Unchartered Territory: Flashing Lights

As soon as the movie ended, I hoped out of my seat and headed towards the parking lot. It was almost 12:15, and we were late. On the way to the club, Mr. AOS and I discussed the movie and why it was over rated. I insisted that if he had seen it before it was nominated for an Oscar (among other awards), he would have thought it was a great film too, but that all the hype overshadowed the actual film so of course it couldn’t live up to the hype.

Initially, I planned on surprising Izzie with Mr. AOS, but her stubborn ways didn’t allow that to happen. So she knew ahead of time to be expecting us.

I never bring sand to the beach, but this beach was bare in comparison to Mr. AOS. (Who is this person and what have they done with Si Si you may ask, trust that I am asking myself the same question as I type) The lounge was packed with Friday night partiers. I thought the rain might have made the venue a little less appealing to party goers that night but this was not the case. There were plenty of eyes on us as we made our way in. Once we hit the corner towards the entrance, I pranced into the club as I normally do, but this time I stopped occasionally to make sure Mr. AOS was close behind. I wanted all the gentlemen to know I was taken.

I was nervous.

What if Izzie didn’t like Mr. AOS? What would I do or say in the future when talking about him? Why was I thinking about a future?

I was confused to say the least. I didn’t know how to act. There were a million scenarios running through my head. I was bringing a guy I really liked; yes I really do like him, to meet my best friend.

I searched the room for her long curly brown locks; it was the main feature that made her stand out among such a large crown. I saw a girl in a blue tube top dress, wearing no shoes, with her arms flaring. She looked rather tipsy as she stumbled to keep on beat with the music. This was my girl, eyes glazed, hair still in tact and shoes stored.

Izzie, I yelled as I ran up to her and gave her a hug. She scolded me for being so late. I could hardly decipher her slurring words but I knew she was looking for me. I tried to explain that we got lost and before I could introduce him, she made her way over.

“[Mr. AOS] this is Izzie, my best friend.”

From then on, you could catch her repeating one of these phrases.

“I’m her best best friend.”

“She really likes you.”

“Aww, ya’ll are so cute together.”

“I like him,” she failed to whisper in my ear repeatedly.

The words flowed threw her mouth. My happy smile gradually turned into awkward embarrassment.

Technically it was truth, but in all my excitement of bringing him I never put two and two together. It was Izzies birthday, she was going to be drunk and drunken people tell the truth.

Midway through the night, Izzie got Mr. AOS to but her a drink. As they left our area, I didn’t know whether or not I should follow or stay behind. It wasn’t like I could stop what was about to be said between Mr. AOS and Izzie. Plus she had already said so much anyway. Part of me was happy she was able to vocalize how I feel about him, to him. It dawned on me that I had never personally verbalized my feelings to him. My embarrassment disappeared, for the most part, I was thankful for my drunken friend and her uninhibited honesty.

I decided to stay and dance with the rest of the birthday party. There were about 9 other people, some of who I knew. I greeted to all of them and sat and talked with the girl I knew the best.

When they came back, large glass of alcohol in hand, Izzie and I decided to take pictures. Mr. AOS quickly stepped to the side as Izzie and I did our best poses for the camera.

“1, 2, 3, cheese!”

Cameras were flashing. This was something we loved to do and we did it well.

Take one more sitting down. Wait lets do this. Wait one more picture like that.

We posed for several more frames. Then all the girls of the party joined together for more group pictures.

Izzie and I took another picture together and she decided she wanted to add Mr. AOS to her scrapbook. She pulled him in next to her and said, now say cheese. I looked at the discomfiture on his face. This was not his thing, but he was a good sport. He struck one pose and the cameras flashed.

We all separated.

“I’m embarrassed,” he said. “All the lights are blinding me.”

“You’re embarrassed,” I was not completely shocked but I tried to make him feel better, “don’t be.” I tried to assure him that he was fine and doing fine. Izzie had already mentioned that she liked us together.

Izzie then placed us next to each other for another photo up.

“Smile!”

I looked to see how he was taking all of this attention. Mr. AOS is a guy who likes to stay under the radar and I’m sure he was not at ease with all of this attention. Again, uneasiness had overcome his face.

He grabbed my waist and smiled for the picture.

After our “photo session”, I was afraid that Mr. AOS would be uncomfortable the rest of the night. Instead, he went back to his humorous wit. He joked about the number of pictures Izzie and I took. My mind was able to stop moving full speed ahead and I relaxed. I enjoyed the time we had. Mr. AOS even danced with me the rest of the night. (Something I was not expecting at all.) I had seen him dance before so I knew he knew how to move, but never in public. He looked like he was having fun and so was I.

Occasionally we would find ourselves talking to one another closely, hands caressing each others backs, and staring into each others eyes. This was new to me and surprisingly I didn’t mind it. It was not as awful as I had imagined. This was something I could get used to.

After the evening was over, Mr. AOS thanked me for getting him out of the house. I wasn’t exactly sure how he was feeling about the nights events prior to that statement. It was good to know he enjoyed himself as much as I did.