Ash(5)

Tessa immediately put her skills into play and started shoving her way through the crowd. She was small enough to fit into some questionable gaps, her blond curls smacking into the people around her. I wasn’t huge myself, but at five feet seven I was half a head taller than my bestie. Which meant I couldn’t always follow her path. I lost sight of her for a second, but we caught up again at the bar.

“Four tequila shooters and two strawberry daiquiris,” she was saying as I sidled in beside her.

The tired, not-particularly-happy-to-be-alive female bartender scurried off to fill the drinks.

“Four shots?” I snickered. “Girl, we’re going to be hammered before we even leave this damn bar.”

I wasn’t a huge drinker. Mostly I liked a few glasses of wine with dinner. But generally it was impossible to hit a club with Tessa and not leave shitfaced. Looked like tonight was going to be no exception.

“I don’t know what you’re worried about,” Tessa said, grinning as she swayed to the dance music. Her black dress was riding very high on her thigh, and more than one group of dudes had noticed. “You could out-drink me every night of the week and twice on Sunday.”

Right. I’d forgotten about my newfound super ability to down a bottle of wine and only get a light buzz. “Maybe tonight we should test this theory,” I said. I had to shout a little when the beat changed to something much heavier.

“Hells to 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 with two head-shaven, muscle-bound beefcakes who had been pretty sure they could take my hundred and twenty pounds.

They were wrong.

Shot glasses littered the bench in front of me and I could tell that the bar-chick was hoping we’d move this shit along soon. Beefy #1 and #2 were glassy-eyed as they tried to share the last of their bottle. They didn’t make it though, slumping down and passing out before they managed to finish.

“I win!” I shouted, swaying a little.

Tessa grabbed my arm. “Come on, babe. Time for us to go and find Valarie.”

The nice pleasant fuzz in my head dissipated almost immediately. “Do we have to? I might actually kill myself if I have to spend more than ten minutes in her company.”

Apparently all the booze had done was loosen my tongue.

“She’s texted me eight times,” Tessa said, almost falling off her heels as she tried to drag me away from the bar. “You’ve already drank a week’s worth of shots. Let’s go find our friends and dance.”

I reluctantly let her lead me from the main floor. I knew if Tessa wasn’t so sloshed herself, she’d be questioning how I managed to finish an entire bottle of tequila and still walk and talk. I was sort of questioning it myself. The alcohol couldn’t be weak or watered down, those guys had crashed out trying to finish a bottle between the two of them.

My metabolism 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 of them discussing whatever shit drunk chicks talked about, and wandered over to crash onto one of the huge sofas. Tessa was used to me doing this. She’d find me soon and drag me out to dance.

As I settled back, I liked that the shots had my mind all nice and mellow. I felt like I could finally relax and not think about all the scars and shit that littered my life. Still, as the multitude of couples started to surround me, I couldn’t fight the pangs of loneliness. I hadn’t had a relationship since that night, not even of the casual kind. I just couldn’t let my walls down long enough to trust, but I was starting to improve. I was out tonight, I was drinking. There had to be some healing going on.

I shifted to slouch further into the couch. The VIP area wasn’t as packed as the main dance floor, so I had the entire thing to myself. Valarie couldn’t even pay for enough friends to fill the space. I snagged two glasses of champagne off a waiter as he strolled by, and settled back to enjoy my free bubbly.

After finishing the first, I was sipping at the second when a tingly sensation trickled up my spine. I lifted myself, legs straightening, leather boots shining in the lights as I twisted myself to see the entire area. Tessa was on the dance floor, grinding up against some tall blond guy with cool-nerd glasses. Valarie and the rest of her goons were close by, but none of them were paying attention to me.

But I could swear I was being watched. I tried to tamp down the paranoid feeling, knowing that it was probably just my overactive imagination. Still … the feeling persisted.