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Sweat, beer and the faintest hint of afted through the air The space was alht in the exposed ceiling turned off Only the stage lights and die selection of alcohol illuminated the room Tables were spread out in between the t-shirt stands in the back and the space in front of the stage where standing fans congregated Board games were stacked unceremoniously on a cluttered bookcase near the front door and the stairs leading to the balcony were roped off Welco on stage, their dru so loudly my heart was forced to keep quick rhythuitar to my very bones I didn’t know their name, and really I didn’t need to I just wanted to sport my under twenty-one wrist band that declared under no circuh the bouncer tried to convince et aith a real wrist band… come on… ill it hurt?

His words not mine

I said, "It will hurt me, damn it! I will obviously drink cheap tequila until I’m obliterated, then leave with soet into a drunk-driving accident and then I will die! And then you will be responsible for the death of a sixteen year old minor! Damn it!"

My exact words

Then he shrunk back on his stool and gulped, "Sixteen?"

And then I walked into the music hall completely satisfied with how that went down

Despite ht, I was still thirsty after two and a half hours on and/or waiting for various public transportations So I pushedcrowd and to the bar In the trek over I had to weave through lots and lots of bodies and then in order to get a place at the bar I had to stand near the back of the roo sold, and elboait to the chest-high counter

I didn’t mind it back here The air was fresher and cooler and it was decidedly less populated sinceto press into one solidified organisoing to work, but there was no use telling that to theht the bartender’s attention He gavelook so I waved ned way

Once upon a tiht me to order a Blue Dolphin when at a bar, which was essentially water on the rocks He said ordering it that ould make me sound more sophisticated When I ordered water now, I did it with a smile and hoped to God it made ulped the deliciously cold tap water down in two huge ss as soon as the bartender handed it to et the chance to walk away I er and yelled, "keep ‘ehtly predatory grin froed bartender with floppy black hair and neck tattoos I had a thing for tattoos, it was like a weakness of ht

So I turnedMinors bartender and out to the riotous crowd This was it; this hy I loved Wednesdays There was tooin the shared air for people to really notice ot the vibes, but usually people were so absorbed in the music I was hardly noticed at all And the smells of cheap liquor and vomit helped put them off the scent

Not tolove affair with music

All ood If it, whatever it as put to music I could easily lose myself completely Seriously from bad pop to heavy rock to my favorite classical composers, I loved it all

Well ular flute was fine But jazz… that was an entirely different circle of hell as far as I was concerned

An ugly, confusing, shrill sounding circle of Hell

Just don’t tell Ron Burgundy I felt that way

It was during this perusal of ray depths of Ryder Sutton I felt my mouth fall open; literally my bottom lip detached from the firm hold lared at me from across the room Glared at me He had his back to the far wall and one foot propped up with his knee bent His arms were folded across his chest and even from here I could see ripped biceps tensed and flexed He was in the same outfit he wore earlier today, the only difference was his hair was slightly bigger It wasn’t like his hair had , but it just stood out from his head a bit less controlled… crazier… no… sexier Like he had his hands in it, or someone else had their hands in it

Like Kenna Lee, who had just walked passed ht to her cliché-rebel-boyfriend Ryder then proceeded to take his eyes off irlfriend and then rock her world by pulling her into thedisplay of public affection I had ever seen

Gross

I so did not get people kissing in front of other people

Hell, I didn’t even get how people liked other people enough to like kissing them

Romance eird

In my life, romance didn’t even exist

The bartender handed lass of water and when I was finished with that one, I slammed it down on the bar like I had just finished the proudest kind of awful-tasting-shot This earned a throw your head back kind of laugh froree, I was hilarious

It was a ht off my shoulders and allowed me to have soine ultimate freedom in two years

I winced in anticipation I could h two years

"Ivy?" soave the bartender a desperate look for more water to which he shook his head, a it wasn’t Ryder and Kenna

Some prayers are answered with a "yes"

Some prayers are answered with a "no"

This was a "no" kind of situation

"Hey!" I shouted over thehere?" I forced myself to keep my eyes on Kenna and not look around for Ryder who seemed to have disappeared He hated me that much he couldn’t even stand to have aard set to the bottoht," Kenna shouted back She was dressed for the girlfriend-of-the-band part in a fifties style red and black polka-dot wrap around dress Her long, black hair floated around her shoulders in silky straightness that remained perfectly unfrizzed and untouched by the hu a proud s off her extreme excitement

"Ryder?" I clarified

Instead of trying to beat the volu a smile full of affectionate pride

"Cool!" I offered back and then turned e I wasn’t sure if she wanted to hang out or not and it ay too loud to try to carry on a conversation Plus, I didn’t really have anything to say… so there was that

We bobbed and swayed in the general vicinity of each other for twenty rass-roots kind of blues sung by college aged boys with underdeveloped voices and wardrobes straight froue