Embrace of the Undead - Chapter 2

A few days after Alice had paid a visit, she invited me out to have a drink. Alcohol was like venom to me at that time. I didn’t want to risk ending up how I did at the party. I still hadn’t recovered from the embarrassment of that night. The same day Taco came to buy the tooth brush, three other guys came in and started teasing me about the whole table dancing thing. Luckily we were only going out to a bar named ‘The Icon’. It sounded genuinely good as it was 50% off night meaning I could drink only a few drinks and not spend too much.

After I showered, I went to Alice’s house to get ready. She insisted that I ‘slut’ myself up again in order to get a new boyfriend. Not wanting to argue with her, I agreed. I was wearing leather black shorts, a dark red halter top, black high heels with spikes around them and some jewellery. She even crimped my hair. I wanted to die.

In the cab, Alice flirted with the driver as he rambled on about how he wanted to go to hell when he died because that’s where all the hot girls were.

“Oh, in that case I guess you’ll be seeing me there then,” she giggled whilst twirling her hair around her finger seductively.

Sometimes Alice annoyed me. I was sitting in the back seats hiding my face as I felt it turn red with embarrassment.

When we finally got to our destination, I got out of the cab quickly not wanting to hear anything else from the driver. Before Alice got out I rushed into the bar.

“What the hell, Skyler?” Alice’s voice sounded from behind me, “You didn’t pay your half of the fair.”

I handed Alice my half of the fair money, “Sorry but I kind of wanted to get out of there before I was sick.”

Alice decided to drop it and we walked up to the bar. Alice ordered her usual which was a strawberry daiquiri. I just ordered a Kopperberg. I wasn’t really into girly drinks with umbrellas and flamingos. Basically for the first half hour we just sat and chatted about the usual stuff like who-was-dating-who and what-happened-on-Glee-last-night. Then came our second drinks…Then came the third…Then the fourth…Then Alice’s fifth…Then Alice’s sixth.

“You know what, Skye, honey?” Alice sighed as she began to take a swig at her drink, “You don’t need a man. They all suck! Remember that cute guy with the phone number? I called him and he was like ‘who the hell is this?’ And, Skye, I cried.”

Alice was pretty drunk here was no denying it. I pat her shoulder in order to comfort her a bit.

“I’m not drunk, by the way,” she insisted.

“I know, Alice, I know,” I tried not to laugh as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

“A bit too much, I see,” A voice sounded from behind me. I couldn’t tell if the person was speaking to me or not so I didn’t respond. I continued to pat Alice’s shoulder and then, out of curiosity, I turned around to see who the owner of the voice was and who he was talking to. I saw no one. When I turned around, I saw Alice crying. Before I even got the chance to question she jabbed me on the shoulder with her finger.

“You…are rude…” she took another drink, “that guy was talking to you…and you ignored him…ruuuuuuuuuude…”

I tried not to laugh as she slurred, “it was probably some guy looking to buy me a drink and take me home after.”

“But, Skyyyyye,” she whined, “that’s why you’re out here…forget about Norman…find someone else…promise?”

“OK, I promise,” I lied.

Then just as I had told my lie, a guy walked into my view. He was holding a flask in his hand, “You two must really love to drink.”

He was the one who Alice said was speaking to me earlier. He had a British accent. Before I could question his existence, Alice spoke up.

“OH GOD, I KNOW YOU, MAN!” She smiled whilst pointing her finger, “You’re the shed guy.”

I then gulped. A lump formed in my throat and Alice wasn’t helping. She began elbowing me whilst smiling obnoxiously. I pushed her elbow away from me.

“Where you that guy at the party the other night? The one from the shed?” I questioned.

“The one you were crying all over me whilst questioning the existence of men? Then, yes, that is me.” He just smiled whilst I tried to hide my embarrassment.

I put up my hands in defeat, “about that; I am so-so sorry. I just had a lot to drink and I was kind of emotional.”

“Well it wasn’t as embarrassing as it sounds actually so no need to worry,” he smiled as he took a drink from his flask.

“What’s with the flask?” Alice crossed her legs causing her skirt to ride up a bit.

“I think I prefer my own drink,” he answered ignoring her skirt length.

“Are you here alone?” She questioned.

“Kind of,” he answered.

“You got a name?” Alice asked taking a drink.

“Yeah, Xavier.”

Not wanting to questioned, Alice invited him to sit with us for the rest of the night at a booth in the corner of the bar.

For the rest of the night, Alice had promised to only have a few more drinks. I had already decided to not have any more. Xavier kept drinking from the flask. I noticed he kind of looked as if he was making sure to not spill it or anything. He wouldn’t even let it drip down his chin. Strange.

“What’s with the flask?” I decided to ask at one point.

He looked at the container for a while before answering, “It was a present…from someone who meant a lot to me.”

“Tha’s cute…” Alice slurred before she stared crying again, “I’m s-sorry I godda’ go to the bathroom…fix my face.”

With that she got up and began her attempt at her walk to the bathroom. While she was gone I had no choice but to talk to Xavier. There was no one else. We found out more about eachother. He was a musician from Detroit. He never told me what part of the UK he was from though. We just talked about movies and stuff. Well actually, he hadn’t really seen any movies. Something was off about him. While I was talking to him, it kind of felt like I was speaking to my great great great grandpa or something. He just didn’t seem like someone from out time. He explained how he got confused with the juke box.

“Did you want to play something?” I asked him. But it was kind of obvious that he wanted to play something. What else could the juke box do?

“Yeah, actually,” he replied taking another drink from the flask. I then grabbed his arm gently and walked him towards the juke box.

“It says five songs for two quarters,” I told him.

“OK.”

He inserted two quarters.

“So what song did you want to listen to?” I asked him as I went to the search bar. Instead of answering, he typed in ‘knights’.

Then he clicked ‘Knights in white satin’ by The Moody Blues. It was added to the playlist.

“You can choose one too if you want,” Xavier insisted.

I chose ‘What Does the Fox say’ for a joke.

“There’s like three more choices,” I noted, “What else do you what?”

He thought for a second and then smirked, “What do you think I want?”

I took into account his answer and tried to work out what he what he was actually getting at. But I didn’t want to ask in case I was wrong. So I turned back to the juke box. I chose ‘Groove is in the Heart’.

“What do you think I want?” I tested.

He chose ‘Do you wanna touch me there’ A.K.A The song which was playing while I was table dancing.

“I will murder you,” I pointed my finger at him whilst grinning evilly.

“How about you decide the last song choice and then murder me,” he smirked.

“No, it’s your money, you choose,” I insisted.

“I don’t want to,” he replied.

After a short argument we decided we would both choose. But how we would choose was weird.

“A song that represents the both of us. How about that?” He suggested.

Like before, I didn’t know what he was getting. I decided I would actually say something this time.

“I-I don’t…really know to be honest,” I stuttered as I felt my cheeks begin to burn up, “depends what you mean by ‘us’.”

Xavier stared for quite a while before finally asking, “Do you really not remember the other night?”

I thought about the party. Alice said Xavier was the guy from the shed. That was fine though since I apologised for my drunken behaviour. I tried to remember what Taco and Alice had told me about what happened after.

Then it hit me.

Hit me like a brick in the head.

Taco had said Xavier was sitting at the table with us playing those shot games. He had mentioned how we…

How we…

Oh God…Xavier was the guy I was making out with at the table.