magnolia, lafayette, louisiana
after the beat happening concert i felt bad dogging mr calvin to hang out with the young members of the opening band racoon hijinx. we went to a bar that was really big and had no one in it, black metal on the speakers so no one would come in. the drummer whose name was Merry bought me a beercan of pabs blue ribbon, and i know from television that if a man buys you a beercan this means you are now ‘bros’, but i barely got to speak to my new friend because he was talking to a girl who i assumed was his gf and she was very drunk and they had some angry words and merry left.
i was sitting by myself now and drinking the beer and she slid over to me and i only got to say a few words before she was mimicking my accent and twirling her hair and touching my arm, and then she also bought me another beercan, and yes i have seen tv, i think these actions means ‘flirtation’. but i felt very worried. i had to shout over the black metal 'where's merry?', and she said 'marry? oh my my my.. (she was southern) you don't even know my name' (magnolia) and before i could correct her she was already talking about dual citezenship and that i’d be handsome enough if i cut my hair and that she was in the process of breaking up with her current man, and i think in the moment i was very excited about the prospect of marriage to her, because it would give some direction to my life and also i liked that she was southern and her name was magnolia, and ten minutes later we had booked a hotel on my phone and were about to leave when merry entered the bar again and sat inbetween us, real brooding and silent. it was impossible to continue discussing the marriage and the honeymoon because of his terrible energy. i pretended to watch the nascar race on the bar tv and magnolia excused herself to the washroom. i was feeling bad, remembering the beercan he had bought me earlier and that i was about to commit the fundamental dog act of transgressing against a bro. i shook merry's hand, bought him a beercan and excused myself to the mens room. i knocked on the door and entered the ladies room. magnolia was still there, hiding. i asked her what we should do because i was feeling very nervous about this situation, i was hoping she'd take charge, but she said she didn't know, that i would have to confront him. but to my credit i did the right thing and took the noble path. i bought merry another beercan, shook his hand and left the premises.
it felt good to be out of there. i went to the hotel but figured it would be too sad to stay there on my own so i cancelled the room and slept in my car.