Burning Hope

Chapter 3: Burning Hope's First Kiss

Picture this; a darkened room full of young people in revealing clothing dancing wildly to chaotic electronic beats which are synced to a neon light show, lighting them up in bright colors. Amongst the apparent mayhem, you might see a bartender serving clubbers with 'over 21' bracelets alcoholic beverages, or those few kinky couples that start making out and doing things that shouldn't be explained on the dance floor, or just plain old me.

I'm positioned on an elevated stage in the middle of the dance floor—my DJ booth. Usually, by now I'd already have been groped by at least two or three guys, but since tonight was Teen's Night, most of the guys were eighteen or under and their focus was on that one blond chick partying with all of her friends with a bit of a focus on the first word of the phrase 'bare necessities'. If I would have come here to watch people dance, I much rather would have put on Animal Planet; they make the same motions, and at least then it's considered educational and not perverted, but due to my position, most of the time I don't have a choice.

I sat on the seat of the sound booth halfheartedly bobbing my head to the fluctuations of the four-on-the-floor beats of the hardcore music that was playing through my headphones. My job was mainly all for show; to make it seem like I was coming up with my own mixes on the spot when in reality I was just playing my favorite music off a playlist and making the motion of actually using the turntable. Sometimes, I was able to sneak in a few remixes of my own, but I'd need permission from my boss before I could do that.

Normally, I'd be able to lose myself in the music pretty easily, but tonight was a little different. This was the first time I had been expecting somebody. Instead of closing my eyes and losing myself in my own electronic world, I was scanning the crowds and finding every face in the universe except for the one I was looking for. I sighed in disappointment. Boys really were only good at breaking your heart, weren't they? And before you can ask, no; I didn't feel anything for Luke.

I didn't care about how he smirked when he was about to do something especially stupid, or how his eyes dazzled when they caught the light just right, or how he had a sarcastic comment for half of the things I said, or basically anything else he did. Oh, dear god, I sound like a romance author.

Okay, fine. Maybe I did like him a little bit. Not in that way. I thought he was cute, sure, but my interest in him was strictly friend-based.

I groaned and looked at my phone. It was 11:00, My shift would get done in an hour. Where was he? Had he seriously blown me off?

I was about to give up hope when I felt my phone vibrate. I checked it and smiled as I saw Luke's number pop up (He had texted me earlier, so I already had him registered as a contact). I felt my heart begin beating faster as I opened the message.

I'm here. Where are you?

I smiled as I texted him back.

The DJ booth in the middle of the dance floor. I shouldn't be extremely hard to miss.

It wasn't even a full minute before the next reply came.

We see you. Do you want us to meet you up there?

I looked in the crowd until I saw a pair of hands waving sporadically in the air. I laughed as I saw Keighlyn standing on tiptoe, struggling to be seen in the crowd of mostly taller people. I waved back and leaned into the microphone, feeling the familiar hype creep its way back into my veins.

"Alright, ladies and gents, there's only an hour left before I'm done and Burning Hope must take her leave, so what do you say we shake things up a bit?"

A chorus of yells echoed in the club.

"Then how about some hardstyle to end off the night?"

More people cheered as I hit "In the Marine" by the Noisecontrollers on the playlist. I looked over to Keighlyn, Talia and Luke, and signaled for them to come over with a wave of my wrist. They made their way through the rowdy dancers and I tried to stifle my laughter as Talia smacked a guy across the face for making a comment about her butt. Somehow, they made it safely to the oasis in the middle of the floor and pulled up some chairs next to me.