Billy Mann scanned books into the system while his mind
drifted off into outer space. “The second chance college prom,” he thought to
himself. “If you couldn’t get it right the first time, you won’t get it right
the second time.” He repeated this mantra over and over in his mind while
paying minimal attention to the students checking out books at the counter.
Loud conversations rarely carried on in quaint libraries like this one.
The loud snapping of fingers, however, was enough to jolt
Billy awake like a fire underneath his ass. He adjusted his thick rimmed
glasses and saw the image of a lovely Mexican student in front of him, donning
a black dress with floral designs and flipping her raven black hair around with
a ruby red smile on her face. “Wakey, wakey! Eggs and bacey! Rise and shine!
It’s breakfast time!” she giggled.
“Sorry about that, ma’am. Here, let me scan that book for
you,” said Billy while fluffing his black hair and adjusting his checkered wool
vest. “Can I have your name, please?”
“Man, you really are out of it today, aren’t you? What are
you doing, thinking about your girlfriend?” said the lady with her elbows on
the counter and her face in her manicured hands.
Billy just now realized the student’s library card was
tucked in the pages like a bookmark. He shook himself awake yet again before
reading the name on the card, which was Mia Rodriguez. “My apologies, Miss
Rodriguez,” said Billy while scanning her items.
“You don’t have to say you’re sorry. I’d be out of it too if
all I could think about was the second chance prom,” Mia grinned, flashing her
pearly white dentistry.
The librarian’s face flashed a neon shade of red at that
revelation. He’d been talking out loud this whole time? Were the other students
just trying to avoid him? Is that why they didn’t speak up sooner? Billy felt
like crawling under the desk and sucking his thumb into a deep sleep. His
testicles seemed to shrink to the size of Tic-Tacs.
Speaking of which, a tiny winter mint capsule would have
been nice at that point. He breathed into his hand and scrunched his face in
disgust at what he smelled. That breakfast burrito hung around like a home
invader. Or even more appropriate, a flirtatious Mexican lady who just wanted a
fucking library book.
“If you wanted a breath mint, I could have given you one.
I’ve got a million of them in my purse,” said Mia as she rifled through her
belongings.
“No, no, that’s okay. I’m just, uh…” Billy could only
complete his sentence with a deep sigh, as if the tunnel of air would relax his
rapidly beating heart and his ice cold neurons.
“Look, if you’re that hung up on the second chance prom, just
take one of these,” said Mia as she handed him a business card with her name
and phone number on it. The redness in Billy’s face was a perfect match for Mia
Rodriguez’s cherry-colored lips. “You don’t have to be shy around me. Just give
me a call if you change your mind about the prom. Buenos tardes…Billy Mann! How
could I not like a guy with Mann in his name?”
“Wait a minute, how did you know my name?” asked Billy. He
looked down at his vest and at that moment noticed he wore a nametag this whole
time. Mia giggled and waved goodbye at him before strutting away with her book.
Billy hung his head in shame, wishing deep down that he could hang his head
with an extension cord. He tucked his lips inward and bit down on them before
tossing Mia’s business card in the dustbin behind him. He breathed out another
sigh in a futile effort to calm his nerves.
“What do you think you’re doing?” asked a black feminine
voice behind him. Billy mouthed, “Oh no” to himself and then turned around to
see his coworker Dottie Jackson
fishing Mia’s business card out of the garbage bin. With a hand on her purple
dress-wearing hip and an incredulous pout in her lips, she said, “You’re really
going to let this chick slip through your fingers, babe? I don’t think so. You
need to get out every once and a while and you literally had that opportunity
handed to you on a silver platter.”
“Yeah, like I’m going to trust her with my heart that
fucking easily. Give me a break,” said Billy with his arms folded and his
weight leaning against the counter.
“If you can’t trust her, who can you trust?” asked Dottie.
“All your high school crushes are long gone, my friend. Sure, you could look them
up on Face Book, but you ain’t bringing them all the way over here for a stupid
dance. That chick was into you, buddy. Seriously, how often does that happen
anymore?”
“So I’m just supposed to say yes to any chick who flirts
with me? For all I know, this could be some kind of joke. I’ve had girls in
high school joke around like this all the time. I know a faker when I see one,”
said Billy.
“This ain’t high school anymore, Billy-Boy,” said Dottie as
she tucked Mia’s business card in his vest pocket. “This is college. She’s in
her twenties, just like you and me. You really think she would go up to just
anybody and waste their time like that? She’s too old for that shit. You’ve got
something that others don’t.”
Billy laughed sarcastically and waved Dottie’s talking
points off with his hand. “Please, Dottie, I’ve got absolutely nothing. I’m a
super nerd who works at a college library. It doesn’t get anymore uncool than
that.”
“Uncool? Really?” asked Dottie with raised eyebrows. “Yeah,
you really are stuck in high school if you’re talking like that, honey. You’ve
got a lot of growing up to do, my friend. If you don’t want to date her, that’s
fine. Just don’t yammer on about the second prom out loud to the customers.
You’re scaring them off like a bus stop psychopath.” Dottie walked away and
left Billy to contemplate her arguments.
The librarian tucked his face in his hand and shook his
head. The embarrassment was killing him like snake poison flowing through his
veins. Any more of this psycho babble and he was out of a job. What if this Mia
Rodriguez really was the last opportunity for him? Was it that easy this entire
time? His mind blazed through a whole rolodex of girls he could have asked on
dates when he was in high school. The cheerleaders, the geeks, the sweethearts,
each and every one of them had fallen away from his grasp. The images of them
flipping their hair and pursing their lips forced a single tear to build up in
his eye.
“Excuse me! Hey! Hello!” shouted an impatient customer,
which snapped Billy out of his trance and put him in apologetic mode once
again. That was the difference between Mia Rodriguez and everybody else who
checked out books here: harshness wouldn’t even cross her mind. Even if she was
being disingenuous, it was better than the grating voice of a three hundred
pound frat boy staring down at him like a bear waiting for his next meal.
Nightfall descended upon the college town and Billy’s shift
was thankfully over. Somehow, the thoughts of Mia flirting with him so openly
got him through a tough work day. He actually smiled and chuckled as he exited
the building. How long as it been since even a hint of happiness crossed his
face? He had to stop by the florist and pick up a bouquet of roses. He had to
stop by her apartment. It really was his last chance and damn it, he wasn’t
going to let it pass him by! He picked up the pace in the parking lot and
hurried to his respective destinations.
The dashboard clock read 7:30 and Billy drove over to Mia’s
apartment in record time. He wondered about the shoddy conditions of the
building. The wood splintered and the paint peeled. Plus, there was a neon
green swear word spray painted on the walls. Maybe Mia secretly needed a
gentleman like Billy to take her away from this horrifying place. Whoever said
romance novels weren’t real had never felt the beautiful rhythm in Billy’s
heart before. With flowers in hand, he exited his Prius and ascended the stairs
to her apartment.
He knocked on the door and Mia told him to come in. The
interior of the apartment looked much lovelier than the exterior, or it could
have been the angelic glow of lava lamps placed every which way. Or maybe it
could have been Mia’s wide smile that could have brought the toughest men to
their knees. “You brought flowers! Don’t just stand out there! Come on in,
sugar-booger!”
The two would-be dates for the second chance prom met in the
center of the room and hugged tightly, Mia’s high heeled feet lifting off the
ground. She kissed his forehead and said, “See? I knew you wouldn’t be in that
trance forever!”
Except Billy was in a trance now. He couldn’t take his eyes
off of Mia’s brown beauties. This is what second chances looked like. This is
what happy endings felt like. This is what…gang initiations looked like? His
lustful trance morphed into a frown of fear when Billy found himself surrounded
by Mexican gangsters in basketball jerseys with tattoos running up and down
their arms. “Mia…I trusted you…” he whispered with quivering lips.
“I know you did, honey,” said Mia with fake sympathy. “But
if you came here looking to lose your virginity, you can still do that. Isn’t
that right, boys?”
The gangsters all unzipped their jean flies and chuckled
evilly at Billy while one of them closed the front door and bolted it shut. Mia
backed away and Billy could feel tears welling up in his eyes. He kept mouthing
the word, “Why?” without having a powerful enough voice to speak it.
One of the gangsters said, “That’s right, buddy, you keep
moving those lips. You’re going to need them! Open wide, sweetheart! It’s
initiation time, bitch!” The gang bangers circled around Billy and wrestled him
to the ground, already proving that broken hearts and loneliness were better
than broken bodies and mind-numbing trauma. He screamed like Mia would have done
in a similar situation, but she just laughed it off while the gangsters had
their way with Billy.
By the end of this night, a group of thugs would earn their
stripes and a victimized librarian would lose his mind, his soul, and his
cherry all in one night. Tears flowed more violently than the blood in his
mouth and asshole. If something was too good to be true, it probably was. Billy
had lied to himself this whole time and that was a more vicious lie than
anything Mia could have spun up.
