And When You Think She's Let You In That's When She Fades Away
Starting a new story. It will get better than this. I know I say that everytime and it still doesn't come out right imo but this chapter is really just getting the set up down. I think this whole story should be pretty good. I say that every time too so i'll probably end up hating it so hard halfway through. I don't know. We'll see. This is based around the story that I wrote based on the song 'Where Happiness Lives.' That will be changed just slightly due to changes that i've made in my head about this.
Chapter: 1/?
Word Count: 3,175
Song: Molly's Chambers- Kings Of Leon
Summary: Lee finds her in a bar in New York, looking remarkable. Molly's in that bar in New York wanting to be somewhere else.
Lee sees her for the first time at a bar. It starts out like every other night out for him. Bar crawl with some of his friends, just trying to get through the night so they can sleep all day and then wake up and start the night all over again.
This bar is like the others too. It’s warm and crowded, loud with the usual mix of pretty people at the bar and dancing and sitting at tables trying to make some kind of connection with a stranger that will probably take them home.
He finds her, the prettiest girl, at the bar. She’s surrounded by friends but she stands out. She’s deeply tanned, almost burnt, like she’s spent forever in the sun and he thinks that if he were to touch her he’d still be able to feel the heat of it. She’s tall too, towering over her friends and he suspects that she’s at least two inches taller than him in heels. Her long brown hair hangs down to the middle of her back and every so often she’ll flip her hair back and it’ll drop back down over her shoulders. She doesn’t look like she’s having fun; her full lips are pulled down in a frown and she’s watching the room with bored eyes, sipping on her drink with disinterest, like the alcohol isn’t even enough to save the evening.
He’d like to change all of that. Make her smile, make her laugh, pull her away from the bar, actually, make her pull him away from the bar, and make the alcohol just the icing on the cake of the night that he’s about to give her.
He watches her for five whole minutes and just as she’s about to travel back to the table with the rest of her friends he gets up, mid conversation with his friends, and rushes to the bar, rudely pushing past people to get to her.
He grabs her arm, right below her elbow his fingers brush the skin and his fingers do burn. But only for a second because he lets go right away when he sees the way that she looks back at him, down to his hand and then back up to his eyes. She’s pissed.
“Are you alright?” He asks, he doesn’t even have to act like he cares because he really does.
“Yeah, I’mfine.” She looks at him like he’s crazy and rude and obnoxious and he takes a deep breath because this is going to be a lot harder than he’s used to it being. Normally a smile would work.
“You sure. I’ve been watching you…” He catches the new look that crosses her face and isimmediately on the defensive. “No, no, not like that, I wasn’t like, watching, watching you but I just noticed you. You’re easy to notice.” He lays on that charm smile and she laughs in his face.
“Okay. That’s nice and everything but my friends are waiting so I’m just gonna get back them.”
“I just want to buy you a drink.”
She holds up the glass that she’s holding. It’s about three quarters full and shakes it, shrugging her shoulders as she does it. “I have a drink.”
“Well, you’re going to finish that at some point.”
“When I do I’ll buy myself one. But thanks for the offer. I guess.” She turns without another word and he stands there staring after her, imagining her eyes rolling in her head at him.
Molly gets back to the table and tries to sit down without being noticed. The last thing she wants is a conversation about what took her so long. She knows where that will go.
“Molly.” Her friend Alexis says her name like there’s going to be a follow up.
Molly cringes. She was caught.
“Who were you talking to?”
“No one.” She shakes her head and stares back into five sets of eyes. “Just some guy.”
Interest piqued. Wrong thing said.
“Which guy?”
“Just…” She tips her glass in the direction of the table. “That one over there.”
“Which one though? There are like, six guys at that table.”
“Hmm.” She looks her guy, the guy, over. He has good hair. “The one with the hair.”
“You mean the really cute one?”
Molly shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess he’s kind of cute.”
“Are you kidding me? He’s adorable. What did you two talk about?”
“Nothing, we didn’t even talk. He wanted to buy me a drink.”
“And yousaid…”
"I already have a drink.” She repeats what she said to him slowly.
“Are you stupid Molly?”
She’s taken aback by that. She’s definitely not stupid. “Ummm.”
“He wasn’t asking to literally buy you a drink. I mean, a drink would’ve come with it but he just wanted to talk to you. Like, really talk to you. I think you should go talk to him.”
“No.” She says immediately and all the girls at the table exchange ‘the look’. The same look that they’ve been sharing more and more lately while Molly has been around. The one that says ‘this again, really? When does this stop?’ and every time it happens Molly has her own look. One that says ‘you really think I like feeling this way? I’d give anything to change it. Fuck off.’
“Molly.”
“Alexis.”
“Just talk to him. You deserve this.”
“No.”
“Come on. Brad has been gone for…”
Molly bristles at the name. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
"Then go talk to him.”
“I’m not ready.”
“It’s been a year.”
“I’m out okay, what else do you want me to do?”
“We’re not saying that you have to have sex with him, Molly. You don’t even have to like him. Just drink and dance and have fun.”
“I’m fine with the way things are now.”
“So you’re fine with being alone?”
No. She fucking hates it. It tears her up inside to think of how she didn’t used to be like this. But she won’t ever admit to that. Stay strong, stay stoic.
“Yup.”
It’s a new feeling for him; rejection. He’s not used to it, it’s unsettling and before he even turns to go back to the table with his friend he can hear them laughing.
“So you struck out, huh?” Andy asks him, laughing into his beer.
“It wasn’t like that. She already had a drink.”
“Bullshit. She turned you down. Rejected you and you had to come crawling back here without a number.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“But you always get a number. Are you losing your touch? Come to New York and you’re suddenly not as charming?”
“I’m plenty charming, it’s not like you could do any better.” Lee challenges and then immediately regrets it because Andy is not one to back down.
“I could do better.”
“Then go try.” Lee wishes that he would just shut his fucking mouth.
“Alright. Fine, if that’s what you want.”
“Maybe it is.”
“You want your best friend to go home with the girl that you have your eye on.”
“She won’t go home with you.”
“That’s what you think.”
“It’s a lot of talk and no action man. She’s a tough one.”
“Nothing that I can’t handle and just because she didn’t like you doesn’t mean that she won’t be putty in my hands.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“I didn’t even mean that in a dirty way so who’s the sicko now?”
“Just go and get rejected.”
Andy smiles cockily, finishes off his beer and stand up, straightening his shirt on the way over to her table.
Lee watches with baited breath as Andy leans on the table, leaning into her and he laughs when she gives Andy the same look that she gave him and Andy gets tense and she rolls her eyes and he hangs his head as he gets back to the table, met with the same laughs that greeted Lee just minutes before.
“That’s going to be your life.” Alexis tells Molly as she watches the guy retreat. “Cute boys are going to keep coming up to you and you’re going to keep denying them. It’s so much more fun to say yes.”
“No number?” Lee asks Andy when he sits down.
“That girl is an uptight bitch.”
“I think she’s hot.”
“Fine, then she’s a hot uptight bitch. You don’t want her man, not worth it, she’d drive you crazy. Move on, pick another girl.”
“I don’t want another girl. I’m sick of the other girls.” He really is. They’ve gotten predictable. As soon as he mentions that he’s a musicians they’re all over him, and it’s not like he’s not thankful for that or he’s going to turn them down but he’s just tired of the same old thing. He wants something different. “I’m going to go give it another try.”
“She won’t talk to you man.”
“Just…” Lee stops when he sees her standing at the end of the table. She doesn’t even look awkward there with everyone staring back at her.
She sighs heavily, like this wasn’t part of the plan and she has to go with it now. “You said that you wanted to buy me a drink.” Her fingertips drum on the table top.
“Ummm, yeah.” He stutters out and she rolls her eyes again and he’s following her like a puppy to the bar.
She leans on the bar, her elbow bent, bored look on her face and when he gets up there next to her she calls the bar tender over and places her order. It’s something girly and pink. Lee gets himself a beer and he’s almost shocked as hell when she doesn’t book it away from him when she gets the drink.
“What’s your name?” He dares to speak and she coyly takes another sip. “I don’t get to know your name?”
She shakes her head, straw not leaving her mouth.
“That’s a bummer.”
“So is life.”
“Do I get to know anything about you?”
“You can know that I don’t do this bar thing very often.”
“Really? Because you seem so good at it.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You just got a free drink. You could get more. My friend offered, I’m sure.”
“So that was your friend.”
“Yeah. It was stupid. He’s an idiot.”
“I’m not terribly impressed with him. And you offered to buy me drinks. It’s not like I sweet talked you into it.”
“I know, hey, don’t get offended. I’m impressed actually. I wish I could get free drinks.”
“Okay.” She puts her bag on the counter and starts to look through it, pulling out some singles and waving down the bartender again.
“What are you doing?”
“Hey, I’m all for equality.” She tells Lee. “Can you get him another beer? Thanks.” She slides the money over and waves off the offer of getting her change and Lee takes the drink.
“Now I feel like a girl.” He says as he takes a drink. “I like it."
She laughs.
“Wow. I didn’t think that a laugh from you was possible.”
“I’m not some miserable bitch.”
“Could’ve had me fooled.” His eyes go wide because he didn’t mean to say that out loud. It’s not like he even thinks it, really. “I didn’t…”
“Don’t worry. I know how I come off.”
There’s an awkward beat of silence between them and he just has to break it.
“You really won’t tell me your name? I’ll tell you mine.”
“What’s yours?”
“Tell me yours.”
“Doesn’t work that way.”
“You are difficult.”
“Never said that I wasn’t.”
“I’ll give in with the hopes that you’ll break down. I’m Lee.”
“Hmmm.”
“Still no name from you?”
“I have to keep some secrets.”
“You’re a complete secret. I don’t get to know anything?”
“Ask me and I’ll see if I want to answer.”
“Do you have a job?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
She narrows her eyes at him. “A shop.”
“A shop? That’s a little vague.”
“I’m a little vague.”
“You know without more detail I’m just going to make shit up.”
“What could you make up about a shop.”
“I’m just saying that chains and whips are involved in my mind.”
She bursts out laughing and puts her hand on his arm; the drink must be stronger than it looks.
“I am not a sex shop worker.”
“In my head you are and it’s hot.”
“I sell clothes. Regular clothes at my sisters shop on fifth.”
“Fancy.”
“Everything is overpriced. But people still buy it. I guess they want a one of a kind New York City outfit. Little do they know they could get the same exact thing for half the price a few blocks over. It’s all about location.”
He looks down at her hand, still on his arm. Location is good. He likes location.
“You have a job or do you just bum around bars all the time?”
“I’m a musician.”
She snorts. “So you just bum around bars all the time?”
“I am a serious musician. I’m good at it.”
“Well Lee, I’m good at putting on heels and walking up and down a hallway but that doesn’t mean that I’m a runway model.”
“It is not the same thing.” He’s trying to defend himself but she’s kind of right. He does spend the majority of his time in bars. “I’m in bars a lot because that’s where I play. That’s how everyone starts.”
“Sure. I’ll have to look for you on itunes. How do I know this isn’t some line that you tell girls to get them to sleep with you? Like, you take them back to your place and there’s a guitar that you never play leaning against the wall and they’re all, ohhh, play me something and you’re like, sure baby, right after you get naked.”
“Mainly because I’m not smart enough to use it like that and if you happened to come back to my place you would see a worn guitar because I play every day.”
“Do you play like I model walk?”
“I don’t know, walk for me and I’ll tell you. Or you could just come back with me and Ican legitimately play you something….after you get naked.”
She laughs again, louder this time, sloppier. “I am not getting naked with you.”
“Oh, I won’t be naked. Just you.”
“That’s not happening either.”
“You’re no fun mystery girl.”
She shrugs and works the light sweater that she’s wearing off of her shoulder and puts it on the back of one of the barstools.
“I’m fun.” She puts her drink down too and back away from him. Then takes his hand. “Come dance with me.”
He digs his feels into the floor. “I don’t dance.”
“Why not? Not good? I can teach you.”
“I’m un-teachable.”
“No one is un-teachable.” She pulls on his hand again and this is exactly what he wanted in the beginning of the night, she’s pulling him away from the bar but he wants to be heading for the door instead of the dance floor.
“I promise that I am. I’ll just embarrass you.”
“I don’t embarrass very easily when I’m drunk.”
“What was in that drink? That’s some powerful shit.”
“I’m a lightweight.”
“And I’m not dancing.”
“Fine.” She says angrily. The sting of rejection doesn’t feel great to her either. “Maybe your friend will dance with me instead.”
“Wait, what?” He calls after but she’s already halfway to the table, her hands on Andy’s shoulders, whispering in his ear and he gets this stupid smile on his face as he stand up and faces her and Lee watches helplessly as she leads him away, crowding with the rest of the people dancing, close, her arms around his, too close, moving together too comfortably. He doesn’t like it at all and when she turns and makes eye contact with him, silently saying that she wishes it was him that she was dancing with Lee pushes himself away from the bar, never breaking eye contact with her as he gets to her.
Lee puts his hands on Andy’s arms and Andy turns to face him, Lee pushes past, his hands finding her hips, literally stealing her right out of his arms.
He kisses her, despite the protests from Andy because this is happening right in front of him without warning and he gets that Lee saw her first but, come on.
It’s a long kiss. She opens her mouth under his and he can feel her sigh and moan, her fingers balling into his shirt and he tightens his hold around her back and then suddenly she pushes him away.
“No.” She says, like she’s scolding a dog and then takes off towards the door.
“She still rejected you after she made out with you.” Andy yells at him as Lee starts tofollow her.
“Hey….” He doesn’t even have her name.
She pauses briefly at her friends table telling them that she’s leaving and takes off again when she sees him coming.
She’s out the door and before it can swing shut he’s out of it too.
“I’m sorry.” It’s the first thing he can think to say. “I don’t just randomly do that or anything. I thought you wanted to kiss me. You kept looking at me, I don’t know, I guess I read the signals wrong. I like you.”
“That’s…unfortunate.”
“Why? What is so wrong with that? I like you. You kissed me back.”
“I’m a little drunk.”
“So? So am I. There’s nothing there when you’re drunk that’s not there when you’re sober. Come back inside. I didn’t mean to scare you away.”
“You didn’t scare me away. You just reminded me why I don’t do the bar thing. Thanks for that.”
A cab pullsup to the curb and he’s there to open the door. She takes a deep breath to hold in annoyance.
“Can I call you?” He asks.
“No.”
“Why not?”
She puts one hand on the cab door, closes her eyes for a second and then opens them. “I’mfucked up. I may not look it or act it. People may not say that out loud but I really am. And no offense, but you don’t really have it all together either. We’re not what either of us need.”
“You don’t know what I need.”
“No. I guess I don’t. And I won’t find out. Thanks for the drink. Tell your friend I said…I don’t know. Something.”
She ducks into the cab and it pulls away.
He goes back into the bar, goes straight to the bar. He needs another drink, something to wash the memory of her out of him.
He starts to tell the bartender what he wants but the bartender speaks first.
“You’re girl left her sweater.” He holds it out to him and Lee puts his hands up.
“She’s not my…” ‘my sisters shop on fifth’. He couldtrack that down. He could track her down. “Thanks man, I’ll get it back to her.”