-1Chapter 8

I expected him to be taking me to some lab where they sell drugs or illegal products not on the market. What I did not expect was to find myself amidst punks, Goths, and all the cliques available other than my own, packed together and listening to loud music. "So is this some sort of club?" I asked Ron as he shuffled me through the crowd to a stack of wooden crates. The crates were piled in a way that could resemble a counter, and painted various colours from black to neon pink. I was shocked at who I saw standing on the other side serving beer in red plastic cups from a keg on the ground by his feet, half hidden by the crates.

"To an outsider it could be called a Club.. Uhm of sorts. But to us Yorkies, it's just a regular place to hang out." Ron whispered in my ear. His fingers traced circles on my palm. I pulled my hand away and looked up at the familiar face. "Two." Ron said to him, his face half-heart felt. The server passed us the drinks, his eyes watching me carefully.

"I know you." He pointed out, rubbing the stubble on his chin. Then he nodded to himself. "Annabel." I couldn't help but cough a bit, the drink going down the wrong way.

"You remembered my name?" I asked.

"It's a gift."

"Uh-huh. Business must not be too good if you're working here too."

He smiled. "This is my basement."

"Far out!" Ron budded in. "That is so amazing. Now thank you for catching up with however you know my girl, but we've got to run along now."

"Sorry. Didn't want to take you away from your girl." Blue-tips scoffed. He gave me a wink and moved to serve someone else. Ron pulled me away and we sat down on a couple of lawn chairs near the back corner. Instead of telling myself that I still didn't know that guy's name, I turned to Ron and let it out.

"One. I'm not your girl. I'm not anyone's girl."

"Not even you're boyfriend's? What was his name? Wally.. Donkey?" He smirked.

"Shut up." I said darkly. I leaned back in the chair and looked away. He was silent for a moment.

"You know, usually when someone says "one", they usually follow with at least a second point. Do you have another rule for me Anna?"

"Yeah. Don't call me Anna." I didn't look over at him, but I did catch myself looking over at No-Name-Blue-Tips serving alcohol across the basement. I assumed that we were in the basement of the store that I was in just yesterday. It seemed like a decade ago. When I looked over at Ron's chair a while later, he was no longer there. When I looked around I saw him dancing between two very sluttish girls. All they wore were braziers and dancing shorts. I gagged and stood up, headed for another drink.

"Ah. I knew you'd return." Blue-Tips said when he noticed me coming towards him. He turned back to the guy he was serving. I waited patiently for his attention to be diverted to me. It took him a while. I had to reach out and grab his arm to stop him from serving someone who had arrived after me. "I was getting to you. Where's your boy?"

"He's not my boy." I stated, I shrugged my shoulder and bit the inside of my mouth. "He's dancing with some girls." I finished.

"Aw." He handed me a drink. "Poor thing probably got bored of you staring at me all night."

"I wasn't--"

"Don't lie Annabel" He shook his finger at me and then turned to help another girl. I didn't leave, but I did finish my drink before he came back. I passed him the cup.

"You're full of yourself, you know that?" I asked as he poured me another drink.

"Is it because I'm devastatingly handsome?" He asked, leaning on his arms.

"What?"

"Why you seem to not want to leave me alone. Trying to keep attention to yourself by insulting me. Does that work on every guy you wanna fuck?"

My jaw dropped and anger flooded through me. "I… you.. I certainly do not want you like that." I spat. His mouth turned up into a half smile and he took in my face.

"Didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Or make you cry."

I reached up and felt the tears on the edges of my eyes. "Great." I whispered. I turned away until I could compose myself. When I turned back he was still leaning there looking at me. I don't know why my chest tightened to know that I had kept at least a bit of his attention. He still had that grin on his face, but it sent different feelings this time. Maybe remorse. I took another sip of my drink.

"Your not from here are you?" He wondered. I shook my head and looked around at the people gathering around us. They were waiting for him to serve them. He didn't look away from me, but kept nodding. "Why are you here?"

"Helping my sister pack, because she's moving back home." He didn't ask where home was.

"Hey buddy, you gonna serve us?" Some shithead asked from beside me.

"In a minute. Why were you in my store yesterday? You don't look like the kind of person who would enter a beat up place like this on interest."

"You don't know what kind of person I am."

"No. I don't even want to know." But he didn't stand up and look away.

"Seriously. Give us some grub!" Someone else complained. It was followed by grunts and swears of approval.

"Aren't you going to serve them?" I asked quietly. His eyes took over my face once more.

"Who were you hiding from, Annabel?"

"Hey! There you are!" A voice said from behind me. Ron grabbed my elbow and looked into Blue-Tip's face. Blue-Tip stood up and went to serve the complainers. Ron shook his head and then looked at me. "I thought you had run off or something." He sighed. I put down my cup and looked into his face.

"I think I'm gonna leave."

"What? It's only like 9:30.. Ish." He moaned.

"It's okay, you can stay. I know my way from here."

He didn't need much convincing. The girls from before came back. I rolled my eyes and left discreetly. When I got back to the hotel room I cursed myself for not asking Blue-Tips his real name.

"Holy crap, Annabel. I didn't know you'd be gone all friggen day. We had packing to do." Kirsten was waiting for me.

"Sorry. There's still tomorrow."

"We're only halfway done so you better work your ass of tomorrow." Brian added from the kitchenette. I nodded.

"So do you like Ron?"