Haze Bois

Chapter 18

“It’s too loud in here,” Jamie complained.

“Pardon?” Katie cried over the blaring rap music.

Jamie pulled her by the arm and led her out of the front door. A blast of chilly air stung her cheek and filled her lungs, reinvigorating her alcohol-soaked mind. On her sixth beer, the world was getting blurry around the edges, and the floor was becoming unstuck.

She stumbled after Jamie as he led her through the fence and round the back of the old school building. He sat on the hill and patted the floor beside him. Katie fell more than sat in her allocated spot, hitting the ground with a thud that might hurt in the morning, but for the moment it was wrapped up in an alcohol haze.

Leaning back, Katie breathed the night air and gazed at the stars above. It was a beautiful night, and with Jamie at her side, it felt like a perfect night also. Only the knowledge she couldn’t have him tainted the dream.

When Katie turned to stare at Jamie, she found he was also admiring the night sky.

“Does it make you feel small?” Katie asked, because it was something to say.

“Why would it?” Jamie asked, still staring upwards. The moonlight highlighted his flawless profile.

“Knowing there is so much else out there?” Katie suggested. In all honesty, she didn’t know why she had said it. Being drunk increased her ability to talk, but at the same time, reduced the quality of her conversational skills.

“No,” Jamie said and turned to look at Katie for the first time. “There is so much more in here than out there.” Jamie tapped her on the forehead with his finger.

Katie had never thought about her brain that way.

“Oh, you mean the imagination?” Katie asked.

Jamie smiled and nodded. After another short silence, he pointed at the sign on the side of the school building.

“1870,” Jamie read. “I wonder what it was like back then.”

He stared up at the sign, eyes misting over as though deep in thought, using his expansive imagination to recreate the past.

“The same as it is now, just without TV and internet,” Katie shrugged. “It must have sucked.”

“Then again,” Katie added, “I’m sure kids from the future will assume our lives sucked, without hoverboards and teleportation.”

Jamie shocked her by laughing. “Aw, you think there’s going to be a future?”

He shifted his weight and turned to face Katie. Reaching out, he gently cradled her face in his hands and drew circles in her cheeks with his thumbs. “You poor, poor thing. I almost feel sorry for you.”

‘Because I am naïve? Because the world is bound to be wiped out by some spectacular disaster or climate change? Or because I am hopelessly in love with a guy I can’t have?’ Katie thought. He didn’t explain his sentiment, and she didn’t want to ask and ruin the moment.

Katie just couldn’t figure him out. He looked like he might move in for a kiss, then turned away.

“Caleb is going to kill me if notices I’ve dragged you away. He is so overprotective of you,” Jamie sighed.

“But he has no right to be,” Katie whined. “Am I not capable of destroying my own love life?”

“Let’s not worry about it for now,” Jamie said. He searched his phone for some music and turned it up as loud as the speaker would allow.

“I am not a big fan of their music,” Jamie admitted with an eye-roll.

“Me either,” Katie lied. She liked it just fine.

‘Why did I lie? I am allowed to have my own tastes and opinions.’ Katie chastised herself, though she knew why deep down. She would do or say anything to impress him. If changing every aspect of herself was what it took, she was willing to give it all up.

“Try this,” Jamie demanded more than offered, passing a joint he had just lit up. It didn’t smell like weed, but it also didn’t smell like an ordinary cigarette.

“It is a legal high,” Jamie assured. “Trust me, it will blow your mind.”

Katie took it, breathing back a giant toke in a bid to impress. She held in the acrid smoke until her lungs relaxed to avoid an unsightly coughing fit.

When she breathed out everything took on a purple hue. The light on Jamie’s face went from white to fluorescent purple and left an afterglow as he moved. He smiled and danced from side to side, creating a beautiful light show.

Becoming dizzy, Katie closed her eyes and took a deep breath of fresh air. She opened her eyes to find herself in a poorly lit bar, surrounded by a sea of excited faces and the smells of sweat and dust.

‘Why are they so happy to see me?’ Katie wondered.

Closer inspection revealed their eyes were fixed on something behind her, so she turned her head to see.

Jamie stood on a stage, swaying from side to side in dance just as he had been a moment ago. His hair reached past his waist, and he was even more beautiful, though Katie would have thought it impossible. As he danced, people from the crowd flocked to him, joining the dance. They swayed as one, movements perfectly in sync, as though they were one giant entity

As they reached him on the stage, the group of dancers formed two circles then fell to their knees, worshipping him in two parallel Mexican waves.

When his dance concluded the worshippers rose and followed him off the stage and out of the back door.

“What on Earth is going on?” Katie muttered to herself. She almost died of shock when a voice beside her replied.

“He just saved the world,” the young man told her with a shrug. “I guess he deserves a reward.”

Katie stared at her companion in this strange world, dumbfounded. He looked like Jamie, but with a more muscular build and shorter, sandy coloured hair. Head to toe in leather and laden with weapons, this guy looked like belonged in some action movie. But here he was, sipping a beer from a plastic cup and wiping the froth from his chip.

“It seems so real,” Katie said, reaching out and touching his arm. It was as solid as anything in the real world.

He laughed at her and began to talk. The language he used felt familiar, but Katie couldn't understand a lot of what he was saying. She stared, nodding when it felt appropriate and sipping the warm, watery beer he had offered.

“Come on,” he smiled at her. “Let’s go celebrate.”

Katie didn’t feel like there was anything to celebrate. Something deep inside her knew this world hadn’t been saved, though she couldn’t quite understand how she came across this information. She couldn’t explain it. It was more of a feeling, and one they didn’t have a name for in her world.

As the young man took her by the hand, she was pulled back into Jamie’s arms.

“Woah,” Katie cried, standing up and staggering about the grassy hill. “I was somewhere else.”

“It’s good, right?” Jamie asked. “You zoned out for a second.”

“I don’t know,” Katie cried. “I was literally in some other world. It felt like I was gone for hours.”

“Oh? What was it like?” Jamie asked. He sounded sceptical.

“I… I…” Katie tried to recall her trip, but only flashes remained. “I can’t really remember. It was just so weird. I think you were there.”

A picture of Jamie with flowing hair, twirling around his waist sat in her mind’s eye.

“I was?” Jamie asked.

“It wasn’t really you exactly. He had long hair.”

“Hmm, interesting,” Jamie said. “Did it suit me?”

Katie nodded. She felt her chin hitting her neck and her smile stretch her cheeks unnaturally wide. Energy surged through every part of her body, making her want to bounce up and down, run, scream and shout. She felt so alive. Almost too alive, if such a concept was possible.

Getting up, she danced to his music, unwittingly following the moves of the crowd in her vision. Jamie smiled and joined in, eventually taking her hand and leading her in a waltz. The pair giggled and twirled, swinging each other up and down the grassy hill. At one point Katie tripped and fell on her bum, and the pair collapsed in laughter. They must have been making a racket because a couple of new partygoers came out to join them in their dance.

Katie had no idea how much time had passed, but she looked up to find at least twenty people dancing by her side, sitting on the wall with beers and smokes, or laid out on the grass. One couple was making out and showing too much skin.

‘I wish that was me,’ Katie sighed, staring at the lovers with longing.

A tug at her hand separated her from the crowd. Jamie grabbed both her hands and joined them around his back, pulling her in for a slow dance as the music changed pace.

Melting into him, Katie could feel his breath on her face as they swayed in time to the song. Believing it might finally be the time, Katie looked up, hoping for a kiss. He leaned in and pressed his small nose against hers, smiling innocently.

As he tilted his face, kiss imminent, Katie felt a harsh shove from behind, knocking her out of Jamie’s arms.

She turned to find Caleb and his little gang of followers.

“You know the rules,” one of them sneered.

Caleb draped an arm over Jamie’s shoulder and led him away. She went to run after him, but the others blocked her.

“Let me go,” Katie cried, but to no avail. The group were experienced at this sort of pack behaviour, encircling and trapping their prey.

“He won’t hurt him, will he?” Katie asked, looking to Kenny. Of the group, Kenny was her favourite.

“I doubt it,” Kenny shrugged. “He’s probably just giving him a warning.”

“Naa,” Ryan butted in. “He already got a warning. I’d bet he is gonna lose some teeth this time.”

The lads laughed at Katie's horrified face, with the exception of Kenny, who tried to say, “No, he wouldn’t do that,” though nobody was paying attention to his input.

Katie fell to the floor, pulled out her phone and tried to ring Caleb.

‘This number is unavailable,’ a breathy female voice informed her.

“You won’t hurt Jamie, will you? I promise to leave him alone. Just please don’t hurt him, okay?” Katie texted, thumbs moving at the speed of light.

She counted to three, taking deep breaths, before considering it a big enough pause between messages.

“Please reply,” she texted.

When, after three more seconds there was still no reply, she bombarded him with the same message over and over.

“Please reply,” “Please reply,” “Please reply.”

When her phone finally made the text received notification sound, she almost dropped it.

“OKAY!!!” he’d typed, apparently seeing no need to expand on this.

“Oo, caps, you must be pissed off,” Katie muttered to herself, grimacing. Cal hated when people used all caps. He had said so on more than one occasion.

Katie breathed a sigh of relief as she read the first line of his next text. “He’s fine. You best keep your promise and stay away from him.”

The gang finally shifted, letting her pass. Running into her house, up her stairs and into her room, Katie didn’t pause to strip before throwing herself into her bed and crying hysterically into her pillow.