The party was being held in the catering hall of a very expensive hotel. Of course, I mean, it was Vince McMahon paying for fuck's sake…
(…I must say now that I curse a lot…by the time you finish my pretty little narrative you'll realize why…I mean, you'd be pretty angry too…believe me…)
Everyone was there, joking around with me about the shirt. At first it was okay, a lot of just overall good times and having fun, but towards the end of the night as the music slowed and consisted of all slow songs I was reminded why I hadn't wanted to come in the first place. Everyone there had a date. Except for me. Even Mark was around dancing with someone. I was miserable.
I was a wallflower.
But then I saw her.
She was standing on the opposite side of the hall, sitting in a chair, knees drawn up under her chin. She seemed a capable person that had no idea what to do, and that made her look like a heart broken teenager. She had dark hair, faded purple, and bright hazel eyes. She was looking at the floor, and looked rather sad. I smiled, though I had a feeling that I would rejected, as I walked over to her, moving through the crowd of slow-dancing wrestlers (funny image, isn't it?) to her. When I reached her I sat down in a chair beside her.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "You look so sad."
Her eyes misted over. "My father owns this hotel. My boyfriend loves wrestling…he talked me into bringing him here and then he ran off with someone…" she started to cry. I put my hand on her shoulder. She flinched.
"Don't cry. He's an asshole," I said to her. "It's not your fault."
She looked at me, immeasurably sad for a moment until she broke into laughter. I felt my stomach twisting. "What?" I asked her nervously.
"You're like a giant Valentine with that red mask," she began to laugh hysterically. She wiped away her tears.
"Well maybe I am."
She stuck out her hand. "I'm Amber."
I took her hand and we shook. "I'm Kane."
"Kane…" she breathed. "That's a cool name. Wanna dance, Kane?"
I was smiling under the mask. I thought she wouldn't see it, like no one else ever saw, until she said, "You're smiling, aren't you? I can tell by the way your mask just moved."
"Yeah…I guess I am."
She stood and took both of my hands, dragging me onto the floor where everyone danced. We slow danced, and I kept laughing. I had never seriously danced with a person of normal figure, only jokingly with Mark…which you don't need to know about…haha. But I thought that it was just so funny because of her height. She leaned her head against me…on my chest.
We danced all night, not saying a word, just simply connecting by touch, swaying with each other, little by little pulling closer and closer until I had both my arms wrapped around her and she had hers wrapped around me. And at one point she just gently rested her head on my chest and it never once came up for the rest of the night.
It was after two hours of this that I noticed my brother in the corner of my eye. He was staring at us with a crooked grin on his face. He said something to the DJ. I looked around, noticing that almost everyone was staring at me. I rolled my eyes, stroking Amber's hair. When the next song started I froze, and saw that anyone who hadn't been staring now turned to us.
It was my entrance music.
Over all of it I could hear Mark laughing, and I shot him an evil glare, though I couldn't tell if I was angry or not. Amber looked at me. "Kane, what's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing," I said, and laughed softly. "Let's get outta here."
Everyone was clapping as we walked away, as she asked me over and over what was going on and why they were clapping. I told her it didn't matter as I ushered her out to my car. "I don't mean to insult you or your dad, but I already have a room somewhere else," I told her, and drove her back to the hotel. When we got there she walked in ahead of m e and sat down on my bed. I changed my shirt in the bathroom, putting on a plain black shirt, favoring it over the Undertaker one.
"So you're a wrestler?" she asked from the main room.
"Yeah…" I answered. "My brother's been wrestling for years. I only started last April."
"Who's your brother?" she asked.
"The guy from my shirt. The Undertaker. His name is Mark. He's like five years older than I am."
I came out of the bathroom to see her on the bed in nothing but her bra and panties. At first I was surprised, and then a great nervousness came over me and swallowed me because I was afraid and didn't know why I had brought her back to my room. I scolded myself for it, thinking, "Jesus, Kane. What did you expect bringing her back here?" I sat down on the edge of the bed.
"You know…I don't have any condoms…" I admitted to her. She rolled her eyes.
"It's Valentine's Day and you don't have any condoms?" she laughed. "Ah. Whatever. I don't like them anyway."
Now, just for the sake of this narrative, I'd had sex before. I wasn't a virgin like everyone seemed to think I was for some reason. But that doesn't really matter right now.
She got up on her knees and came over to me, placing her hands on my mask.
"Are you gonna take this off?" she asked. I started to protest as she reached behind my head and undid one of the clasps.
"Don't…" I said. She stopped.
"Why?"
"My face…" I expected her to know why, like most people do, until I remembered that she wasn't a wrestling fan. I felt tears coming on. "It's all…scarred from when I was a kid…there was this fire…"
She smiled and rolled her eyes again. "Take it easy, big boy. My cousin is the same way. She's burned from a fire also."
I don't think I've ever felt such relief. I undid the mask myself, looking down for a moment, holding my precious mask in my hands. When I looked up at her she burst out laughing.
I felt so broken.
So hurt.
Tears rose again in my eyes and I felt heat in my cheeks. She noticed this and stopped abruptly.
"Oh! Aww Kane don't cry! I'm not laughing at your scars, I swear! See?" she touched my face, no disgust or fear in her eyes or expression at all.
"Then what are you laughing at?" I asked her, the question coming out a lot meaner than I'd intended.
"You look like a raccoon with that makeup!"
We both laughed and I rubbed it off with the edge of my sleeve. Need I tell you what happened next, other than when I woke the next morning she was in my bed with my arms wrapped around her?