I’m not afraid.

I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid.

I…

I am afraid.

Terrified in fact.

The flashing lasers blinded me, and raving techno pop was wearing a migraine between my eyes. But that is not what frightened me.

I was sitting in a dark, smoky corner trying my best to hide from all of the people around me, clutching a copy of Ariel tightly in my hand, the poems forgotten long ago.

Too may people, too many unpleasant smells and sights.

I wish I was at home.

One man had a girl on the table next to mine. I picked a dark corner…so I should have seen this coming. One hand was between her legs while the other was buried deep inside her too-tight top, mercilessly attacking her silicon breasts. If the girl had any problems with this very public display she didn’t show it. In fact, she was passionately attacking the man’s face, with one hand down his pants and the other fighting the straps secured behind her neck and tangling themselves in dark-rooted, violet hair. Her white panties practically glowed on the table beside them in dramatic irony.

I don’t want to be here!

My sister. Bless her intentions but damn her methods. She dragged me here. So worried about my social ineptitude she decided to plunge me headfirst into the ocean rather than letting me test the breakwater first.

She threw me in and then abandoned me to drown.

I closed my eyes and wished it all to disappear.

“Hey cutey, why are you sitting all by yourself?”

A man slid into the seat next to mine and leaned in. He stank of vodka and bad body odor. He wasn’t unhandsome with blonde hair parted neatly, but he was wasted beyond words and it disgusted me. I leaned back until my head bumped the wall.

“Please…leave me alone.”

“Oh come on now,” he purred, “Let me at least buy you a drink?”

I pushed my glasses up my nose and glared at him.

This guy is drunk, you could take him if you had to!

“I don’t drink. Leave.”

He smacked a palm into the wall by my head, boxing me in and completely preventing any hope of escape. I shrank back, my courage just as fleeting as it was coming.

“Why so bitchy tonight? Don’t you want to have a little fun?”

His other hand came up to play with my short black hair. I drew my knees up to try and keep some distance between us and realized what a mistake I had made when I remembered I was wearing a short skirt. He grinned wickedly and began pushing it further up my thighs.

“Stop it!”

I began wiggling around as violently a possible, trying to get him off. It backfired. He just pressed closer and brought his face up to mine. I could feel his musty breath on my face before suddenly, he clamped down on me, sucking roughly on my lower lip and playing with the ring through it. Disgusting.

I tried to shake him off again and managed to get my hands free to push and pound on his shoulders and chest. In the process I knocked my book to the floor and it landed with a loud whack!

“Security!”

A female voice rang out somewhere nearby and the man turned away from me long enough to look, leaving a foul trail of saliva clinging to my lip. It gave me the opportunity I needed though. I pulled my feet up and, placing black ballet-flats on his chest, pushed with all the strength in my legs. It wasn’t much but it was enough to send him flying back off of me and into the arms of an extremely muscular man in a vibrant yellow shirt screaming the word ‘security’ across the front.

“What the hell do you think your doin’ man?” he said, locking my attackers arms behind his back.

“He-he just tried to rape me!”

I pointed at his tight-fitting jeans for the proof of his intentions, while wiping the spit off my face with the other hand. The guard hauled him off while I sat there reluctant to pull out of my protective ball. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, fighting back the urge to cry.

Calm down.

I’m alright.

I’m not afraid.

I sighed heavily and rubbed my eyes under my glasses.

“Are you alright?”

My eyes shot open at recognizing the voice as the same one that had called the security guard over. A girl about my age was squatting slightly beside me at eye level. She had a pleasant face: pale-skinned and lightly freckled with little make-up. Her hair cut was cute and tomboyish at the same time. Long in back and shorter on top with short pieces falling in bangs and framing her face. She wore boyish black shorts and a black wife beater.

I put my glasses back into place, nodding and slowly releasing my knees back down where they belonged.

She reached down and picked up my book, dusting it off and handing it back to me.

“Sylvia Plath?” she smiled warmly. “ I did a report on her in my sophomore year of high school.”

I returned her smile. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she looked familiar.

“I know you from somewhere…” she said.

She seemed to be reading my thoughts.

Her large, almost auburn eyes grew wider with recognition.

“Don’t you work at that book shop on Evergreen?”

“Um…yes. I do.”

She smiled, brightly flashing me her white teeth and laughed lightly.

“I’m a regular customer. I shop there all the time.”

I blinked at her for a minute before it hit me. “Oh! I remember you!”

She laughed infectiously again and stood , revealing that she was fairly short, though still taller than I am. When you’re four foot eleven, almost everyone is taller than you are.

"I'm Abby."

I nodded slightly.

"Emily."

She grinned and clapped her hands together. "Oo can I call you Emi?"

My face burned. "My sister used to call me that..."

"Oh, if you'd prefer I didn't then.."

"No, I don't mind!"

She giggled and blushed a little, running a had through her hair before scratching her nose with her index finger.

“So…do you want to go somewhere else? My best friend dragged me down here to celebrate her birthday but I lost her and don’t really dig the club scene. You didn’t look like you do either, even before that guy showed up.”

I clutched my book to my chest, trying to cover my desperately beating heart. “You…were watching me?”

She blushed harder and glanced off at the wall.

“Well, you looked familiar and I was curious.”

She laughed and waved it off.

But I couldn’t dismiss it so quickly.

I could feel my face burning, and If I hadn’t been so tan, it might have been more visible.

“So what do you say?” she asked, holding out her hand , “want to go take a walk with me? I know this cute little coffee shop nearby. I don’t care for coffee much myself, but they make the most delicious frappachino…”

I stared at her hand , and then at her gentle, smiling face.

And then I did something truly extraordinary.

I smiled, planting my feet firmly on the ground and slipping my hand into hers.

---

well...what to say. Most of the reason i'm writing these stories is to entertain my passing fancies and develop a character. Even though Emi was the pov in this story, the main character is Abby, full name Amberdeen Autumn Brown takes alittle more focus than she does. i...guess i just wanted to create someone to take the brunt of my writers block and use to get out the short story ideas rattling aroung in my brain. teehee. more to come whenever i feel like it.