I Do Not Know You!

A part of a series I did a few years ago called 'Do I know You?' ...there is one curse word at the end.

 

            The pants were a little too short and the shirt was a little too wide. Conner kept thinking about that while sitting in that strange seat that wasn’t quite a chair and wasn’t quite a stool. Such an awkward height making everything worse; what a terrible bar the Ruby was. It was so loud and dark, obnoxiously so. Conner kept trying to fold the extra width of her shirt into itself and then hold her arm and elbow over it to make it seem like a normal fitting shirt. She felt wretched in Abby’s clothes. They made her look and feel like a different person.

            The Ruby was doing some kind of live act thing where people signed up and played their own songs which sounded cool but then wasn’t. She kept thinking she would hear or see a friend around the corner but then it was a stranger.

            Alone she sat there on that uncomfortable furniture waiting for Abby to return from the bathroom. Finally, she hopped off her seat and began searching for her friend. Conner looked in the bathroom and it was full of women other than Abby. She went back to where they were seating and Abby wasn’t there. She began doing these strange circles where she weaved in and out of everyone’s social circles imagining Abby was hiding in a different one each time.

            This one aggressive man, very tall and thin grabbed Conner’s shoulder during her fifth revolution. He really grabbed on her shoulder like he was mad at her. She turned around in shock. It was too loud for him to hear her curse.

            “Sorry!” He yelled. “Thought I knew you!”

            “No!” Conner yelled. And they separated. Disgruntled, Conner walked up to the bar and put her last ten on the counter. The bartender put his hand to his ear as a gesture for her to speak up although she hadn’t said anything yet, she was thinking. Finally, she yelled, almost too loudly that she wanted a Corona. She had never had one before and wondered what all the hype was about. The bartender nodded and pulled one out of thin air. He put a lime in it and then placed it before her and grabbed her ten seemingly replacing it with five ones in the same motion. He was a magician, this bartender.

            Conner sipped her beer and kept looking around. Again, someone grabbed her shoulder although much more gentle. She thought it was Abby and turned around. It was a really good looking young guy.

            “Kelly!?” He asked.

            “No! Sorry! Conner!” She took a drink from her beer and then the guy was gone. From across the room she thought she saw Abby for a moment but that woman had blond hair. Abby had brown hair. Conner’s eyes began looking at everyone’s face and there was no one she had ever known or seen before. She grabbed three of the ones and her beer and left the bar completely. Conner began walking outside to where people were smoking and a man grabbed her shoulder again. She was startled and looked at him with hatred. He pointed to a small sign that said “No drinks past this point.” She nodded, took the last few gulps of her beer and threw it in the trash.

            Conner walked outside and thought she saw Abby’s hair; perhaps she was that woman kissing a man on the bench. She walked over and leaned in to see the people’s faces. The woman opened her eyes and gasped, pushing away from the man.

            “What are you doing?” The woman asked angrily.

            “I thought you were my friend.”
            “Well, I’m not your friend!” She yelled. Everyone with their cigarettes looked at Conner then as if she was different and they all knew it.

            “F**k you,” Conner said and walked off. She hailed a taxi and went home.