Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel (10 page)

We split up to our respective
closets to get changed.

Chapter
6

“Delia, I have no doubt I’m
totally up for it, but I should warn you that I don’t usually do this,” I said
nervously. I looked in our tiny mirror to pull back my hair into a ponytail.

“You are, what, twenty-four? How
is this new for you?” she replied. She grabbed my hand to stop me. “Hair down.”

“Twenty-three. And I don’t know.
I’m a good girl, okay? I was always with my parents before. I never snuck out
or used a fake ID or anything, so I’ve only been a couple times the last few
years. I worked with a bunch of old ladies in a boutique so it’s not like I
went out after work a lot the last two years.” I looped a belt in my jeans and
smoothed out my black tank top.

“You will be fine. We shall go
out, make fun of some townies, drink a few adult beverages, and be back before
you know it. It will be fun!” She pulled a piece of lint off her snug yet
flattering royal blue top. She looked gorgeous and for a split second, I let
myself hate her.

“I’m not worried. I thought I
should tell someone who wouldn’t make fun of me when I get tipsy off two
drinks,” I replied.

“You would not be the first
lightweight at our table. You should have seen Jade on one of her few nights
out. Two of those malty beverages in and she was
done
. If you can outlast that, and I am sure you can, you can avoid
the teasing. Are you ready?” Delia asked me. I nodded.

We both checked our hair and
teeth one last time and walked out to meet everyone. We were the last to
arrive. They all stood by the parking lot, ready to pile into Brooklyn’s gigantic
SUV.

A wavy-haired blonde girl who
fit right in with Brooklyn and Bianca waved at me. “I’m Renata,” she greeted
me. The dimples in her cheeks deepened as she smiled at me. “Welcome to crazy
town.”

“Thanks. So you’re the
Earthshaker?”

“Yep. Don’t worry, I’m pretty
good about not stomping my feet into the ground,” she said. I looked from the
group to Brooklyn’s vehicle.

“Are we all going to fit?” I
asked.

“The way I see it, if all those
clowns can fit in their tiny car, we can get everyone in mine. This thing hauls
campers, people. It’s a fuckin’ boat,” Brooklyn replied.

“How far away is the bar?”
Bianca asked.

Nikolas shrugged. “Maybe four
miles. It’s not really a big town. Shouldn’t be a long ride. But I call
shotgun!”

Everyone groaned but stepped up
to pile in the vehicle.

“It’s going to take longer to
get in and out of the car than actually being at the bar,” Bianca grumbled.

“Oh, c’mon, it’s not like we’re
all getting into Bianca’s car!” Brooklyn defended herself.

“Hey now, my old car can fit
like 3 people and a midget!” she responded.

“We should test that theory
after we get back from the bar,” Finley said.

With Nikolas and Brooklyn up
front, Bianca, Renata and Delia behind them, and Keegan, me, and Finley in the
very back, it was a very tight fit.

“You can sit on my lap if you’re
uncomfortable,” Finley said and grinned at me. Keegan shot him a dirty look
that I pretended not to notice.

“I’ve got a goal to get into a
bar fight tonight! Who’s with me?” Finley yelled.

“Not me,” Brooklyn replied from
the driver’s seat. “That brawl two or three cities ago was enough to last me a
few months.”

“They’re not serious, are they?”
I whispered to Keegan.

“Yep. We were somewhere in
Indiana—or was it Illinois? We all went out and got harassed by a bunch
of drunks. They recognized us from the circus and insulted us. Finley and
Nikolas, and as you can guess, Brooklyn, are not ones to back down from crap
like that.”

“I hope we can avoid that
tonight,” I said.

“Not me,” Finley butted in. “There’s
nothing more I like than giving a drunk townie a good punch to the face when
all he wants to do is call me and my friends a bunch of freaks.”

Keegan rolled his eyes. “You’re
playing right into their stereotype. Thanks for setting us back.”

Not five minutes later, we
tumbled one by one out of the car, much like the clowns did from theirs. I
hopped out and looked around; we stood in a large gravel parking lot facing a
small building promising booze and music. Several people stood outside in the
encased front section.

“Must not be a lot of seating,”
Bianca mumbled.

“After being crammed in that
boat, I think I can manage standing for a few,” said Finley.

“Keep it up, Fin, you’ll be
walking those four miles back,” Brooklyn threatened.

Delia looped her arm inside mine
as we took the lead towards the bar. From the outside, it appeared like a large
shack. The windows were up, presumably to let fresh air in, since all I could
see inside were bodies enveloped in a smoky gray cloud. The wooden walls were
grainy and weathered. Someone walked out and as the door opened, loud country
music poured out.

“Cripes,” I heard Bianca whisper
to someone behind me, “do they really need to deafen themselves with that
twangy racket?”

“We
are
in a Southern area, hon,” I heard Renata reply.

“Still. How can anyone have a
conversation in these places? It’s like that everywhere. I don’t get how
screaming at anyone is a good way to begin your night.”

I heard Nikolas guffaw at
something Finley mumbled, probably a dirty joke. As we approached the main
entrance, a guy appeared from the side to take our IDs and allowed us in. I
half expected everyone in the place to turn and stare at us as we walked in,
this strange group of misfits. Fortunately, it was all in my head, because I
couldn’t spot a single person who thought anything unusual about us.

Delia caught my surprised face.
“What, you thought all bars only had one type of customer?” she teased me.

“The music caught me off guard,”
I admitted. Bianca nodded her agreement.

“We’ve been spotted by a few of
them,” Brooklyn muttered to us under her breath. “Fair warning, they’ve already
passed us off as another bunch of weirdos. And a few men are not in the
gentlemanly state of mind, ladies.”

“Oh, great,” Delia and I both
groaned.

Upon entering, we walked first
into the several tables scattered across the floor. Towards the back of the
room was the kitchen that connected to the actual bar. A melting pot of all
types scattered across the bar: a pierced and tattooed crowd played pool in the
back right corner, while hipsters in their flannel shirts and tight jeans
smoked Pall Malls and drank PBR at a table behind us. To my left was a hallway
to the bathroom; on my right, a group of overdressed girls giggled by the
jukebox, picking out the next song. Farthest from the jukebox and to the side
of the bar were the rednecks and their football game. A crowd of older men, who
I guessed to be in their forties or fifties, all looked quite intoxicated by
the bar.

All in all, one large square
room with booze, something that advertised itself as “the best BBQ Burger in
town,” and plenty of people. I caught the eye of one of those older men dancing
like a fool near the bar and quickly looked away.

“Who wants a beer? I’ve got
first round,” Keegan offered.

“I’ll pick up the second,”
Nikolas countered. “We’ll go ahead and put that order in. I’m thirsty.”

We all put our order in and
manage to combine two smaller round tables into a large one, almost right in
the center of it all. Once we sat down and waited for the boys, I took another
look around.

Brooklyn and Bianca, to no
surprise, had lit cigarettes and I only caught the end of their conversation.

“Please, don’t act like you
haven’t already checked out the Barbie dolls over there. That’s why we sat facing
them, right?” Bianca said slyly, taking a drag off her cigarette.

“It never hurts to look,”
Brooklyn said.

“Please, like any of those girls
are your type or mine. Hell, I’d bet they aren’t even Delia or Lucy’s.”

I took another glance at the
dressed up girls giggling over their appletinis and wrinkled my nose. “Nope.
Definitely not my type even if I did like my partner in heels.”

“Thank god I have such high
self-esteem,” Bianca said dramatically.

Brooklyn put an arm around her.
“Baby, you’re the hottest one here and I’m not even saying that because I love
you. You know you never have to worry about me.”

She planted a kiss on Bianca’s
cheek as the boys came back with their arms full of beers.

“What’d we miss?” Fin asked.

“Oh you know, my girlfriend is
window shopping, checking out all the other ladies,” Bianca said. “It’s okay,
though, because if she acted on it, I’d just transport her to Egypt and leave
her there.”

Brooklyn raised an eyebrow but
chose to drink her beer instead. I didn’t have to be a telepath to hear her
retort about Bianca transporting anyone, but she stayed quiet. A wise choice,
if anyone asked for my opinion.

“That’s
my
favorite thing to do when we go out,” Finley replied.

I thanked Keegan for my beer and
took a sip. Keegan still stood, looking around at the table. Finley looked at
him in frustration.

“Dude, we playing musical chairs
or what? Pick a seat,” he said, annoyed.

Delia sat on my left and the
girls were on the other side of her. On my right sat Nikolas. Keegan hesitated
and then took a seat on the other side of Nikolas. Finley sat next to Keegan
and immediately began scouting the room.

“So who am I fighting and who am
I taking home?” Finley surmised. He took a giant swig of beer.

“You’re awfully confident of
both things,” I teased him.

“Only one of those things is
gonna happen and I’m willing to bet money on a broken nose,” Nikolas said.

“That chick’s gonna rock in
bed,” Finley responded.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m
already planning my conversation with that guy,” Renata said, motioning to one
of the tattooed guys at the bar. “I need to finish my second one here.”

She easily downed her first one
and began on her second.

“Liquid courage,” Delia said,
smiling.

The jukebox changed abruptly
from country to bubblegum pop.

“Well, looks like someone
managed to find a quarter or two in their bra,” Nikolas said wryly, bobbing his
head back towards the girls at the jukebox.

“Yep. See you guys later,”
Renata said.

She slammed her now-empty bottle
on the table, got up, and walked over to one of the guys at the bar. We all
watched her greet him and just like that, he stood up and offered her his seat.
We saw him motion to the bartender for her drink.

“Wow,” I remarked. “That’s
pretty ballsy.”

“Renata is like that,” Delia
replied. “The rest of us are more…refined. Well, the girls are anyhow.” She
threw a look at Fin.

“I don’t know what you’re
talking about. The girls I bring home are fine,” he answered with an innocent
look on his face.

“For the half hour you use and
abuse them,” Bianca interjected.

“First of all, it lasts longer
than
that
,” Finley defended himself.

I finished off my first beer.
Booty call talk made me uncomfortable, as I had a severe lack of experience in
that department. Luckily the subject changed and we chatted for a while about
the day’s show, what needed to be improved, and what went well. In my own
opinion, it ran smoothly considering it was first day in a new town, but I
understood why the criticism was necessary. Timing was everything and when one
person slacked even sixty seconds, the whole show could be thrown off.

The guys and I talked more about
our favorite superheroes while the girl gossiped about people in the bar. Delia
seemed into a guy at the bar, but then shrugged and decided there was no one
interesting. I had no real desire to pursue anyone there. Well, maybe Keegan,
but that might be weird for everyone else. I didn’t want to push it too much. I
tried to sneak a look at him every once in a while; I took it as a good sign
that I’d catch him looking over at me, too.

After the third round, I
realized the hipsters and a few other people had left. I started when Brooklyn
sat straight up in her chair. Bianca glanced at her and then set her beer down.

“I know that look. Something’s
wrong,” she stated in a flat tone.

Brooklyn took one look at me,
then around the room. “It might be nothing. I thought I heard…I don’t know. I
couldn’t tell who it came from.”

“Why did you look at Lucy when
you said that?” Keegan said. He sounded alarmed.

“No…no, it was nothing. It’s
gone now. Maybe it was some drunk thought from one of those idiots in the
corner,” she replied, motioning to the rednecks. She waved it off. “Probably
thinking about those well-dressed ladies over there at their new table.”

Bianca looked over at the bar
and smiled. “Guess we’ll see Renata later.”

Naturally, we all turned to look
at the same time. Renata grinned at us, gave a little wave, and walked out with
her cute new friend.

“She’s gonna—” Finley
started.

“—go rock his world,”
everyone but me finished for him.

Brooklyn groaned. “You say it,
like, every time. Seriously.”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t make it
any less true. Her gift is just that good.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. This
group, proof of many years together, made me hope I’d get the chance to jump in
on their inside jokes and terrible puns.

Delia hopped up. “My turn for
beers.”

Bianca, with a brief wink to
Brooklyn, went to help Delia carry them back. I half expected Delia to blur to
the bar, but remembered that would probably be a very bad idea out in public.

“This seat taken?” a male voice
asked. I looked up, fully ready to say no to the perverted old men, but was
surprised to see Gabriel standing above us. He motioned to Delia’s seat next to
me.