Dread
eleven
Marlowe
Pulling into the parking lot at work, the spot next to Naomi was open.
I said a silent prayer that it wouldn’t rain and hid the valuable things in my car or shoved them in my purse.
My driver's side window decided it didn’t want to roll back up after I went through the drive-thru on my way in for my shift.
Walking in through the back door, Dave shouted, "Hey, " from the back office, and I waved. Once my things were put away and my apron was on, I pulled my hair into a bun and walked onto the bar floor.
Captain’s was already busy for Thursday. Naomi had called and asked me to come in early. I wasn’t going to turn down the hours. Assessing the customers at the bar, there were two parties that Naomi hadn’t had a chance to serve yet. Taking their drink orders, I began mixing them.
“Thank you so much for coming, Mar. I don’t know what is going on tonight. Dave said he’s coming out soon too. But he’s neck deep in the contracts 93.3 sent over. I told him to focus on that right now.”
“Yeah, no worries. Anytime.” Naomi had managed to keep the bar pretty clean considering it was just her and she was mixing drinks like a wild animal.
Once everyone was taken care of and we had a chance to breathe, Naomi and I took a deep breath and looked at each other as we leaned against the back of the bar.
Music pounded from the speakers, playing a variety of rock and alternative music that was the norm for Captain’s.
A few customers were hovering over by the gate that separated the music venue from the main bar.
They were pointing at the stage and holding flyers for Thrash Fest. The Battle of the Bands shows started in a couple of weeks, and people were coming in hoping to see who had signed up, but it wouldn’t be announced for another week.
We had a few bands in town that were pretty well known locally. They all had pretty decent crowds of fans when they played, so rumors were flying around about who would be coming.
Walking back to the other end of the bar, I moved some glasses from a drying rack to the bar top. A new group of girls walked up to an open space at the bar. Turning around, I set down some bar napkins for each of them. “What can I get you?” I plastered a sweet smile on my face.
“Just three vodka cranberries,” the girl in the middle said, looking me up and down. She wore a tank top that stopped just under her tits that said HOT in red bedazzled letters.
“Ha, right.” Turning away, I began making their drinks.
The girl in the HOT tank turned to the blonde in the group. “Should we ask her if they’re going to be in the Battle of the Bands? Will she tell us?”
The blonde shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out, I guess. Be nice though.”
“Here are your drinks. Did you want to start a tab or close them out?” I hoped with every fiber of my being she didn’t ask me whatever she was going to ask.
There was no way I was going to tell them.
This chick was already giving me bitch energy, and when I didn’t give her what he wanted, she was for sure going to go off.
Leaning forward on the bar, she pushed her cleavage together. Was she being serious? “We have a question, actually.” Staring at her, I waited for her to ask. “Could you tell us if Solace is playing in Battle of the Bands?”
“No. So are you starting a tab or closing out?” My face remained straight, no emotion.
She leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Like no, you won't tell us? Or no, they aren’t playing?”
“Are you all going to want another drink? Or is that all you ladies are having? I have other customers to get to.” My eyes glanced around the crowded bar. A few other patrons had entered since we had started this back and forth.
The other friend who hadn’t spoken the entire time finally stepped in.
“Just this drink, you can close us out.” She handed me cash.
“I don’t need change.” Wrapping her arm around her other two friends, she guided them away from the bar as their space was quickly occupied by another small group of people.
Time ticked by slowly, customers trickled in, and it did get slower as it got later.
Dave came out at one point and helped a bit.
He made a few comments about how the contract with 93.
3 had the potential to bring in a lot of business with the radio spots he would get for advertising.
He really needed to get us some help here.
With about an hour left before closing, the door opened, and the guys came in.
Dexter, Rich, and Chris all found seats at the end of the bar.
Walking over to them, Dexter reached over the bar and squeezed my shoulder gently and winked.
I did my best to hide my smile. I hadn’t seen Naomi or had a chance to tell her about what happened the other day at their practice. She was going to kill me.
Feeling a light slap on my ass, I let out a little yelp. “Guys, how’s it going?” Naomi pointedly looked at Dexter’s hand on my arm, then up at me with a smile that said ‘you’ve got some explaining to do.’ Closing my eyes, I looked away from her.
“Hello, gorgeous.” Rich leaned back, taking in Naomi. She cut her eyes to him, and he threw up his hands in surrender.
Pulling away from Dexter’s light hold, I pulled napkins out for the guys. “Drinks?” Setting the glasses for each of their favorites out, I started filling them with ice.
“No, actually wait,” Dexter spoke up. “Has Bunny been in lately?”
My arms stopped their fluid motion, and my thoughts started drifting to the last time I had seen Bunny.
It was that day they had practice. I hadn’t seen him since.
Thought about him? Sure. But the thought of seeing him made my chest hurt.
Looking at Dexter, I shook my head. “The last time I saw him was at your place for practice that day.”
Naomi leaned her side on the bar. “No, he hasn’t been in for a while, actually. Not without one of you. Why, what’s going on?”
“We haven’t seen him in a few days. He hasn’t been home. And he left his cellphone there. He used to do this shit when we were younger, but it’s been a long time. It’s normally not good.” Dexter’s voice dropped. He sounded scared.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I did my best to hide the anger in my voice, but it came out, and I didn’t know where it came from. Dexter’s head shot up, and he looked me directly in the eyes. “Shit, sorry. That was aggressive.”
“He's had some shit go on in his life, but that’s his story to tell. Just let me know if you hear from him or anything, please. We are going to go check Nicki’s now.
” When Dexter made eye contact with me, I could feel his desperation.
He rubbed my arm as he stood, ushering the brothers out of the bar with him.
The door shut behind the guys, and I turned back to look at Naomi.
She stood facing me head-on with her arms crossed.
A serious expression was unmoving on her face.
Slowly the corners of her mouth started to lift into a smile.
“Tell me now!” Then her face shifted quickly to a questioning look.
“Wait, but what’s going on? Where is Bunny? ”
“Shh, stop. I’ll tell you when we close.”
Naomi held me to my promise. As soon as we locked the door, she was behind me asking for the details.
Going through the details of the practice and giving her the play-by-play actually allowed me to see everything from a different perspective.
I realized my attraction to Bunny and Dexter was clouding my judgement.
Bunny had been a real jerk to me lately.
It had all started after that night, and he started seeing Nicki more.
Most people associate Nicki with drugs. That’s why she’s so popular.
I know Bunny used to mess around with that stuff.
I wonder if he got back into it. When I started to think about the chain of events, things started to make more sense.
But why was he being an ass? I was acting as I always have to him since that night. He was the one being weird.
“Okay, so wait. You and Dexter both agreed that things are different. So does that mean you’re like a couple now?” Naomi sat at the bar while I cleaned.
I stopped resetting the liquor bottles and looked up at her.
“What? No. We didn’t talk about all that.
It’s just…I don’t know. No label.” Continuing my tasks, I tried to think of something to move the conversation on.
“The issue here is finding Bunny. He’s been weird as hell lately, hasn’t been home, and no one has seen him.
That’s a problem.” I was genuinely worried about him.
Dexter saying things like this normally isn’t good terrified me.
Not to mention the other night he said that Bunny was scaring him.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now Bunny was scaring me too.