Your response to my little stories astounds me. I'd give you each of a hug if I wasn't scared of cooties. LOL. A huge thanks to MaggieMay14 for the beta job, Acinad816 and Risbee for the pre-read and constant encouragement and love. For a little inspiration for this whole story check out the song 'Dancing On My Own' by Robyn. It's catchy as fuck.
I don't own Twilight. This shit is mine though.
It's just after eight when I knock on the door of my best friend, Alice Brandon's, apartment. She lives a few blocks east of my mother's place in a rent controlled one-bedroom that used to belong to her grandmother. When Nana Brandon was placed in a retirement home last year, Alice took over and didn't bother to tell the landlords of the change. It was the only way to get a clean, yet small, apartment anywhere in Manhattan for under fifteen hundred a month.
That was another reason I was living with my mother again; rent was astronomical. If it wasn't for the fact that my mother bought our place outright in the early 90's, we wouldn't be able to afford it either.
"Listen Slagathor, you better be dressed for a night out," Alice yells as she wrenches the door open and gives me a once over, appraising the skirt and tank top I've got on. "Ugh, you'll do."
"Why so passive aggressive, Brando?" I question as I push my way. No doubt I was annoying her by calling her one of her childhood nicknames, but thankfully Alice can take it.
"Shut it, Swan."
"I thought I listened to your instructions pretty well. I don't look like a hobo, right?" Alice shrugs her shoulders and gives me a tiny smile, which means she is actually impressed that I look decent enough to bang. Not that I am looking for anything right now, after Mr. Burning Man fucked me over.
"No, I suppose not." I look over towards her tiny kitchen and I see that Alice has already started the party without me. There are various bottles of liquor lined up, but it's the rum I'm eyeing up. "So, what's with Renee today? And don't tell me she's having a… thingy."
"An orgy, Alice. You can say it. In fact, I think you should give it a try… or-gy." I've been trying to encourage Alice for years to get over her fear of discussing sex, to no avail. In fact, I wish I knew who drilled it into her mind and then I want to beat the crap out of them with a sack full of door knobs, because it sucks not being able to discuss sex with your best friend.
"I'm sure I can say it, Bella. It doesn't mean I want to."
"One day Alice, you will sit down and blab all about your sex life. You will have absolutely mind-blowing sex with some guy who makes your toes curl and your vag cry out in surrender. You will say words like vagina," I laugh as Alice cringes beside me as she pours herself another drink and doesn't offer me one. "You might even say pussy or dick or blow job too. Hell, you could say clitoris, and I will be so proud of you that I might even shed a tear or two."
Alice closes her eyes in sheer embarrassment and makes her way over to her favorite red velvet chair, which she found on the curb outside of her building I might add, and glares at me. I stick my tongue out at her and make myself a rum and coke, that is more rum than coke, before I sit across from her.
"So, Renee…?"
"She's having Garrett and some friends over tonight, which means I need to look like the constantly busy and never home sister instead of the too broke and lazy to go out and find a job daughter." I let out a small sigh as Alice gives me a sympathetic glance. Luckily for her, she has never had these problems. Her parents have been married for over thirty years and she has a younger brother, Alec, and a younger sister, Afton. They are an actual family unit, rather than a lie made up to make their mother someone that she isn't. I may be a little envious of her.
"So she thinks she's still in her thirties right? I swear your mother is like Benjamin Button. Every time I see her, she insists she is younger and younger." Alice and I both laugh loudly and take a sip of our drinks. "Garrett must be dumb as a stump to believe her. I mean, she has crows' feet for god sake."
"She told me last night she was thinking of having some work done," I continue to laugh as Alice quirks her eyebrows at me. "She was thinking an eye lift and a breast enlargement." Alice shudders at the word breast, because even that squicks her out, but then her eyes grow wide and she smiles from ear to ear. "Although, I don't know why the breasts. Maybe Garrett likes big knockers, but I don't think they are tiny."
"Don't they say that more than a handful is a waste?" Alice questions as she looks down at her own, rather small, chest with a frown.
"Oh don't you start. You don't need a boob job either. They are perfectly fine and perky." I notice Alice recoil again because now we are specifically talking about her tits and she can't handle that either. I quickly wonder how the hell Alice passed anatomy class when she probably wouldn't have looked at any of the books.
"Guess who I saw out on Hudson today?"
"If you say you saw Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow, I may stab you. You always see the good celebrities."
"Bethenny Frankel," Alice replies excitedly, her hands practically shaking, as I look at her confused.
"Who?"
"Bethenny Frankel. She was on The Real Housewives of New York and The Celebrity Apprentice." Alice's face is one of disbelief, like she can't believe I don't know who this person is, but it's true. Considering I'd one day like to be a documentary filmmaker, I didn't watch a lot of TV in college, and I certainly didn't watch the Real Housewives of anything. "She's a real celebrity. Did you like live under a rock while you were at school. Did BU not have cable?"
"Whatever Alice. Don't blame me for not knowing apparent celebrities. Remember, the time you thought you saw Jay-Z and he turned out to be a pizza delivery guy?"
"Okay, so I got that one wrong, but it was kinda dark outside," Alice concedes as I laugh at her once more and I watch as she glances at the clock. "I want to go over to the Canal Room. If we catch a cab now, we won't have too long to wait before we're let in. Are you ready to go?" I nod and down the rest of my drink, happy to have a little liquid luck to get through the rest of the night.
It's just after ten when our cab finally pulls up in front of the club, ironically enough located on Canal. There's a line up outside the bar, but when Alice approaches and slips the guy her phone number on a small scrap of paper, he's quick to let us in.
"Care to tell me what is going on there?" I question as we weave through the throngs of people and approach the bar. Alice winks at the bartender and we both order a shot of Jack Daniels before we settle in with another round of rum and cokes. While Alice flirts unabashedly with the handsome bartender, I scan the room, scoping out the Asian inspired design, but also looking out for anyone I would know from the neighborhood.
As it turned out, a lot of our classmates didn't stray far when they went away to college. A lot of them preferred to attend NYU or Columbia, so it was considered odd when I up and went to BU. 'Why would I even want to leave Manhattan?' Alice had asked when I told her where I had applied. There was no real decision for me. I wanted to go somewhere new. Plus, I had learned my dad was from Boston, so I may have had an ulterior motive. Not that it did me any good. I still have no information on that front.
When Alice turns back towards me, I can't help but feel somewhat slighted and now I am thinking about my dad again, which is never good. "Are you done?"
"Yeah, I was just being nice. It got us in the club and half price drinks, didn't it?"
"So then what did you do with my ten?" I ask as I narrow my eyes and Alice grins.
"Well, he needed a tip," she replies casually before she grabs her drink with one hand and pulls me away from the bar with her other. I'm quickly running low on cash so that ten dollars was supposed to get me more than one drink. I'm growing more flustered. "By the way, there is nothing going on with the doorman, though not for lack of his trying."
We stop in front of a table that is currently being vacated, and wait to claim it. When we do finally sit down, I realize I have been thinking hard about where I know the bouncer from. "He looks a little familiar."
"That's because it's Eric Yorkie. The last four years have been very kind to him."
"No shit," I say in surprise because she is very right. We went to school with Yorkie and he was very lanky and thin. Hell, even Alice could have taken him in a fight and she's all of five foot nothing and 100 pounds soaking wet. "So, did you guys hook up? He was always kinda sweet back in high school."
"No, we haven't hooked up, yet. I told him to call me though. I mean… I could do worse than Eric Yorkie, right?" I laugh as I think of Marcus, because I had definitely done worse than Yorkie. I could only hope that Alice didn't have on rose-colored glasses where he was concerned. Sure, he was great in high school, but he had clearly changed, and gained about 60 pounds of muscle since I saw him last. I had to hope that the positive changes didn't go to his head.
I sit with my friend, shooting the shit about absolutely nothing of consequence, and I realize just how much I missed by moving away for college. Sure, BU had been a great opportunity and I loved it, but I was definitely missing my better half in Alice while I was gone.
"On Monday, I am seriously going to start looking for a job," I tell Alice as she nods her head in agreement. "I know I said that last week, but I really need to find something. I'm hemorrhaging money and you aren't helping any."
"They are hiring in housekeeping at the hotel," Alice tells me as I picture all those specials on TV where they reveal what really happens in hotel rooms. I grimace at Alice as she mentions other jobs she knows are available in her hotel. Alice currently works part-time as a front desk clerk at the Sheraton in our neighborhood. She insists its decent money, but I know her parents help supplement her finances because they want her to finish with her degree in psychology at NYU. I'm not afforded this luxury. Renee insists that since I am now 21, and a college graduate, I can handle myself.
"Oh... Forks is hiring."
Hmmm… this has possibilities, I muse to myself. Forks is a tiny diner two blocks from my apartment, right across from the NYPD precinct, and they have the best comfort food in the city. The downfall of getting hired there would be the twenty pounds I would inevitably put on since I adore their food. Oh, and I probably wouldn't get paid, since all my money would go to paying my own food bill.
"I'll think about it," I reply easily to Alice as I see a handsome man with copper colored hair in my line of sight and directly behind my friend and I grow silent, which is not like me at all.
"What, what is it?" Alice asks panicked. She glances over her shoulder and sees the same handsome man as me. He throws his head back and laughs, a big belly ache of a laugh, and I can feel my ovaries cry out. Yes, I'm overdramatic, but if you lived with Renee Swan, you would be too. "He's kinda cute."
Alice is far too casual about how handsome he is, but I'm not about to contradict her, so I just nod my head in agreement and fall back in line. I enjoy my night with my friend, all the while trying to decide just how to approach him.
Unfortunately for me, before I can gather up my nerve or figure out any plan that doesn't involve me falling onto his penis, preferably vagina first, he has already left with his friends.
