On any given Tuesday, you are destined to walk in and find a familiar face in every corner of this bar. You will not be so lucky on a random Friday at p. Save the scant collection of CC students keeping to themselves at a table in the corner, you will not recognize the faces of the weekend patrons. They hold Coronas and miss the cue ball. Given the amount of camouflage garments you see, you might think an entire group came here from a gun show or a hunting convention.
Then, one woman walks in wearing a long black dress with lace trim, spikey piercings on every surface of her face and full glam mime makeup: white powder, black face paint, drawn eyebrows and black lipstick. In the array of tables, there are groups of girls who I can only assume made the trek from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
One particular group of these girls catches my eye. They lean over the bar and call the bartender out by name. They probably come here every weekend. He is with two other guys. The boys are seated in a line, like ducks ready to be tapped into geese. Whereas these girls know the bartenders by heart and walk with a definitive purpose, the boys keep pulling their phones out horizontally which indicates some kind of iPhone game.
I looked away for approximately 30 seconds before turning my attention back to the girl to find that the boy had gotten out of his seat and walked down to the end of the bar to strike up a conversation. Duck, duck, duckβ¦goose! They must be talking for the first time. He turns just his head to the left to talk to her. Her laughs are awkward and forced. He keeps eyeing them, telling them with his mind to shut the fuck up and look away as Sparks notices his attention being pulled elsewhere.
In a split second, everything changes; a new boy appears with the confidence of a tornado. He places himself directly in between the two and looks at the girl expectantly. She folds instantly. There is that horrible moment when you are talking to a person, they are suddenly tapped on the shoulder by someone else and you are left to figure out if they will return to your conversation. This poor boy figured out a beat too late that Sparks was not coming back.
