by Lillian Grey
Vanessa Stanton
Chapter 03.0
A boy stood in a casual black on black suit with a black tie. His long bleach blonde, almost silver hair draped around his head, making it look like he had just woken up. His skin was even fairer than mine. He was only bathed in the dim colored light coming from the inside, but his presence was like that of the north star, a beacon in the night, even when his face had an expression of boredom. His head was tilted up, looking at the stars. This was probably one of the few places you could see stars in the city. Words ran through my mind, but nothing was strong enough to describe him. There was something more to it than just his physical appearance. It made me mad that I couldn’t place whatever I was missing, it made me not care I was being more than rude, staring as I gazed at my reflection in his blacked out glasses. Then I got a hold on my senses and blinked.
"Good evening ladies," he said in a voice that wasn't very deep, but was smoother than thick cream. I saw a flash of gold in his eyes beneath his glasses as he took his eyes off the stars to greet us; a lazed smile grew on his face.
"Hi," said Sam, a little breathless. It was the first time I had ever seen her stunned by someone’s appearance, but I was glad it wasn’t just me. She recovered faster than I did and flashed her eyes at him.
"Can I see your IDs please?" he asked, and when his head turned to me, his smile faltered and returned as fast as it had faded, but it was different, now lacking the good will and completely indifferent.
"Of course. Here you go," Sam replied, reaching into her bag and pulling out a card, sounding a little bit sad. This was probably the first time her eyes didn’t get a response out of a boy and I’m sure she wanted his attention.
"Samantha M. Castillo; nice to meet you. How about your friend?"
"Here," I said, handing him my ID, still watching my reflection in his glasses, there was no reason why his fingers had to brush up against mine but his touch seemed to linger on for minutes and left my skin tingling.
"Vanessa Stanton. Nice to meet you as well." He handed our ID’s back, rotating them in his fingers with a flourish to reveal two glow sticks on strings. "It’s a little dark in there." He said standing to the side. "Well ladies, welcome to Masteria," he made a show of sweeping back the door.
There was a small room lit by black light as we entered, mirrors on two walls showed the white in my shoes and bag, glowing a haunting blue. Our glow sticks lit the way as we walked into the club where everyone was jumping to the music as something was going on in the center of the dance floor. Sam led me around the group, smiling. We made it around the crowd to stand on a set of stairs overlooking the dance floor. The house music beat the air as about eight people were dancing, using the glow sticks to create patterns in the air that seemed to stick for seconds at a time. Then they all began to move outward and two guys got into the center, seeming to wave their hands in synchronized motions. They brought their hands down hard and the glow sticks burst to life, encasing them in spheres of light. They moved around each other as if this was some kind of fight and I was amazed by what I saw. Sam saw the look on my face and gave me a nudge like "see, I told you this would be cool". The two then began to end their routine and the other eight made an entrance, jumping and flipping into the center of the circle. The group did a pose as the music ended and all light in the tent died and they were spotlit. The crowd roared cheers and the lights came up and they rushed in to meet the performers and dance to the music.
The lights flashed around us to the beat of the music. People on the dance floor swayed back and forth with some girls running their hands over each other, and others running their hands through the air as guys would approach with an arm outstretched. It looked like they were asking for acceptance. It was more surprising when one girl turned her back on a guy and he slumped away, disappointed, into a group of his laughing friends. However, if the girl was inviting, the guy would put their hands around the girl’s waist and it was like the two would become one, moving around each other as if her on gravitational pull was keeping them from getting too far apart. Sam took my hand and led me over to the bar and got us some strawberry juice.
"What is this place?" I asked her having to shout over the music.
"It's club Masteria, it’s not like other places where the guys just grope you, only for you to turn to see some ugly ass guy and not the cute and shy guy you hoped for because that's just a contradiction. Here, it’s the girl’s choice. That makes the guys who come here look and behave differently," she explained and I looked around and there were very few people I would say I wouldn't find attractive.
"If a guy sees a girl he likes, he will ask to join her," she continued. "Look over there." Sam pointed to a girl who was moving her hips like a wave and had her hands in the air, swaying like leaves in the wind. A guy made his way over to her, his hand outstretched towards her, and she noticed, giving him a wink. She spun and he caught her in a low dip. Holding her hand, he began to circle her, spinning her, and I could see the joy on her face. They drew even closer. He moved and placed his hands on her hips, She placed a hand on his cheek, and they began to dance as if they had been partners for years.
"When I found this place online, people always said that the connections you made with people here were really strange at times," she said a little awestruck. "But yeah, it’s all about her choice though. If the girl doesn't accept, but the guy is pushy... see the guys floating around the edge? They will pull him out and allow the girl to keep looking. Here, it’s about attraction and the chase." Sam smiled, she knew attraction, but had never chased anyone, she didn't need to. "I'm going to try it," she said, pushing off the little bar and making her way onto the dance floor.
She shook her hips swaying left and right as she walked onto the crowded dance floor, any guy would have described her as breathtaking when she moved. I didn’t know she was capable of moving like she did. I saw several of the guys around the club look up at her and I could feel a shift in the room as some were trying to decide if the public rejection was worth the risk of a dance with her. A year ago for her birthday, her mother had given Sam belly dancing lessons as a gift after Sam swore it was strictly to tone her stomach. However, it had a greater purpose tonight, at least in Sam’s opinion. The short skirt she wore would flutter and rise just a bit every time she spun or moved extra passionately, just enough to show a little more leg and nothing more. She spent maybe two or three minutes alone on the dance floor until I saw the guy move in and she stopped mid-dance, posing to stare at him with her hands raised and a sly look on her face. The guy stretched out a hand in a gesture to see if she would accept, and she took a step towards him, and he towards her. They were dancing before they even touched and by now, they had caught the attention of nearly everyone. The music then shifted to a more Latin feel as well, still very techno/house style, but you could feel more passion than technology in it.
The mood in the club was like nothing I had ever felt before because as quickly as the Latin feel had possessed everyone around them, changing how they danced, the hard techno had come back and the crowd was back to the black lights and rave feel, which was now even stronger than before. Sam and her new friend no longer were the focus of everyone; they were just another couple now swaying to the beat. I finished my drink and felt flushed from the heat the dancers were putting out, so I headed for the door to get some fresh air.
"Have you gotten lost?" asked the boy at the door, returning ID’s to two teens who walked in past me. At first, I just looked at him, then my senses smacked me and I saw he was talking to me.
"I wish I knew," I muttered to myself, not liking how he was affecting me.
"Lost and confused then; worse than I thought," he said with a hint of humor.
"You heard that?" I asked, astonished. Then the night air blew in over the cargo containers and I shivered, rubbing my arms.
"Here," he said, taking his jacket off.
"Oh no, it’s..." I started, but he had already draped
the jacket around my shoulders, again his fingers brushed up against my skin, just at the base of my neck and this time it felt like his fingers were on me for hours as he smooth the jackets collar flat. I smelt a nice earthy scent on him, but the jacket itself wasn't very warm.
"It’s fine. You are supposed to comfort the lost, and warmth is always comforting."
"Can I know the name of the one coming to my aid?" I asked, playing along, and there was a shift in his expression that he quickly hid.
"Alik," he said hesitantly and how it came out was harsh and quick.
"How about a last name?" I pried as I caught a glimpse of his golden eyes. I had to know more.
"That is my last name; I don't like my first name very much."
"Oh," was all I said and I just waited, holding eye contact, or what I thought was I eye contact through those glasses till he sighed.
"It’s Alyon."
"That’s a nice name," I said, and he gave me a small smile like I paid him a great compliment.
"I never liked the Alyon, so please just use Alik," he insisted.
"Alyon is unique, like you," I said and instantly blushed and was glad it was dark enough to hide it.
"I... well..." He stumbled lost for words then changed the subject. "Do you at least know why you made your way out here, lost?"
"Oh," I was glad at the change of subject. "I just don't like crowds and it’s very warm inside. It was my friend’s idea to come here. She had to talk me into it as I don’t really like night clubs either. My agreeing is my graduation gift to her, at least in my head. Still everyone should try it out once or twice, and as I did it once, I'm on the ‘or twice’ now."
"Congratulations, how does it feel?"
"I haven’t really thought about anything feeling different. I'm just trying not be lost in the ether, just like during high school; there will just be a lot more people now."
"I don't know if I can save you from that," he said after checking three others and doing the same glow stick trick with them. Two of the girls in the group giggled and one brushed up against him as she passed. Then silence rose and hung in the air for a moment.
"I was wondering, why a club way out here away from the lights of the city?"
"Masteria is... unique. I don't think we could maintain the sort of atmosphere we do here in the city."
"I think I know what you mean, how it’s the female that chooses who she dances with, the men having to be almost formal..."
"What Masteria has meant to some in the past is very much like what we do here, and certain traditions follow the name," he said coldly with a glance over his shoulder.
"Traditions?" Intense curiosity was telling me to find out what his eyes truly looked like behind those glasses and to do that I had to keep him talking. When he spoke again, I didn’t register what he said at first.
"Your friend can explain. She could use your intervention. The guards will do nothing to stop a consensual couple or group."
"What do you mean?" I asked, and it felt like I was snapping out of a daze.
"Just get Sam away from the the guy she’s with."
“How did you…”
“I’d hurry,” he urged, turning to card a group of four. Whatever spell he held over me faded completely and I turned.
I headed back inside and the heat of the room showed me just how cold I had gotten outside. I pulled Alik's jacket closer to me and then remembered that I was still wearing it. Right when I was about to turn around and return it, I spotted Sam sitting with the guy in a booth not far from me, glued to him so tightly that it was a wonder that she was able to back away just enough for him to kiss her neck. I thought everything was fine until he opened his mouth wide, as if he was about to bite her. I yelled "Sam!", slipping around a small group.
"Nessa, where have you been? This is Jordan; he is an Art major at Cornell." I cursed that he would be in the same department as me in the back of my mind.
"Hi," I said quickly. "I have to get back, my mom called," I lied looking at Sam.
“But it’s just getting fun," she whined, smiling at him with her hand on his cheek.
"Come on Sam, we have to stay on her good side just a few more months until we are free at Cornell.”
"Cornell? So you’re freshmen? You didn't tell me that, Sam," he said, tickling her, and she giggled like a little girl on his lap. He slurred some of this words slightly and I wondered if he had a speech impediment. "I hope I will see you there, I will be a junior in the fall," Jordan stated, but I didn't care.
"Well, we will see you when school starts then. Come on, Sam."
I took Sam's hand and pulled her off of the guy’s lap and he smiled at me. For a second, it looked like he flashed a bit of fang in his smile that wasn’t there when I first saw him. Sam turned and did a “call me” face to him as we headed toward the door.
"Whose jacket is that??" Sam asked, but I didn't answer her as we got to the door. Alik was looking back up at the stars and I took off the jacket and he looked at me and Sam.
"Thank you," I said, as I handed him the jacket of the third time his fingertips brushed my skin, the back of my hand and the tingle returned stronger..
"Don't mention it," he said with a smile and I couldn’t say anything until Sam gave me a little tug.
"Bye," I said, and Sam and I started to move away, but I whispered "Thank you" again. He simply gave me a smile. No flash of gold attempted to trap me this time as Sam led me away.
The next day, Sam woke me up early and forced me to the mall. She knew I wasn’t a morning person and this felt like retribution for making her leave Masteria so soon. We spent the first hour in and out of stores bikini shopping for our trip to Hawaii. Despite my protest that I was hungry and needed to eat, she merely said, “with no food in you, you will fit into the bikini better.” But that was when her stomach made a low rumble and she finally gave in and we had lunch in the food court.
"You know, I’ve been wondering: what was Joe, no... John doing to you yesterday?" I finally asked, biting into my pizza. After not having breakfast, it tasted like absolutely the best thing I’d eaten in a long time, the hunger took over and I couldn’t even be annoyed at her when she tried to wiggle out of the question.
"You mean Jordan?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, was he just a bad kisser or what?"
"What do you mean?" She didn’t look at me when she said this.
"Come on Sam, he nearly ate your head; he had so much lip on your neck. Also, the way he talked sounded strange."
"Oh, you noticed that, too." She averted my gaze.
"Sam..."
"Well, it’s this new thing that’s been popular lately. He had caps over his teeth to make him look vampiric..." Her last words trailed off, I was sure something she thought I’d disapprove of was coming.
"So he was wearing fangs?"
"Sort of, and he was going to bite me... a... little..." was said in an even softer voice.
"You’re funny," I laughed harshly.
"Seriously, it’s really fun and feels great. They call them Nightcaps," she said, louder, glad I didn’t tell her she’s stupid. At times, she associated my reactions to what she would expect from her mother. I don’t know why she did this, I wouldn’t intervene unless there was an imminent threat, yet I couldn’t help myself from reaching over and sweeping her hair back to check her neck for marks; there were none. Sam was a big girl and could for the most part take care of herself.
"Looking for fang marks?"
"Kind of."
"There are other places where blood flows freely, Nessa," she hinted, with a wink and a smirk.
"So let me get this straight, you’ve let some guy bite you and drink your blood?"
"Well, it’s not really drinking, more like tasting, but you know Steve from our old fifth period Chemistry?"
"I thought you didn’t like any of the boys at school."
"Well, I decided to try a simple, and well...”
I gave her a
look and she smirked. "Oh, it’s not like we had sex or anything, just a little licking and blood. I always thought girls who said guys were 'yummy' were sluts, but I guess they meant it," she said airily.
"You know, that’s a little sick right, not to mention unsanitary," I said in a conversational way, even when I had a few more choice words I’d like to call that act.
"We were just playing," she explained, more relaxed after knowing for sure I wasn’t going to yell or overreact, even when I should have done so in this very public place.
