Jaline needed a textbook.
It was the third day of her psychology 101 class, and she had yet to purchase the two-hundred dollar book that would lead her into the career she wished to pursue most. She checked her bank account (something she hadn't done for a while) and was astounded to find that she only had thirty dollars left, (and eighty-two cents if you would like the exact figure) and the disappointed college junior took that remaining money, and rushed to the nearest used textbook sign, to began the frantic search for the book that would allow her to complete the five page assignment that has been given to her the week before.
Approximately six hours later, she was still unsuccessful, she had found a number of the book she was searching for, but unfortunately each volume had previously used by people who had cracked the spine once, perhaps twice, and no more than that, because the prices of those fabulous editions were only a few dollars under the price of the original text. The few copies she had seem that were worn, or seemed well read, had terrible deformations, in the form of ripped pages, or scribbled notes along the margins that covered up vital portions of text. Besides, even those were priced well above her range, and after seeing one trashed volume for sixty dollars; she simply huffed and stomped out of the store.
The electronic beat from her cell phone was the only thing that halted her raging, if momentarily, because she stopped to answer it before snapping into the device. "What?"
The tinny voice on the other end (which she recognized as her roommates) let out a high-pitched giggle before speaking. "Oh, Jally dear, have you found your little book yet?"
"No!" Jaline looked at her phone incredulity for a moment, before inquiring. "Nandie, darling are you drunk?"
"Why yes my dear." The voice replied with another giggle. "As you should be, and get here darling, the night is almost through!"
Jaline sighed, and glanced at the sky, which had, much to her dismay, become quite dark in the few hours she had been inside. "Where are you Nani? I'll get dressed and be there in like 30."
"We're at Springs, duhhh, like the whole floor is here!" Jaline could hear the squeak of the plush leather chair Nandie was most likely sitting on, and let out a brief sigh.
"Okay darling I'll be there soon." She slapped her phone shut, and walked around the corner to the on campus apartment she shared with five other students to get dressed.
I'll spare you the gory details of a girl preparing to go to a club, and allow this story to resume itself where is should, at Springs. Springs is the best club on the tiny campus of Northwest University, and is widely known. No one is quite sure of the appeal. Perhaps it's the fact that the building it's in is rumored to be haunted, or perhaps it's because they keep the mojito's coming at you for two dollars a pop.
No matter the reason, Springs was the place of choice. The club was in a magnificent Victorian, and as Jaline walked up to it, teetering on dangerously high heels, she marveled at the buildings architectural beauty, as she had many times prior. In the thirty minutes she had allowed her self, she had transformed from dust-covered nerd, to glowing beauty. Her long dark hair was loose around her tan face, naturally curling inwards. She had on a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, and a dark purple wifebeater, which matched perfectly to the dark purple of her four inch heels. She had decided early on in her life, that dressing for a club was something she would never do with as much seriousness as some girls, and always picked up jeans when she would go to party. Partly because she despised skirts, and partly because she never felt the need to have a strangers hand slide up her bare leg while she was dancing with him or her. Which, was one of the first party experiences she ever had.
Needless to say when she strutted into the club, head held high, she was quite possibly the only person who wasn't in some state of undress, and was quite proud of that fact. The song playing was one familiar to her, and she instantly meandered over to the dance floor, not bothering to search for her roommates. She raised her arms slightly above her head, and began to move with the music, her hips weaving figure eights in the air. Within seconds the happy solidarity she had from dancing by herself in a crowd of people was gone, due to an overeager male who spotted her from across the dance floor and rushed to her side, or more aptly, her behind. She sighed slightly, before succumbing to his wishes, and grinding with him. For the majority of the time, she simply wondered why it was called grinding it was more like writhing. Yet she continued the dance for a few more songs, and finally pushed him away when she felt two things, his boner on the lower half of her back, and the feather light kisses he bestowed on the nape of her neck. She walked a safe distance away, before glancing back to see who she had been dancing with (for she never caught a glimpse of his face) and saw a handsome man, with grey-green eyes staring back at her. She offered him nothing, not a sly grin, or a nod of the head. She simply turned back around and went to the bar to get the drink she felt she desperately needed.
She was not surprised to find her friends crowding the bar, surrounding one man in particular. Although she had forgotten about Hajid's twenty-first birthday, no one else had. He had a bevy of drinking paraphernalia scattered around him, from a penis shaped shot glass, to a large bottle of Belvedere he now had everything a person could ever need in terms of alcohol. She snagged a mojito from Stephen, the bartender, and made her way over to the group of rowdy, drunken idiots she called her friends. She took a dainty sip from her glass, then sat on Hajid's lap, kissing him sloppily on the cheek.
"Haji! My darling, you forgot to remind me it was your birthday!" She cried with mock anger. "I shan't ever peak to you again!"
The boy let out a bark of laughter, and tossed his long hair out of his eyes with a flick of his head. "Oh no, my dear lady!" he crooned. "You must speak to me, of I shall die from the loss of your pleasant company."
They both laughed, and Jaline put down her mojito in order to keep one arm around Hajid, and grabbed a shot glass filled to the brim with vodka. "Shall we?" She said cockily,
"We shall." He replied raising his own shot, which was filled with something that looked suspiciously like absinthe. The duo clinked their glasses on the table before slamming the alcohol into their throats, and banging their glasses back on the table. They grinned at each other and Jaline felt the warm sensation that was alcohol in the pit of her stomach.
A few hours, shots, and mojito's later Jaline was drunk, and happily so. She had found Nandie, and the two girls spent the majority of the night making drunken jokes to each other and giggling with each movement that resulted in the annoying squeak the plush leather chairs would make. Easily bored, they had moved to the dance floor and were laughing as they danced together, being jokingly sexual, and were soon caught in a sandwich. By a sandwich I mean, the two girls were between two boys, who had, much like before, spotted the girls from across the room and joined in on the dance. The girls, however no longer cared, and danced on, ignoring their partners. If only to prove their drunken state they would occasionally lift a heeled foot and place it down directly on the toes, or in Nandie's case, the center of the foot, of the boy that danced with them. However these tactics were ones the two had been practicing for years, and as the "accidental" foot stepping got worse, the boys began to back off.
Catching Hajid's eye from across the room, Jaline grinned, and waved him over. He made the drunken stumble with much effort, then asked why he had been summoned. Nandie and Jaline grinned at each other before saying.
"Now you get your birthday present from us!" Jaline grabbed one arm, while Nandie procured the other, and the girls dragged him out of the club.
They were a strange sight for those who saw them rushing from the club. A diminutive girl with short pink hair in a small blue dress, a tall graceful Latin beauty with curling locks cascading down her back, in a relatively conservative outfit, and a handsome Arab man, with hair that looked seconds away from brushing his shoulders. A closer look at the trio would have confirmed the gleefully wicked grin's of the two girls, and a hopelessly confused look from the man being pulled along behind them. No one looked that closely.
They had just barely reached the apartment, when a black stretch limo pulled up in front of the trio. The door opened, and the girls expecting just that pushed the boy into the car and slammed the door behind him. They heard the definitive click of the car door's locks and grinned at Hajid as his terrified face appeared in the window. They waved as the car speed off, and each did their own little dance of victory.