Читать книгу The Other Side Of The Lies - Callie Ansar - Страница 13

The screech of the subway brakes got my excitement going when I jerked forward as the train came to a stop.

“Grand Central Station,” announced the conductor over the loud speakers. With the opening of the doors, Christine, Jessie, and I walked up the crowded subway stairs until we saw the light from Grand Central Terminal. Although I’d been through Grand Central many, many times before, I always marveled at the beauty of it. As we exited the building and stepped out on the street, the city was full of life. I pulled the opening of my green jacket closed to shield myself from the cold winter air.

“Come on, we have to go this way,” Jessie said, pointing to her right. We needed to get to Fifth Avenue in order to see the parade.

My friends and I had decided to skip our classes at school that day so we could head into the city and go to the St. Paddy’s Day parade. We traveled north once we got to Fifth Avenue and made our way through the crowd at 44^th Street. I didn’t think it would be possible for us to get all the way in front of the crowd, but three pretty girls amongst a sea of mostly men had its advantages. We flashed our smiles and put on the charm as we sweetly excused ourselves passed everyone. We squeezed among all of the Irish folks cheering, and although I felt like a sardine, it was one hell of an experience. We couldn’t help but cheer as well as the procession marched by us, and we had way too many laughs wondering what was under all of the kilts that we saw. But finally, with the passing of the last person, we squeezed right passed all of those Irish folks once again.

Fifth Avenue was holding more than its capacity and we couldn’t get out of there fast enough. We headed up to a bar on Madison and 51^st Street for a pub crawl that we had heard about. The end of the crawl would leave us on Madison and 43^rd, which was right by Grand Central Station, and our means of transportation home.

Once we arrived at O’Connors, we walked to the end of the long line of people waiting to get in. “Think our I.D.’s are gonna work?” Christine asked, rocking back and forth on her heels.

“Of course they’re gonna work. We got them from the best guy around,” Jessie answered her. “Besides, it’s St. Paddys Day. I don’t think they really care anyway.”

The time went quickly as we stood in the cold, conversating with our fellow crawlers. I was caught by surprise when I heard the bouncer say, “I.D. please,” in his very deep voice.

I flashed him a smile and grabbed my new fake license out of my bag. A few years ago, I would have never been able to pull something like this off. I would have been scared and self conscious and the bouncer would have seen right through my lie. But not now. College had changed me, a lot. The first few months I was there I moped around, still overly depressed about Ramsey. Once I started meeting new people, especially guys, something changed in me. I had been healing from my heartbreak and my scars demanded that I be a more confident, self loving person, and so I did.

The bouncer took one look at the license and one look at me. He handed it back to me and said, “Make sure you get your bracelet inside.”

“Will do,” I said as I flashed him another smile and disappeared inside with my friends.

Green plastic bracelets were placed around our wrists after we paid a pretty lady with a shamrock painted on her cheek, thirty dollars each.

“Holy shit, it’s so crowded in here,” Jessie shouted to us over the loud music. “How are we gonna get to the bar?”

“I’ll go,” I said. Being the only native Queens girl, it was assumed that I was the toughest out of the three of us. “You guys stay right here. Don’t move.” I didn’t need to ask what they wanted because the thirty dollars that we paid only included tap beer, which was colored green for the day. I must have said excuse me twenty two times before squeezing between a blubbering brunette and a very handsome gentleman, once I finally reached the ledge of the bar.

Slurring, the brunette said, “You’re gonna be waiting a while, honey. The bartender hasn’t been down this end in a while.”

I let out an aggravated sigh as the handsome stranger standing on the other side of me leaned down and said, “Don’t listen to her. He will be down here any minute. That girl is wasted. It’s actually pretty funny.” He was tall, blonde and blue. Not my typical type, but he’d do for the day.

I chuckled at his comment and said, “Cool. I’m Karen by the way.”

“Mike,” he said back, with a big smile on his face. “You here for the crawl?”

I lifted my arm up to show him my bracelet and said, “Yeah, you?”

He, in turn, showed me his green bracelet and my wheels started turning. Now a days when I met a guy, my antennas always went up wondering if he’d be worth my time. This guy seemed decent and he was pretty cute so he was worth a shot.

“What can I get for you?” the bartender shouted.

“Three beers for me,” I said, and Mike looked at me with the same expression he had as he was regarding the brunette. “They’re not all for me,” I said, “my friends are over there, somewhere.”

“Cool, mine are too. I’ll help you with your drinks”

I threw a five on the bar for the bartender and grabbed two of the green beers, Mike taking the other one. It was torture trying to get through the crowd on my own. Add a couple glasses of beer to the equation and it felt like an impossible feat. Seeing my frustration when everyone ignored my polite pleas to move aside, Mike scooted in front of me and took the lead. I liked that.

When I finally spotted Jessie and Christine, Mike was a few steps in front of me. I lifted my leg and gave him a light kick in the butt to get his attention. He turned around to see that it was me fondling him and he when he smiled, he looked absolutely adorable.

“Why don’t you ladies come with me, my friends have a table,” he shouted over the noise.

“Anything’s better than standing here,” Jessie shouted back. “Lead the way.”

Mike pushed and shoved his way through the thick crowd. Once we arrived at our destination, we were greeted by three guys, Brandon, Joey and Ryan. Matt shouted his introductions and I shouted mine. Jessie took a seat next to Brandon and Christine, next to Joey. I sat across from them, next to Mike, who sat next to Ryan. Through the loud voices and heavy laughter filling the air, my friends and I got acquainted with these four boys from Brooklyn.

By the time we were ready to leave O’Connors, I learned that all four guys were 21. We also found out that Ryan was going to be a fireman, Joey a policeman, Brandon was a carpenter and Mike was the brain and went to a business school in Manhattan. Being a brain myself, I couldn’t help but feel that it was fate that Mike and I were the ones who wound up at the bar at the same time that day. We nerds always seem to find each other in some way. We continued on our pub crawl with our new friends, who were a down to earth group of people. They were all funny and charming in their own ways and our day was turning out to be well worth the cut from school.

After having one too many green beers at the third bar we had been to, I excused myself from the circle we had been standing in. I needed to go outside and get some air. Christine joined me because she said she couldn’t watch Jessie and Brandon make out anymore. As we exited Gallaghers, the cold air slapped us in the face, and although harsh, it felt good compared to the way too warm air inside the bar. Christine went in her bag and pulled out a cigarette, then offered me one as she searched her bag for a lighter. I very rarely said no to a smoke so I took it, just as she found her lighter. With the flick of her thumb, my cigarette was lit and we puffed away, chatting about the great guys we had met.

It was turning out to be a really great day.