Caged In

I push the doors outside the club open, hand money to the guy at the front desk, who neglects to check my age, and stamps my hand.

" Have a good time, miss.” He says monotonously before motioning at the guy in front of the large doors to let me in.

The moment the doors to the main atrium open, the air conditioning causes my brown hair to fly back in the wind and I am engulfed in the most disgusting smell ever.

Actually not disgusting, more like overbearing. I kept sneezing as I walked into the room full of dancing bodies, and the smell was everywhere. I couldn’t escape it, so I did the next best thing, which was running into the ladies room to get something to cover my nose with.

No matter what I did, all I could smell was that wretched scent. It was like having air freshener constantly sprayed up my nose, not only that, but I couldn’t stop sneezing.

By the time I exited the ladies room, I had two rolls of paper towel shoved up my nose like a walrus, and I had a raging migraine to accompany the smell that wouldn’t go away.

I’m such a loser. I mean, 5 minutes in and I already wanted to be home. In bed. Without that smell.

" There’s something on your face.” I turn to see who said that, only to notice an attractive guy with the most beautiful green eyes and silky dark brown - almost black - hair leaning on the wall.

" Who sneeze just said that ?” I ask.

The hot guy laughs,” Me.”

A person like that would never talk to me.

" You sneeze obviously haven’t seen me in daylight without makeup, so I’ll spare you the horror and just sneeze go back.”

I feel him grab my wrist,” What’s with the walrus look, are you sick ?”

" I sneeze don’t have to justify that sneeze to you.” I grumble,” This goddamn smell is so sneeze annoying.”

" Sorry, but that wasn’t a proper response, you see, I don’t like people disrespectfully invading my territory.” He growls,” Especially when -” he stops talking.

" If anyone sneeze is invading territory, it’s you, and I’d sneeze like it if you declared a cease fire sneeze on my personal space.” I rip my hand away from him.

" You’re human.” He mumbles.

Sneeze," Well yeah, what did you think I sneeze was, a werewolf ?” I subconsciously reprimand my self for the bad joke.

" No!” He said a bit too quickly before coughing into his hand and lowering his voice to seem more nonchalant,” I mean, no, of course not.”

" Okaaaay.” I rolled my eyes as I sniffled back another sneeze.

He squints his eyes,” Why are you sneezing so much ?”

I shrug my shoulders,” Probably because of the sneeze smell, some douche used too much sneeze cologne.”

He looks curiously at me with his bright green eyes.

" Wait, you can’t sneeze smell it ?” I ask.

" No, I don’t know what you think you smell, but if someone was wearing too much cologne, I would know.”

" Good for you, I hope you go sneeze far in life with that cologne spidey-sense.”

" Don’t make fun of it.” He grumbles,” You’re the one having an allergic reaction to the air.”

" Well - well sneeze you’re a meanie!” I mentally face palm for the grade school level comeback.

" Real great comeback, Kevin Heart.” He chuckles.

" I’m not a guy, nor am I short, don’t insult me.” I growl.

" Last I checked, you’re the one who started the insulting game, meanie.” He raises an eyebrow.

" Personal space violator!” I yell.

His green eyes widen in shock before they meet my gaze again. There is a long silence before he smirks,” Hey would you look at that.” He says,” Your sneeze is gone.” His eyes glint mischievously as he puts one hand in his pocket and leans onto the wall.

" Not, but the smell is still here.” I take the tissues out of my nose and inhale deeply only to have the woodsy pine scent invade my senses.

" Your voice sounds much nicer now that you took those out, it’s not as nasally.” He says.

I imagine my expression was a mix between disgust and confusion after he complimented me and I stared at him.

" Uh . . .” I ignore that comment as I trail off,” I just don’t know why the smell isn’t bothering me anymore.”

" Maybe you just got used to it.” He muses.

Cue the return of my splitting migraine. I clutch my head as I fall forward, I don’t know whether I was lucky or not, but the hot guy caught me. I look up and he is staring back at me, his eyes a bright golden. I flinched as I desperately tried to get out of his grasp.

" Are you alright ?” He asked.

A loud ringing noise came into my ears suddenly and everything ached. No, this can’t be -

Suddenly I felt something inside my hand crack. Shit! I have to leave, I have to - crack!

I feel his arm near my clavicle as he held on to me, and I managed to bring my mouth down to it. I felt a growl build in the back of my throat as I bit down hard enough into his arm to draw blood. His grip loosened as he growled in pain and I scrambled out of his grasp.

As I was running away from him, and towards the place that I came in, something in my leg cracked and I screamed in pain. I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything. Lights were flashing too brightly for me to focus, the music was too loud for me to hear myself think, and I was experiencing waves of pain. As I became more desperate, I looked for help,” Where’s the exit!” I yell.

No one would meet my eyes. I was shoved away when I got close to anyone and people glared at me in disgust.

" Please! Somebody he -” I couldn’t finish my plea for help before another wave of pain consumed my body and I fell onto my knees. A muffled scream left my lips as I realized I would be stuck on the ground because my legs wouldn’t provide enough support for me to walk, I felt a cool breeze.

Outside.

I could hear my own sporadic pulse thumping wildly pushing blood desperately throughout my panicking body.

A door.

My uneven breathing was heavy and strained, the air felt thicker every time I went for another gulp of it.

A way out.

I hurriedly crawled in the direction of the cool air, and soon I was face to face with a metal door. Before the relief could set in, the pain did.

I sucked harshly as I stood up and turned the knob to open the door, only to fall forward again as my knees gave out.

I braced myself for the painful collision between my face and the cement, but I was no longer falling. Something was holding my shoulders up, and as I opened my eyes, I saw a man’s chest. I looked up, to see who it was that caught me, only to have my stomach drop as I realized that the person who caught me was the guy I was talking to earlier. My vision began to go dark as another wave of pain shook my body and all I could do was hope that it would all turn out alright.

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