Someone I Used to Know

by Blakney Francis

  It was a cavernous room with a bar running down the entirety of one side. The other side was made up of dozens of raised platforms with tables and leather booths. A few platforms had the curtains drawn around them, keeping prying eyes out, but others flaunted their depravity proudly, as girls poured expensive vodka into the eager waiting mouths of men in suits.

  Madeline grabbed my hand and I was pulled along behind her as she followed our host to one of the curtained sections. It wasn’t empty like I expected, but instead filled with a group of ten or so people I guessed to be around our age. The music was still too loud to really hear anything, but Madeline seemed to know a few of them as she attempted to make introductions.

  I just smiled and nodded like I could understand her. Red drinks were handed to us, and I happily downed the first fruity concoction, chapping my lips together at the old sting of alcohol. Another drink quickly took its place. Every once in a while a breeze would ruffle the gauzy curtain draped around us, and I could take in the dance floor that filled in the mass of space in the middle of the club.

  Madeline had started what appeared to be a passionate discussion with another girl, who looked vaguely familiar, and the poor girl kept glancing away from Madeline as if she desperately wanted to escape, but couldn’t dismiss someone of Madeline’s importance.

  I caught her eye, and pointed to the dance floor to let her know that’s where I was headed as I sat down my third finished beverage. Slipping down from the secluded section, I was immediately immersed in bodies.

  Sweat and glitter gleamed in the erratic pulses of light as I pushed myself further onto the dance floor. Couples ground into each other, and groups of girls fought to find rhythm in uneven clusters. Hands wrapped around my waist, encouraging me to move with the stranger’s hips, but I kept moving until people pressed against me from every angle.

  It was claustrophobic and overwhelming. And I loved it. I let my body revel in it, picking up the beat easily. I was just one tiny part of a mass that moved and swayed with the music. I was nobody. I was free. My hips contorted with edgy swivels, and I raised my hands to the ceiling as I let the mood consume me.

  A cute, preppy-looking guy bought me another drink, so I didn’t have to fight my way back to Madeline and the free alcohol. I danced with him as I sipped. The next song came on and I danced with him again, even though I’d discarded my empty cup. My eyes were closed, letting the smooth swirls of the music slither along my spine and dig into my soul.

  I was standing right across from Madeline’s booth, and I made sure to catch sight of her auburn hair through the loose curtain as often as I could. The boy’s hands squeezed my hips and my eyes popped open.

  Gray.

  Through a sea of bodies, I was instantly ensnared in the gray gaze that struck me like a pinpoint across the room.

  Declan.

  My head felt fuzzy and I knew I’d drank more than necessary to simply take the edge off. After blinking a couple times, I knew he wasn’t a figment of my imagination either. Declan was standing in the booth where I’d left Madeline, and he was staring right at me. He was dressed in dark clothes, different from the last time I’d seen him. His face arched with beautiful intensity, and I shivered despite the clammy warmth layering my skin.

  How could I dislike him so much, and want him so badly? The vodka shoved the harsh reality front and center – I really did want him. I wanted to slowly unbutton his deep, blue shirt, to see if he looked as good as I remembered underneath. I wanted to run my hands along his naked skin, until there was no clothing left to hinder me.

  “That was rather rude.” His voice was a blast of icy water, beating my libido back.

  I’d moved towards him without conscious thought, slipping through the swarm of bodies as easily as if they’d parted for me. The white curtain billowed closed behind me. I returned his scowl with an unpleasant frown of my own.

  “You just left your boyfriend to fend for himself back there,” he spoke again. His coal eyes burned like embers.

  I didn’t turn around to check. The music settled into a frothy melody that carried under his words like the score of one of his movies.

  “I didn’t think this was really your scene,” I blurted. Alcohol wasn’t a good idea around Declan. I needed my wits to deal with him. Declaring the first thing that popped into my head probably wasn’t going to lead anywhere good. Especially after all the dirty thoughts I’d been having about him.

  Madeline bobbled to a messy stop at my side gripping my arm for support. A dark stain smeared down her navy dress, probably left by the cranberry and vodkas she’d been sipping on earlier.

  “We’re going to Dan’s!” she announced yanking on me to follow her like she’d been doing all night. Although, she might have just been using me as a crutch to help her stand up, more than the fact she craved my company.

  “Who’s Dan?” I stood strong. I was a little drunk, but that didn’t mean I was stupid enough to pack off to a rando’s house.

  She huffed at me, irritated, and I couldn’t help but smile. She actually looked like a teenager when she did things like that.

  “He’s in that band, the one that sings –,” she cut herself off to belt a few versus of a very off-key song that I was pretty sure I’d never heard.

  “Dan’s a good guy,” Declan stated like that was all the stamp of approval I should need. “I’m going too.”

  “Yay!” Madeline’s victory cry was accompanied by her flinging both arms into the air and then bringing them around our shoulders, sandwiching us altogether. “We can dance at Dan’s too!”

  And then we were off, even without my consent, ushered into an identical car to the one we’d arrived in, though it could have very well been a completely different escort. I was just drunk enough not to care.

  Dan-whoever’s house was in Silver Lake, on the east side of LA. I happily accepted the blurring activity of our arrival, in fear the recognition would spark memories of before. Silver Lake and its neighbor Echo Park were old hangouts of mine.

  There weren’t that many people at Dan’s, maybe twenty or thirty, even though his rather large abode could have held many more, and I quickly made my way to the bar to find a drink. When I found Madeline again, she was sitting on a leather sofa in the spacious living room. The curved space was counteracted by furniture with harsh angles, and the centerpiece of it all was the huge, perfectly square coffee table. Most of the partygoers were gathered around it. There was no room on either side of Madeline, so I took one of the unoccupied chairs across from the couch.

  “Here’s how the game works,” a guy with dreadlocks was explaining as I settled with the group. “Each person has to come up with something they’ve never done like ‘I’ve never jumped out of a plane naked,’ and every person in the circle who has jumped out of a plane naked, has to drink.”

  “Really, Dan?” a model skinny girl bristled in a belittling drawl. “I played this in high school.”

  “Okay, well here’s where the fun part comes in,” dreadlocks continued, either not noticing the girl’s disdain or not caring. His baby face was twisted with a devilish smile. The smirk wasn’t half as charming as Declan’s. “When you run out of your current drink, you have to start removing clothing items instead.”

  My eyes rushed down into my half empty cup. I’d just been sucking down the tart liquid with little regard to finishing it. I rearranged my legs nervously, trying to look casual as I waited for someone else to bow out and offer me a way to slip out without drawing attention to my cowardice. Lastly, I peeked at Madeline. She was my last hope…But the little traitor hadn’t even batted an eyelash at the scandalous rules to the game.

  “I’ve never hooked up with a groupie.” The same girl who’d showed her distaste for the idea of the game earlier was the first to rattle off with a slyly pointed smirk at Dan.

  He, along with several other guys and one girl, had to take a sip of their drinks. My eyes instinctively searched for Declan, but he wasn’t here.
I hadn’t seen him since we’d arrived.

  “I’ve never been killed off a series for fucking with the unstable lead actress.” The next guy’s offering was obviously pointed, and my eyes pilfered the circle until they came to rest on the attractive guy to my right who was forced to take a reluctant swallow. The group roared with laughter at some joke I didn’t understand.

  Ruffling his blonde hair, his clear, light-blue eyes caught me staring, and he gave me a mischievous shrug.

  “I’ve never been to college,” a pug faced girl contributed.

  I took a tiny sip of my drink, and I noticed the blond guy watching me do it out of the corner of his eyes. The game went on like that. By the time I’d finished my drink half the room was already down to their undies, and the game didn’t seem so bad anymore.

  “I’ve never performed live on stage,” someone said.

  I slipped off a shoe while the pug faced girl ripped off her bra and sat bare breasted for anyone to see. I’d only thought I wasn’t modest until that moment. These people put me to shame. I lost my other shoe when someone admitted they’d never been out of the country, and with that I was out of non-scandalous pieces of clothing to remove.

  “I’ve never taken a pregnancy test,” said a guy with a devious grin at all the females. He was clearly smug about his addition, thinking it the cleverest thing of all time.

  Almost all the girls began removing pieces of clothing while they cackled and wiggled to free themselves. The blond guy noticed my frozen uncertainty, and he tipped his cup towards me, offering me the remaining contents. There was one sip left.

  I looked up at his boyishly handsome face with surprise. He was willing to give up his last sip so I could keep my dress. It was a strange kindness, but I beamed at him nonetheless. It was my turn to surprise him when instead of taking his offering, I swiveled away from him and pulled my long hair over my shoulder.

  “Can you give me a hand with the zipper?” I asked coyly, gazing up at him through my eyelashes. The alcohol empowered me. It begged me to flirt. I was a slave to the contact it yearned for.

  He swallowed hard once, before quickly adhering to my request. His hands were warm on my back, and then I was free of the beautiful dress, sitting in nothing but my underwear that had been seen by far too many people in one day. Somehow, I was still one of the most dressed girls there. Madeline’s jewelry had granted her a lot more options than I’d had, and she was the only one still wearing any real covering. I was practically a saint compared to some of these people, and I managed to keep my bra and panties while the blonde boy beside me was shimmied down to his boxers.

  “We should go swimming!” a girl cried enthusiastically. She had long ago lost all her wardrobe. I thought she was probably just bored without a way to join in on the game anymore, but her idea suited me just fine. I got to keep my ‘almost’ really skinny body at least semi-covered.

  I stood up, happy to have an excuse to leave the game, and followed the three other people who also felt like a midnight swim. Except that two of them got sidetracked by a bedroom, and the girl who’d been the one to suggest the idea, walked over to one of the pool chairs and promptly passed out face down. It was as close as she got to the water.

  The pool was perfectly circular, and multicolored lights danced from beneath the surface to waver among the shadows of the night. My fuzzy mind sighed happily at the peacefulness of the scene. It was quiet besides the gentle lapping of the water against the sides of the pool.

  I sensed a presence behind me, but I ignored it, walking to dip my feet in the water on the descending steps. The water crawled up my legs, as the soothing temperature lured me down two more steps, until I was submerged up to my thighs. I looked up towards the sky, hoping that maybe, just this once, the stars would shine bright enough to overpower the City of Angels.

  “So which is it: model, musician, actress?” the handsome blonde asked casually, joining me on the other side of the steps. He was still as undressed as he’d been for the game. The same as me.

  “How about – ‘D’ none of the above.” I stepped fully into the pool, the water tickling the bottom of my exposed ribcage. Facing him with a mysterious smile, I sauntered backwards, enjoying the texture of liquid curling around my torso.

  He stopped on the second step and took a seat as he watched me with an intrigued gleam in his crystal blue gaze. “What’s your name?”

  My smile only got wider. “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

  I used to be good at this. Flirting had come easily to me, and it had earned me a lot of attention in high school. It wasn’t until I’d stopped flirting, that Cam even deemed to honor me with his attention. He’d been too old to play my games, and I’d been more than happy to give them up for him. I’d thought I’d lost that part of myself forever too, but apparently all it needed was a little liquor to trick it out of hiding.

  “Tyler Warford,” he replied smoothly, running a confident hand through his stylish blond locks. I liked that he didn’t need me to spell it out for him.

  I was hungry for the look in his eyes. I wanted him to desire me the way Declan clearly didn’t. Tyler made me feel sexy and invincible. Or maybe it was the alcohol that made me feel sexy and invincible, but either way I felt good. I felt wanted.

  “I’m –,”

  “Adley, what the fuck?” He appeared from nowhere, almost like he’d materialized right out of the night. Declan’s eyes scolded me with their fierceness, and I quickly snatched my arms into place around my body. An entire room full of people ogling me didn’t make me feel an ounce as exposed as one look from him.

  “Hey, man. We were just talking,” Tyler tried to defuse the situation he didn’t fully understand, but he could clearly read the confrontation that radiated from Declan’s voice and stance.

  Declan ignored him, not even bothering to utter a word in his direction. Instead all of his anger was focused on me.

  “It’s time to go. Madeline’s waiting in the car. I’m taking you home.”

  For just a second, I thought about defying him. Who did he think he was, ordering me around? I was a grown woman. He had no right to tell me what to do.

  I looked towards the alternative. Tyler would probably be more than happy to fulfill any need I might have, but I wasn’t under any delusions that he didn’t have a habit of turning those pretty, blue eyes on girls like me all the time. He’d been using me just as much as I was using him, and what had seemed fun and exciting, suddenly felt dirty.

  Without a word to either one of them, I got out of the pool and marched through the house dripping water on every surface I passed. Declan’s limo was pulled right up to the front of the house, and the driver didn’t even blink at my undressed state as I climbed through the door he held open. Madeline was stretched out asleep on the extended side seat, leaving me to take my soggy place as far away from Declan as possible on the short bench seat after he followed me inside.

  I would be surprised if I didn’t have crisscrossing bruises across my skin where my arms wrapped viciously around my body. Stubborn silence sewed our lips together, and my eyes resolutely lodged on the tinted black of the windows. I heard shuffling movements beside me, which I was more than happy to ignore, until he nudged my arm, forcing me to look at the shirt he’d removed to offer in my direction. I’d fantasized about unbuttoning that exact shirt earlier, and I sucked in a harsh breath at the sight of his subtly toned torso and chest.

  As much as the sight tempted me, it also enraged me. I wanted him and he couldn’t even bear to look at me. I ripped the shirt from his hands and flung it as hard as I could away from us.

  “I hate you,” I snarled, wrenching my arms away from body and refusing to cover myself a second longer.

  I wasn’t ugly. Tyler Warford or whoever the hell he was sure wasn’t trying to cover me up. Plenty of guys hit on me. Declan Davies could go fuck himself and his phobia of my body.

  The silence persisted long after we’d dropped Madeline of
f at her home. Finally we pulled up outside of Cam’s house, but an unsettling realization poured over me and I made no move towards the door. I couldn’t.

  “Bet your regretting your little temper tantrum now,” Declan’s smug words almost pushed me over the edge.

  He was right though. My state of undressed left me with no choice but to make the long walk across Cam’s manicured yard in nothing but my bra and panties.

  “I hate you,” I repeated with a ragged breath of frustration. There was no way out of the situation without bruising my pride.

  “Stop saying that,” his words were shackled with a grimace.

  I faced him fully. My posture was confrontational, and I felt willful. I wanted to defy him in every way I could. “Why? Why should I? It’s true. I hate you.”

  He jerked forward, extending his body down the long stretch of the car to grab his discarded shirt. It still remained in a wrinkled ball where I’d flung it. He sat back, closer than before. His proximity struck me lightheaded. All I could do was take a deep breath. He smelled like something indescribably delicious.

  “I don’t like it,” he admitted quietly, as his eyes and movements focused on threading my limp hand through the arm of the shirt. I had almost forgotten my question. It took me a minute to wander back to sense.

  “Why?” I whispered this time, making no move to stop him from dressing me like I was a doll. I wasn’t going to help him either though.

  He’d gotten my other arm through the shirt and started slowly buttoning it back together. He took his time, and even though I couldn’t see his hooded eyes feasting on the skin he covered, I could feel its scorching hot tracks across my chest.

  “I don’t know.” His eyes finally met mine as he finished, and I could see the truth as much as I could see how much it bothered him.

  There was a flicker of something buried deeply in depths of gray, a hint at the fire that could have ignited the whole car, and burned up both of us in its powerful wake. It was just a glimpse, but once I’d seen it, I knew it to be true.