Written By: gooberlanes13

"Why the Grande?" Kaela slurred over her Margarita as she leaned against the tiny table where we were seated. She stirred her drink a little before taking another sip, waiting for my answer.

"Why not?" I smiled, leaning back off the table for the waiter to sit my Margarita in front of me. "It has some wicked history and has been documented to Haunted."

"Are you going by yourself?" She inquired over the music as "Hold Me" by SkyDxddy started booming through the speakers from across the bar. "You're not, right?"

"No." I giggled, patting her forearm. "My friend Brianna is coming with me, she just flew in from Texas."

"Where is she?" Kaela glanced around the bar as she asked this question, although I knew she wouldn't find her here, I noticed she did a double take towards the entrance as the door opened, letting in the sunlight from outside briefly only for the door to shut as quickly as it opened, kicking out said sunlight.

"She's at the Library." I pointed over my shoulder as I sipped on my Margarita.

"Just don't get possessed okay?" giggled Kalea, leaning her Margarita into mine and making the rims click together. "Promise?"

"Obviously," I giggled, twisting in my seat and gazing over the mid-afternoon haze that hung over the bar. People were standing directly in the doorway that stood to separate the smoking and non-smoking areas, pushing the limits. I watched as they sucked on the cigarette, scanned the interior, and exhaled the smoke out the doorway, scanning the exterior.

I sighed after about ten minutes and realized I had finished my Margarita and was now sucking the water from the melted ice. I patted the table to get Kaela's attention and gestured that I was about to leave, but she shook her head hard and pulled me onto the dancefloor.

"One dance." She held up an index finger as I rolled my eyes and began to bob my head to the song as I realized they were playing "Boom Boom" by Brintey Spears. "Come on, get more into it than that or I'll force you to stay for another song."

"Threats?" I giggled as Kaela started moving her hips to the beat, as I mirrored her.

Rolling my eyes at her unique dance moves, I scanned the room thoroughly through the haze. Although I had been honorably discharged from the United States Army for five years, I still ensured that I knew who was around, what they were doing, and how close they were to me and whoever I was at that particular moment. My eyes stopped short, however, when my eyes collided with a strange new face.

Strange is not the word I would use, handsome, sexy, tempting, attractive maybe, but not strange. Maybe strange along the lines of not a face I've seen on Campus or town, but I knew that those green eyes pierced through the bar haze and directly into my soul in a way no one else's gaze had before.

Those eyes were mysterious, dangerous, traumatic, and, above all, magnetic. I found myself glancing in this guy's direction, noticing he was casually taking shot after shot. He also kept making direct eye contact with me as well, eyeing my body as it moved.

"He's watching you." Kaela whispered, pressing her back against mine as we finished out the song strong. "Go talk to him."

"Girl," I giggled, moving back towards our table to grab my wallet and phone along with my jacket. "Would that ever actually work out in my favor?"

Kaela giggled at my words, playfully shoving me a little.

"Stop it." She growled, continuing to giggle.

"Uber Home Drunky!" I teased as she giggled even more, utilizing my arm as a balance beam as we stepped up to the bar to pay our tabs. "Thank you for inviting me out, I'm sorry I could stay longer."

"No worries," Kaela smiled, glancing over my shoulder. "Go play with the dead, I'll see you soon -" she leaned in closer than she's ever been before and whispered, "- he can't keep his eyes off you."

"Right." I snickered, playfully pushing her away as she was given her card back and pulled me into a hug before disappearing through the crowd. "Right..." I sighed, to myself, allowing my mask to drop periodically.

My gaze dropped onto the old wood bar as I leaned against it, waiting on my turn to pay my tab, when I jumped at a sudden quiet thud in front of me. My eyes shot up from my thought bubble to see a small glass of some yellow liquid and small black straw peeking out of the surface.

My eyes immediately shot up to the bartender, who nodded towards the other end of the bar, where the hot was sitting, but he was longer visible to me. His drink was gone, so my assumption was he left as soon as he bought me a drink.

I hesitated, eyeing the drink as the bartender answered my silent question.

"I made it, it checks out." He muttered, taking my card. "For your tab?"

I nodded and watched him walk away, only to jump at a sudden voice that came from my left.

"Hi." He smiled, absolutely making my knees threaten to give way as our eyes met, yet again. "I saw you," He gestured out to the dance floor. "Nice moves."

"Nice boobs?" I asked, leaning into him, acting like I didn't catch what he said.

I knew exactly what he said, but humor is my ice breaker and I cling to it for dear life when I'm approached by strangers, let alone hot ones.

I watched his smile grow as he laughed out loud at the miscommunication. He ran his own hand over his face to get composure as he took in the rest of the bar and then turned back to me.

"Are you going to drink that?" I watched his eyes flickered between my eyes and the drink he had purchased. "It's just Rum and Pineapple juice."

I smiled slightly as I asked, "Isn't that called a Pina Colada?"

"I don't know," He giggled, looking back down at the drink again. "I'm Dean."

"Eve." I grinned, awkwardly taking his hand that he outstretched. "I guess now that I know your name, this changes things..."

"...does it?" He asked, smiling at me, still. His eyes flashing into mine in a flirtatious fashion, earning another heat wave to come over me.

"Well, you're less of a stranger and if Morrie here," I gestured to the bartender as he passed my card back to me. "Say the drink checks out, maybe...just maybe...I'll drink it instead of leaving it here, untouched, like I was going to do."

"Do you not have guys buy your drinks often?" Dean asked, sipping on his drink with one hand and sliding the other hand into his jeans.

"No, actually." I answered, picking up the drink and continuing to examine it. "Rarely, actually...one time I got a drink from a woman in a bar in Portland, Oregon and thought it sent a message I wasn't intending to send if I drank it." Dean chuckled along with me as we both beamed down at the still untouched drink. "But I guess you're not a Lesbian, right?"

Dean chuckled even more, biting his lower lip, causing that same wave of heat to come over me again as I glanced over at Morrie, who was watching casually from the other side of the bar.

I smiled down at the drink again, and downed it right there.

"Impressive." Dean spoke, licking his lips as he smiled again.

"Thanks." I nodded, looking up from the empty glass. "What do I owe you?"

"Just another smile." Dean grinned, earning a blush from me. "That'll work too."

There was a moment that hung over us a little too long at this point. Our eyes were locked, we shared a smile and that same heatwave that kept resurfacing seemed to illuminate the both of us in its glow.

Sighing out loud, in an attempt to break the overstimulating moment of heat, I slid a black tie off my wrist and pulled my hair back into a high ponytail.

"So," I sighed, out loud waving Morrie over and asking for two bottles of water. "Dean," I smirked, almost mockingly as I passed him a water bottle, before opening mine and sipping on the chilled liquid. "What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a Freelancer." He smirked, avoiding my eyes as I raised my eyebrows at his vague answer. "I travel here and there, helping people, extinguishing..." He trailed off, and I grinned at his mysterious, but struggling figure as I offered up an ending to his sentence.

"...bugs?" I smiled, amused at his scrambling. "You don't do this very much, do you?"

"Oh, I lie all the time." Dean choked on his water, realizing what he had said.

I chuckled and patted his shoulder as I managed to say, "You don't have to tell me the truth Dean, you don't owe me that."

Dean flashed a grin at me as he took the napkin Morrie had passed him and dried his lips. I watched as he did a double take down at the napkin and instead of throwing it away, I witnessed him stuff it into his pocket.

"I don't owe you the truth, but we'll settle on bugs..." He stated, pulling my attention away from his strange behavior. "...I extinguish bugs."

I nodded, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Right." I winked, feeling my phone vibrate and pulling it out of my back pocket. I only glanced at the screen for a millisecond, but it was Bri and there were a lot of capital letters and hot face emojis. "Jesus." I giggled, sliding it back into my pocket.

"Boyfriend calling?" Dean inquired, eyeing my body again.

"More like a Girlfriend." I shook my head at Bri's excitement as I caught Dean's eye again.

"I can work with that too.." He spoke with a huge smile on his lips, earning a hard glare from me before we both chuckled at the Lesbian joke. '...you laugh, but I can."

"Not that type of Girlfriend, although she does play the part when needed, and I for her." I smirked as Dean's face fell serious for a moment and I imagined his horny mind painting a certain type of image of me and someone he hasn't even seen yet. "Having fun with that image, are you?"

"Yes, yes I am." He grinned as I waved at Morrie then turned back to him, to see his grin had faded. "Going, so soon? Was it my breath?"

"Fuck no!" I giggled, adjusting my phone and wallet in my back pocket. "She's telling me she's out front and I've gotta go!"

"How can I find you next time?" Dean called after me, causing me to stop short and return to him. I took his hand, seductively, pulled a pen from Morrie's pen cups along the bar and scribbled in my cell phone number on his palm.

"Don't wash it off and we might meet again." I smiled, as I went to step away, but his grip tightened on my hand, and although I stopped short (again), I just looked back with a small smile and took in his handsome smile one more time before disappearing into the crowd and squinting at the sunlight completely engulfing me as I stepped outside.

"Jesus Fuck!" I gasped, holding my hand up to block the rays as I heard the rumble and purr of that familiar Mustang feet from me. I followed the noise and ducked back into the passenger seat to see a flustered Brianna, the best friend in question, in the driver's seat. "What happened to you?"

"Bitch..." she swooned as she shifted the vehicle, doing a double take into the rearview mirror before pulling out into traffic.

"...Bitch." I mocked, pulling my seatbelt on as she pulled to a stoplight. "What? I know the Grande is haunted, but it can't be that crazy...right?"

"No," Bri groaned, continuing to fan herself with her own hands. "It's who I met that was so crazy."

"You met someone too?" I almost squeaked and clapped my hands, but then realized how weird I would have looked, and cleared my throat and leaned back into the sports car seat. "I mean, you met someone too?"

Bri giggled as she shifted the vehicle and pulled further down the street and deeper into the traffic. We exchanged our odd interactions with these "Sex on a Stick" type of guys that we both happen to have interactions with and we finally wrapped up this conversation when we pulled into a gas station for snacks, a map and gas.

"I'll go get the gas, snacks and the map, do you want anything in particular?" I asked, ducking out of the Mustang and moving around the vehicle as Bri rose from the driver's side.

"Mountain Dew." She chimed as she attempted to pull out her wallet, but I bolted to the door and waved away her groans at my insistence.

"Evening!" chimed the clerk behind the counter. "Nice car!"

"Thanks!" I smiled, pulling my wallet out and passing him $30.00. "Fill 'er up!"

"What year is that?" He asked, almost drooling as he pushed some buttons and placed the $30.00 in the drawer. I stopped short to answer his question, as I was trying to walk away before I got asked that question.

"It's a 1967 Mustang with a 320hp 390 cid v8, a 4 speed manual transmission." I elaborated, earning a mixture of a blank and impressed expression from this kid. I leaned over and pulled a napkin from one of the free standing tables and passed it to him. "You have a little drool..."

He blinked himself back into the moment and whipped his lips, embarrassed, as I moved through the store. I snatched a Mountain Dew for Bri, an Arizona Sweet Tea for myself, bags of candy and chips then snatched a map of the State of Colorado before returning to the counter.

I noticed his eyes were glued to Bri, pumping gas outside, and I had to clear my throat to get his attention to ring me up for the remaining of my purchases.

"Is it your car or hers?" He asked, barely paying attention to the fact he wasn't ringing up the chips or candy, just the drinks and the map.

"It's actually ours." I smirked, emphasizing the 'ours' of my statement, and trying hard to implicate that Bri and I were together. His face lit up as he pressed the button and watched me swipe my card and gather all of my items. I rolled my eyes as I exited the store and dropped into the passenger seat of the Mustang, and smiled at Bri as she finished pumping gas and joined me.

I passed her the Mountain Dew she requested, while opening my Arizona and she opened a bag of the mixed candy I had grabbed and started opening the minis one by one and popping them into her mouth.

"Did he drool over the car?" Bri asked, mouth full of candy.

"Duh." I smirked, as we both froze at the sound of another engine roaring nearby, and as we both scanned our surroundings we both spotted what was disturbing the silence.

A black 1967 Chevrolet Impala.

We watched as it pulled into the gas station, although they didn't stop or anything, but pulled right back out and took off down the road.

"That's a hot car." I muttered as Bri wasted no time, putting down her candy and drink. She ignited the Mustang and shifted the vehicle in gear and took off after them. "What the hell are you doing?"

"We're going to check out this Impala." she smiled brightly as we took off down the reflective road, chasing their tail lights.