Family Prompt Story 2
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” she said. “This is a stupid idea.”
“Oh shut up, Bee,” Lilith replied, “you’re going to have fun, just watch. Do you a bit of good to get out and about for a while.”
Lilith grabbed her hand and pulled her through the front door. Inside they saw a veritable sea of people. Men outnumbered women probably two to one, and every type of physical attractiveness (or lack thereof) was on display. The sign up table was just to their right when they came in.
Bee turned around and started heading out the door, but Lilith kept hold of her hand and pulled her back.
“Dammit, Bee,” she said, “you promised.”
She glared back at her and said, “Fine, but when everything gets fucked up, don’t blame me.”
Lilith laughed and grabbed two cards from the table and handed one to her friend. Bee looked at it and just shook her head at how ridiculous it was. In the upper left corner was a terrible rendition of the superhero Flash, winking at a comically poorly drawn blonde girl in the upper right. Emblazoned across the top were the world “Flash Dating” with the equally stupid tagline of “Can you find a super hero tonight?” across the bottom.
“Now remember,” Lilith said, handing Bee a pen, “no cheating.”
Bee glared at her, and filled out the information on the card, pausing to think before each line.
Name: Bee
Occupation: Manager of large swatch of ungrateful people
Turn Ons: Dominating and gregarious personalities, someone who’s a little bit of a bad boy
Turn Offs: Whining and self pity
She chuckled to herself at how clever she was with her answers. Lilith was hiding her card, but she grabbed Bee by the arm again and started dragging her down the long line of tables against the far wall. Apparently the women got to sit in one spot and all the men had to cycle around through them. It was hard not to notice the other women they passed giving them dirty looks as they walked by, just like it was hard to ignore all of the guys leering at them. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. You can’t be exactly objective about the concept of beauty, but if you asked a thousand people, at least nine hundred and ninety of them would agree that Bee and Lilith were by far the most attractive women in the building this evening.
They sat down at an empty table near the corner of the room, the two of them sitting side by side on the soft cushion bench against the wall, with two empty chairs across from them. There was a place in front of each of them for the cards to be placed, and that’s the first time Bee noticed the writing on the back. It had the list of rules for the night:
Rules
1. Each potential prospect has two minutes to make best impression they can
2. Each prospect will have a unique ID number on their badge, jot it down if you want to potentially see them again after tonight
3. Be nice and be polite
4. First impressions matter
5. Have fun
A voice came from the speakers around the building, “Will all prospects please head to the registration desk to get their starting tables?”
Lilith elbowed Bee and said, “Looks like some good action, doesn’t it?”
She looked towards the growing group of guys around the front desk and had to admit some of them were pretty cute. Maybe she could get a little bit of fun out of the night after all.
“Are you going to behave yourself tonight?” Bee asked.
“I have no idea what you mean,” Lilith replied and giggled like a little girl.
Bee rolled her eyes at her friend just as a few guys were gathering around their table. None of the real attractive ones, but a few looked like they might be fun. A few tables over was someone who really caught her eye. He didn’t stand out because of any real attractiveness, or even a sense of style, he just had an oozing charisma that it was clear everyone around him felt. It seemed half the women sitting at the tables were looking in his direction, and quite a few of the guys had some jealousy in their eyes.
Just then a loud buzzer sounded and two guys moved to sit at the table with Bee and Lilith.
The one sitting in front of Bee had a tag on that said his name was “Joe”, his number was 9813, he was a lawyer, and had the most benign list of turn on and offs she could have imagined. She smiled at him and he just sat in front of her with a goofy grin on his face. After a good thirty seconds of him staring at her, she finally broke the silence.
“So, what does your wife think about this whole thing?” she asked, nodding down towards the ring on his hand sitting on the table.
“She doesn’t even know I’m here,” Joe said before catching himself, “er, I mean… How about you tell me a little bit about yourself?”
Bee smiled at him, “Well, I’m fiercely monogamous,” she said, “and ridiculously jealous. I’m afraid your wife might not like me much.”
She reached across and put her hand on his, stroked the back of it gently and looked him directly in the eye.
“Tell you what,” she said, “you’re a lawyer, make an argument, if you can persuade me, maybe I’ll even go home with you tonight.”
Joe got a twinkle in his eye and his grin grew even larger.
“You only got a minute though,” she said tapping her wrist, “time’s a wastin’.”
“Well, hell,” he said, “I don’t need much time at all. I… I… I…”
Bee took her index finger and ran it softly across her lips, making sure he saw her tongue out ever so slightly. She slowly drew it down her chin, down her neck, and just to the top of her cleavage.
A loud buzz sounded across the room.
“Aww, times up,” she said, “and I was so looking forward to it.”
Joe got a bit red faced and stood up and moved down the line. Bee looked over to Lilith and said “You’re right, this could be fun.”
Lilith laughed and Bee quickly scanned the room looking for her mystery man. She saw him still sitting with some woman on the far side of the bar, and she felt a little twinge of jealousy which was ridiculous. The buzzer went off again. Her new potential match sat in front of her.
“Hello Steve,” Bee said reading from his card, “tell me a little bit about yourself.”
Steve was a big boy, at least six foot six and probably weighed near 250 pounds. He wasn’t what you might call traditionally handsome, but he had a nice rugged charm to him.
“Nice to meetcha, ma’am,” he said, “you sure are purdy.”
She rolled her eyes. Steve seemed to realize what he said.
“I, uh, mean,” he stammered, “it’s just that you might for sure be the purdiest girl I ever did see.”
“Girl?” she asked, “and here I thought I was all woman.” She was already bored of Steve, looking around the room for the man who had intrigued her, feeling another hint of jealousy as she saw him laughing with yet another girl.
“Boy, I’d like to make a woman outta you,” Steve was saying. He reached across the table and put his enormous hand softly on top of Bee’s. She looked back at Steve.
“I’m not sure you could handle it,” she said.
Steve had a huge grin on his face. “Ya know what dey say about boys wit da big hands, yea?”
Just then there was a crash as Steve fell out of his chair. His arms flailed as he fell and hit his drink, which spilled perfectly down into his lap. He landed hard on his tailbone and quickly popped back up. His entire crotch was soaked with whatever he had been drinking.
Bee nodded towards his wet spot. “They suffer from a bit of… premature excitement?” she asked and laughed.
She tapped Lilith next to her and pointed at his crotch.
“And to think, I didn’t even touch him,” she said.
Steve’s face turned a shade of crimson and he unbuttoned his pants and pulled them down to his knees.
“It ain’t like that,” he said, “I just spilt mah drink, look you can smell it!”
Bee exploded in laughter.
“You want me to come over and put my face in your crotch and smell it?” she asked. She could barely get the words out she was laughing so hard.
The buzzer went off and she waved Steve away. “Maybe your next date will take you up on that offer,” she said, still a bit out of breath.
She was glad she came, this was turning out to be a ton of fun. She would keep playing games with these “boys” while waiting for the one man she saw that was interesting to make it to her table. She scanned the room for him but couldn’t find him before the buzzer went off again.
A very attractive man sat down in front of her, probably the most attractive man she had seen in the building all night. He had a warm smile and was staring intently into her eyes. She couldn’t get a read on him, and that was very unusual, but she just ignored that thought.
“So, Jerry,” she said, “it says you play video games for a living. Are you sure you’re up for this?”
He sat there quietly for a moment, his head cocked slightly to the side.
“I’m not sure if I’m being honest,” he said. “Truth be told, you’re pretty intimidating.” He looked around the room. “Plus, the princesses I normally save are in much dirtier castles.”
“Does that line ever work?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” he chuckled, “ask me again in the morning?”
“I can’t decide if that answer was cocky or cute,” she said.
“I just meant, I’ve never really done anything like this,” he said.
“Well you have about ninety seconds left, so impress me,” she said.
He took no time in getting moving. He jumped up and stood on top of his chair and started singing.
“When I wake up,” he sang, “well I know I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be the man who wakes up next to you.”
He sang loud, and it only took a few seconds before half the room was looking towards him. He actually kept a pretty good tune, and people were bobbing their head as he busted out the lyrics.
“But I would walk 500 miles,” he sang, and the crowd started singing with him. It felt like the entire room was singing now, “and I would walk 500 more, just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door.”
She laughed at him as he sang, but he didn’t seem to care. The buzzer went off when he was halfway through the song and there was an audible groan from the crowd. He stepped back down to the ground and bowed in front of Bee before leaning across the table. For a second she thought he was going to kiss her, but his mouth went to the side of her face, she could feel his breath on her cheek.
“People thing playing video games is useless,” he said, “but just imagine what I can do with my fingers.”
He winked at her and moved on, but she did jot down his ID number of 5525. She’d certainly wouldn’t mind seeing him again.
She tapped Lilith on the shoulder and said, “I’m bored.”
“Bee, you promised,” Lilith said, “you can do this for another hour or two.”
“Oh, I won’t do anything,” she said. The buzzer went off again.
The mystery man she had been so attracted to when she first saw him sat down in front of her. She laughed as she read his card.
“Ok, Michael,” she said in between her laughs, “a preacher isn’t supposed to be at these things at all, are they?”
“My child,” he replied, “what antiquated thinking. The Lord wants all of his children to find love and happiness.”
She leaned over and tapped Lilith, pointing at the man in front of her, “See this is exactly what I’m talking about.”
She crossed her arms and leaned back against the cushion and stared at Mike for a moment. She was mad at herself for falling to his charisma, but more than that she was annoyed at him.
“Look,” she said, “let’s just cut the BS for a minute. We both know you aren’t a priest.”
His smile faded and his eyes narrowed as he looked at her.
“You think I don’t know you?” she asked, “don’t know your type? You’ve left your wife home all alone while you come out and try to pick up more vulnerable women.”
“I don’t know wh..”
“Shut up,” she interrupted him. “You like to beat her, makes you feel like a big man, but you know what?”
His hand darts out and grabs her wrist. His voice is barely above a whisper, but she can hear him as clear as day.
“I will show you what a big man I am,” he said. He squeezed her wrist as tight as he could.
She smiled at him.
“You’re a little boy,” she said, “too stupid to realize she’s at home right now, getting her brains fucked out by your neighbor’s twenty year old son. You remember him, right? John.”
“She’s fucking him on your bed, right at this instant, she’s screaming so loud your dog came up to investigate and he’s sitting there watching. You call him ‘Puppers’ don’t you? Weird name for a dog so big…”
“How do you know…” he stammered.
Steve walked behind the preacher.
“Oww, let go, you’re hurting me,” Bee cried out. She even had tears in her eyes.
Steve’s large hand came down hard on top of Mike’s shoulder.
“Dis boy botherin ya, ma’am?” he asked Bee.
She nodded at him, and everything seemed to happen at once, and quickly.
Steve had pulled the preacher man backwards off of his chair with a resounding thud. He was raining down punches and Mike was screaming for him to get off. The commotion had attracted others. Some little dude jumped on to Steve’s back slamming his fists down onto his shoulders, and Steve just tossed him off like the nuisance he was. That guy had fallen across a table, spilling a drink into some fat woman’s lap and pushing the table hard into her prospects chest. He screamed and punched the little guy in the face.
From there it looked like a set of dominos perfectly set up and falling in sequence. One punch begets another punch, one fight started another fight, chairs were flying, and drinks were being spilt. The witnesses later weren’t able to say which happened first, but they both happened at basically the same time, and that is when the real commotion started. One of the guys had pulled out a gun and fired it, hitting another guy on the back shoulder while at the same time, one of the tables had been knocked over and the candle sitting on it had set one of the spilled drinks on fire, which quickly spread to the table close that was now ablaze. That’s when the screams started, and people started stampeding towards the door.
The fire spread vociferously, and the people trying to push to the front door were quickly cut off. There was entirely too much alcohol and cloth in that building and the whole place was up in flames in mere seconds. People were screaming, the smell of burnt flesh permeated the air, everyone was pushing everyone else. The newspaper the next day would say more people died from suffocation due to stampeding than the fire itself, but the entire room was full of chaos.
Almost the entire room, Bee and Lilith still sat in their original spots. Lilith was glaring at her friend, and Bee watched it all with a smile on her face.
“You promised,” Lilith said and pouted. Bee laughed.
Flames darted around them, engulfed them, but they didn’t seem bothered. Chaos seemed to be everywhere and they calmly watched it all.
A few people escaped, an even smaller number suffered minor injuries, but by the time it was over, the majority of people in the building that night had died. Bee and Lilith walked out the front door (walking over a few piles of dead bodies). Emergency personnel and rescue workers were all over the scene, but no one seemed to notice the two beautiful women. They were busy putting the fire out, and didn’t even see them.
Lilith leaned against one of the firetrucks on the street. “You didn’t even last fifteen minutes,” she said.
“Hey, you can’t blame me,” she said, “that dude was a dick.”
Jerry walked up from behind them and sighed loudly. Bee turned around and looked at him, a bit of mild shock, finally realizing who he was.
“I’m pretty disappointed in you,” he said. He looked at the husk of the bar they were all in a short time ago.
“I can’t wait for all the people saying I did all of this as some sort of inane punishment,” Jerry said.
“You could have stopped it,” Bee replied.
“You know I don’t do that,” he said, “they have free will, they do what they will.”
He looked over at his child. “You don’t have to push them so much,” he said, “you know how impressionable they are.”
“A date with the devil is a dangerous prospect,” Bee replied.
Lilith slapped her softly on the arm.
“You promised.”