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“For what?”
He gave me an impatient look and shook his head. “Table dancing?”
Oh, shit. I did say that, didn’t I?
“You sure I wouldn’t embarrass you too much?” I asked Juan, smiling innocently.
“Embarrass me? No. Embarrass yourself? Definitely. And I look forward to that.” He smiled back.
Dante winked at me as he slipped out of the booth and said, “I’ll be right back.”
He returned a minute later with an absolute shit-eating grin on his face. I opened my mouth to ask him what his expression was about when my question was answered through a blast of deafeningly loud music and the beginning riff of ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ by Muse.
Fuck.
He gestured at our table. I plucked Juan’s glass from his hand and downed the remainder of his martini—which did, in fact, taste like shit—before jumping up onto the table just as the beat dropped. I raised my arms above my head and rolled my hips, spinning in a slow circle before dropping into a squat and rising up slowly.
“Give us Kat Stratford!” Juan yelled from below me. The entire bar had their eyes on me. Shouts, whistles, and claps sounded throughout the space along with the music. I started flipping my hair around, but stopped when I started dizzying myself. I dropped down low again, and shot back up.
Underestimating how far I could jump, a sudden clink of metal rang throughout my ears. Then, the collective, “Oh, shit,” from everyone watching me. Finally, I felt it. The bashing of my head against something hard.
The light above me flashed before everything went black.
“Jesus Christ. She’s bleeding.”
My vision was dark. The voice was vaguely familiar as the words were spoken from somewhere above me. An incessant pounding erupted from the front of my head. I thought I may have groaned.
“Macie, oh my God,” that same voice gasped. “That wasnotwhat I meant when I said give us Kat Stratford.”
“What?” I tried opening my eyes, but pain blasted behind my lids again.
“Don’t try to sit up.” I hadn’t been aware I was trying to do that.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.
I finally pried my eyes open, the brightness still blinding, sending a radiating pain through my skull. I blinked away the light and winced at the pain, struggling against the pressure at the center of my head. A different pressure than before. It was a dull throb, whereas before it had been abrupt and sharp.
“What do you remember?” The voice started to become more familiar to me. A slight, high pitched Spanish accent and a lot of condescension in his tone.
“I remember winning trivia,” I said gruffly to Juan.
“Do you remember how you hit your head?”
I squeezed my eyes shut as my memory flooded. ‘Supermassive Black Hole’. Dancing on the booth. Trying to give10 Things I Hate About Youenergy, but clearly going too far and smacking my head on the hanging lamp over our table.
Though, I didn’t have Health Ledger’s arms to fall into the way Julia Stiles did. I somehow ended up on the floor. Somewhere in the background I heard someone yelling at people to clear out and that there was nothing to see. I pressed my palms to my eyes as I realizedIwas the thing they were trying to look at. The sideshow attraction that made a fool of herself in front of dozens of people.
I’m so stupid.
I forced my eyes open and blinked at my surroundings. The light in the bar felt far brighter than it had earlier. I was sitting on the ground, Juan on his knees in front of me. Someone had their arms on my shoulders, holding me in a sitting position. I assumed it was Dante. Juan had his arm stretched out, putting pressure against my forehead. My mind felt hazed with confusion and a lack of awareness. Although, I must’ve been knocked out so at least that part of the situation made a little sense.
“Macie, are you okay?”
Several unfamiliar faces furrowed their brows as they looked down at me. I tried taking a breath so I could answer him, but I couldn’t seem to get air any deeper than my throat. My stomach felt as if it was hollowing out as the weight of their eyes fell on me.
“Hey, hey.” Dante rubbed my shoulder. “It’s okay.”
I tried turning back to look at him, but the movement had my insides lurching, and made the entire room spin around me. I groaned, closing my eyes again.
