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It was cool Saturday night in the city; I could see my breath create vapour as I exhaled with every other step I took towards my destination. Demyx had invited me along to some house party he was going to. Apparently there were a lot of people going, which meant the flow of booze would be high.
Always keen to get something for free, I'd agreed to go with him. I remembered he'd mentioned something about strippers, which had me put off for a moment. I'd never been to a party with strippers, and became worried that maybe this party would get too out of hand, but after a moment's thought decided 'what the hell', and told him I'd meet him there.
I could hear music a good fifty metres away from the house as I walked toward it. There were people everywhere, and the amount of bodies just increased as I got closer and closer to the front door. My first mission was to find Demyx, or at least someone I knew. It made you look like a loser if you just sat around by yourself all night.
Nodding to people and smiling to others I vaguely recognised, I made my way to the kitchen to get a drink of some sort. I didn't quite make it to the kitchen before something caught my eye in another room as I walked past.
A woman with blonde hair was brushing her hand over some guy's shoulder and smiling at him, whispering something that made them both laugh. There were about four or five other women in the room dancing to the beat of the music that couldn't be escaped anywhere in the house. I didn't care about the other women. I just stared intently at the blonde one as she leant closer to that other man, knowing I knew her from somewhere.
I turned away and continued towards the kitchen to get that drink I wanted. I was handed something almost immediately as I stepped into the kitchen from some girl I didn't recognise, shrugging and accepting it I walked away to drink it and interact with people while keeping my eye out for Demyx.
Two drinks later I still hadn't found him and was on my way back to the kitchen for my third drink. I strolled past the room with the scantily clad women dancing again. The blonde was still in there, but now she wasn't talking to anyone.
Our eyes met and sudden realisation hit me. She must have recognised me as well because her blue eyes widened when she saw me. I walked directly over to her and motioned for her to follow me outside far away from anyone else.
Her name was Larxene, and she had been one of the girls I went to junior high with. The both of us walked far enough away from the party so the music was now just a gentle hum that could barely be heard. I took a deep breath and turned around to face her.
"What are you doing in there dancing for cash?" I questioned abruptly, "I guess a whole lot's changed since I seen you last." I spoke the last part quietly as I removed my jacket and handed it to the shivering blonde woman. She grabbed my jacket without a single 'thank-you'. She had always been kind of rude when she was younger, and I guess that hadn't changed at all.
She extended her arm out to slide it into one of the sleeves and closed her eyes before moving to put the other half of the jacket on. It took her several moments before she said anything, and the response to my question was not one I expected.
"What would you do if your son was at home crying all alone on the bedroom floor cause he's hungry," she started quietly, clutching at my jacket "and the only way to feed him is to…" she paused and dropped her eyes before taking a deep breath, "…sleep with a man for a little bit of money."
By this stage her voice was starting to become louder, and almost angry. I couldn't be sure whether the anger was directed at me or not. I blinked, and opened my mouth to respond, but she cut me off before I had a chance to even make a noise.
"His father's gone in and out of lock down," she raised her eyes to meet mine "I haven't got a job anymore! He's just smoking rock now!" her voice broke into a sob at the last part. "So for you this is just a good time, but for me this is what I call life" she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. Clearly she was hurting a lot, and had gone through her fair share of emotional trauma since I had last seen her several years ago.
What I said next was probably not the smartest thing to come out of my mouth, but I was slightly drunk, though that probably isn't a great excuse; "You're not the only one to have a baby, that's no excuse to be living this way."
Her head snapped up and she stared me square in the eye said "Every day I wake up, hoping to die."
Her hands curled into fists, knuckles going white from the pressure. "They're going to know about pain, 'cause me and my sister ran away so our daddy couldn't hurt us. Before I was even a teenager I've been through more shit than you can't even relate to!" she shouted scrunching her thin brows together.
I didn't have a response for that so I sighed and leant against the bricks, running a hand through my red, spiky hair. She sank down to sit against the wall resting her hands on her knees, her head drooped. I began to realise just how different our lives had become since junior high. Not that I was one to talk, considering I have been staying out till dawn at parties drinking every other day for a while now.
"What would you do?" she suddenly blurted out clutching her hands at her shoulders to protect herself from the cold.
I moved away from the wall and without hesitation replied "I'd get up off my feet and stop making tired excuses." I didn't dare look at her, but I could feel her cold icy gaze staring at me.
She made a noise of disgust. "You don't fucking get it, do you?" She muttered, and threw my jacket back at me before standing up. She paused for a moment; possibly waiting for me to say something else or to apologise, but when I didn't she turned around. I could hear the clacking of her heels as she slowly walked away, back towards the party.
I remained outside for a while, thinking about our chance encounter. It baffled me that I had never noticed anything strange about her in middle school. She had always just seemed like all the other happy giggling girls. It made me sort of sad to think her life had turned out this way, and made me wonder how many others I'd gone to school with were also doing less than great. Breathing in the night air I stared up at the twinkling stars above me. I still had my jacket in my hands after she had thrown it at me and decided to put it on, before I too made my way back to the party.
I couldn't get her off my mind. I didn't understand why she had this attitude about her situation. I didn't understand why she just couldn't go out and try and get a normal job instead of taking money from men to dance for them. I wanted to help her in some way, despite the fact I'd never known her well, I know she didn't deserve this. Maybe she just needed some sort of push in the right direction to get back on her feet and support her little boy she apparently had.
My steps were loud against the concrete as I headed back towards the bright, loud house. I made my way back to the kitchen to get another drink, I didn't even know what it was I was drinking but I didn't care. I wasn't in the mood to fuss about little things like that right now. Pushing through the throng of people to sit down at the side of the room, something came to my mind.
A couple of weeks ago I'd been given a card for an employment agency as I'd been looking for a job that could give me more hours of work. Pulling my wallet out of my pocket, I opened it and searched for the card. I pulled it out and looked at it. The card stated 'one free consultation with our employment experts'. "What would you do?" Larxene's words echoed in my head.
Pushing myself up I marched straight back to the room Larxene had been in earlier. Luckily she was still there, and I walked up to her and grabbed her hand. She turned around angrily, and went to say something, but I had already put the card in her hand and walked away. After I was several metres away I saw her staring at the card, and she immediately burst into tears. After a moment she looked up and found my gaze. Tears were running down her pale face and she looked confused, however that confusion turned into a smile and she mouthed "thank you" towards me.
Without saying anything I put I drink down and started to exit my way out of the house. Demyx stopped me on my way out and asked me where I had been. I told him I'd looked for him for a while but ended up running into an old acquaintance. I told him I was going home, he didn't try to stop me, and just nodded , letting me pass.
That was the last time I ever saw Larxene. For a long time I had hoped she had managed to turn her life around, but I would never know. I saw some of the other strippers at a couple of parties over the coming months, but she was never there. I slowly stopped attending the wild house parties, because they just made me think about the poor, lonely, blonde mother far too much.
A/N
Heavily inspired by the song: "What would you do" by Bastille
I can't link it, but please do look it up on YouTube, it really makes a difference to the feel of the fanfic.
Review please cause I want to know what people think! First ever thing I've written :)