Page 31 of Pictures in Blue
I’ll come back to the look that spreads across her face at the idea of seeing Jacob again and flash her a concerned look. Here I am thinking this was going to be just an innocent town gathering, and she’s talking like everyone shows up with the goal of being so drunk, they can’t walk home later.
“I’m just kidding,” she nudges my arm in a teasing manner and I let out a relieved sigh. “I mean, there’s always a few here and there who could definitely slow down on the drinking, but overall, everyone behaves.”
I give her a smile and we continue our walk to the bar in comfortable silence.
After a few more feet down the sidewalk, there is a man walking toward us. His thick-framed glasses sit on the bridge of his nose and he adjusts them as he moves closer to us. He has light brown hair that looks like he styled it to be messy, like he ran his hands through it multiple times to get it right. A light green jacket hugs his shoulders and he has what looks to be an old fashioned pager clipped to his hip, with jeans and black and white sneakers. Sky quickens her pace the closer the man gets and when they are face to face, to my surprise, she throws her arms around him as he wraps his arms around her waist and spins her around like they are long lost lovers, finding each other once again after years of searching.
Sky may have said they were best friends, but I can see the lie for what it was from here. Shit, I could have seen it blindfolded. After Sky’s feet are firmly planted back onto the sidewalk, she turns to me, one arm still around him.
“Soph is meeting us at the bar, but Avery, this is Jacob.” She motions to him, before turning her palm up and reaching her hand out in the air between us. “Jacob, this is Avery. The new blood in town.”
Jacob reaches a hand out to me and I take it, shaking it up and down. “The famous Avery.”
I let out a shy, embarrassed laugh. “I don’t think I’m famous.”
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong my friend. In this town, you’re absolutely famous.”
He moves to put one arm around my shoulders, pulling me into their group, while one arm remains around Sky. I surprise myself as I feel my arm wrap around Jacob’s waist coming to rest right under Sky’s and it feels…comfortable. Usually I would feel weird and reserved and very panicky, but I don’t. And for once, I don’t even question it.
“You’re the most exciting thing to happen here since the Great Blackout of 2003.”
“The what?” I ask as we continue to walk, arms around each other like I have been a part of their inner circle for years.
“Hudson and Axel,” Sky says in a way of explanation. But it leaves me more confused. And flustered because I wasn’t expecting Hudson’s name to come up so soon tonight. I figured it would at one point, but I was hoping to have at least one beer in me before that moment.
“They somehow tripped a breaker doing something stupid and the whole town was out of power for three whole days.”
“Three days?” I exclaim.
“They were young and stupid,” Sky adds.
“Clearly. But how did they manage that?” I ask, while wondering who Axel is and I feel a slight pang in my chest at the thought of the person being a woman. I’ve never met a woman named Axel before, but I also don’t think I have met a person with that name, so who knows.
“One of them dared the other to climb an electric pole,” Jacob answers.
“And that one did.”
“But that one also slipped and grabbed the wire and since it was probably original to the town,” Jacob starts.
“Ripped it down as he fell and out went the lights,” Sky finishes.
“Three days, complete darkness.”
“Complete chaos more like it,” Sky says, running her free hand through her hair before turning us toward the street, the sound from the bar filling the air. We all look left and right, the safety directions from our childhood ingrained in us, in perfect sync like we rehearsed it beforehand.
The closer we get, the louder the noise becomes, but it isn’t an overwhelming noise you’d usually hear from overcrowded bars. It’s softer, with different tones of chatter and laughter filling my senses. There’s a big enough crowd inside that some people are standing and sitting around the outdoor seating.
Sky was right. This is something the whole town comes to. The string lights hanging above them cast a soft glow on their faces. I can’t imagine Frank being the one to hang up lights like that and wonder who convinced him to do it. It’s something I could see Charlotte pushing a grumpy old man like Frank to do.
We enter through the already open door and they search for Sophie. Surprisingly, there is a lone table right in the middle of the bar, a black-haired woman standing next to it. Sky makes a beeline for the table and hugs the woman before sitting on the high bar stool, before Jacob and I even have a chance to react.
“She moves fast,” I say loud enough so he can hear me.
“You should see her in a foot race. Woman can outrun me blindfolded,” he says, moving around the people standing around us, talking with their neighbors.
I picture Sky blindfolded, crouched in a runner’s stance next to Jacob mirroring her, before Hudson callsGo!They take off and Sky leaves a cloud in her wake like a cartoon character and Jacob comically spins around until he falls on his ass, stars dancing around his head while Sky dances at the finish line.
“I’ll get us drinks!” calls Jacob before turning away and heading toward the bar which is lined with people, no stools left empty. He claps a man on the shoulder as he leans on the bar with his elbow. The man returns his side hug and adjusts his glasses before returning to the newspaper in front of him that is open to a crossword puzzle. The woman beside him gets up from her stool and wraps Jacob in a hug. A smile lights up her face and he matches her energy, seemingly glad to see her.
