Page 46 of Jackson
I climbed from the bed and joined him in the kitchen. He had made sandwiches and we sat at the breakfast bar andate.
“What should I wear?” Iasked.
“Jeans would be good, it getsmessy.”
“Messy?”
He chuckled a little. “Messy.”
Once we had eaten, Jack left to dress. I made my way to my bedroom and showered. I dried and straightened my hair, applied some makeup, and pulled on jeans and a fitted t-shirt. I grabbed a pair of heels and joined Jack back in the kitchen. He whistled as I walked towardshim.
“I’m not sure that’s appropriate,” hesaid.
“Notappropriate?”
“I need to work, and now I’m going to be fighting off the guys hitting onyou.”
I laughed and it felt good to have that banter with him. “I will sit and only have eyes foryou.”
“Make sure you do, I get very jealous,Summer.”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. He grabbed the keys and we headed out. Jack cranked up the music in the car; we wound down the windows and drove to the bar as if the past day hadn’t occurred. I wondered whether he was bipolar, or had a split personality. His highs and lows gave me whiplash; it was something I stored away on my list of things to talk to Dexterabout.
There was a doorman standing outside, with a rail and rope snaking alongside the building. He opened the door to let us in. D-J and Dexter were already behind the bar, lining up bottles and glasses. I watched a guy setting up his amplifiers and guitars on a small stage in one corner. I wandered over to the finished wall and stared at it. It was a masterpiece and probably the best work I’d seen ofJack’s.
“Take a seat,” Jack said as I walked back to thebar.
He had placed a stool in the corner next to the bar, and a jug of iced water with a couple of glasses on atray.
“It gets hot in here, you might needthat.”
I sat and watched as the bar started to fill quickly. Music blasted and Jack was right, it heated up pretty quickly. Dex had handed me a bottle of beer that I sippedat.
The man I watched behind the bar was yet another version of Jackson that I’d never seen before. He danced around, he made cocktails; he laughed and joked. He flipped bottles around as if he’d spent his life behind a bar. At one point he and D-J threw bottles between them and didn’t spill adrop.
As the evening wore on, the musician started to play. His cover of Linkin Park’s, What I’ve Donehad everyone dancing, jumping up and down. Water, beer, alcohol spilled everywhere. It was total madness, but an amazingmadness.
I slipped from the stool and joined the throng of dancers. After a few seconds, I felt arms around my waist and Jackson joined me. He sang out loud as he bounced on his toes. His t-shirt was soaked through with sweat and beer. As the song came to an end he held my hand and walked me back to my corner. He vaulted over the bar tocheers.
D-J came to life, too. He had climbed on the bar to dance, and practically strip, using a soda syphon to soak the audience. They screamed formore.
I don’t think I’d ever been in a bar so electric, so highly charged before. The place throbbed with music; it pounded against my chest. As the musician came to the end of the next song, I heard Jackson’s name being shouted. The crowd started calling for him. I looked over to him. He looked a little unsure as he walked towardsme.
“What do they want?” Iasked.
“It’s a moneymaking thing, it’s not what you think,okay?”
“Okay, but I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said with alaugh.
Five very busty women, in revealing tops, had lined up in front of the bar, each held a fifty-dollar note in their hands. Jackson lined up five shot glasses and reached for a bottle of Jack Daniels, hidden under the counter. As the cat-calling continued, he poured five shots of whiskey. Each girl then picked up the glass and wedged it between their tits, while slapping their fifty dollars on thebar.
Jackson vaulted over again, why he didn’t walk around the bar was beyond me. I laughed as I finally got what was about to happen. He smiled when he saw me laughing. With his hands behind his back he lowered his face to their cleavage and gripped the glass in his teeth. He then threw back his head and drank. The crowd counted the seconds it took for him to down five shots from five pairs of tits. As D-J marked the time on a blackboard behind the bar, the crowd erupted. It appeared Jack had beaten his previous time. And then it was the turn of whoever wanted to beathim.
The men who wanted to compete slapped fifty after fifty on the bar. Some made it to the fifth glass, some didn’t. No one beat him. I cheered along with the crowd when the last one was done. Jack raised his arms as he jumped on the wooden bar in victory. D-J aimed the syphon at him, he got soaked, the crowd got soaked, again, and I gotsoaked.
My throat was sore from laughing and shouting so much. Jack jumped back down and walked towards me. I noticed the women’s eyes follow him, lips were licked, and breasts pushed out as he passed. He stood in front of me, cupped my face in his hands and kissed me so passionately, the crowd whistled. Some shouted out to ‘get a room’ and the musician started upagain.
“You don’t taste of whiskey,” I said as he pulledaway.
