Friday, May 31st 1942
The deafening echo of the waves surrounds me as the water reaches its final maximum height, only to fall and crash onto the charcoal coloured boulders. My toes curl against the roughness of the sand, the radiant sun beaming down on me from its peak. It is a scorching hot day in Cole Harbour, which is saying a lot since our little suburb gets the most out of the long chilly and frigid winter months from early December to late March. At the moment, my old tattered notebook lies against the fabric of my blood red tea dress, with my favourite fountain pen my mother had got me for Christmas when I was ten years old clasped in my right hand. I decided to write today because I have some very important and crucial news—today marks the day that I have finished my first year attending the University of King's College located in Halifax. Of course, my mother is thrilled, my father is thrilled and practically everybody in my never ending line of family is just as enthusiastic as they are, except for me.
"Julily!" I heard my name being called from about twenty meters away, a familiar voice stopping me in my train of thought and in my process of writing. My head snapped, my dark burgundy locks following along with the rhythm of the motion. My emerald hues settled upon my father—a tall, lanky figure with thick black rimmed square glasses set askew on his pointed nose with his curly bronze hair tousling in the direction of the wind current. I wasn't one who spoke about my father very much, but one thing was for certain, he was a handsome man for someone who was aged in his mid-thirties. I could always tell by the looks on a woman's face every time my father and I walk into town that they thought he was practically the bee's knees. I wholeheartedly gave him my best toothless grin.
"Your mother needs your help preparing dinner. You've had enough time out here, come along now," he spoke to me in a gentle tone as he approached closer in my direction.
"Yes, Father," I responded almost immediately. With that, I began to gather my belongings. I closed my journal and stood up straight from where I was seated. I could feel the bottom of my feet absorbing the warmth of the Nova Scotian sand. Slipping on my white sandals, I grabbed my turquoise crochet bag. I unzipped the top and threw my journal along with my fountain pen and ink bottle into the bag, tossing it over my shoulder. Just as I was about to walk away, I turned my stance slightly to the left in order to have one last glance at the Atlantic Ocean. The coldness of the mist fell upon my bare arms, the goose bumps beginning to form quickly as the rays of the sun reflected and refracted into the deep blue waves of the water.
"You're wasting time! Come on now," my father hollered at me once more. I jolted as his words startled me, but I turned my back towards the ocean and walked on over to my father, my sandals sinking into the gritty sand with every step that I took.
"What's mother making for dinner anyway?" I asked curiously, arching my brow as I caught up to him.
"She stopped by at Buckley's Bakery this morning before you arrived from Halifax and grabbed a few buns and cold cuts and such," he replied sternly, his facial expressions hard as we began to walk. A simple dinner—I was perfectly fine with that. The good thing about those kinds of preparations was that I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to head to the market in order to get the supplies to provide for dinner. The simple way of life was something that I was familiarly acquainted to.
"Well, isn't that just peachy? Goodness, you have no idea how much I've been craving a bun from Buckley's Bakery ever since I set foot at King's," I smirked, letting a foreign laugh escape my painted red lips. I looked up towards my father, seeing his bright white smile causing his nose to crinkle a bit.
"Oh, Julily, you have no idea how much I missed you. Your mother practically went bonkers without you here." I couldn't help but grin to myself, hearing my childhood nickname once more.
"Father, you know I'm not a toddler anymore. You can call me by my full name," I insisted.
"Now, how boring would that be? June Lily Anderson," he added making a disgusted face. "Doesn't have a ring to it."
"June. You can just call me June," I beamed up to him, but all he did was shake his head from left to right. His glasses fell once more to the tip of his nose and I watched as he jerked his hand up to quickly adjust them from falling.
"Listen," he interjected, talking with his hands, "I brought you into this world so I get to call you by whichever name I please, and that name is Julily," he finalized, his tone as cold as hard rock. Unfortunately for my father, him pretending to be serious only made me laugh even more.
"Alright," I agreed, "you may call me Julily." That phrase instantly brought another crinkly smile to his elegant face.
Soon the uneven lumps of the cream coloured sand turned into hard tarmac as my father and I had officially distanced ourselves from the beach. My gaze quickly shot to the left of me as I was examining the beauty of Cole Harbour's lighthouse. It was one of the biggest buildings I had ever seen, but that soon came second as I spent my year at King's. No matter what, it was one of my favourite places to visit in the entire city. The Cole Harbour lighthouse was somewhere my father used to take me ever since I was a child. The highness of the tower completely took me aback even till this day. As I continued walking, I cranked my neck forward in order to get a proper look at the lighthouse. All the way up there was red and white stripes—it was almost hypnotizing.
"You got your head in the clouds, don't you?" my father beckoned to me, ending my intimate stare with the lighthouse. I chuckled before responding.
"I guess you could say that," I stated, not wanting to go into any more detail.
"Just like me when I was your age I suppose," his laugh echoed the entire harbour.
Our house was only a few minutes away from the beach. The entire trip back took only about ten minutes. Still walking alongside my father, we both began to make a jagged turn as we finally entered our street. We resided on a corner house—the last house on the left to be more precise. Adjusting my bag on my shoulder, I began to pace away from the side walk and moved towards my home. I could hear the pitter patter of my sandals against the freshly mowed lawn of the Anderson property. The green almost matched the colour of my eyes. That was something I took notice of before I left to go to university—just one last bit of my haven to remember before taking off. As soon as I neared closer to my home, I stopped in my tracks, attempting to examine every little detail that stood in front of me. Our house wasn't anything extraordinary, but it was still something greater to me.
It was a medium sized home with a pointed black roof, the panels of the house an egg-white colour. Our garage, which was also paneled, was a subtle beige, almost too perfect to go unnoticed. My mother's garden was what stood out to me the most. It bordered along the entire front lawn including roses, tulips and of course, lilies—my mothers favourite flower for which I was named by. I looked to the left and noticed the large maple tree that was planted in our lawn, a place which I always used to curl up and read a good book or even write in my journal. I glanced around at the four windows that surrounded the front of our house. I could tell that there were white lace draped curtains on the inside just by glancing.
"You alright there?" I heard a call from behind me, a voice that sounded like my father but contained a hint of youthfulness. I turned on my heel awaiting to see who was behind me only to find my jaw dropped to the floor.
"James!" I screamed loud enough for the whole neighbourhood to hear, but that wasn't really important at the moment. Effortlessly, I picked up my planted feet from the ground and ran over to greet my older brother. Arms wide open, I felt myself collide with him as I pulled him in for a tight embrace.
"Jeez, June, you're cutting off my air supply," he barley breathed as he fumbled backward a bit. Realizing this, I let go of my grip and moved a few steps back to get a full look at him. He was a spitting image of my father, from the thick rimed black glasses down to the pointed nose and every freckle, although he was a smidge taller.
"Sorry about that," I giggled. "I—Look at you, James! I go away for a year and you turn into an exact replica of dad!" The only time I ever used the word 'dad' was between my brother and I, since our dad was fonder of being known as 'father'.
"Look at me? Look at you! You're practically mom!" The same went for the use of the word 'mom'. But, James was right. Ever since I was younger, those were all the comments I would hear from any family member from 'you've got your mothers hair' to 'you two could pass off as twins'.
"How long have you been here for? Mom and dad never told me that you were in town," I admitted. James moved to Newfoundland with his wife Elizabeth when they married two years ago.
"About three days. I guess they wanted to surprise you."
"Well," I smirked, "I'm definitely surprised. Is Elizabeth in town as well?" I soon regretted asking the question as I could sense the sudden change in expression just by looking at his face.
"No, I'm afraid not," he frowned. "Elizabeth's in Toronto right now. Her grandmother is dying." My face fell along with his.
"I'm really sorry to here that, James," my eyes wandered to the floor before meeting with his icy blue gaze. Out of instinct, I moved my arm that was settled to the side of me and placed my dainty hand on his broad shoulder, lightly squeezing it attempting to show my comfort.
"Thanks, June," he shyly grinned. "Anyway, I'm going to head into town now. There's a couple of fellas waiting for me down at Riverside Park."
"Riverside Park?" I repeated, "What are you doing there?"
"Nothing special, just a good 'ol game of baseball."
"Wait, but you're going to be missing out on dinner. We're going to be having sandwiches from Buckley's and I know they're your favourite," I exaggerated, trying to use my words as best as I could in order to convince him to stay.
"Damn it, that does sound good but the boys are waiting for me. Just go inside, I'm sure mom's waiting for you to help her out. I gotta run. I'll see you later June."
"See ya," I called out to him, but before I knew it he stalked off away from the front lawn and turned the corner, completely out of my sight. After letting out a sigh, I turned myself around and headed on over to the porch. Feeling a slight ache on my shoulder, I grabbed my crochet bag and held it in my left hand as I opened the white framed screen door that lead to the porch, the black metal handle sending chills down my spine. After opening a second door, I finally entered into my sanctuary of a home.
My first instinct was to slip off my sandals because I knew my mother would bump me off if I got her perfectly clean floor dirtied by even a fraction of a dust particle. I turned my head to the left to glance at the familiar place. There stood the mahogany wooded grandfather clock that was passed down my family from generation to generation. My eyes pierced the brass pendulum that was apart of the clock, watching it moving from side to side, left to right, almost making me dizzy. I blinked a few times while shaking my head, glancing to the fireplace which was embedded into the wall, the exterior again a dark wood with a black metal cage surrounding the fire pit. Images and flash backs of my brother and I on cold winter nights soon began to flood in. The time when we barley had any food on the table, the time in which our great province, and our great nation, suffered tremendously through the Depression.
Still in a daze, my eyes left the pit of the unlit fireplace only to glance at the framed pictures that remained stationary on top of the fireplace's edge. Pictures of my family, pictures of my parent's wedding and pictures of my grandparents when they were much younger. Without even thinking about it, I could feel the corner of my lips begin to pick up into a small smile. Finally I began to walk further into the house, my feet getting used to the temperature of the floor every time that I took a step.
"Mother," I called out, the sound waves bouncing around the entire living room as I placed my bag down beside a nearby chair with a floral design and four dark French wood legs. It appeared that no one was here, which was strange. "Father," I tried again, but nothing but pure silence was all that was returned. Perhaps my mother was busily working away in the kitchen and was too occupied to answer back. I needed to get a start on preparing dinner either way, so I began to walk towards the kitchen. I turned left, which caused me to enter into the dinning room, still no sight of anyone.
"Mother!" I hummed again. With this, I walked around the square dinning table and opened a wooden door with glass panels which allowed me to enter into the kitchen. "Mother are you her—"
"Welcome home!" an abundance of hollers and screams shouted towards me as there stood my entire family. My teary eyed mother, my grinning father, my laid back brother and my two best friends that I hadn't seen in almost a year, eyes stinging with excitement. I jolted back, startled but with eagerness.
"Oh my goodness!" I managed to squeal out, a hand automatically rushing toward my mouth as my jaw had been permanently yanked to the floor. "You didn't have to do this."
"We wanted to, Junie," my gaze flickered to Sam, my blue eyed, curly haired best friend. I smiled at his familiar nickname for me.
"You people are just the greatest," I genuinely spoke, my voice beginning to crack along the way. I rushed on over to the immediate crowd filled with the people that I loved the most in my life, giving each and every single person a tightly squeezed hug and a kiss on the cheek. Once I came to my best friend I stood there for a moment, watching as the tears began to stream down her face.
"Rosemary, don't cry!" I pleaded as my arms were straight in front of me, pulling her in for a long lasting embrace.
"I've missed you so much, June," she managed to croak out between breaths. Hearing her voice made me remember our final goodbye last year when she ended up moving kilometers and kilometers away from me, attending Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
"I missed you too. You have no idea how hard it was to deal with half of the girls at King's," I admitted.
"Jeez, are you too ever going to let go of each other? I'm hungry." My glare shot to my brother.
"Relax, James. Don't be so crummy. I thought you were going to play baseball anyway."
"Well," he started, scratching his head as he fumbled, "I had to make up some sort of lie to get away from you. I never planned on running into you June. I had to sneak in through the back. You were just supposed to walk in here and get the grandest surprise of your life, which I'm sure you did," he chuckled.
The bristles of my wooden hair brush glided through my burgundy hair, the loose waves settling at the bottom. I let out a heavy sigh, placing my brush on my carved up vanity table. My stare beamed into the oval mirror, eyes piercing back at myself. I glanced at the freckles that danced around my heart shaped face, my defined rosy lips pursed as I did so. My snow white petite hands tapped along the cherry wood of the table.
Earlier this afternoon had been one of the most enjoyable I had in awhile, being that I hadn't seen my family in such a long period of time. It felt wonderful to catch up with my friends, Rosemary and Sam. Sam didn't end up going to university. He felt as if it wasn't for him so he just stayed in Cole Harbour for the year and participated in small jobs with his father.
Exhaustion was a complete understatement to what I was feeling at that very moment. I decided that it was time to retire to bed. Bringing my hand up from the side of me, I lightly grasped the tea light candle and was about to extinguish it with a blow until I heard I faint noise coming from my window, causing me to jerk forward.
"What in the world…" I spoke out loud in the open, hoping to not get a response from anybody. I stood up from my seat, tucking it toward the table as I adjusted the candle properly. The bottom of my feet pitter pattered against the hard wood of the floor as I slowly made my way to the draped window. Another noise was revealed, resulting in me bumping against the footrest of my bed. Swallowing heavily, I made sure that my steps to the window were much shorter in distance and gradual in motion. I bit my bottom lip as my dainty fingers had finally grasped the opaque lace curtains, hands trembling as I did. My heart pounded with adrenaline as I was anxious to see what laid behind the curtain for me but was also a little bit resistant to find out. Finally with a fist full of drapes, I bravely pulled back the curtains to unveil—
"What are you doing here!" I yelled, but covered my mouth immediately as I realized that my brother and parents were sleeping. Realizing that the window wasn't open, I unclasped the hook and pushed it forward.
"If you moved outta' the way and let me in I would tell you!" Rosemary muttered impatiently. Apparently she heard me even with the window closed. I rolled my eyes, but did as I was told. I watched as she grasped the sides of the ledge, throwing one leg over at a time before she finally stood up in my room. My jaw completely dropped to the floor as Rosemary was displaying a navy blue polka dot swing dress glued to her picture perfect body. My gaze rose up from her frame until I glared at the sly smirk that was plastered upon her red lips.
"You and I, Miss June, are going to the club." I blinked dumbly at her remark wondering if I heard her right. "June!" she called to me again, breaking me out of my trance.
"Would you shut your trap! My parents are snoozing. Besides the point, did I just hear you say that you want to go to—?"
"The club, yes June, you heard me right," Rosemary nodded and spoke in a sarcastic tone. "We're going to Club Lindy Hop."
"You're completely bonkers, I hope you realize that. It's midnight!" I scowled at her in a hushed tone.
"That's the whole point, cookie! The joint will just be nuts and plus, I know a few people who are gonna be there tonight," she stated, convincing me to buy what she was selling.
"People?" I questioned, "Like whom?" As soon as the words escaped my mouth Rosemary's face turned blood red.
"June, there's something I haven't told you yet and I think you're going to freak out," she responded slowly.
"Well what is it?"
"I met someone." My eyes automatically widened.
"Rose, are you serious! Oh my goodness, I'm so happy for you!" I rushed over to hug her. "What's his name, where's he from, how did you meet him, what does he look lik—"
"No time to talk, June. You're wasting time. Here, put this on." She handed me what seemed to be a black halter swing dress with black lace at the back and a chunky white belt to go with everything. "There's your welcome back present, now put on the damn dress and let's go."
The clanking of my rouge heels boomed around the great entrance of Club Lindy Hop. The sound soon came to a halt as the echoing of over excited chitter-chatter made its way throughout the room, what seemed to be like hundreds of young people eager to make their way inside. I did as best as I could to stand on my tip toes to get a clearer view of things, but all there was to make notice was the enormous sea of people.
"Rose, how are we ever gonna get in here? There's so many people way ahead of us, we'll be stuck here until tomorrow night," I interjected, attempting to cut through the retched noise.
"Jeez June, who do you think you're talking to here?" she obnoxiously cocked her head from side to side, grabbing a handful of my wrist. "Stop being such a buzz kill for one minute and trust me," she muttered as she began to lead the way breaking past the mob that grouped in front of us. After a few minutes and a couple of "Excuse me's" and "Coming through's", Rosemary and I had finally reached the large mahogany door which lead to the inside of Club Lindy Hop. The sweet essence of swing music began to fill my ears, the trumpet and trombones popping as they accented the sound of the fast and upbeat swing. As much as I wanted to get myself into the club, my gaze shot down taking notice of the red velvet rope barrier in front of us.
"Great, so what's the plan now?" I hissed, the roaring of the drums thumping throughout my entire body.
"June," she started, placing a manicured hand on her waist, "Ease up, would 'ya? I know people," her eyes soon shot to the twenty-year-old-something boy who stood in front of the barrier, guarding the place. Rosemary grabbed my wrist again, tugging me toward the boy with the slicked back hair. It was evident that this boy must have known her as his brown hues began to widen, a smirk soon dancing upon his lips.
"Rosemary," he called out, tugging a rough thumb through his black suspenders as he watched her moved.
"Lucas! My, my, I never thought I'd run into you tonight," she responded as she batted her eyelashes, seductively raising a hand and placing it on his shoulder.
"Yeah, well Jim asked me to patrol the place for the night," his voice was like a baritone, but was still so pleasing to the ears. "What're you doing here 'nyways?" he questioned, moving his body closer to Rosemary as she responded in the same manor.
"Oh, I'm just out for a little fun with my girlfriend here," she nodded towards me.
"And who might this lovely lady be," his eyes shot to mine as that Hollywood grin remained on his face.
"June," I answered back, offering my hand to him.
"Well, Misses June," he acknowledged, accepting my hand and shaking it lightly, "Welcome to Club Lindy Hop," he winked. I could feel my face automatically begin to turn a scarlet colour. Before I knew it, Lucas unhooked the velvet barrier and motioned his hand as if to let us walk in.
"Thanks a million Lucas," Rosemary gawked to the boy, before taking a step ahead.
"No problem. I guess I'll see you and your friend later," he managed to get out before Rosemary and I had made our way pasted the barrier and through the mahogany door.
Entering through the door was as if I was entering into a parallel universe-a utopia so inviting and lively to anyone who passed through. There in front of me was a humongous wooden dance floor which was filled with young people of all kinds preforming neat tricks through swing, a colossal chandelier held up above with cream coloured drapes meeting together at the middle. The jazz band was found to be further down the dance hall, held upon a rectangle shaped stage. I examined the brass instrumentalists hopping and bopping to the sound of their own music, pure melody escaping through their horns. I was astonished.
"Pretty swingin', huh?" Rosemary spoke as she interrupted my train of thought.
"Well, one things for sure, I haven't seen anything like this."
I took a few steps toward the dance floor, observing the twirls and flips and kick ups of flying skirts into the air. I glanced over to the bass section of the instruments, the musicians playing with so much force and perfection that I could almost taste their own aroma of passion. My eyes soon set upon the gorgeous vocalist imaginable; however, it was hard to understand a word he was saying. I turned my position and glimpsed around the rest of the dance hall. Small tables with white table cloths and dimly lit candles surrounded the atmosphere, tables filled with an immense amount of drinks, the laughter of the youth contrasting with the powerfulness of the music.
"Rose, this is just perf-" I stopped in my tracks as my best friend was no where in sight. I grumbled in frustration as I was found stranded in the middle of the club not having a clue to where Rosemary was. "So typical of Rose," I huffed under my breath as I began to move forward in hopes to find her and give her the biggest lecture of a life time. "She would be the one to leave me here by myself when I don't even kno-" I stumbled backwards, my body colliding with something in front of me.
"Whoa, whoa there clumsy," a voice called out in front of me, a pair of hands reaching my shoulders to help break my fall.
"Sorry about that, it was my fault," I managed to choke out as soon as I regained my momentum. In a rush I glanced up only to meet with a pair of amber eyes before showing off a sorrowful grin and walking away. Still angered and flustered from having Rosemary ditch me and bumping into a complete stranger, I whipped my head from back and forth to see if I could make sign of Rosemary-and there she was, hanging out at the bar sitting on a stool with some guy that was a little bit too close to her. Balling up my hands into fists, I made my way over to the bar, making sure to be as coordinate as possible when passing by people.
I rose up a hand from my side, watching Rosemary as she leaned an elbow against the counter and stared lovingly at the mysterious person who was sitting beside her. She lightly swayed side to side on the bar stool, a manly hand delicately placed upon her thigh.
"Hem, hem," I choked out as my fingers grazed her shoulder, her neck whipping in my direction as I watched her eyes begin to fill with guilt.
"June, I'm so sor—"
"Don't you 'sorry' me. You left me alone in the middle of no where, I even bumped into somebody!" I screeched, not caring if I made a bad first impression on her new lover.
"Ease up, will you? I'm sorry, okay? I'll buy you a drink as a token of my stupidness," she grinned. "Anyways June, this is my boyfriend, Geno," Rosemary spoke with pride while placing a hand on his shoulder as if he was her prized possession.
"Nice to meet you," I smiled, extending my hand to the brown haired boy. He responded immediately, shaking my hand and allowing a smirk to sit upon his chiselled face.
"Likewise," he stated, his rich voice rang through my ears. "Why don't you take a seat?" he questioned. For some reason I noticed a slight difference in his voice—an accent I believed. I nodded in agreement and sat at the bar stool closest to Geno since Rosemary was on the edge seat.
"So how do you like this place so far?" Rose called out to me as she took a sip of her drink, calling out over the loud music.
"I just love it!" I exclaimed. I turned my attention to the counter, fingers tapping about as I looked down upon a copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell, one of my favourite dystopian novels ever. My finger tips lightly ran over the cover of the novel. "Hey, who's book is this—" but it was too late. Rosemary had pulled Geno to the dance floor and they were swinging away to the hard beat of the drums and the harmony of the trumpets and horns.
I turned my head from the dance floor and looked at the cover of the novel. I couldn't help myself but to pry it open and skim through a few of the pages. The novel was based on the Russian Revolution, only this book was about mistreated animals overthrowing their human caretaker and end up taking over the entire farm. However, my eyes soon ripped away from the pages as I began to hear a few noises coming from my left side. I focused in front of me only to realize that it was a group of younger boys all huddled close together, eyes peered at me. I blushed feverishly, snapping my head down to the book.
"What're doing with my book?" I jumped as a rich voice beckoned from behind me. I cranked my neck around, my sight setting upon a boy who appeared my age, with dark brown chest nut hair. My eyes followed along to his attire; a loosely worn white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows along with a black tie that hung loose accompanied with black dress pants. I swallowed hard, my eyes too nervous to meet with his.
"I, uh—
"You're the chick that bumped into me!" he called out with a hint of annoyance. Without another second, I finally looked up and stumbled upon the familiar amber eyes that met with my emerald earlier.
"About that…" I stuttered, "Sorry, I didn't really know where I was going." My face felt heated, I knew I was flushing hard. Closing the book, I pushed it away from me. "Here, sorry I didn't know it belonged to anyone, it was just on the counter—"
"You know Sid?" a familiar voice called out from the right of me. It was Rosemary who just returned from the dance floor with her arms wrapped around Geno.
"Sorry, who?" I questioned with a confused look set upon my face.
"That would be me," the boy's voice called from behind me, showing off a faint smirk through his plump lips. I smiled back to Sid the best way that I could. All of a sudden my fitted black halter swing dress was feeling just a little too tight compared to the usual.
"We've been looking for you guys round the whole club!" a male tone yelled over the music from behind. To my surprise, it was the group of boys that were gawking at me earlier. I quickly moved out of my seat to have a quick chat with Rosemary. As soon as I did I got just a quick glimpse of the group—a few scruffy faced men with brown locks and one blonde. I could feel the stare from their eyes burning into my back as I made my way over to Rose. Once I sat down on the bar stool next to Rosemary, she immediately tugged me by the arm.
"So, I see you've been talking to Sidney," she grinned. "Have you checked out that boy's ass? I swear, that thing is colossal," she hissed, moving her head up and down to try and get a peek at Sid. Playfully, I slapped her arm.
"Rosemary! What are you, some sort of call girl? May I remind you that you have a boyfriend?"
"Of course, I know I do," she responded, placing her arms up in defense, "And I love him very much. All I'm saying is that boy has a nice set of buns," she giggled. I don't know what came over me at the time, but I peered over my shoulder to get a looksee—and what did I know. Rosemary was completely right.
"Lord have mercy," I shook my head, grinning from ear to ear, Rosemary laughed along with me.
"Oh, and I just wanted to apologize for leaving you stranded earlier. I just seen Geno at the bar and forgot about everything."
"It's all good," I finalized.
"Rose," Geno called from down the table, nodding to the dance floor signaling for them to go for another dance. Rosemary bit her lip. I could sense that she felt guilty for leaving me alone.
"Go ahead," I insisted. "I'll be fine." And with that, she did. Swinging back and forth on the bar stool, I placed my elbows against the counter and leaned my head against my hand. Not knowing what to do, I focused my eyes on Sid and the group of boys who were once again all huddled together, their eyes scanning me.
"Is there a problem?" I called out annoyed at the glares I was receiving. That only caused more hoots and hollers from the group of boys.
"Ahh, so she talks," Sid nodded his head slowly. I smirked at his words as I got up from out of my seat and walked over to the crowd of boys. These boys had lit a fire to my fuel. With my arms crossed, I stood—not so tall—in front of the group.
"Like I said before," I started, "Is there a problem?" I arched a brow. The boys looked at each other before another voice broke out.
"No, everything seems to be alright and in order," Sid assured. "But I'm pretty sure you, Missy, owe me a dance."
"Oh, I do now, do I? And why might that be," I raised my voice.
"Hey, if you don't wanna jive with Crosby, you could always do it with me," a blonde boy interrupted, eyes as blue as the sea.
"Shut it, would you Beau?" Sid hollered.
"Oh no, it's okay...Beau, was that what your name was?" I questioned. "I'll give Sidney here his dance just so he can keep his mouth shut, unless you wanna back out like the little sissy you are?"
"Sissy? Is that the best you got?" he laughed. "I've only known you for five minutes doll, don't feel privileged to call me names."
"Are you gonna stop talking so we can get this dance over with or…?" And with that last sentence, Sid grabbed me by the hand and rushed me to the dance floor. We were in the middle of the floor in no time. I glanced around me, observing all of the couples dancing their hearts out, legs and arms flying everywhere.
"Do you not know how to swing?" Sid teased.
"What do I look like, a ditz? Of course I do, now come on," I screamed over the roaring trombones as I grabbed Sid's arm and moved further to the dance floor. From that moment, I just felt the rhythm that the orchestra was giving off and mimicked all of the people around me. I had to say, for someone that hadn't gone to very many night clubs, I was a pretty good dancer—we were pretty good dancers at that. Our legs moved at the same fast paced motion with the beat of the music, arms in sync as well. With our hands held together, he twirled me a few times. I lost my balance but he caught me just in time before anything disastrous happened.
"Jeez, you're just clumsy today, aren't ya?" Sid laughed, the familiar words entering my mind from before when I bumped into him.
"Yeah, I guess I'm not very well coordinated," I chuckled along as we continued to dance like animals. "You still never answered my question. Why did I owe you a dance?"
"Because you bumped into me," he blatantly stated, "And that wasn't very nice."
"I apologized!" I yelled but ended up laughing. I could feel myself losing my breath and thankfully, the orchestra changed its tone into a much slower pace. "There, you got your damn dance, now can I go?" I attempted to walk away but Sid just caught my arm.
"No way, Missy. That was only a minute, that doesn't count." I rolled my eyes. This boy was way too difficult to please. So I placed one hand on his broad shoulder as he placed one hand on my waist, the other hands were held together and held upwards. At that moment, I observed Rosemary and Geno exiting the dance floor and heading back to the bar.
"So, you like Animal Farm?" Sid broke the silence, catching my attention.
"Uh, yeah. It's one of my favourite novels."
"So you're a smart girl?" he let his teeth be noticed through a smile.
"I never said that," I nodded disapproving what he was saying.
"Well you said it's 'one' of your favourites, so you obviously read a lot more."
"Okay so maybe I do read, why does it matter?" I shook my head.
"I'm just making conversation, simmer down!" his eyes widened as he chuckled. "I'm guessing you're into history as well?" I nodded right away.
"I didn't even get your name." His mouth formed into a crooked smile that was so contagious it caused me to grin as well.
"June. My name is June."
"Wow, what's it like to be named after a month?"
"Oh, knock it off. I wouldn't be talking, Sidney," I teased.
"Hey, hey," he started off, "It's a unisex name, okay?" His rich laugh echoed the dance hall until a loud bang screeched the entire room. We both stopped in our position unclasping our hands as we swirled our bodies around to see what the whole commotion was. I tried the best that I could to get a peek by standing on my tip toes but that did no use. All I could make out was that there was something happening near the bar we were sitting at.
"SID, SID!" the blonde boy, Beau came screaming until he finally reached Sidney and I.
"What happened Beau?" he spoke fast, everyone on the dance floor pausing as well to see what was going on.
"I don't know, I think something happened to Geno, I just came from outside and—"
"JUNE! We have to leave right now!" Rosemary roared as she made her way through the crowd of people.
"Rose, what's going on?"
"June, I don't have time to explain, we need to go now." All I knew was that she was dead serious. I looked over to Sid who gave me an apologetic look.
"Let's go!" Beau tugged at him and Rosemary pulled at me. We gave each other one final look.
"I guess I'll see you arou—" But before he could finish his sentence, Beau had pulled him right away just as Rosemary had turned my body around, both of us heading for the door.
There was no time to talk to Rosemary, no time to question what happened. All I knew was that I could remember Sid's last words, watching the way he clinched his jaw. Apart of me wanted to meet with those amber eyes again, but who knew if I would.