"Hey Nicole, we're going to check out that new karaoke bar?"
Lieutenant Nicole Galassini looked up from her copy of Pride & Prejudice at her roommate, Leanne. Ever since she had been PCSed to Fort Drum six months ago, Leanne had been trying to get her out of the apartment and to socialize with some of the others in their platoon. Nicole and Leanne, both 2nd Lieutenants, had hit it off as soon as Nicole had moved to Fort Drum even to the point that they had become fast friends and roommates. Other than the fact that Leanne was much more extroverted than Nicole would ever be, "Um, does it really have to be tonight?" asked Nicole.
"Come on Nicole it's a Friday night, and Friday night means party night!" said Leanne excitedly.
"You're not going to let me back out of this are you?" asked Nicole.
"Just this once, please Nicole," begged Leanne.
"Fine," huffed Nicole, "Just let me go change."
"Yeah," cheered Leanne running to grab her purse, "I'll let the rest of the platoon know!"
"Wait the rest of the platoon?" asked Nicole turning around to face Leanne.
"Yeah you, me, Jackson, and Rachel," said Leanne.
Nicole rolled her eyes playfully but went upstairs to change anyway. She found a black dress that her mother had bought her for her birthday a few years ago. She honestly had never worn the dress before tonight. She rarely went out on dates or went out to clubs and bars. She was much more of the "Stay home, watch Netflix, and read" kind of person. She heard Leanne knock on her door and say, "Nicole, you ready to go?"
Nicole opened the door to let Leanne into the room and she said, "No, but you won't let me back out of this night."
"Seriously, you're not even going to bother to put on makeup?" asked Leanne.
"Why would I?" asked Nicole curiously. Leanne knew she hated wearing makeup.
"You never know. You could meet someone tonight?" smirked Leanne leaving the room.
"Don't tell me you've set me up on a blind date?" shouted Nicole. Leanne didn't answer so Nicole just shook her head lightly, put on some mascara and lipstick for good measure, and followed Leanne to the car.
Karaoke Bar…
Leanne and Nicole arrived at the karaoke bar and quickly found Jackson and Rachel. Thankfully Nicole couldn't find some random man that Leanne had decided to set her up with on a blind date. She didn't have the heart to tell her that she could never connect with the guys from the dates. Granted, they were nice guys but she never felt any chemistry with them, "I finally got Nicole out of the house!" shouted Leanne proudly.
"Wow, I never thought you'd be able to do that," said Jackson impressed.
"It's only for this night," Nicole scowled at Jackson, "Tomorrow I'm catching up on Downton Abbey." The group of four began to converse while Jackson, Rachel, and Leanne became tanked within a few minutes. Nicole was never a big drinker but she ordered a margarita anyways.
After about another fifteen minutes, Rachel randomly shouted, "Hey I bet Nicole can't name all of the state capitals alphabetically."
Nicole looked at Rachel with skeptical eyes, "WHERE did that come from?" Nicole asked incredulously.
"My own brain," said Rachel, clearly drunk.
"Fine," said Nicole. Considering she was the only one in the group not totally trashed, she felt she could do it if she thought carefully, "Albany, Annapolis, Atlanta, Austin, Baton Rouge, Boise, Boston, Charleston, Cheyenne, Denver…"
"Wrong," said Rachel looking at the list on her phone, "You forgot Columbus."
"Crap," Nicole whispered under her breath.
"This means…" said Rachel looking around the bar, "Which means you have to sing a karaoke song."
"I second that!" said Leanne hoisting her drink in the air.
"What?!" shouted Nicole, "Guys you know I'm a terrible singer!"
"Exactly," smirked Rachel.
"Come on Nicole, you lost the bet fair and square," said Jackson, "Now you have to pay the consequences. In the form of making an ass of yourself."
Nicole sighed and scowled at her three fellow platoon members before heading towards the stage. She scanned the list of available songs, looking for one that she liked and would sound maybe halfway decent. She finally chose Hit Me with Your Best Shot and made her request. The DJ put the music on and Nicole began singing, or well, as best as she could sing. It didn't take long before the majority of the bar patrons began to boo her. Nicole wasn't going to let the booing stop her, nor would she let friends get the last laugh. All of a sudden, she heard one lone patron cheering. She looked over at Leanne, Jackson, and Rachel, who were all high-fiving and laughing hysterically, "Figures," she thought to herself. She finished the song and scanned the crowd. She finally found the one patron cheering her performance and Nicole had her breath taken away when she saw her. She was beautiful. Nicole put the microphone down and made her back over to her friends, though her mind wasn't really on conversing with them.
"Man, I just got the whole thing on video," boasted Jackson proudly showing Nicole his phone. Nicole just scowled at him lightly and pushed the phone away from her, all while still thinking of the girl at the bar counter.
The waiter came over to the table and asked, "Can I get you anymore drinks?"
Nicole handed the waiter a $10 bill and said, "Give the girl over there at the bar a pinna colada, on me."
The waiter nodded and took Nicole's money and went to make the drink.
"Wow, I have to say, the one girl who just sang Pat Benatar, is really brave for actually finishing the song with all the booing," said Ally, Charlie's roommate.
"Yeah, she is very brave," said Charlie, "And beautiful," Charlie thought to herself.
"One pinna colada for the young lady," said the bartender, handing Charlie the drink.
Charlie looked at the drink confusingly and then said to the bartender, "What? I didn't order this," said Charlie pointing to the drink.
"The young woman over there told me to give it to you. It's on her," said the bartender, pointing to a girl seated with two other women and a man. Charlie smiled to herself when she realized it was the woman who was bravely singing karaoke.
"Oh well, tell her I said thank you," said Charlie, "How did she know pina coladas are my favorite drinks?"
Charlie slowly sipped her drink while some other bar patrons also sang karaoke. Some of them had the voices of angels, but somehow, the one girl still stuck out in her head. Once she finished her drink, she decided to go personally thank the woman who had paid for it. She got up from her seat and walked over to the group of four. She tapped the woman on the shoulder, causing her to jump a little before turning around to face her, "Oh hi," she said.
"Hi," said Charlie nervously, "Um, thank you for the drink."
Nicole got up from the table and walked away from Leanne, Jackson, and Rachel so she could talk in private. Nicole turned to face Charlie and said, "It was no problem. You cheered for my singing which is something even I wouldn't do," she chuckled.
Charlie chuckled nervously and said, "I'm Charlie, it's short for Charlotte."
Nicole shook Charlie's hand, "Lieutenant Nicole Galassini, it's a pleasure."
Charlie raised her eyebrows and shook Nicole's hand, "Lieutenant huh? That probably means you're stationed at Fort Drum."
Nicole nodded and said, "But I live off post with Leanne," said Nicole pointing to Leanne, who was too busy gossiping to notice.
"Oh," Charlie's face fell, "Are you both…"
"No," Nicole answered a little too quickly, "Just friends."
"I see," said Charlie.
"So what brings you here? New York native?" asked Nicole.
Charlie shook her head, "Oh no, I'm getting my Master's in Human Development and Family Science at Syracuse."
"Cool," said Nicole she said glancing over to where her other three friends were. They seemed more than content doing shots, "Hang on a second."
Charlie turned to face where Nicole was heading towards the karaoke station. After an argument with the DJ, Nicole finally grabbed the mike and said, "This song goes out to someone special. I think you know who you are," she said and began to belt out a poor rendition of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. After Nicole was finished the song, she went back to Leanne, Jackson, and Rachel who were again laughing hysterically, "Niki, you only had to sing one song for us, not two!" Jackson laughed nearly doubling over in tears.
Nicole grabbed all of their keys off the table and said, "I think you three have had enough to drink for tonight. I'm driving you all home and you can I drive you Jackson and Rachel back in the morning to pick up their cars."
The other three were too trashed to arugue so Nicole made sure they were all in her car before she heard a voice behind her, "Nicole wait!"
Nicole turned around and smiled when she saw Charlie running towards her, "Charlie…"
"I just wanted to give you this," she said giving Nicole a folded piece of paper.
Nicole looked down confusingly but looked up and smiled anyways, "Have a good night Charlie."
Charlie nodded before she went back into the bar. Nicole drove Jackson and Rachel home before she drove back to her and Leanne's place, "Man that was the best night of my life! See what you're missing out on in life?" asked Leanne, clearly drunk.
"Mmhm," Nicole nodded, completely ignoring Leanne's drunken babble and finally opening the piece of paper. She was shocked as to what was written on it.
"And I didn't force you to meet anyone tonight!" said Leanne proudly.
"Yeah," Nicole gave Leanne a nervous chuckle, "But the universe did," thought Nicole as she gazed at Charlie's scrawl on the napkin. The handwriting that clearly had written her number with her phone number and the words 'Call Me'.