Young Writers Society

I sat and listened to his entire set as I drowned myself in bourbon. “Maybe you should sl…” Ken started to say, but I gave him a look that could pierce through armor and he put his head down as he filled another glass with Buffalo Trace.

“Alright, this is my last song tonight. Y’all have been great!” Beau grinned as he began strumming out another riff on his acoustic. My god, I was still in shock just looking at him. He looked the same as I remembered, but oh so different. His milk chocolatey hair was still shagging over almost into his eyes, but his face wasn’t clean and smooth like it had once been. It was covered in what seemed to be the most perfect scruff I had ever laid eyes upon. He had started to get some wrinkles around his eyes. Just more proof of how long it had been since I had seen him. His once scrawny figure now had just a hint of muscle under his tight white t-shirt. God that smile though, it was still the same one that had made me fall in love so long ago. Damn it, what the hell was he doing here, after all these years?

I finished another bourbon as he was finishing up his last song. I looked to Ken to try and have another, “Forget it, TJ, you’re cut off,” Ken told me. He was using what I referred to as his ‘dad voice’ at this point so I knew it was time to stop drinking. Of course, I probably should have stopped drinking about three drinks ago because I was pretty unsure if I was even going to be able to form sentences now.

I watched Beau put his guitar in its case and talk to a few people as he walked from the stage towards the bar where I was sitting. A million things to say were running through my head, but my drunk self couldn’t decide before he approached me. Did he even recognize me? If he did, he certainly wasn’t saying anything. I shouldn’t be upset, it had been what? Four years now?

Drunk me has no filter though, “Seriously, you aren’t even going to say hello, fuckface?” I heard myself blurt out. Wow, way to go, bourbon! Too late to change it now because the words seemed to be written out in the cigarette smoke hanging in the bar.

He turned and looked at me, staring for what seemed like an eternity before he finally broke the silence, “Taylor Jane, I’ll be damned.” Really, Beau? That’s all you have to say to me after going 4 years without seeing or speaking to me?

“You’ll be damned, alright.” I scoffed and I was reaching to take another drink before I realized there wasn’t anything left in my glass. “What the hell are you doing here?” I half slurred.

“Well, I was playing a set,” He still had that same smart-ass attitude I remembered, guess I could add it to the list of things that hadn’t changed, “Now, I’m getting myself a drink.” He said, nodding towards the bar. Ken walked over, he raised his eyebrows at me, probably wondering what was going on. I just shook my head. We weren’t getting into that right now. Ken looked back to Beau, “Buffalo Trace, neat.” Beau told him and Ken gave me another questioning look.

“Alright, smartass,” I was struggling to speak without slurring my words together at this point but I was trying to keep that from being blatantly obvious. “I meant why’re you here, in Chicago, in my bar?”

I watched him as he took a few sips of his bourbon. I wasn’t sure if it was him or the alcohol that had caused the feeling of butterflies to appear in my stomach. I was 28 years old, I wasn’t supposed to get that feeling anymore. “I’ve been touring,” he started as he sat down on the bar stool next to mine, leaning one arm on the bar, “I’ve been all over, Tay, you’d be proud.” He took another sip and gave me that stupid smirk of his. I swear I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to smack a smile off someone’s face as bad as I did right then.

“Proud of you, huh?” I asked with a laugh, even though nothing was funny, really. “You’re still doing the same old shit. What’s to be proud of?” Normally, I’m a nice girl. When it came to Beau, though, I don’t think I could ever be nice to him again. I guess every girl has that one guy that really brings out the crazy bitch, and not in a good way either.

“Damn, someone is pissy.” He said, shaking his head at me. “Lighten up, we haven’t seen each other, let’s catch up.” He started to reach out and touch my arm. When he did my intoxicated reaction to jerk away was a little more of an overreaction. I ended up jerking away so hard that I slid off the leather covered bar stool and landed flat on my ass.

I couldn’t help but bust out laughing. It was either laugh or cry, and there was no way in hell that Beau was ever getting the pleasure of seeing me cry again. He hesitated at first but joined in laughing with me too. He stood up and held out a hand to help me up. I took his hand and stood up. “You alright?” Ken said, reminding me that there were other people here besides just the two of us.

“Yea, I’m good.” I told him as I was dusting the dirt and god knows what else off the ass of my dress. Then I realized I was still wearing a dress and heels, which made me laugh some more. “No wonder you didn’t recognize me. I’m wearing a fucking dress.” I blurted out again. You gotta love alcohol, it definitely deleted my filter for saying stupid things.

Beau laughed with me some more as we took our places back on our stools. “Yea, what’s up with that?” he asked grinning at me. I knew then that drinking so much tonight was not such a good idea after all.

“I had an important dinner. I didn’t go home to change first. Not that it’s your business.” I said flatly. I was trying to get back to my being mean. It was the only defense mechanism I had left at this point, but there was one more thing to add to the list of unchanged things: my bitchy attitude didn’t bother Beau at all.

“Last call!” Ken bellowed out so that everyone in the bar could hear him. I had forgotten that it was a Wednesday so the bar closed pretty early. Maybe that’d be a good thing for me. I could go home, pass out, and forget that Beau was ever here. That sounded like a nice idea.

“Well, guess I need to head home,” I announced. When I stood up I almost lost my balance but I recovered nicely. Hopefully Ken or anyone else hadn’t noticed. My apartment was nearby so I always just walked myself home. I grabbed my coat off the back of my stool and wrapped it around me tight. It was the middle of fall in the windy city, so it was surely cold outside. “I’ll see ya, Ken!” I waved to him as I pointedly took one step at a time towards the exit.

I was concentrating on my steps but as I got just outside the door, I noticed someone was with me. I looked up, and there was Beau. “What?” I asked him, stopping on the sidewalk. I was too drunk to walk and talk at the same time.

“You not even gonna catch up with an old friend?” He asked and gave me that same stupid smirk again. “Come on, I’ll walk you home. Make sure you don’t fall again or anything.” I was too drunk to argue with the offer right now. Plus, I really didn’t know if I was going to make it home at this rate or not so I just shrugged in agreement with him. He put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me a little too close to him for my liking, “Lead the way.” He said, smiling down at me. Now I knew that feeling of butterflies was definitely coming from him. I tried my best to ignore it, looked back down at my feet, and started my one step at a time rhythm back to my apartment.