“Drinksfirst?” Tessa bopped along as we pushed through the already crowded space. Thedistinct smell of pot wafted in from the balcony and I chuckled. All ofPortland was out tonight.
Icaught a glimpse of Valarie’s peroxide hair up in the VIP section and realizedshe’d slightly exaggerated how much of the club she had exclusive for tonight.Still, even though it was small, the elevated zone was a wicked area. She’dlove lording it over the rest of the people stuck down here on the main floor.If I pointed her out, I knew Tessa would want to head straight up there. So ofcourse I steered her in the opposite direction.
“Yep,”I said, “let’s hit the main bar.” I desperately needed something wet and preferablyninety percent alcohol.
Tessaimmediately put her skills into play and started shoving her way through thecrowd. She was small enough to fit into some questionable gaps, her blond curlssmacking into the people around her. I wasn’t huge myself, but at five feetseven I was half a head taller than my bestie. Which meant I couldn’t alwaysfollow her path. I lost sight of her for a second, but we caught up again atthe bar.
“Fourtequila shooters and two strawberry daiquiris,” she was saying as I sidled inbeside her.
Thetired, not-particularly-happy-to-be-alive female bartender scurried off to fillthe drinks.
“Fourshots?” I snickered. “Girl, we’re going to be hammered before we even leavethis damn bar.”
Iwasn’t a huge drinker. Mostly I liked a few glasses of wine with dinner. But generallyit was impossible to hit a club with Tessa and not leave shitfaced. Looked liketonight was going to be no exception.
“Idon’t know what you’re worried about,” Tessa said, grinning as she swayed tothe dance music. Her black dress was riding very high on her thigh, and morethan one group of dudes had noticed. “You could out-drink me every night of theweek and twice on Sunday.”
Right.I’dforgotten about my newfound super ability to down a bottle of wine and only geta light buzz. “Maybe tonight we should test this theory,” I said. I had toshout a little when the beat changed to something much heavier.
“Hellsto the yeah,” she shouted, before turning to stare along the long metal bench.“Hey, can you make that eight tequilas…”
Thirty minutes later,Tessa and I were still at the bar. I was currently in a drinking contest withtwo head-shaven, muscle-bound beefcakes who had been pretty sure they couldtake my hundred and twenty pounds.
Theywere wrong.
Shotglasses littered the bench in front of me and I could tell that the bar-chickwas hoping we’d move this shit along soon. Beefy #1 and #2 were glassy-eyed asthey tried to share the last of their bottle. They didn’t make it though,slumping down and passing out before they managed to finish.
“Iwin!” I shouted, swaying a little.
Tessagrabbed my arm. “Come on, babe. Time for us to go and find Valarie.”
Thenice pleasant fuzz in my head dissipated almost immediately. “Do we have to? Imight actually kill myself if I have to spend more than ten minutes in her company.”
Apparentlyall the booze had done was loosen my tongue.
“She’stexted me eight times,” Tessa said, almost falling off her heels as she triedto drag me away from the bar. “You’ve already drank a week’s worth of shots.Let’s go find our friends and dance.”
Ireluctantly let her lead me from the main floor. I knew if Tessa wasn’t sosloshed herself, she’d be questioning how I managed to finish an entire bottleof tequila and still walk and talk. I was sort of questioning it myself. Thealcohol couldn’t be weak or watered down, those guys had crashed out trying tofinish a bottle between the two of them.
Mymetabolism was on fire at the moment. Must be all the jogging.
“Tess!”Valarie was all over my best friend, completely ignoring me. I left the pair ofthem discussing whatever shit drunk chicks talked about, and wandered over tocrash onto one of the huge sofas. Tessa was used to me doing this. She’d findme soon and drag me out to dance.
AsI settled back, I liked that the shots had my mind all nice and mellow. I feltlike I could finally relax and not think about all the scars and shit thatlittered my life. Still, as the multitude of couples started to surround me, Icouldn’t fight the pangs of loneliness. I hadn’t had a relationship since thatnight, not even of the casual kind. I just couldn’t let my walls down longenough to trust, but I was starting to improve. I was out tonight, I wasdrinking. There had to be some healing going on.
Ishifted to slouch further into the couch. The VIP area wasn’t as packed as themain dance floor, so I had the entire thing to myself. Valarie couldn’t evenpay for enough friends to fill the space. I snagged two glasses of champagneoff a waiter as he strolled by, and settled back to enjoy my free bubbly.
Afterfinishing the first, I was sipping at the second when a tingly sensationtrickled up my spine. I lifted myself, legs straightening, leather bootsshining in the lights as I twisted myself to see the entire area. Tessa was onthe dance floor, grinding up against some tall blond guy with cool-nerdglasses. Valarie and the rest of her goons were close by, but none of them werepaying attention to me.
ButI could swear I was being watched. I tried to tamp down the paranoid feeling,knowing that it was probably just my overactive imagination. Still … thefeeling persisted.
Tessadistracted me then by hauling her butt off the dance floor and running – asfast as she could in her hooker heels – over to me, screaming the entire way.
“Shit,Charlie, you’ll never believe it.” Her eyes were wide and full of excitement.
Ipulled myself up, dropping the half-full glass of bubbles onto the table.
“What,”I said, laughing as she grabbed my arm and bounced agitatedly.
