“Natalie, what a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”
Natalie snorted. “Is that the best you can do ... Jet, is it?”
“You do know my name, wonderful.”
“Hardly. Julie was nice enough to impart your glowing reputation to me.”
“You can't possibly dislike me; you don't even know me. And I just bought you beautiful ladies some drinks.”
Natalie finally looked up from her glass, and met my gaze. “I know about guys like you. You're all the same and I couldn't be less interested. Did you really think you could come over here and I would just go home with you? You can't be that deluded.”
I laughed out loud. She was a total trip. I was quite certain that no female in my entire life had talked to me that way. I kind of liked a girl with a set of balls. Girls these days kissed ass too much to land a boyfriend, but not this one. She was on fire tonight.
Julie laughed, too, though more nervously.
“Give me a chance here, firecracker. Come dance with me. You will have fun, I promise.”
“No shot.”
“Well, would you be interested in coffee sometime? In a nice, safe, public place so I can't trick you into sex? You can’t believe everything you hear about my reputation.”
“Just beat it, Jet, I have a drink to finish.”
The drinks I ordered arrived, and Julie grabbed hers, while Natalie just left hers sitting there. I wasn't quite sure what to think of the whole situation.
“Are you really not going to give me a chance here?”
She looked up at me again, and met my eyes. She lingered there momentarily, just long enough to give me hope. And then she whispered, so softly I almost missed the words, “Fuck off.” She then turned back to finish her drink.
I took a look around, wondering if I should hit the dance floor alone and pick up another chick to take home to warm my bed. I didn't like sleeping alone. This little interlude was going terribly, so it was definitely time for me to move on to the next one. But before I was able to make a decision on whom to hit on next, Natalie and Julie got up from their seats, drinks unfinished, and left without even glancing at me again. No see ya later, no thanks for the drinks; they just up and left me.
I was dumbfounded by Natalie's behavior. Bars were the best possible place to pick up girls, and yet I was turned down by a girl who hadn't even known I existed until that night. It had never happened to me before. I didn't like the feeling; I'm not going to lie.
Chapter Three
Natalie
Class ended with me thinking about my art assignment for the new semester. I lingered in the classroom as my fellow classmates filtered out of the room, onto their next class or maybe off on a break. I had nowhere to be at that particular moment, except to study. Sometimes I liked watching people, wondering what their lives were like outside of school. How much different were their lives from mine? Were they happy? If not, what was going on in their lives to cause unhappiness? The amazing thing about watching people is that you could never tell what kind of life they lead by their expression, or the way they held themselves. Hell, with all this reflection, I probably should have been a writer; then maybe I would know human nature a little better. I smiled at a few of them as they walked past me, quizzical looks on their faces, probably wondering why I wasn't escaping with them. To be honest, I was exhausted. Exhausted from my life, and now this project. I took my classwork seriously, because honestly, it was all I had. Maybe all I would ever have, and that certainly was a scary notion. It had occurred to me that I should stop the melancholy thought process before it got the best of me.
I looked down at my notebooks, unsure whether I should head out just yet. I flipped through the notes I had made in art class, hoping that an idea would pop out at me. For the first time in a while, I didn't know what to do. No brilliant ideas had come to me thus far, and yet I had to get started working on it before I got behind. I was puzzled by the assignment, and wasn't sure how I should handle it. I loved the class, and everything to do with my new semester, but the classes certainly forced me to dig deeper as an artist. The professor had assigned a task for us to complete, and I wanted to do a good job on it. My art career was very important to me, and I was determined to excel. I didn't want just any job when I graduated?I wanted the best job out there. I hoped to one day work in Europe, in one of their finest galleries, that is, until I became a famous artist myself. Until then, however, I planned on working amongst the greatest art pieces in the world. The assignment was to draw a changing object once a month, and at the end of
the semester I would hand it in. I hadn't a clue what object I would use. I would have to find something that would constantly change. Something interesting, fascinating even, something to knock the socks off of my professor.
I grabbed my books and art supplies and slipped them into my bag. I stood up, pushing the chair in, and I headed out the door. I was lost in the puzzle of my art project when I walked down the hallway toward the end of the building, and pushed through the doors. Sunlight shone in my eyes, and I ran smack into Jet, dropping my bag and spilling my books all over the ground. What. The. Fuck.
“Great, you again.”
He laughed, “Yep it's me, and sorry about that. It wasn't my intention to body check you.”
“What exactly was your intention?”
He bent down to help me pick up the books. He handed me the books one by one and I slipped them back into my bag as neatly as I could.
“Art, right? I heard you were into this stuff.”
“This ‘stuff'?’ Wow, you're a real charmer today aren't you?” This guy was really one of a kind, in the most unfortunate sense of the word.
“Well, I'm showing interest in you, aren't I? Come on, you know I didn't mean it like that.”