LUCY
To celebrate the new semester my besties persuaded me to meet them at our local bar. Bars are not my thing, but Mary and Tess were insistent.
The place is not as crowded as I was expecting and we manage to snag a table on the drinking side of the bar, away from the dance floor and loud music. Tess is our alcoholic expert, so Mary and I let her choose the cocktails. Sweet mixture after mixture follows, the names of which I can never remember.
As predictable as ever, the topic of conversation soon turns to sex with Tess giving a running commentary of every male that walks into the place. It's all bullshit, I'm sure they have no more sexual experience than I do -- that is, none at all. Anyone listening in would think we are delinquents rather than Canada's aspiring academic elite. Just for once, I wish we could talk about something else.
Tess continues to drone on about curved cocks and my attention starts to wander. Perhaps I could risk going onto the dance floor. I think I might like that, but I've heard stories (from Tess, of course) about the groping that goes on. Also, I'm far too shy to "put myself on offer" as Tess phrases it.
I look around, most of the tables are surrounded with students, all reacquainting themselves with their friends. Further over, I spot one of my lecturers from last semester with, I assume, I hope, his wife. Perhaps I could go speak with him -- surely his conversation would be more refined and interesting. But for me, a lecturer is still a kind of authority figure, not someone I can comfortably approach in a casual way.
Behind Mary is one more table in the corner. At that table there's an old man drinking by himself. Not decrepit old, but he reminds me of my beloved grandfather who died when I was fifteen. He used to help look out for me, even though it was his son who ditched me and my Mum when I was nine. Anyway, the guy has a kind looking face.
"Lucy, are you listening to me?" asks Tess.
I realize I've tuned out of the conversation, "Umm, sorry, what was that?"
"You'll never make any progress, you're off with the fairies all the time Lucy."
Sometimes I wonder why I even hang out with Tess.
Tess continues, "You're too chicken to even speak to any guy here."
I'm annoyed, even if what she says has the ring of truth.
"Fine, I'll go speak to a man just to shut you up," I snap in response.
"Believe it when I see it," Tess replies.
"Any man?"
"Yes, any man."
I decide to call her bluff. I abruptly stand, looking toward where I saw my lecturer. Damn, I can no longer see him anywhere. My eyes fall on the old man again, he looks lonely. Screw Tess, I can do this.
Before I lose my nerve I take the three steps it takes to reach his table and ask if I can sit.
He waves one arm in a be my guest kind of gesture. I sit on the side so that we are at right angles to each other and with my back to the table with Mary and Tess. It feels more friendly to sit here than across from him.
"Cripes, are you even old enough to be in here?" is the first thing he says.
I immediately blush, which is so annoying because I've done nothing wrong. I'm nineteen and since we're in Alberta where the drinking age is eighteen there's no reason for me to be nervous about it.
"Yes, let me show you," as I scramble around in my clutch, retrieving my driver's license and handing it to him.
There's a slight pause, then he takes my license and looks it over.
"Lucy Lipscombe, born 8 February 2003," he reads out loud.
He hands it back, "You know, you want to be more careful about giving out personal information like this."
Oh shit! Is this man a police officer or something like that.
He must sense my tension because he lays his hand gently over mine and says, "Hey, easy, I was your age once, I'm not trying to chastise you, just a little worldly advice."
I nod. He reminds me even more of my grandfather, he would tell me things as well, treating me as I was worth talking to for my own sake.
"I'm Mark, Mark Miller."
Knowing his name helps puts me at ease.
"Are you a professor here?" I ask.
"No, I'm not connected with the University, in fact I'm just passing through on the way to visit my sister out west."
We talk. Mostly he asks about my studies and why I chose anthropology for my major. He seems genuinely interested and asks insightful questions.
I offer to get him another beer.
"Sure, you do the fetching and I'll do the paying," he says handing over some cash.
Mark smiles at me as I head back to the table from the bar with the drinks. I'm focused on him, not really seeing everyone else, not even Mary and Tess still at the next table.
"What's making you so happy?" I ask. A daring question for me, I would not normally ask such a personal thing of anyone.
"It's been a long time since I've talked with such a beautiful girl."
I smile at the compliment and sit down again. For once I don't blush up in a horrible way at the comment. It's a sign that I'm comfortable in this conversation.
"The deep blue of your dress sets off your eyes and dark hair to perfection."
This leads me to explain about my limited wardrobe and how my step-father bought this cocktail dress for me to wear to senior prom.
Mark says, "Well it's still a good fit and you look stunning."
"Well it's little revealing up top these days," I say vaguely moving my hands over my chest.
Mark chuckles, "Yeah, well the breast fairy certainly had your number by the look of things."
"Breast fairy?" I ask.
"You know, like the tooth fairy, she visits girls in the night with her pump, and voila you go from plain Jane to hilly Jane."
I laugh and imagine my late grandfather describing things in this way.
We continue our conversation and when my drink is gone I offer to go fetch some more.
"No, I'm good Lucy. You should probably run along back to your friends before they forget you."
"I suppose, it was nice talking to you Mark."
I stand and stumble a little, forgetting that I'm in heels.
Mark steadies me with his arm, "Honey you might want to slow down with the drinks, have a water or juice between each glass of poison."
Even though my stumble had nothing to do with drink, I liked that Mark said "might" rather than "should" or "must".
A briefly touch Mark on the shoulder in thanks and step back into the world of Mary and Tess.
* * *
It seems the conversation has not improved much in my absence. Tess is railing on Mary about her choice of a button-up blouse, telling her she will not attract any interest without showing more cleavage.
My drink from earlier is still on the table, along with two others sitting at my place and a collection of empty glasses in front of Tess and Mary.
"Come on Luce, you've got some catching up to do," gets these down you, then its your turn to buy us some more.
I suddenly hate the nickname `Luce' that Tess uses for me and Mark's warning comes to mind.
"Why don't you two have these," I say, pushing the surplus drinks to each of them.
Tess continues, "It's your turn Mary, now Luce has spoken to the dirtiest oldest man on offer, surely you can do better."
I jump to Mary's defense, "Mary and I just want to relax, not everything needs to be about sex."
"What did grandad want anyway? I bet he was itching to get his hands on you."
"Stop being gross."
Tess was getting louder and louder, "I bet he was hard the whole time, probably asked you to suck him off. He did, didn't he?"
I'm getting angry now and Mary is also looking uncomfortable. Probably Mark can hear everything Tess is saying, he's right there at the next table. It becomes increasingly obvious that Tess' taunts are deliberately designed to carry. I've seen Tess' mean streak before, but it has never been directed at me like this. In the past, I've even found it amusing, but now I'm starting to see that Tess is really rather shallow.
Mary tries to defuse things by suggesting we head around to the other side of the bar and the dance floor.
We all stand and I lean over to Mary, "Thanks Mary, I'll be there soon. I just want to apologize."
Mary understands immediately and gives my hand a little squeeze before shepherding Tess away.
Mark stands as I approach. He knows why I'm here, "It's all right Lucy, you're not at fault for the behavior of your friend." He puts his hands on my shoulders and gently encourages me to sit down. His hands feel nice and warm.
"Why does she do things like that Mark?"
Mark sits again, but pulls his chair close to mine and takes hold of my hand, "She's just had too much to drink, your other friend will keep her out of trouble."