Chapter 2: That Night

Georgie sunk low in her chair and attempted to make herself disappear from the crowded bar. Unfortunately, Kass happened to have different plans.

Climbing up onto her chair, she shouted, "We've got a birthday girl in the room!" for the third time. "Wish her the best!" She called out and lead a drunken, out of tune round of Happy Birthday.

Georgie was in Wales for her nineteenth birthday. She had expected to feel wonderfully liberated at this point in time, but all she felt was mildly embarrassed for her unfortunately tipsy friend, and massively uncomfortable with the amount of attention she was receiving.

Her table, which had started out with just the two of them had grown considerably. Georgie wondered if Kass had even spent any money tonight on her alcohol. The girl had never been drunk before, but had frequently drank with friends. In her father's house, alcohol wasn't permitted as he was a recovering alcoholic. Tonight, specifically, there seemed to be a questionable guy a couple years older than them practically hanging off of her.

"Can I buy you a drink?"

Georgie was pulled out of her musing by decent looking guy, perhaps a year older than her, who was avidly attempting to gain her attention, "No thanks." She replied and offered a rather weak smile. It wasn't that she wasn't interested, but her head was starting to pound, and he was the seventh offer of the night.

She got to her feet and Kass grabbed her arm, jumping up unsteadily herself. "Where ya goin'?" She asked, a little loud- over compensating for noise of the busy bar.

Georgie sighed and rubbed at her head. Before she could answer the pretty boy pulled Kass around and kissed her, then handed her a new drink, since she'd finished her last. While she was preoccupied he winked at Georgie and pointed to a booth in an almost empty section of the pub.

Georgie sighed to herself and pushed her way through the group of school boys, and tried to make it to the washroom. "Excuse me," she muttered repeatedly as she finally made it... and found what seemed like, the only five other women in the busy bar lined up waiting to use it. It was a small place, one where the washroom was a single room and not given over to the stalls that were used in most other places.

Growing impatient in line, Georgie ran her hand through her hair. She really didn't have to go that bad. It was more that she needed a moment away from the noise and silly pups who thought buying her drinks would make her more likely to fall for them. When the only guy using the washroom came out, and there were still four women ahead of her in line, Georgie decided that words on doors were stupid. A washroom was a washroom. And these ones clearly had locks on them! She ducked into the men's room and took her moment.

Georgie wondered how in the world she was going to get Kass, who she thought was having a bit too much fun, to agree to leave. It was supposed to be a fun night out for the two girls, but it really wasn't turning out that way. It hadn't been more than a couple minutes after they'd gotten to the bar when Kass's new friend Cal had come up and used what was, perhaps, one of the cheesiest pick up lines she'd heard and then started buying the drinks. He'd seemed to be followed by a group of well meaning lads who had, apparently, found out they were 'yanks'.

Surfacing from the washroom, Georgianna walked over to the section Cal had pointed out for her, and chose a seat at one of the darker corner booths. A couple seats over, there seemed to be a couple who really should have been looking at finding a room, and Georgie rolled her eyes at their obliviousness.

"Can I help you?" Came a rather dry and obviously male request from across the table and Georgie's head shot up. She met the eyes of a man who was very definitely not one of the rowdy school boys. For the first time in her life, Georgie blatantly checked out another member of the opposite sex and was pleased with the result.

He was good looking, had hair that looked red but the exact tone was hard to tell due to the lighting, and he was completed by muscles she knew couldn't have been made in a gym. However, the eyes looking back at her with little interest said he would rather be left alone.

When she didn't immediately drop her gaze and reply, the hunk across from her sighed, and asked with a very blatant Irish accent whether she was planning to just sit and stare, or explain why she'd barged into his booth.

“Um, sorry." She said, deciding he did actually deserve an explanation, "It's my birthday and apparently everyone wants to celebrate with me.” Although she would rather just have sat and stared, she blinked and added, “I'm not much for a party...”.

"So," he said, speaking deliberately slow, "you decided you would sit with the one man in this entire section," He raised one light colored eyebrow, "in fact, the one man in the entire pub who simply wants to be left alone?" Having finished his piece, he drained the rest of his drink and set it aside.

“Well, I," she paused, stammered, "I didn't know you were here..." Her embarassment was getting the best of her even though she did not want him to make her feel like she needed to apologize. "I was just trying to get away from the noise.” He left his glare in place and simply continued to look, until she felt overly uncomfortable. “I'm sorry." She gave in at last, "I'll, um, I guess I'll go back over there then.”

As she to get to her feet, he shook his head and gave a small, slightly mocking laugh. It irritated Georgie, but when he sat up a bit straighter and said, "No, you don't have to then, if it will bother you that much." She stopped raising and lowered herself back down.

She moved herself into the opposite corner, "Thanks," she said gratefully, refusing to acknowledge the fact that he was still glaring at her. She dug out a couple of ibuprofen, decided it wasn't worth getting up for a drink and raised her hand to her mouth. Only to have her arm grabbed and her hand pryed open.

“That had better not be...” he stopped mid-sentence when he realized they were only pain killers. “They are only pain killers? Not some new drug designed to look like pain killers?”

Georgie pulled her arm out of his hold, and rubbed her wrist, he was just as strong as he looked. Deciding that this time he did not deserve an answer she popped the pills into her mouth one at a time, silently daring him to stop her again. Instead, he sat and glared at her and Georgie, deciding he need a piece of his own medicine, glared back.

"What are you doing so far from home?” he finally broke the silence. Without waiting for an answer he continued in a ridiculing tone, "Wait, let me guess. You're an American and you just graduated college so you're backpacking across Europe, staying in hotels, seeing all the tourist sights, living the life...”

“I am from Canada and I just finished high school. I am here with my friend, Kass” Georgie was starting to get defensive as she pointed Kass out, among the ever growing group of boys. “She's going to school in Ireland so we are spending the summer touring before school starts.”

“Well she better be careful with those lads. Some of them can be real trouble. Trust me.”

“I think she can take care of herself. And what about you? You look like trouble, sitting over in the corner brooding. ” Georgie snapped at him, who was he to criticize everyone and expect her to trust his word.

“You sure are fiesty for your size.” He looked her up and down before continuing. “At first I thought you had just finished college, but now that I look at you there's no way you're older than 17.”

“Wow. I'm not even going to stoop to your level and tell you my age.” She looked him up and down mockingly and grabbed his empty glass. “I mean look at you, buddy, you're a 24 year old man sitting in a pub full of college boys drowning his sorrows in the drink.”

The look on his face confirmed that she'd guessed his age right, and he didn't like that. The fact that she was putting up a fight and not just leaving was both surprising and annoying.

"You'd want to drown your sorrows to if you were me.” he replied taking the glass from her hand and slamming it on the table.

For a second Georgie thought she had gone too far, pushed him past his limit, but he started it.

“Oh c'mon. Your life can't be that bad.” Georgie said, getting herself ready for a real argument. “Judging by your clothes and watch, you're pretty well-off. And seeing how you're in wales when you're from Ireland, you have money to travel. I'm going to take a guess that the drink you had was the real stuff, not a cheap one. Did you know there are people in the world who live on lesss than a dollar a day? I bet your life isn't so hard compared to them.”

The silence went on for quite some time while the two stared each other down. Neither one was willing to back down and admit they were wrong or they had gone to far.

“I'm sorry.” Georgie finally broke the silence as she realized how ridiculous the situation was. She was arguing with a complete stranger. “I get really worked up when people whine about their lives. I shouldn't have said anything.”

“A little activist are you?” he asked mockingly as if there was something wrong with being one.

“More of a humanitarian.” Georgie corrected him. They weren't really that different in Georgie's eyes but she didn't want him to be right. They both stood up for what they believed in and tried to alleviate global issues just in different ways. “So, what's so terribly wrong with your life? I promise I won't lecture anymore.” It could be interesting to hear about his life. Georgie always did love a good story.

“Are you sure you want to hear it?” He raised one eyebrow at her, daring her to back out now as if what he said would be a burden to her. “I mean you could go party with your little friends.”

“I'm only here with one friend, and as I said earlier, i'm not a big partier."

Georgie listened as he talked of the arguments with his father, it was always the same thing. He wanted to travel a bit and get his own place, learn carpentry or even become a teacher. His father was demanding him stay at home and take over the family business. It wasn't that he had anything against the family business, he'd been raised on the farm and he loved it but he wanted to explore the world before settling down.

He repaid the favour as Georgie talked about her mothers demands. How Pamela wanted Georgie to be a doctor but had never once asked Georgie what she wannted. Of the pedestal Georgie's older sister was on and Georgie could never reach. Antoinette, or Tony as Georgie called her was only two years older but she was the perfect daugher in Pamela's eyes. Pamela had never really wanted Georgie, she had Antoinette so why would she need another child?

He told her of his dreams to open a furniture shop as he loved carpentry. He had started carving and making things when he was 12 but his father never let him study the art of carpentry. She told him that he should go after his dreams because the regret of not doing it would be worse than anything else.

She told him of her dream to go to third world countries and help people. He told her of his first crush, his first pet and when he learned to play the guitar. She explained to him that sketching helped her escape the world she was in, that being away from home made her happier than anything else and that she dreaded going home. He told her that he often wished he had the courage to defy his father and not just argue with him. She said that her favourite colour was purple, she loved the ocean and she wanted to fall in love. He told her about his mother's death, how he thought it would kill his father and how that was the beginning of all their problems.

The talked until the bar was empty, until the bartender demand they leave. That was when Georgie noticed that Kass was gone.

“Um, I think I have a problem.” She confessed to the Irish stranger. “I don't see Kass anywhere...I mean it's empty here.”

“Well, I don't want to say I told you so but...” He grinned as he grabbed his jacket. “Don't worry, i'll help you find her. She couldn't have gone far, this is a wee lil town.”

“How does an Irishman know so much about a wee lil town in Wales?” Georgie asked as they left the bar.

They headed towards town and Georgie started to shiver. All she was wearing was a purple sun dress and it was past three in the morning.

“Here, put on my jacket. It's cold out.” he said as he slung it over Georgie's shoulders.

“Thanks.” Georgie blushed “I wasn't thinking about having to go searcing for Kass when I got dressed for tonight.”

“You're still wearing more clothes than the average girl wears to the pub.” And for the first time that night he smiled at her. “I know abou this wee lil town because I have friends here. I went to a school in Ireland but a lot of my friends came from Wales. I was actually here visiting some, only I didn't realize how immature they'd gotten.”

“Maybe it was just you that matured?”

“Either way, we don't seem to have much in common anymore. They want to drink the night away and I, I'd rather talk.”

“Me too. I've never really seen the point to getting drunk.” Georgie stopped when she saw Kass on the othe side of the streed. “KASS!”

They walked across the street, and Georgie noticed that Kass seemed 1. sober and 2. out of it. Kass grabbed Georgie and tried to pull her away, before she even noticed that Georgie wasn't alone.

“Wait a sec,” Georgie walked back to her stranger. "Thanks."

"Before you go, my name is Finn.” This time when he smiled it was spread to his eyes.

“I'm Georgie. It was nice to meet you.”