A Girl's Night Out

Shelly and Jessica go to a club.

We managed to get down the stairs without anyone getting hurt, and Jessica was dragging me to the front door. She turned to her father and called out, “We’re going out for awhile.”

“If you leave, I don’t want you coming back,” he called back at her, rather foully I might add. Guess he was still in a bad mood from earlier. Man, did the guy know how to keep a grudge or what?

“If I don’t come back, who’s going to make your dinner when mom can’t get around to it. We’ll be back later. Don’t wait up for us.” With that, she had me out the door and down the walk without even a second glance back at the house.

We made it out to my truck, and I turned to her before even thinking of starting it up. “Was he serious? Does he really not want you coming back if you leave?” If my father had told me something like that, I would have known I was in deep trouble, and wouldn’t have even thought about disobeying him after that, not that my father had ever told me such a terrible thing before in my entire life. The worse punishment I had ever suffered was a week of being grounded from just about everything I enjoyed for drying some rocks in the dryer when I had been seven. I had been trying to see if they would turn into anything neat, like some of those rock polishers they had at the store back when I was a kid. All it had done was left a bunch of dents in the dryer.

Jessica laughed, and shook her head. “Nay, he says that all the time, and he’s never complained when I come home, no matter how late it is when I get in. I don’t even think he remembers what he says two minutes after its out of his mouth. He’s so drunk half the time I’m surprised he remembers to get up out of that chair to take a piss. Ready to go?”

Considering the content of most of the conversation we had had since leaving the house, I was quite willing to listen to any plans she had for the rest of the evening that didn‘t involve her father‘s bodily functions. “Sure. Where are we going?”

Her eyes lit up brighter than a kid‘s in a candy shop as she started to say, “I know this great club over in the next town. They have the best drinks and the music is to die for. There’s this grand dance floor, and these wicked strobe lights that light up the room in these sweet colors; blues, greens, pinks. It’s a blast.”

I could only stare at her a few moments, my mind trying to assimilate what she had just told me. “You want us to go to a club?” I asked in disbelief.

“Sure, why not?” she asked as if it was the most natural thing in the world to be doing at our age.

“Well, we are under age,” I stated, feeling silly that I even had to remind her about that.

She waved it off with a graceful flip of her hand. “Don’t worry about it. The bouncer checks your id and stamps your hand if your underage so the bartender knows that he can’t give you any alcohol. Kids our age go there all the time. There’s a few schools real close to the place, and lots of the students go there after classes on Friday. We’ll fit right in. Come on, it’ll be fun. What do you say?”

I looked down at the steering wheel, and chewed on my lower lip a bit, not the best of habits, but one I have had a lot of trouble getting myself to give up. It was one of those things that just stick with you, and I knew it wasn’t doing wonders for my lips, but I just couldn‘t help it. Going to a club, an actual club with dancing and drinking. I had never been to a club before, never even got close to one. I didn’t think our little town actually had a club, and if it did, it was little known to most of us who lived there. It was sort of a scary thought. What actually went on in one of those places? I kind of figured there was a lot of drinking and dancing that would be going on, but would there be anything else. It would just be the two of us, and no one knew where we were going. I sort of doubted Jessica had mentioned a word of where we were going tonight to any member of her family before we left, and so there would be no one to get us out of a jam if we got into one. My family sure didn’t know where we would be, and I had no intention of calling my parents up to ask if it would be alright to go to a club. Mom would go into hysterics, and dad would have a fit…mainly because they wouldn’t have wanted it getting around what a little party animal their daughter was, but I still didn’t want to get into any trouble with them right now.

Looking over at Jessica, I was about to say that I thought this might be a bad idea. She had taken on this hurt, puppy dog look that proved to be just impossible to deny. Besides, I was sort of worried that she might think me a coward for backing out of the idea now. I did have my pride, and it was just a club. It wasn’t like we were going into the home of a drug lord or anything like that. What was the worse that could happen? We’d go out, have a bit of harmless fun, and come home with no one the wiser. Well, that sounded nice, anyway. Shrugging my shoulders and sighing, I finally said, “Sure, let’s do this before I do change my mind.”

Jessica squealed with glee, and I started up the engine.

It didn’t take us all that long to get to the next town over. It was actually next to impossible to tell where one town ended and the next began because the street leading from one to the other was so clogged with businesses that there wasn’t a single break between the two. Once we entered the town, I turned to Jessica and asked, “Okay, where to now. I don’t get out this way very often, and really have no idea how this place is even set up.”

“Don’t worry about it, just follow my directions, and we’ll be just fine.”

Following her directions did not actually make me feel any better, since they lead us into a rather seedy part of town, a part of town I hadn‘t even imaged the place having before now. And here I thought we lived in a nice, quiet community where such things didn‘t exist. Boy, was I wrong. There were a number of buildings towering about four or five stories above our heads, and all of them looked ancient and abandoned. Homeless people could be seen moving about in the windows of a number of these places, and I was starting to get a bit nervous, hoping we weren’t going to be the victims of a mugging, or witnesses of the aforementioned crime. I was seriously thinking of telling Jessica that I had sort of lost my interest in dancing at a strange place when she cried out, “There it is. Turn there.”

There was a short building almost hidden between two larger, taller warehouses. It was still an older looking building, but at least it looked as if it were being kept in good shape. Neon lights flashed along the front of the building, announcing that it was ‘The Prancing Stallion’. There was a decent line in front of the place that lead around the side of the building, and for all I knew, it went around the back of the building as well. I could see that they had not started going around the other side of the building…yet.

“You sure we can get in?” I had to ask her. “It looks like this is going to take forever just waiting in line.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. The line moves faster than you think. We’ll be in in no time,” She assured me.

“Where do we park?” I asked, looking about for a place to park, but wasn’t seeing any. The entire block seemed to be loaded down with cars, and I had a feeling that most of them belonged to people who were either in the club or waiting just outside it to get in.

“Just drive around for a bit. You’ll find a spot soon.”

Well, we drove about for nearly five minutes, both of us looking intently for a place to park the truck when one of the cars near the club pulled out. We were fortunate enough to be close enough to the spot to get it. We were parked and standing near the back of the building in no time. It took only a few minutes before we were blocked in on both sides. A husky looking giant of a man stood in front of us, and a couple of giggly girls stood behind us, wondering what sort of date they could get here tonight. I wasn’t really worried about that myself. My main concern was getting in and getting out of the place intact. I was starting to think this had been a terrible idea, and was cursing myself for even agreeing with it.

Jessica had been right about one thing, the wait wasn’t half as long as I had feared it would be. We waited only fifteen minutes before it came our turned to greet the bouncer.

We were stopped from going right into the place by a guy that weighed at least 250 pounds, and I doubted that a single gram of it was fat in any way, shape or form. His bald head gleamed in the neon lights. Every part of him that was not covered in black leather was covered in black tattoos. Gold chains, lots of them, hung around his neck and gold bracelets encircled his bulky arms. Before we could even say a word, or even think of pulling out our licenses, he was reaching into his back pocket, and pulling out a stamp and an ink pad. “First time?” he asked, as he pushed the stamp into the pink ink.

Jessica shook her head. “I’m showing my friend around.”

He stamped first Jessica’s hand, and then my own. “Well, you two be careful in there. You never know what sort of wolves are prowling around in there, looking for an innocent victim. Me, I wouldn’t let my daughter into this place if they paid me, but hey, who am I to tell anyone how to spend there free time. Need anything, or if anyone starts to bother you two girls, just ask for me. Names Branson.” He held out his hand, and I couldn’t help but shake it. Even with all the strange body art, he seemed like a really nice guy. I just hoped the rest of the night would prove to be filled with equally nice people, but I sort of doubted that, knowing I was asking for way too much there.

We went on in, and was immediately bombarded with some of the loudest techno music I had ever heard in my life. It took all my will power to keep from clapping my hands over my ears to protect them from the deafening sounds coming from the speaker system. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of sweaty human bodies were pressing against each other, gyrating in sickening fashions against each other. I wasn’t sure if this was because they wanted to be pressed against each other in such an obscene way, or if there just wasn’t enough room for anyone to be dancing any other way. There were mostly younger people around us, collage students and such, just out for a night on the town. These were dressed anywhere from s****y to eerie goth. Strobe lights of all different hues reflected off black leather, pink hair, spiked hair, red dresses and a number of other variety of clothing and hair styles that would have sent my mother, and anyone from her generation, into shock.

“Come on, let’s have some fun,” Jessica all but screamed in my ear to be heard over the music. She took hold of my hand, and I was dragged into the mass of gyrating bodies. The only thing that saved me from being pulled into the eddy of twisting forms was my tenacious hold on Jessica’s wrist as she pulled me towards the bar on the opposite side of the dance floor. I did not want to get separated from her for anything, fearful that I might never find my way out of this place again. It wasn’t that large, but with all the people in it, it might as well have been as large as an office building in New York.

“Sprite,” she said, breathlessly once we had reach the other side of the dance floor and were standing before the bartender who was cleaning a glass. He was older than most of the patrons in the place, but he wasn’t exactly an old man. He had dark hair with frosted, blond ends, a blonde goatee, and just a few less tattoos than our friend the bouncer did. “With a bit of orange, and the same for my friend.” As the guy went off to fill our order, Jessica turned to me, grinning. “Wait until you taste this. This place has the best drinks in the world.”

“Here you are, ladies,” he said as he deposited two glasses filled with a bubbly, orange liquid before us. He gave me a wink, his emerald green eyes sparkling in the light of the strobes, before moving off to serve another customer, a giggly girl who was desperate for his attention. I took a tentative sip of the drink, and was surprised at how good it tasted. I was sure there was Sprite and a good portion of actually orange juice in it, not Sunny D, what I usually added to my drinks to spice them up when I was bored of them. It actually tasted a lot better than I had expected, and I was definitely enjoying it. I could even feel the pulp of the orange juice as it slid over my tongue.

Turning towards the crowd, both Jessica and I started surveying the group of people around us. It was still hard to pick out very many, individual bodies, even this close to the scene, but I was able to spot one or two guys that didn’t look all that bad. The way one had to dance in this place, though, it was sort of hard to tell if they were already taken or not, they were so close to several other people, some guys, some girls.

“Want to dance?” Jessica called into my ear.

“With who?” I asked. “It looks like everyone is taken.”

She shook her head, and lead me out onto the floor were she started twisting and grinding with the best of them. Caught up in the moment, I just sort of followed her lead, not wanting to look like a complete and total fool out here. Jessica was a real pro at this sort of dancing, and I almost felt jealous that she could move the way she did. It was like watching a professional dancer, the way she moved to the beat of the music, not having the slightest bit of trouble keeping a rhythm.

I, on the other hand, am a terrible dancer, and could only hope that my proximity to someone who could dance as well as Jessica could was keeping everyone’s eyes off me. I was just sort of wiggling, much like a worm, trying to mimic the movements of everyone around me, and doing a terrible job of it. You would think anyone could master a dance that had no set moves to it, but even something this simple was easy for me to screw up. Well, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about any of those wolves coming after me. The way I was moving, I was probably running any potential predators away to a safer place.

I nodded my head as a guy came up behind Jessica to let her know that she had caught someone’s attention with all her twisting. He was tall, tanned and had dark hair, a lot of dark hair. I would have been tempted to tell him to try shaving from time to time, but hey, that’s just me. Overly hairy guys had never been my thing, but maybe Jessica liked her men with a bit of a beard. Well, this guy looked like the wolf man, but maybe that was her thing, too. He had dark, grey eyes and lips that just wouldn’t quit. He was dressed in a causal shirt and khaki pants, looking very much like a collage student. He was probably just about the right age, too.

“Hey, what’s your sign?” I could barely hear him ask over the cacophony of the music.

“A big red, octagon shaped one,” she called back before turning back towards me. She kept on dancing as if the guy were no longer there, or as if he had never been there in the first place.

I could tell by the not-so-happy look on the guy’s face that he didn’t really like that answer. “Hey, I’m talking to you,” he called over the music in a rather perturbed voice.

“That’s strange, because I’m not talking to you,” she called back, not even turning around to look at him. She was giving him the cold shoulder, big time. I had to admire how good she was at it, too.

The guy’s look became even more sour, and I was starting to wonder why he just couldn’t take a hint and leave us alone. He should have known by now that he wasn’t getting anything from here, and there were tons of other girls on the dance floor, some of them moving just as good as Jessica was. “Hey, that’s not very nice of you. You could give me a bit of attention instead of dancing with that s**t.”

Jessica rounded on him, and poked him in the chest, hard. “Hey, don’t you ever say that about my friend again.”

“Or what?” he sneered in her face.

I hadn’t expected the blow until her fist had landed with his face. Considering how fast he went down, he hadn’t been expecting it either. A crowd suddenly formed around us, and every girl present was clapping and cheering Jessica on. Apparently, this guy was not well liked around here.

The guy glared up at her from where he had landed on the floor, knuckling away a bit of blood that was trickling down from the corner of his mouth. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he snarled.

“And you should learn to take no for an answer.”

A moment later, the bouncer appeared by our side. I was surprised to see how quickly he had gotten from the door to where we were on the other side of the room. He was good, real good. “Having trouble here?” he asked, glaring down at the guy.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Jessica assured him.

Branson picked the guy up off the floor by his arm, and took a good hold of his elbow. How tightly he was holding onto the guy, I was shocked I didn’t hear any bones breaking. Perhaps it was due to how loud the music was playing. “I thought I told you that if you caused any more trouble here, I would kick you out permanently,” Branson, more or less, sneered in the guy’s face.

“Hey, I wasn’t the one causing the problem. She hit me.”

“From what I’ve seen of you, you probably deserved it. Come on.”

He lead the guy out of the club, and I couldn’t have been happier to see anyone leaving. Jessica and I went back to the bar to get another drink. Once we had gotten our refreshments, I leaned in close to her, and said, “That probably wasn’t a good idea.”

She shrugged her shoulders in a nonchalant way. “You heard the bouncer. The jerk deserved it.”

“Yeah, we just better hope he’s not waiting outside for us to come out. He did look pretty pissed off at you.” Which was just what I feared would happen. Considering how he had acted in here, I had no doubt that he was the type of guy who could hold onto a grudge like it was his best friend, and a guy like that could be dangerous. Real dangerous. I sort of wish Jessica could see that, or that she showed a little more concern about it.

Jessica just waved it away as if it were nothing to her. “Don’t worry so much. We’ll never see that guy again.”

I just hoped she was right. We spent a little more time there, dancing and drinking and carrying on, letting the incident with the guy slip from our minds as the night went on. I didn’t even give him a second thought until Jessica decided it was probably time to get going. I was tempted to ask the bouncer if he wouldn’t mind escorting us to the truck, but decided I didn’t want to seem like that much of a pansy. Besides, we were parked almost right in front of the place, so hopefully if anything happened, someone would see it and come running to our aid.

We went out of the club, and I couldn’t help but trying to look in every direction at once, wanting to make sure the guy wasn’t sneaking up on us with some sort of blunt instrument. It was now pretty late, and the street lights only afforded so much light, especially since a handful of them had been broken out at some point in time, and someone had neglected to replace the bulbs.

We managed to make it to the truck without any trouble, and I was out of there as fast as it was legally possible to go.

I didn’t think I would ever go club hopping with Jessica ever again, not as long as I lived.

Author's Note

First Draft