“Wild! Crazy!” I jumped a little in excitement. “I know! And I’m loving it. Wwwwhhhoooo-hooooooo!” I threw my hands in the air and looked at the crowd around me. They all gave a loud “whoo-hoo” too!
I turned back to the barman. “Well, you’d better get pouring!”
“Okay, but I think I’ll need your credit card first, you understand,” he said, still looking very skeptical.
“Totally!” I whipped my card out of my bag and slapped it on the bar counter with a dramatic flourish.
“Are you sure about this?” Noah asked one last time.
“Noah, I have never been more sure about anything in my life.” The crowd around me let out a massive shout. They were all on me now, high-fiving me, pulling me into hugs, telling me how cool I was,dude, and wishing me a happy birthday!
No one had ever called me cool before. I looked at Noah. He was sitting on a bar stool watching me with a massive smile on his face. I smiled back and he shook his head in an amused fashion.
“Aren’t you going to have one?” I asked, as I saw him push the shot the barman had given him aside.
He took his car keys out his pocket and waved them at me. “One is enough.”
“Now look who’s the sensible one!” And for some reason I blew him a kiss before I was dragged back onto the dancefloor by the girl with white eyes.
CHAPTER 53
Twenty minutes later, drenched in sweat and out of breath, I stumbled back over to Noah, who was seated at the bar. He’d been watching me with amusement while I’d been jumping up and down on the dancefloor. Every now and then I would look back over my shoulder and find him smiling at me indulgently. I can only think that my dancing was probably terrible and he was finding it very funny. I stretched my arms out over the bar and collapsed forward onto a chair.
“I’m exhausted,” I said. “Is this what being young is like? I don’t think I could keep up.”
“Looks like you’re keeping up rather well!” he said.
I fanned my face with my hands. “I think I could do with some fresh air. Should we get out of here soon?”
“Heeeyyyy.” Noah and I turned when we heard a smooth, slippery-sounding voice. It was the lead singer of the band, and his voice sounded very different to that raspy-groan-shriek-moan that he sang with. He was shirtless, bare-chested, except for those large nipple rings that glinted in the lights. His black hair was long and wet-looking, sticking to his pale shoulders like masses of thin black snakes. His skin seemed to be an unnatural shade of white, like he had just emerged from a decade-long sunless hibernation. His pants were tight, black and leathery with long chains that hung from his pockets. His hands were covered in silver skull rings and his fingernails were painted green.
“Hey,” I replied.
“I’m Klaw.” He ran his hand through his wet hair and I noticed, like bees to honey, a small flock of women suddenly appear by his side. They seemed transfixed by the movement of his fingers through his wet hair and then even more transfixed when he leaned across the bar and moved closer to me.
“Zoe,” I said to him. I think I was slightly transfixed too, not so much by him but by those tattoos on the back of his fingers, especially that Hello Kitty one. It seemed on one hand not to suit him at all, but on another hand to suit him perfectly. I wondered if I should get a tattoo.
“Uh . . . NOAH!” Suddenly Noah’s head popped over Klaw’s shoulder. He had slid in between Noah and me, partially blocking Noah from my sight.
“Hey, dude.” Klaw threw a very half-hearted non-committal mumble at Noah and then oozed even closer to me.
“Interesting name,” Noah said, his head bobbing up and down. “How do you spell that?”
“With a ‘K.’ ” Klaw angled his body to completely block Noah now, and he slithered even closer to me. “It’s really sick to meet a fan like you.”
“A fan?”
“Yeah, someone who knows all the lyrics to our songs.”
“Wait!” I stifled a laugh-gasp. “Those were the lyrics? The actual ones? I got them right?”
“Yeah, man, the lyrics are whatever the lyrics are. And you sang them so passionately. I’ve never met such a passionate fan before.”
“Aaaah,” I mumbled. If only he knew the truth. And then he reached out and placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. I looked down at it and then back up to him.
“It means such a lot to me and my band.” His dark eyes zoned in on mine now and, when he found them, he held onto them tightly in an intense, dark stare that made me shiver. “I love your style.” Klaw removed his hand from my shoulder and ran his fingers over one of the tie-dye tassels hanging from my shirt. “So unbelievably retro and cool.” He slithered closer to me and I admit, for the first time since his arrival, I was finding him startingly, oddly, alluring. That dark black eyeliner really brought out the coffin shape of his eyes.
“Thanks,” I muttered, feeling a little flutter inside. Noah’s head popped up and he rolled his eyes before it disappeared behind Klaw’s shoulder again.
