Enter the Snake Pit
by
, October 10, 2018 at 06:03 PM (4620 Views)
Enter the SnakePit.
21:30 Saturday night. He exits the metro with his Sister in law, her sister and two friends and they make their way down from the elevated metro station. The venue is only a three-minute walk removed from the station. The road is full with likeminded people who are downing a few drinks before the venue opens. At the stop light he looks in front of him where some people stand grouped, he instantly recognizes one as the best friend of Anouk. He taps his sister in laws shoulder and casually points. Quietly saying “There”. She looks at him and then back at her brother in law. “Have you seen her yet?” He nods no. The light comes on green and they cross the road and hear a yell, it’s her, it’s Anouk. Not hiding the enthusiasm for seeing her best friend. It’s nothing he thinks to himself while he looks at her and the various people in her group. Which one of the men is her boyfriend he asks himself? A week earlier, he had learned she got back together with her ex. In all honesty, he wasn’t too bothered by it but now seeing her did make a little weird for him.
Entering the waiting line showed how popular the first DJ had become. Hordes of people grouped at the two opened doors. The crowed crawled forward towards the stations where people got frisked. The organization wasn’t prepared to handle these amounts of people from the start it looked like. Thirty minutes passed before the group passed security and reached the lockers. He stood there, gazing through the moving crowd when someone nearly walked into him. He looked down and it was her… Anouk looked up and was startled, he said a normal “Hi!” and she looked stressed before ushering a weak and shaking “Hey.” Her boyfriend’s face was full of questions as she pulled him along. All he could do was laugh in his fist, why she would make it so awkward for herself baffled him but he couldn’t be bothered by it. It was time to party! It had taken a good 40 minutes to get into the main hall where the music was. The closing stages of SEFA’s set began. As he entered the hall the new SEFA remix of “Get it crackin” came on. His favorite song of the moment. Goosebumps hit him and he yelled to his mate “Freaking awesome dude!” All of his friends immediately started dancing and the tone was set. It was going to be a great night.
It must have been around 01:00 when he first caught her glimpse. She just stood there, as he would normally do at parties as well. Enjoying the music but not too extrovertly. She wasn’t his usual type with her brown hair but something about her got to him. He looked away after a while but in the corner of his eyes he could now see her looking at him. He grinned a little and turned his head to face her. She was startled and looked away as he kept on looking. This process was repeated a couple of times before they would finally look each other in the eye. There was a significant distance between them as he was closer to the stage then she was but it did not matter. When they finally looked at each other without one looking away she had the prettiest smile… He couldn’t do much else but smile back at her. It simply was an amazing feat. Every two minutes they would look at each other and forget about the rest. They would both smile at each other and then focus on something else before repeating the process. An hour must’ve passed before he started to question if he should go to her. The perfect excuse came when one of his friends said they would go outside for a smoke. He decided to join them and passed her on the way there, as he was about to pass her he thought ‘it’ and he leaned in and asked “Whats your name?” She looked at him for a second, stood on her toes and replies something he couldn’t hear. He leaned in again and indicated he couldn’t hear what she said. After some yelling, he picked out the word “French!” He looked at her in defeat… Why could he never find someone who lived close to him?! He filled with rage on the inside but it did not show on the outside. They both looked at each other with disappointment and they shrugged successively at each other. Lost for words he looked sad at her pretty face before he moved away, joining his friend for a smoke.
With a sad face he stepped outside where his mate looked at him and asked how it went. “She’s French! Dammit.” He replies defeated. His friend visibly annoyed by the news, says “Just your luck man...” Still heavily disappointed they finish their smokes in silence. Disappointment after disappointment was becoming a little too much to bear. Sometimes the strong need a hug too… The next hour or so he spend walking through the venue; muscle cramps had been annoying him all week so he needed to walk it off. Eventually he made his way back into the main hall and to his friends.
It couldn’t have been more than an hour before he had the feeling he was being looked at again. He turned around to look into the crowd and he found her again with relative ease. Feeling disappointment, once more he quickly turned away but soon found himself looking at her again. The game was on again. After the tenth, time the disappointment was gone and they kept looking at each other for extended periods. They didn’t care for the music or the people they were there with. They just wanted to look at each other and make themselves feel happy. The hours rolled by and all they did was search each other through the crowd. Even when other people would get in front and the view would get obstructed their eyes would meet through the people.
Most of his friends were getting fatigued at this point. The night was nearing the last hour and some of them had worked during the day, himself included. Most of them went to sit at a designated area. He and one of his friends remained in the main hall when he turned to ask his friend. “Recon I should go to her and just cuddle her?” She nodded yes, as he predicted but it was quickly followed up with “But you should start gathering the balls to do so quickly because the others will likely say they want to go home before too long.” He smiled at the remark because she knew him too well. He fixed his gaze at the girl he had been interacting with the entire night again. They smiled at each other again before he started to look at the floor, telling himself he really should go there.
He looked up and searched for her again, when he found her his courage disappeared again. She was chatting with someone else. ‘Fool!’ he thought to himself. Why would he need countless of hours before he could finally muster the courage to talk to someone? He had rehearsed countless of lines of French words in his head ever since he first spoke to her. Sure, it was rusty but he did remember some phrases. He was mental with rage and it clearly showed when he looked at her direction but then she looked at him as the other dude was talking to her. She smiled politely and all the anger he had boiled up inside of him was gone. He smiled back and her smile got ever wider. Soon the other dude noticed he did not have her full attention and he took his leave. He grinned ear to ear to see him leave and as soon as he was gone, he walked over to her. He gave an awkward hug just when a friend she was with offered him some desperados. He took a sip, returned the bottle and started to talk to her. In English he said “You’re cute!” but she couldn’t hear him over the loud music. He took out his phone and started to type “You’re cute” when she read it she blushed and gave him a hug. When everything seemed to have been going great, the time had come to go. His phone was red hot from his friends asking where he was… He looked at her, told her he had to go and she looked bummed. It took so long before they were talking and now, when it finally happened he had to go.