Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (40 page)

“There! Good as new!” Emily said proudly.

“Thanks.” It was nice not to see all that pain streaked across my face so clearly for everyone to see.

“You know, it’s good what you did to Joey. It was bound to happen. Maybe now he’ll stop grabbing girls like that and stop acting like he’s in junior high. It isn’t funny or cute.” Emily said carefully, trying not to upset me.

“Yeah, I always hated it when he did that to me. I’ve wanted to hit him. I’m glad you did.” Cassie agreed.

“Really?” I asked apprehensively.

“Yeah. So, don’t worry about it. All people will remember is Joey got what he always deserved.” Emily put her arm around my shoulders and squeezed. I smiled at her and Cassie in the mirror. “You ready?”

I nodded and took a deep breath. I was as ready as I would ever be. We headed into the ballroom and entered the dance. I looked around to find the table where the rest of the guys were. Emily spotted them and walked to the table that was close to the ballroom’s side wall with a clear view of the dance floor. Bobby and Jason went up to their girlfriends and asked them to dance. Tony and Karen were already out on the floor dancing. I assumed that Patrick and Becca were out there as well, since they weren’t at the table.

The loud dance music pulsated through the ballroom. Kraig and I hung out at the table, chatted and pointed out the outrageous dancers. The nice thing about dancing to fast songs is that you don’t have to have a partner. Dancing in groups of three or more is common. Every so often, some of the crew would come back to the table to take a break and rest. When they did, I could convince Kraig to go dance and join the others – he wouldn’t go otherwise. The girls wanted to keep dancing, but the guys would rotate out, always leaving me with Kraig, Bobby, Jason or Tony, at one time or another. I was never alone. I didn’t have to ask them to do that, they just did.

Of course, when slow songs came on, the dance was for partners only. It was nice to not have the bass of a song pound through me when ballads played. During the second slow song set, Kraig asked, “Do you want to dance?”

“No, it’s okay. I told you… me and dancing are like drinking and driving. We don’t mix.”

“Come on, I buy that for fast songs, but for slow? You don’t have to really do anything but sway back and forth.” He had a point. “And I promise you’ll always know where my hands are.” He grinned and showed me both his hands, palms up.

I suppose the night couldn’t get any worse. I hoped that I got my one major embarrassing moment out of the way already. “Since you asked so nicely… sure.” I got up and we headed to the dance floor. I was really tense. I hadn’t danced with a guy since before the attack. I definitely hadn’t had a guy touch me like that since then either. I tried not to flinch when he innocently put his arms around me. It’s just Kraig. It’s just Kraig. I’m okay.

“Relax. I got your back.” He smiled. “Literally. No one can sneak up behind you with us dancing like this.”

“That’s true. I didn’t think of it that way.” I chuckled and relaxed a little.

Kraig and I continued our people watching while we danced. Some people danced so close, you wondered how they were able to breathe at all. As we danced and turned, I spotted Patrick and Becca. Becca had her head on Patrick’s shoulder and lifted it just in time to see me. She flipped her hair and started making out with him, then grabbed his ass. From Patrick’s reaction, it caught him off guard. He pulled back, but Becca, like a magnet, reattached herself to him. Patrick dropped his arms and stopped dancing. He said something to her, which it seemed, made Becca react with more flirtation.

He turned and walked over to our group’s table, with Becca close behind. Patrick sat down facing the dance floor and she plopped down on his lap. I lost sight of them as other couples got in my line of sight. I shouldn’t be spying on them anyway, but I was worried about Patrick and I couldn’t help it – besides, it gave me something else to think about. He had helped me so much and I wanted to return the favor. I didn’t really know how to except to be there for him.

The last slow song of the set ended and the dance music resumed. Kraig and I headed back to the table. Patrick and Becca were still there.

Kraig pulled out a chair for me to sit on. “Want something to drink?”

“Sure. Water would be nice.” I answered.

“No problem.” Kraig looked at Patrick and Becca. “You guys want something?”

“Ooh, diet anything. Make sure it’s cold.” Becca responded patronizingly.

“Damn, Becca. Why you do have to be like that? He’s being nice.” Patrick was still annoyed, she just rolled her eyes. “I’ll get it, Kraig.”

“It’s okay.” Kraig shrugged. “You want anything?”

“No, thanks.” Patrick replied. Kraig left to go get our drinks. Patrick turned to face me and was about to say something when Becca took his face in her hands and started kissing him.

Becca finally came up for air, “Where’s Kraig? I’m thirsty.”

I wanted to say…Well, if you weren’t sucking on Patrick’s face every chance you got, you wouldn’t be so dehydrated. But I didn’t. Kraig, thankfully, was back with her soda and two waters, before I said something I shouldn’t.

“Here you go.” Kraig handed Becca her soda. She quickly took it from him and started sipping it. “And for you…” He opened my water bottle before handing it to me.

I took the bottle and smiled. “Thank you.”

“Welcome.”

Patrick nudged Becca and nodded in the direction of Kraig. She looked at Kraig and got the hint, “Oh. Thanks.” Her focus returned to Patrick. All of a sudden, she looked at me, “Hey! Take our picture.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe she was actually talking to me.

“Well, aren’t you our designated photographer? Isn’t that what you said?” Becca was being a bitch about it, but was right. It was the plan. Taking pictures was a way for me to be a part of the night, part of the group, but not have to dance and be ‘safe’ behind the lens.

“Becca, lay off her. She’s having fun.” Patrick interrupted.

“No. She said she’d take pictures.” Becca demanded. “She ruined our earlier ones, the least she can do is take some pictures for us now.” She was in full pout mode.

“I’m sorry about that.” Thanks for the reminder, Becca. I was able to put what happened earlier out of my mind for a bit and
was
having some fun. She slapped me back into reality.

Patrick looked squarely at me and shook his head, “You don’t have to.” He turned to Becca, “And she didn’t ruin anything. We had plenty of pictures taken earlier.”

“It’s okay… I said I would take pictures.” I fished the camera out of my purse.

“See, she wants to do it.” Becca was cheerful because she felt she won. “Come on, Paddy. Smile!” She primped herself on Patrick.

“You don’t have to do this, Liz.” He said soberly. He didn’t sound like himself. He sounded so… regretful.

I nodded, “Yeah, I do.” I lifted the camera to my face. “Smile.” Becca posed by draping herself around Patrick, he forced a smile. “Okay, 1… 2… 3….” I took the picture.

At some point, everyone made their way back to the table to take a break before going back out to dance. I took pictures of everyone in the crew, with different poses and mixes. Emily grabbed my camera, handed it to Bobby and insisted that I was in some of the pictures. By the end of the dance, I must have taken at least 60 different pictures of everyone.

26. FALL OUT

After the dance, we headed to a diner. When Kraig and I got there, almost everyone was there already seated. The table seemed short for our group, seating for eight instead of ten.

I looked around the table, “We need two more chairs. Patrick and Becca aren’t here yet.”

Bobby looked at Jason. “I don’t think they’ll make it.” Emily shot Bobby a look.

Jason continued, “Yeah, they had a detour to make, which could take…” Cassie nudged him.

“15 minutes.” Bobby interrupted. Emily hit his arm, but Bobby and Jason were already cracking up. “You’re right, he’s in good shape. Ok, or more. Sheesh.”

I stared at the four of them, not quite understanding what was going on. I looked at Kraig and Tony, hoping they knew what the hell the others were talking about, but I don’t think they were even paying attention, because they seemed fairly clueless as well. At least I wasn’t alone in the clueless department. Patrick had told me that he would be here at the diner, that much I knew. I wonder what happened.

The guys all seemed really hungry. They ordered a bunch of different appetizers. I took some pictures of the mounds of French fries covered with chili and cheese, fried zucchini, nachos, onion rings, and potato skins. Was there anything fried or covered in cheese that we didn’t order?

I took pictures of everyone digging into the food, or at least trying to. I got some good shots of long strands of cheese from the plate to Bobby’s or Tony’s mouth as they tried to get their share of the nachos.

We had been at the diner for about an hour. Half of the food we ordered had been eaten when I saw Patrick walking toward our table. He was alone. He grabbed a chair from a nearby table and put it next to me.

“Hey! Patrick!” Bobby shouted and put his hand out. They shook hands, well in their own way. “Didn’t think you’d make it.” Bobby laughed.

“Yeah. Me either.” Jason shook Patrick’s hand. “I thought you’d be too… distracted to remember we’d be here.”

Cassie slapped Jason’s arm, “Leave him alone. You’re bad.”

Patrick plopped down in the seat. “Sorry, I’m late.”

“If you were safe, hopefully she won’t be.” Bobby chided.

Emily elbowed Bobby. “Where’s Becca?”

Patrick answered, “Uh… home.” He rolled his eyes, “We had a fight. So I took her home.”

“You guys okay?” Emily asked.

He shrugged his shoulders and was indifferent, “Who knows? Whatever.” He put some fries on a plate and started eating. “What’d I miss?”

The guys caught him up on their antics at the diner. The server came by and we ordered five different desserts.

While everyone was talking across the table, Patrick quietly asked me “What did you have?”

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. I couldn’t believe that despite having a fight with his girlfriend, he was worried about me and my eating habits. “Patrick, I’m fine. I’m more worried about you.”

“Humor me. You aren’t the only one who looks for a distraction.” He sounded so desperate.

I understood what he meant. “A little zucchini and onion rings. They have a really good dip here for them.” I had one of each, but I did manage to eat a little.

The desserts arrived and we passed them around so everyone could have some. It was like a merry-go-round of pies, cakes and sundaes.

It was getting really late. Tony and Karen had already left and I had a 2:00am curfew. So, Kraig and I started saying good-bye to everyone. Patrick was ready to leave too. I guess he didn’t want to be left there with two couples. I didn’t blame him. The three of us walked to Kraig’s car together. Normally, I’d feel really uneasy about being out so late, but having two guy friends walk you to the parking lot, made me feel a lot better.

Patrick came over and gave me a hug. “Night. I’m glad you came. You had fun?” Kraig walked over to the driver’s side and waited.

“Yeah, for the most part.” I looked at him, there was something restless in his face. “Call me, if you want to talk.”

He nodded. “Yeah… I’ll call you later.” I climbed into the car and he closed the door. He walked over to Kraig’s side. They did that guy handshake of theirs and said good-bye.