Bea.
"Hurry up, babe! We're gonna be late!" Josh shouted from the front of my apartment, his high-pitched voice barely reaching me. He was lucky that I had just turned off my hair dryer. His voice barely filled the small space even when he was yelling uninterrupted. Being a shorter guy didn't help much when it came down to being heard over the din of a big city apartment either.
"It's a n-night club, right?" I called back to him from my humble apartment bathroom as I hurriedly applied some light eyeliner, "Isn't being late the point?" I tried to follow up my joke with a half-hearted laugh, but Josh's silence made it impossible to do anything but feel bad. I tried to hold a smile on my face as I looked into my smudged vanity. A short, somewhat pretty girl with blue eyes, hair dye to match, and a fragile expression stared back at me. She knew what was about to happen.
I listened as my boyfriend of two years stomped through my apartment and over to the bathroom door, peeking his dirty scarlet head and freckled face into the room. I knew he wouldn't do anything to me but maybe yell, but I cowered away from the door anyway. I didn't want to fight again. Not over this. "Are you serious?" he asked, an agitated frown marring the face of the man I loved.
"No... it was a joke," I replied, averting my eyes. I hated when he looked at me like that. It felt like I'd done something wrong, like I had ruined something important and couldn't fix it. "I just wanted to make you laugh a little."
"Oh. Well, uh... hurry up, kay?" he said, patting the door frame and heading back to the front. "This is going to be great for the both of us!" he shouted back as he rounded his way to the door.
Sighing and tabbing at my eyes with a tissue, I tried to speed up applying my makeup...
---
It was a brisk, chilly autumn night out on the town. Cool winds wove through the street, cutting through fabric and resolve. It was one of those nights where any sensible person would bundle up or wear layers. But Josh had told me that tonight was special, important even, and that I should wear something that made me look attractive.
I had done my best to meet his expectations, slipping into a thin black dress that only draped down to my thighs and heels that brought me a little closer to five feet tall. I'd done up my hair and thrown on lipstick to accentuate my lips and bring out my eyes. I had done everything I could to be pretty at the cost of warmth. I hugged myself.
Josh had us take his car, an old Honda cab, to the club. I offered to drive my SUV so that we would have some insulation and a GPS, but Josh refused, saying he wanted the address to be a surprise. It was supposed to be a special place for couples.
Josh had told me excitedly that this might be the thing to rekindle our relationship. When he'd mentioned that, my heart had sunk. I knew we were having problems, but I didn't think we needed a rekindling. He had said that a night on the town, flirting with other couples, would be liberating for us. "A chance for a little freedom," he'd called it. Why did he need to be free from me? Weren't we in love?
Thoughts and worries ran through my mind as Josh sped through the streets. Josh was normally a competent driver; our friends had called him slow, methodical. But tonight, things were different. There was an urgency in his driving. He really wanted to get to this place. Was he meeting someone in particular? Had I really made us that late with my 10 minutes of makeup?
---
When we pulled up, we could see a decent line beginning to form around the side of the building and the parking lot was already full. Shrugging that off, Josh parked us down the street and had us walk to the building. I was shivering the whole way, clinging to myself. A hundred pounds of woman doesn't leave a lot of room for a furnace. Fortunately for me, the brick of the club blocked off the wind for the most part, and the lack of a breeze afforded me.
Above us, the neon lights of the club lit the entire street, shifting back and forth as an image of a white bunny bounded toward a martini glass. "'White Rabbit'? What a curious name for a night club," I thought to myself as we approached the tail of the line, stepping up behind two taller women, one with curly red hair and the other with long blonde pigtails.
The ladies in front of us were gorgeous by every definition of the word. Average height with long flowing locks, they had radiant skin and their dresses only served to better accentuate their looks. Their figures made me feel homely in comparison. I'm naturally short, 4'11" on a good day, so I naturally look up to everyone, including Josh, who stands at 5'5". It has always made me feel proud when people called us a cute couple. It makes me feel normal.
However, when the two gorgeous women turned to us, towering over us both, and giggled out a "You two are so cute together," it felt bad. I felt ashamed of my own height, of my body, and of my boyfriend. I felt ashamed of my own low self esteem. I looked over to Josh and blushed, trying to take his hand for support, but he moved it away from me.
"Thanks. We get around," Josh said, a smirk clawing itself onto his face. "You two look absolutely stunning. You together?" He continued, looking them both over. I hate to admit that I felt jealous of them both. Jealous of how he ran his eyes over their wide hips, slim waists, ample chests and lovely faces. He wanted them in a way couples should only want each other, and I could tell.
"Yeah. We met here and we've been dating for about 2 years now," the blonde bombshell said, slinging an arm around the waist of her fiery haired lover. Once again, my envy swelled at the sight of how she held her girlfriend proudly. "This place is amazing for couples," the woman continued, turning and giving her partner a smooch as if to provoke me, "We've made so many close friends."
"See, babe?" Josh said, turning on me almost accusatory, "It's great for couples. Just like my friend said. These Fukawari people are great for relationships."
"It's fu-ta-na-ri," the up-until-now silent partner of the couple in front of us chimed in, chuckling and slapping her girlfriends butt in front of us. They were so confident.
"Yeah, those," Josh replied, continuing to hold up that strange smile as he turned back to them. He was in his own world, just talking away. "Do you know a lot about The Futanaris?"
The couple looked at one another knowingly, but Josh didn't seem to catch on to this. The girls looked back to him with almost devilishly seductive smiles. The first was about to say something to Josh when from behind us, there came a voice.
"You!" Came a masculine shout from behind us. Josh and I jumped and turned around, startled. "Yes! You! The short one!" continued a tall black man in a dark suit. As he closed in, he pointed at Josh.
"You, boy. Come with me," he said to Josh, ignoring the way my boyfriend tried to puff himself up and make himself look bigger. There was no point. This man was tall for even a tall guy and built like a bouncer out of a comic book. My tiny boyfriend couldn't ever hope to intimidate someone like that. "The lady would like you to come with her to VIP" he said, unbiased by Josh's posturing.
Upon hearing this, Josh and I both looked around the bouncer man to see whom he was talking about. There, walking assertively toward the entrance was a tall, curvaceous woman about a foot taller than myself with breasts bigger than my head. Her midnight black hair flowed out behind her as she strutted in her shimmering silver dress, an entourage of men rushing to find her entertainment for the night.
Josh looked for several moments before he patted me on the shoulder and began walking away. I was stunned. Flabbergasted, even. I couldn't believe he was leaving me here alone at the end of the line to go into the club's VIP.
"Hey! Dude? Your girlfriend?!" called the blonde of two beautiful women ahead of me in line.
