Chapter 36

You don't care about her but as soon as a guy approaches her you see it blurry, you go crazy.

The music plays and little by little the track fills up.

The women who criticized me a few minutes before are now dancing to the rhythm of my eighties music, light years away from the classical symphony that was playing before I arrived.

The two girls my age dance with me and I don't even need to know their first name to laugh with them. that. Deep inside me I feel the need to send everything flying and send everyone flying.

I'm tired, tired of my life and my surroundings. I want to be more than just Elisabeth Rosefield, the lovesick little teenager who grew up in her sister's shadow. be happy and just enjoy.

While Wonderwall's Oasis ends to give way to Summertime sadness, the couples form to dance on this slow with such deep lyrics.

- Are you free for a dance? A young man with a tanned complexion calls out to me.

I barely had time to smile at him when Vladimir had already crossed the enormous distance that separated us.

- She's going to dance with me, he said in a deep and authoritative voice.

I wanted to protest when suddenly he pulled me against his muscular chest and closed his protective arms around my waist. Instinctively, I wrapped my icy hands around his warm neck. Despite this automatism, I cursed myself for having given in so easily.

Kiss me hard before you go

summertime sadness

I just wanted you to know

That baby you're the best

Kiss me tenderly before you leave

summer melancholy

I wanted you to know

That, baby, you're the best

- Relax Elisabeth, he whispers in my ear making me shudder.

Got my red dress on tonight

Dancing in the dark in the pale moonlight

Done my hair up real big beauty queen style

High heels off, I'm feeling alive

The red dress I'm wearing tonight

Dancing in the dark moonlight

Hair in buns like a beauty queen

Without my high heels, I live

- Trust me, he whispers seeing that I remained stiff as dead.

I laid my head against his well-defined pecs under his white shirt. I took a deep breath before inhaling his aphrodisiac scent.

Drugged by this soothing scent, I let my mind wander to the melody and began to find meaning in these poignant words.

Oh, my God, I feel it in the air

Telephone wires above are sizzlin' like a snare

Honey I'm on fire I feel it everywhere

Nothing scares me anymore

Oh my God, I feel it in the air

Telephone cables in the air sizzle like a bug trap

Baby I'm burning with desire, I feel it everywhere

I felt the ice around my heart melt momentarily, bringing back painful memories that I tried somehow to ignore.

I relive silent films of my mother yelling at me, of my sister lying on my bed telling me about her day, moments of intense sadness alone at night crying in my room.

And, in the deafening noise of my thoughts, I thought of him.

To Vladimir.

To this body of Apollo, the carnal envelope of a tyrant, to all the violence he showed towards me and to the way he treated the people around him.

Then, like a mirage of peace in this love of criticism, I remembered that look in which I thought I had read the shadow of a soul.

As if he sensed that I was suffocating, drowning in my thoughts, he hugged me a little tighter before placing a kiss on my forehead.

At his touch I feel my spine quiver with pleasure.

I feel him gently stroking my pelvis, holding me firmly against him while dancing.

- I left you alone for an hour and you still manage to get noticed, he whispers to me. What am I going to do with you?

His deep and authoritative voice awoke something in me that began to ignite, letting me believe that I was going to die burned.

Unexpectedly, he pinched my right love handle.

- Ouch, I emitted as his.

- I hate it when people don't answer me Elisabeth, he reprimands me as if I were five years old.

Kiss me hard before you go

summertime sadness

I just wanted you to know

That baby you're the best

Kiss me hard before you go

summer melancholy

I wanted you to know

That, baby, you're the best

- You are not my father

- Wrong answer, he whispers before biting the sensitive skin below my ear.

I'm feelin' electric tonight

Cruising down the coast goin' 'bout 99

Got my bad baby by my heavenly side

I know that if I go, I'll die happy tonight

I'm electric tonight

Spinning along the coast at 160

He's by my side, my wonderful bad boy

I know if I were to leave, I'd die happy tonight

Faced with this primitive violence, strangely, I was only more attracted. This man was definitely a great player and knew how to handle his cards perfectly.

Yet I decided not to be one of his personalityless rag dolls who let themselves be used without the slightest resistance.

So, on a whim, I freed myself from his embrace and turned away from him.