ACQUAINTANCES

For five minutes, he kept his gaze at the musicians very much oblivious of his stare since it was very much impossible to see them within the dark side of the hall amidst the crowd, from where he sat down looking expectantly at them and was a bit lost in the music which kept pounding into his inner self through his ears. He felt like joining the crowd to dance to his heart content and get rid of the pain which he had nursing inside of him before he arrived at the club. A pain which had brought him nothing but anguish since the week started though he had yet to deal with a lot of things that had in fact caused the whole situation to be far worse than what he had anticipated.

Before he could bring himself back from being captivated by the frantic music like the rest of those that were already trapped in their own world of dancing wildly nonstop to the beats of the song which kept changing at regular intervals, he received a gentle tap from behind on his left scapula which startled him and woke him back to his former reality but he chose not to respond to the stimulus effect with the thought that it could be a messenger from Fred or someone ignorant enough to request for some drinks when the drinks are already resting on the tray beside him. He felt the tap once again, this time much harder than the first time and finally let go of his pride to answer to the persistent stranger whom he did not care to know though reluctantly rather than at once which would spoil his mood but a sudden flush of intense anger came into his mind when he turned back only to beheld someone's familiar face, grinning a contemptuous smile at him whilst tangling his right hand with that of a gorgeous woman having her hair neatly tied to a black ponytail and with an evermore fairer skin complexion than his that seems to be glittering in the dark.

Max eyes roamed with anger at the stranger's inner black T-shirt covered by a red coat and his stylish black pants which greatly outmatched the clothes of the varlet whose furious eyes wasn't deterred from blazing with anger by the tight fitted short blouse that revealed much of her thighs and her bulging hips.

"Hey, Max. How're u doing, huh?",

The fellow said smiling maliciously with his face even more brighter than Max's Visage that had turned sour the moment his eyes met the acquainted fellow.

"Not good, Jeremy!",

"I can see that. No wonder your outfit all wet",

Jeremy replied, touching Max's clothes with his left fingers in such a way that infuriated the varlet.

"Take your stinky hands off me!",

"Now, now,Max. Don't be feisty",

Jeremy replied withdrawing his hand away and tucked it into his left pockets with more enthusiasm and vigor that added more fury to the heart of Max.

"You really have the nerve showing up here after what you did",

"Oh, come on. For heaven sakes, whatever I did to you is all in the past now. Let bygones be bygones",

"Oh really?",

"Yep. Forget about all that happened between us and let's enjoy the party",

Max scoffed and smirked maliciously after Jeremy retorted, dramatizing his hands in the air as a gesture to frankly emphasize his point of view of what occurred between him and the varlet few years back when their friendship hadn't turned sour and was still quite strong even though Max at that time, was still struggling to make ends meet by doing any payable odd jobs that comes his way regardless of the implication of his actions whenever he engage himself in a kind of illicit work which he may deemed either morally or lawfully wrong and the tendency of him breaking the legal law in the city as a result of his undauntedness to improve on his standard of living.

Max shook his head further before giving out a response and sat himself comfortably on the couch as though he wanted to sprang on his old time friend whose club partner was already feeling a little bit weary and upset about waiting for a long time instead of joining the rest of the crowd to get some fun dancing frenzy steps in line with the beats already making her hips to shake slightly at where she stood beside the man in red suit and fawn air without the knowledge of Jeremy, her club partner for the night.

"You can forget the hell all about it but I can't. Not even a tiny detail of what took place few years ago would escape me because they are all in my mind and I can still remember them even in my sleep",

"Fine, Max. If you wanna still keep what happened in mind, go ahead. As for me, I don't care what you think of me now and I don't give a shit of what you feel about me",

Jeremy responded with an even more serious look than ever before but his hard stare failed to intimidate Max who was evermore prepared for a face off rather cowering in fear of being intimidated by the natty outfit Jeremy was wearing to adorn himself with.

"Says the guy who always breaks up with his girlfriends whenever he's feels scared of losing his ill-gotten money and whenever any little rat tries to snatched them away from him. And now, you have brought one of your side chick to the club and I wonder what you told her that made her fall for a good for nothing playboy like you",

Max rejoined with a spiteful tongue, actually baiting Jeremy to take a bold risk of him striking a punch fist which he had been eagerly waiting for his old friend to make the mistake so that he could let out his wrath upon the poor fellow whilst the lady wasn't bothered about being involved in their discussions and only felt a bit irritated at the two men for keeping her trapped away from being part of the fun that was occurring in right front of her very eyes for all she wanted was to shake her buttocks to the captivating beats that had already incited her to make a good performance at the crowded dance floor though most of the wild dancers would not give her attention at all once she stepped into the crowd but however, she did not feel bad about it and all she did care was to leave the two men before joining those dancing.

"Don't embarrass me in front of my new girl friend and it would definitely help you sleep better at night at your old trailer if you do yourself a great favor by putting the past behind you",

"You better keep your advice to yourself or else.....",

"Or else what? You gotta beat me up right here, huh?",

Jeremy questioned daringly in a futile effort to put up a bold affront against his opponent whom he definitely knew wasn't his match in terms of hand to hand combat but somehow his words suddenly got Max taken aback and got him tongue tied as well though there wasn't any sign of distress in his visage as he stared blankly at his adversary who seemed to have thought that he had gotten the better of him.

"Look here, Max. I ain't afraid of you or anyone else you might call to deal with me",

"You think so, Jeremy?",

"I know so and nobody can harm me unless I say so because they don't have the guts",

"That ain't true. It's you that doesn't have the guts to face me right here and now!",

Max suddenly flared up in rage and sprang up to his feet, so quickly that he startled the both of them, catching Jeremy off guard and vulnerable at that moment. Even Jeremy's girlfriend was shocked to marrow and took a step back, frightened with utter surprise at Max unexpected outburst when he stood up in a fit of rage which made her almost lost her balance since her high heels luckily kept her from falling flat on the ground that would have attracted attention if she really had missed a step and fallen without being held by Jeremy himself but it wasn't the case if not for her, taking hold of Jeremy's coat on his left shoulder in a stimulating effort to keep her feet and balance from shaking. As for Jeremy, he felt extremely frightened and insignificant at the same time, the moment he beheld Max standing right in front of him, ready to pounce on his guts which was already quivering with fear deep inside of him as he gave his old friend an horrifying fretful look and peered at him with such a profound astonishment that got fear written all over his appalled face since he was afraid of a one time kickboxer.

"Woah. Chill, dude. There's no....need for you to take my words... so seriously",

Jeremy stuttered, gesturing at Max with his hands to calm down for fear had already taken full control of him. Even Max could tell that his opponent was afraid since dread was written boldly on Jeremy's visage as he took two steps back, trying to get away from the varlet as possible without arousing any unwanted attention from the other guests who were already distracted with the unending music where both of them as well as other people present in the spacious hall struggle to find their voices amidst the heavy bears of the music resounding without any indication of stopping, when chattering with one another.

"Don't be a coward and face me",

"Now isn't really the.... best time to throw punches",

"I thought inside of you really had what it takes to fight me",

Max responded, savoring the fearful demeanor of his opponent whom he really in fact, never wanted to lay his fingers on but to threaten him a bit, at least, that would help ease the pain in his heart.

"Wait a minute, you want me to fight you? Right here? I can't do that when there's a party going on",

"Is it the party, Jeremy or is it that you are afraid to be a man and face me head on, huh?",

The furious varlet questioned not yet satisfied with putting Jeremy in his place.

"It's the party, of course. Besides, You won't really wanna regret picking up a fight with me, not while you are working as a mere varlet whose paycheck is nothing more than a piece of quarter and is merely below the bartenders in the party",

Max flew into an even more tempestuous rage when he heard what Jeremy told from his spiteful lips but he did not attack him at once and instead, drew a bit closer to him, frowning despite some of the guests in the club noticing their duel which had got them attracted ever since Max stood up from the couch whilst Jeremy's girlfriend stood behind her lover though she figured that she better leave to avoid being caught in the crossfire in the conflict between them.

"Your tongue has gotten a lot worse than before even after you stopped working for Ferguson Martinez",

"Face it, Max. I haven't changed much even when I used to work for that old fellow",

"Yeah, the same man you stole from",

"Why do you keep bringing up the past?",

"Because I haven't forgotten what you did to me after your theft and you didn't even apologize for your betrayal before you left for New Orleans",

"You sound as if both of us didn't plan to cheat our way to win that huge sum of money",

Jeremy said easing himself with a bit of courage to retort back to his opponent.

"Yes, I admit my involvement but then, you still stabbed me in the back when you left the city without saying any word and you returned back without being remorseful for your actions",

"Fine, if giving you an apology would really make you feel better and end this strife between us, then I'm sorry for ditching you. It really wasn't never my intention to get away from you without telling you the reason why I had to leave that man who owns the casino",

"It's too late for you to say sorry",

"Oh, come on, Max. Trust my sincerity and you already know that I have stopped working as one of Martinez goons a long time ago. I'm not the same guy you used to know",

Jeremy retorted trying to evade few of the watchful eyes of some of the guests gazing at them, eagerly waiting for a show to occur between the two dissimilar combatants and were whispering amongst themselves but Mac did not care about them regardless of the fact that he sensed the presence of other people looking at them.