Jess Moss and I were alone on a Saturday night, last June. It was near 10 p.m. when we decided to leave the apartment. Jess was the type of person who enjoyed drinking, a lot, so he wanted to go to a bar. No bar in particular, just any bar where he could get a cheap beer or two.
In case you were wondering, Jess is a guy. �Then why is his name Jess?� you may ask? Well, his mom wanted a girl before he was born. She had the name picked out the first day she found out she was pregnant. His mother was convinced that she was having a girl. Jessica was the name she had chosen and that would be the name no matter who liked it. Jess� father didn�t like the name very much but he figured that if it made her happy, it made him happy. When Jess� mother had him, she was heart-broken. She wanted a girl so much and she had gotten used to the idea of calling her baby Jessica. She had even talked to Jess using the name �Jessica� for the whole nine months of her pregnancy. So Jess� dad suggested that she take the name and just shorten it to Jess. He said that no son of his would ever be called Jessica.
So anyway, I myself don�t like the bar scene. Most of the bars around here, where I live, are run down and dirty, plus the people also fit the same description. I wanted to go to a concert that was on the other side of town. I don�t even remember the name of the band that was playing there. Actually I�m not even sure if I ever knew the name of the band. I just needed an excuse not to go to a bar.
I remember fiddling with some loose change in my pocket. I felt a quarter in amongst the change in there. So I pulled it out and asked if he�d flip for it. Heads Jess wins, Tails I win. I put the coin on the end of my thumb and gave it a hard flick. The quarter flew high in the air, spinning quickly, as the light shimmered off the edges. It rose quickly and then floated in mid air, just for a moment, and then it began to fall. My arm quickly shot out and I grasped the coin in my hand. I kept my hand closed and told Jess that there would be no bitching if he lost. Jess agreed quickly as if he already knew that the coin was heads. I opened my hand slowly and peered down into my palm. Sure enough it was heads. I mumbled a curse at him under my breath, but he didn�t notice. He was much to busy counting the money he had in his wallet, trying to figure out how much beer he would be able to drink. He was an alcoholic in the making.
I sat in my beanbag chair and sulked at my loss of the bet. Jess was running around trying to get ready to go to the bar. He always liked to act like he dressed nice all of the time, just in case he met the, so called, �Woman of his Dreams�. I really doubt that he could find a �Woman� in any of the bars around here. I think the only girl he ever had was when he was eighteen. I think her name was Catherine or something like that. She had the most beautiful blue eyes, to compliment her golden hair. Her face, as smooth as silk and her body was that of a runway model. She had the class and style of a millionaire, but had the common decency to know that she was not. Catherine never spoke about anyone in a bad manor. She loved everyone and everything. She was probably one of the sweetest people I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Now as I look back on it, I wish She had of been my girlfriend. I would have treated her like a queen, at least compared to how Jess treated her. They were going out for about two years when she broke up with him. I am surprised that she stayed with him that long. She was a year younger than him putting her in grade eleven and him in grade twelve. He treated her good for the first year, or so. He used to always go to the card shop, which she worked at in the local mall, and bring her flowers, for no special reason. He always took her out for supper at nice restaurants, bought her anything she needed. He even used to walk three kilometres to her house in the middle of the night, climb up to her window, and wake her up just to tell her that he loved her.
During the second year of their relationship he became more uncaring toward her. He was going to college and she was still in grade twelve. He began to go to bars and parties with his new friends from college. As more and more weeks passed she saw less and less of him. He started to go to the bars more frequently and left Catherine home wondering why he didn�t call her or why he wasn�t around. It didn�t bother me much though because I got to spend more time with her, comforting her �In her time of need�. I think it was during the last four months of their relationship that Jess began to cheat on her. At first Jess was really careful about it, making sure no one saw him with any other girl, but his own. After a while he got careless, or he just didn�t care, one of the two. He danced and made out with any girl who would go with him, and when you looked like Jess, almost any girl would want to dance with him.
One day Catherine asked Jess to come to her house in the evening to watch a movie. Jess said that he had already made plans to go to a bar called �The Underground� with his college friends. She didn�t mind though, she was used to being blown off by him. Funny thing is Jess didn�t know that Catherine had recently purchased a fake I.D. and that she planed on surprising him by going to the bar. She figured that she�d get in the bar, walk up behind Jess and give him a big hug and kiss. It�s too bad that Catherine�s plan was far from what was going to happen.
Jess left for the bar with a couple of his friends, Alice and Stephen, I believe, who were going out at the time. They showed up at the bar at around 9:30p.m.and Catherine was already there. She was at the back of the bar amongst all the other people there. Jess and Catherine didn�t see each other at first. Jess went though his normal routine, drink about six beers and then start his hunt for women. He began flirting with a girl that he had seen around in college, but never really had the chance to talk to. She was about twenty-two, long dark hair, with deep brown eyes and just a touch of oriental in her face. They talked for a bit and got to know each other. A song came on that she liked so she asked him to dance. Jess was more than happy to get up with her, considering that was what he had planed to do since he had sat down next to her. They were on the floor when Catherine saw them through the crowd. At first she was going to go over and surprise him, but she figured that she might as well leave them dance because she trusted Jess and really didn�t think that anything serious would come of it. No sooner than she finished that thought, Jess began to kiss the girl he was dancing with. She stormed over to them and pushed the girl off of Jess. She stood face to face with him, crying her eyes out, demanding for him to explain himself. Jess, who by that time was loaded, just said �Hi.� to her and asked her if she would like to dance with him. Catherine punched him in the face and ran out of the bar. Jess was single once more.
Jess was coaxing me to get up out of my chair and stop my sooking. After all, no bitching was one of my rules. So I got up and looked around the place for my coat. I remember that it was surprisingly cool for a day in June. I put on my coat and reached in the pocket for my wallet. I wanted to see how much money I had. If I didn�t have too much I would just tell Jess that I couldn�t go because I didn�t have the money to spend. Unfortunately I had just gotten paid two days prior, so I had well over enough money to spend at a bar.
