He reappeared from behind the bar door wearing the legendary Tiger suit I'd been waiting all of Sunday and Monday to see.
He waved at the kids as theme music came on, and he danced around without an ounce of shame with the kids that ran up to him and tried to cuddle him and/or climb on him. I decided to get closer, taking my things with me, still holding my phone in place, no longer needing to hide it.
How likely was it that he could see through those fabric cat eyes? I took my chances, daring to go back to the bar counter with a half full bowl of gloop and spun around in the seat to look at Marco, my phone's camera still trained him.
Armin didn't work tonight, which was a shame. It meant I was alone at the bar while Marco paraded around. He was kind of a nice kid, if you tolerated the smart ass part. He had some clever jokes, and I guessed that it made up for his nerdy-ness.
I heard him shout out that they were going to have a disco and all the kids screamed when he asked them if they were excited. WHAT'S THAT, HE COULDN'T HEAR THEM?! More screaming. Screw you Bodt. I didn't bother covering my pained ears, looking through the camera as it recorded him. The lights dimmed and disco lights beamed around the room.
I was soooo going to make him regret ever leaving me in his workplace when he knew fine well that I had a phone with an HD camera. Not that he'd ever know until it was time. I chuckled darkly to myself.
All the kids was gathered into the centre of the room, where there was space, and all the parents watched from their seats, cooing as they saw their children prance about like idiots. No, but seriously, they just bouncing around. Eh. It was kind of cute, I guessed.
Especially when Marco twirled a blonde girl in a blue dress around in circles until she was dizzy. His awkwardness showed through the striped suit as he panicked, thinking she'd fall over and grabbed her.
I saved the video on my phone as the music changed from Lady Gaga to some dude I didn't know. The kids drank it all up, loving every second that they danced around with a two legged tiger that clearly didn't have the Moves like Jager. (Guess what Eren's email was. Go on, I dare you.)
I raced up to Marco as he danced by himself, taking his huge paws into my hands, twirling him around before he could protest. The kids laughed like maniacs when they saw me, still jumping around to the dance beat.
"IlikeyouIlikeyouIlikeyouIlikeyou, yeah…"
"I see you shinning like sparks, oh oh oh..."
I grinned at Marco who was probably scowling at me, then a little girl without any hair gripped my left hand and I looked at Marco.
Then we all ended up in a great huge circle, the more adventurous parents venturing in as they held their children's hands, or maybe they linked up with a stranger.
We all sang the chorus, wildly, some of us not even understanding what the other was saying, the music set us on a high as his voice echoed throughout the diner, our bodies swaying and heads bobbing from side to side and feet stomping to the music like we couldn't help but jump around like crazed fools. Some of the workers came out from behind the bar to join in, others to take pictures and videos as they watched us with wide grins.
I'll tell you; that day was ten times better than any club I'd ever go to in the future. We were a bunch of kids having a clean, pure and euphoric sugar high.
"Oh you set me on fire!"
The song faded out, everyone gasping. Then we all looked at each other, sweat on our foreheads from the heat of the room, cheeks flushed and eyes wide with excitement and burst out laughing for no reason.
After we'd calmed down and the disco ended after another couple of songs, the parents of the bald girl (who I'm guessing was going through Chemo or just had a hair falling out problem. Or who knows, maybe she'd taken inspiration from good old Connie. Sorry.) rounded me and Marco up to take a picture with the girl.
She was wearing a sparkly dress with bits of black velvet by the neck. Maybe it was a bit mature for someone who looked about seven years old, but who was I to judge? She looked adorable as she dimpled a grin for her dad who held the camera. Marco and I put an arm around each others shoulders and hugged the girl with our free one. The camera flashed as we said "sausages!"
That evening had me in a good mood for ages, and I hadn't felt like that in a long time.
The next day I went inside the corner shop near my house. It was a daily routine for me to go by and get a sweet or something for lunch when I didn't want school dinners. I opened the door as it rang out with a buzz to alert the workers that there was a customer.
The till attendant, Suzy, was a big woman with a scary amount of ginger hair on her head. I just hoped she had a pin or a needle to deflate it before she went to bed at night. We'd never really gotten acquainted other than a few grunts and her telling me how much something cost here and there.
I browsed the shelves, looking for something sweet today. I glanced at the newspapers, usually just looking at the headlines for old times sake since my dad was a lawyer.
I stopped when I came across a picture spread of the photo the guy at Danny's had taken last night. I went over to the stand, picking up the paper. We were on the headline.
"Izzy MacFarlene, 6 years old, was able to enjoy a memorable night at Danny's Diner with her parents and passed away today at 7am after having talked about the disco with her parents the previous night. Izzy suffered from severe leukaemia, and she will always be remembered for her sweet smile and her bravery throughout the year and a half she received treatment. Picture shows the employee dressed as "Danny the Tiger" and a friend at the Diner with Izzy who both made her last night special with her."
I was tearing up by the end of the article. There were loads of pictures, all of them showing Izzy smiling, as she went into a CAT scan for the first time to the time she'd lost all her golden hair with dark splodges marking her skin.
It had been too dark in the diner to see the bruises and suddenly I was terrified that I'd held onto her hand too tightly. Her hands had been fragile, I remembered that, but I hadn't seen a single bruise on that innocent, doll-like face of hers.
Heading towards Suzy with the newspaper in my hands, my mission to find a sweet was forgotten and I bought the paper at the till.
I showed it to Marco as we changed in the locker room for basketball practice. I tried not to stare at his topless, quite ripped body and wide shoulders as he read it, his eyes tearing up just as mine had done. He whispered a quiet "awh" and gripped the paper tighter, looking up at me with a sad smile once he'd finished. We didn't speak after that until we got into the gym. It was only respectful, after all.
-
In my last lesson that same day I'd gotten the newspaper, which was art, I'd still been really happy about the disco and how Marco had apologised to me. Hopefully he'd done so for his friends too by now.
My dad hadn't minded me taking art once I'd gotten into high school, in fact it kind of sounded like he'd wanted me to. I get the feeling that my mom had been an artist of some sort, but my dad never told me anything about her because it made him uncomfortable around me.
Still, he was a good guy and I could understand that he was still upset about the divorce they'd had when I was five. Granted, it was at least ten years since their divorce, but he'd gotten over it to some extent, evidently if he'd gotten married again when I was thirteen.
I hadn't actually been inclined to take art. I liked to doodle in my jotters, yeah but actually painting and sculpting? That seemed a bit girly. Then, when I actually took it for an easy subject choice and tried it, I found I had way too many awesome ideas for my own good; relentlessly going from idea to idea without ever actually developing one like I was supposed to and continuously pumping out new designs and compositions and doing things in several styles.
My teachers loved my enthusiasm and it was the second only class I properly put effort into, other than P.E which wasn't even what I was taking, it was a required subject that everyone had to do.
I was painting quite happily at my work top, working on a piece with a bowl, an apple and a small jug with fabric underneath that I'd decided to do in warm colours with the thick paints. I was in a world of my own in that class; no-one could separate me from my work once I'd started, unless it was a teacher giving me advice. I glanced at the clock every now and then to make sure I wouldn't be late in packing my paints and palette away since I had practice after class.
I glanced up for probably the fifth time that period, more than what I usually did since I'd been eager to show Marco the article and I was about to go back to my work when I noticed people were staring at me.
They looked at me, half amused and what looked somewhat like wonder, a lot of the girls' eyes had glazed over and they blushed as some returned to their work. A couple of the guys chuckled at my lack of knowledge.
"What? Why's everyone looking at me?" I asked, my voice feeling weird since I hadn't used it all period.
Christa sat opposite me. She was working on a sea life themed piece with a crab and other various things you'd find on the beach, I guess. She smiled at me, blushing as well.
"I think it's because you were singing." She chuckled, looking at me through a fan of blonde eyelashes. "You have a good voice, I wasn't expecting you to be able to sing."
My face turned red as I felt the heat rushing to my cheeks and I stared down at my work. Now she mentioned it, I did have a song stuck on my head. My teacher, a grey haired and slightly wrinkled woman with blue eyes that went by the name "Miss Duncan", passed by my table, overhearing our conversation.
"You know, I heard that it's people who're happy who tend to sing to themselves." She took a look at my painting, which I'd rushed a bit since I was really feeling the urge to paint today. "It even shows in your painting, seeing as you've used warm colours."
Happy? I was singing to myself and using a specific set of colours because I was fucking happy?
Yeah, I guessed I was happy. A lot of good things had happened since I'd started high school and last night had topped it off.
But seriously? Singing? That was just totally embarrassing.
Unless Marco would want a serenade or some cheesy crap like that, then I'd do it with the same bravery I'd used to squeeze the life out of him in front of his friends with Connie watching from behind, who'd probably been wondering what the hell his newly gay friend was doing. He hadn't mentioned it afterwards though.
Oh wait shit, now I had to tell people? That was not going to be fun. I hadn't even told Marco yet and that was the whole point of liking someone.
Give me strength.
