I knew over the past month, let alone anyone new. Besides, maybe tonight wouldn’t be so bad. It may have gotten off to a rocky start, but it could only get better from here, eh?
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