A Bar on the Mainland | Sunday Evening

[pursuedthestars]

Sometimes, Jim went out to bars to forget. Sometimes, he went out to bars to escape. Sometimes, he just went to bars to have fun. Tonight was the latter. There was nothing wrong save for the fact that Jim hadn't gone out and had a little fun in awhile.

The bar was fairly nondescript. Not seedy but not posh. The bartender was female which meant it was pretty easy to flirt his way into not being carded when he started to order drinks. It was easy and it helped that she was pretty and funny. He wasn't going to go any further but flirting was allowed. That wasn't against any rules that he remembered.

So, he started drinking and he kept flirting. He was on his fourth (maybe fifth) drink and well into a story about just how agile some female aliens were (he figured the bartender was humoring him) when someone's massively meaty hand landed on his shoulder.

"Yer in my seat." When Jim turned around, he had to look up into the face of a man with a mustache that was damp with beer, a bulbous nose and ruddy skin. "Move."

"That's okay," Jim said, patting the man's hand comfortingly. "There's other seats for you to choose from, man. Take a pick. I'll buy you a drink."

The man with the hand didn't move. His grip tightened. "Move."

"Now, that's really not very nice," Jim said, shaking his head. "We should talk about this. Maybe ask the seat if it wants you to sit on it? I mean, you're a rather large man. I think you'd suffocate it."

The man's face screwed up into what Jim thought was anger and Jim knew what was coming next. They were not going to have a tea party. Jim decided to be proactive and swung a fist into the man's gut. The man stumbled but since he had a hold of Jim, Jim went stumbling with him.

That just made it oh so easy for the other guy to bash his other huge fist into Jim's face. Blood flowed from his nose and onto his lips. He spit it towards the other guy and brought a knee up to his groin. That, at least, meant Jim was free of the other guy's hand. And so he decided to tackle the other -- okay, that didn't work since the guy was large, Jim just bounced off of him and hit the floor hard.

Not five seconds later, he was hauled up and socked in the gut. Twice. He was going to puke, he was sure. All that wasted booze! Jim didn't even realize he was being dragged somewhere else because he was too busy trying to not throw up all over the place.

Jim was so sad he didn't even know this guy's name. Considering the absolute intimacy of this beating, he thought he should know. But then, Mr. Man was bringing a fist down on the back of his neck and knocking the wind completely out of him. He saw his blood on the floor. That wasn't good.

When Mr. Man, sent him crashing through the bar's front door and onto the street outside, Jim landed on his side and winced. He stayed there for a few minutes, people passing him by and then he rolled onto his back.

And started laughing. "Guy really likes his seat," he croaked before coughing painfully.

[NFB but open if someone happens to be at this random bar or wants to call him. I finally got around to doing this since I'd been saying it and saying it for so long. The icons needed to be used.]

Comments

[pursuedthestars]

nope.

Short and to the point but still spelled correctly.

i like it.

[whenshewasnice]

The spelling was definitely good. The rest was mildly catching her attention.

Just keeping things short and simple tonight?

Not that his texts were ever overly long.

[pursuedthestars]

am i ever that wordfy?

Okay, he didn't catch that typo before he sent it but everyone was allowed one!

[whenshewasnice]

They were! Also, Natalie was mostly just amused by it.

Wordfy? A loan word from some alien language I should learn?

[pursuedthestars]

nah. typo. sorry.

And he continued on being wordy. His fingers were a little cold and his ribs were aching. He figured he'd try and get up soon and head home.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie had preferred her alien language theory.

You should get me alien language textbooks from your world anyway. Are you tired or something?

[pursuedthestars]

No. Just in a lot of pain. And covered in a lot of blood.

i will when i go back home. and not tired.

[whenshewasnice]

So just distracted? Lazy?

Just curious.

[pursuedthestars]

yeah.

To which he was answering affirmatively, he didn't even know.

[whenshewasnice]

Yeah, neither did Natalie.

So would you like to be left alone or...?

[pursuedthestars]

Jim really wished there was a textual equivalent of a shrug or something.

up to you.

[whenshewasnice]

Well, that was a very Jim way of being. Natalie was going to respond by being Natalie.

He was getting a call.

[pursuedthestars]

It took Jim several long rings before he finally picked up and put his phone to his ear. He hoped he didn't sound terrible but he had no idea.

"Hello?" Okay, so his voice sounded awful. Great. He cleared his throat. "Hey, Natalie."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie's eyebrow went up. "Hey, Jim," she said. "You sound awful."

Had to be said.

[pursuedthestars]

"Nuh uh."

He coughed. And sniffed and then grimaced at the pain that caused in his poor nose.

"I sound fine."

[whenshewasnice]

"No, you don't."

She sounded lik her opinion on that was final.

"You almost sound like you have a cold or something."

[pursuedthestars]

"...we can go with that, sure," Jim decided, nodding. "I've got a cold."

[whenshewasnice]

"So now I'm going to assume you don't." Look, if he said they could go with that', she wasn't going to buy it. And now she was going to assume he'd had an adventure of some kind or another.

And by adventure she really thought trouble.

"Oh, Jim."

[pursuedthestars]

"It's just a cold," he insisted, deciding he wanted to try standing up now. He gritted it out, mumbling curses as he stood up but he managed it. He leaned heavily against the wall. "I'm fine."

[whenshewasnice]

"And I just went selectively deaf and didn't hear you randomly swearing," Natalie retorted. "Of course."

[pursuedthestars]

"I've cursed before," he said, wiping his nose and taking few breaths. "I can do it again."

[whenshewasnice]

"Sure you can," Natalie replied agreeably. "It just generally doesn't happen in the middle of you trying to convince me you're fine."

[pursuedthestars]

"I don't need to convince you. I'm fine." He was insistent. And now he was going to start walking by putting one foot in front of the other. His ribs still ached and he felt like someone had dropped a brick on the back of his neck but he was walking.

[whenshewasnice]

"No, you're not under any obligation to convince me." Which wasn't what he'd meant, but it worked like that too. And hey, it was agreement. "And you haven't done it, either. But you're not even obligated to tell me what's going on."

Wouldn't stop her being curious. Not worried, as such, but only because she trusted him to be able to take care of himself.

[pursuedthestars]

"Just walking home," Jim told her, blinking sleepily and wondering about concussions and such. "That's all."