House of Syn - Chapter 3
"Ha ha ha! Owned!" Valen typed into the chat box, as she ended her game of WoW. She had been playing for 7 hours straight, and was now talking to her archnemesis from the game on AIM. They had a serious rivalry going, and they liked to taunt each other. But they were also friends, too. "You just got raped !"
"WTFE," he replied. "Your entire guild is weak! Weak, I say!"
His Screen Name was LordPein_GodRealm. Even though she had been talking to him for years and had seen plenty of pictures of him, she did not call him by his real name (Which was Jerry). She just called him LordPein.
"Okay, Real Life question," she announced. "What can a girl do to spend time with a hot guy or get on a hot guy's good side? In a friend kinda way?"
"What kind of hot guy?"
"He is tall, good-looking, about 25-ish, extremely well-built, has full sleeves, and works at a porn shop."
"Take him out for drinks," LordPein suggested. "Does he like to go out drinking?"
"Yes. That much I know."
"No one turns down free drinks. Over drinks you can talk to him and get to know him. But it won't be like a date thing, just a hanging out thing. So you won't have to feel too nervous."
"You are a life saver! Thanks! *hugs*"
"Awww. *hugs back* How come you don't take me out for drinks sometimes?" LordPein asked.
"Because you live like 3,000 miles away?"
"I keep forgetting. =( I wish I lived near you. I don't see why you don't have a boyfriend. You are so awesome."
"Aw thx."
"Ur welcome."
"I've got to go, though. I have to get ready for later."
"Later?"
"Going by the porn shop. Gonna ask the hottie out for drinks!" she typed, excitedly.
"Good luck."
"Thanks. I'll need it," she said, and signed off.
Valen knew that picking out an outfit for tonight's trip to the House of Syn was of the utmost importance. She wanted to look good, but not like she was trying too hard.
She went through everything in her closet and changed clothes 8 times, before she settled on an understated look. A black satin lace-up corset, some black leggings that laced all the way up the back, a pair of satin wedge heels that laced around the ankle, and her signature cat-eye black cream eye shadow. She applied some blood red lipstick, then finished the look off by creating a messy updo and applying a few nifty bat barettes to her hair. (She loved bats. She slept with a stuffed one at night.)
Satisfied with her dangerous and sexy look, she headed over to the shop, trying not to trip in her impossibly high heels during the short walk. As a last minute decision she had padded her corset, and she really hoped that her tissue pads wouldn't somehow fall out during this visit. She could only hope she'd laced the corset tight enough.
'God, why couldn't I just have some actual breasts ?!' she thought, bitterly.
When she walked into the shop she saw that there were about a half dozen people in there. Mostly couples and a single woman or man here and there. Everyone was just milling about, looking at the products and enjoying the music.
The hottie was behind the desk, talking on the phone. His fedora was off, and his dark hair just looked so good. She wanted to hop onto the counter and run her fingers through it.
'I just want to maul him...sexually,' she thought, transfixed by his beauty.
She was going to go say hello to him, but one of the couples started asking him questions and he went over to help them. So she decided to take a look around for the panels herself. She walked along, browsing. One of the couples gave her an odd look, and she could have sworn they were whispering and giggling about her behind her back. She just couldn't figure out why.
She found the panels, though. They were in the section that had supplies for "smoking" purposes. And not the smoking of cigarettes, either. There were bowls and all sorts of things with weed emblems on them. She snickered, thinking that the potheads of the world must like to have a dark area in their homes to do their mind-altering drugs. She looked through all the different designs of panels. Some were Celtic, Wiccan, or Native American. Some she couldn't figure out.
She decided to definitely get just black. But she wanted to know how much of her wall they would cover, so she could decide how many to get for just the bed room for now. She wanted to ask the hottie, but he was ringing the couple out. So she inched her way over, trying to be inconspicuous while waiting for them to leave. When they were done, and left the counter, she stepped up to it and grinned.
"Hi! Remember me?" she asked.
"How could I forget?" he asked.
Valen laughed behind her hand for a few seconds.
"Um, what's your name?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Brian," he said, and extended a hand for her to shake.
She shook it and giggled. The contact just made her a little giddy.
"I'm Valen."
"Oh, that's a nice name," he said.
"Well, actually its Valencia, but I've gone by Valen ever since I was a kid. It's my parents' weird idea. See, our last name is Thyme, and they thought it'd be funny to name me Valencia, but call me Valen, cause then I'd be Valen Thyme. Get it?"
Brian laughed, heartily.
"Wow. Valen Thyme. Sounds like a porn star."
"I know, I get that all the time," she said, with an air of pride. "Sooo, Brian..."
"Yes?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her, curiously.
"I have a question."
"I have an answer," he countered, with a sexy look.
She had to fight off another giggle fit.
"Okay, about the panels," she began. "They have the dimensions on the package and everything, but I'm not quite sure how many I'd need if I wanted to do say just my bedroom. So is it possible to take one out of the package?"
"Sure," he said. "Let's go check it out."
She watched as he walked from behind the counter back over to where the panels were. She could not help but take in his sexy proportions. He had such a broad back and shoulders, a nice trim ass, and long legs. His clothes fit him so perfectly.
'Stop looking, Valen,' she scolded herself. 'The most you could ever be is a friend. If you even get that lucky.'
He took one of the larger-sized panels out of the package and hung it up on the edge of the tall wire shelf for her to examine. It seemed pretty big.
"Yeah, I think this could work," she said, looking it over.
"Yeah?"
"Yep. I suck at hanging things, but I can make it work."
Brian was about to say something, but a huge group of people came in.
"I'll be right back," he said, and went to go help them.
The group was rowdy, loud, and needy. They kept Brian busy for some time. And they made a lot of noise in the back room where the porn DVD's were. She saw that Brian had to go in there a few times to check on them.
Several of the girls started hitting on him. And they were very pretty girls, too. At one point he was kinda surrounded in them. Valen peeked around the shelf and watched, hoping he wouldn't hook up with one of them. She crept closer, trying to hear what was being said. What she did not notice was that the fabric of the panel had hooked onto her purse, and she was dragging it with her.
When she heard a crash behind her, she froze. She turned around in time to see the whole shelf start to tip over, and things were falling off like mad. She turned around and grabbed it, righting it.
Brian came running over and everyone was looking.
"What happened?" he asked, as she unhooked herself from the panel.
"Oh, it's nothing. I almost knocked over the shelf and everything fell off. I'm sooo sorry. But I've got this though, I'll pick it up."
"No, it's no problem, I can get it," he said, starting to pick stuff up.
She squatted next to him and hurriedly started picking things up. She felt terrible about this and wanted to make sure she did most of the work, or at least just as much. She apologized profusely, and he kept saying it was okay.
She heard the group of noisy people off to the side, laughing and making fun of her.
"What's wrong with her?" one of them asked.
"Well, she has a head full of bats, for starters," one of the pretty girls said. The whole group laughed.
She was angry but didn't want to show it, and she just hoped that Brian hadn't heard what she'd said. He didn't seem like he did.
Once they got everything put back up, the obnoxious customers started clamoring for his attention, and he was off again. Finally, they all had selected something, and went to the front for him to ring them out.
Valen waited for what seemed like forever for them to all leave. Then she took the bat barettes out of her head, and approached the counter with the panels she'd selected.
"Busy night, huh?" she asked, as he was ringing her up.
"Yeah. But hey, more money in my pocket."
"Do you just work here or do you own the place?"
"Oh, it's mine. I am Syn, and this is my house," he said, with a grand gesture around the store.
"Nice house. So where's the name Syn come from?"
"I used to be in this band in high school with my best friends. We all had stage names. Mine was Synyster Gates."
"Cool. What'd you play?"
"Guitar."
He gave her the total and she paid (this time remembering where to slide her card.)
"Do you still play?" she asked, after he handed her the receipt and thanked her for her purchase.
"Yeah. Always will."
"I'd like to hear you play sometime," she said.
"Sometime. Sure. Why not?"
She grinned.
'We're getting along!' she thought. 'Ask him, ask him! Now is the time!'
"Hey, Brian, I was thinking of going out tonight to have a few drinks. You should come with me and let me buy you a drink. You know, to make up for everything that happened over there," she said, gesturing to where she'd caused the destruction.
"Ah, don't worry about that," he said. "It was an accident. No harm done."
Valen smiled, but she felt deflated.
He didn't want to go.
"But I will take you up on that free drink, though," he said, and winked exaggeratedly.
She grinned from ear-to-ear. Then she realized that she might want to say something instead of just standing there looking creepy.
"Oh. Um, where should we go?"
"You ever been to Nocturna?"
"No. Heard of it, but haven't been."
"All my friends work there. A couple of them bartend, one DJs and the other is a bouncer. You'd like it there. It has a good vibe."
"Okay, sounds great," she said, excited. "So..."
She was a little confused about what to say next. Did she meet him here? Would he want to go home first? Would he pick her up? This wasn't a date...
"I get off here at 1:00 and Nocturna doesn't close until 5:30," he said. "So I could meet you there when I get off."
"Okay, cool. Well, then...I guess I'll see you there," she said, starting to back up.
"Okay. Later," he said, with a friendly smile. "Oh, watch out -"
She bumped into a stand with x-rated postcards on it, and almost knocked it over.
Brian started laughing.
"I..It's really not me. I'm totally coordinated. It's these shoes," she explained.
"I see. Then you maybe might not wanna wear those to Nocturna?" he suggested.
"Good point," she said, and forced a smile.
Then she turned and left as quickly as her feet would carry her.