Saturday night started out very much like the one before-fairly uneventful. Anna was reading on the couch while Elsa was levitating around the apartment unit. Anna believed she was doing some sort of meditation.
When Anna finished a chapter of Paul Clifford, she felt her right pants pocket vibrate. She bookmarked her spot in the novel and pulled out her phone to look for a text message she received. It was from Rapunzel and she was asking if she would like to relax at Oaken's Club. At first Anna was hesitant to go for two reasons: 1.) that was where she and Kristoff broke up at and 2.) she didn't want to leave Elsa by herself in the apartment.
But Anna considered the pros and cons and decided in the end that it would be good for her to leave the apartment for a few hours or spending the night over at Rapunzel's if need be. So, she replied to the text and got ready for an evening she hoped would be fun.
When Anna left she had bid Elsa goodbye, told her what to expect and locked the apartment.
Presently, Anna found herself leaning against the bar of the club sipping on a gin and tonic. She looked around for Rapunzel and didn't see her. She sighed and took another sip of her drink.
Ever since they had stepped foot into Oaken's Club, Rapunzel was immediately swept off her feet by her lover, Eugene, who she was not expecting to see that night. She was intending to lift Anna's spirits and help her get back on track, but then Eugene swooped in, talked to her and Anna for a while, and then stole her best friend from her.
Now, Anna was alone. Again. In. This. Stupid. Club. It was like a curse with her. Anna doubted that she should expect much for the remainder of the night. Just before she was going to finish off her drink in one giant gulp, she felt a hand tap lightly on her bare left shoulder. Anna set down her glass and turned to face her visitor. It was Rapunzel with an apologetic smile on her face.
"Hey, Anna. Sorry I left you here. I tried to get Eugene to stop dragging me to the dance floor but he begged me to do a dance with him."
"That's okay, Rapunzel. It's not like I'm expecting anything major to happen to my life right now."
"Aw, come on, Anna. Don't say that. Let me make it up to you. Let's go dancing with Eugene."
"That's okay, Rapunzel. I don't feel like dancing."
"Are you sure? Dancing usually cheers you up."
Anna took a moment to absorb Rapunzel's words. Yes, it was true that dancing usually cheered Anna up, but something about that simple statement seemed even more true for some blurry event that happened recently….Of course! She recently danced with Elsa and that made her very happy. She had so much fun teaching Elsa how to dance. Sure, she may not have seemed as excited as she felt, but she enjoyed herself very much doing something fun with Elsa. Maybe she was hesitant to dance with Rapunzel because she felt that if she did that she would be betraying Elsa in some odd and unexplainable way.
"Yeah."
"Really, Anna? Because you look like you could use a pick-me-up right about now and not in the form of a drink."
Anna waved her free hand at Rapunzel. "No, that's okay, Rapunzel. I'm fine where I am."
Rapunzel grabbed hold onto Anna's wrist and pulled her forward. "Please? This is one thing I can think of to make it to you for making you be by yourself."
"Rapunzel, I'm fine where I am right now. Go ahead and dance with Eugene."
Rapunzel frowned and dropped her persistent hand from Anna's wrist. "Fine, if you say so. But let me buy you a drink."
Anna lifted her glass of gin and tonic to gesture to its half empty contents. "I'm good for now. Maybe later."
"Okay. Just so you know you're always welcomed to join me and Eugene on the dance floor."
"Okay. I'll keep that in mind, Rapunzel. Now, go and find your man. I'm sure if you don't return to him soon before he starts scaring off girls with his smolder."
Rapunzel smiled and playfully slapped Anna in the shoulder.
"You make him sound like a bigger player than he actually is."
Anna returned the gesture with as much energy as Rapunzel gave. "I wouldn't be surprised if he did do that though."
Rapunzel rolled her eyes at Anna. "Whatever, Anna Banana. I'm going to go find my man. Good luck finding some company at the bar."
Anna extended her drink to Rapunzel as if she was going clink glasses with her. "Good luck finding your boy."
Rapunzel laughed and then waved goodbye to Anna before heading back to the dance floor covered in flashing, colorful lights. Once Rapunzel's petite figure was engulfed in the blur of moving bodies, Anna turned back around and continued to sip her drink and remain in a mind space somewhere between dreaming and mindful meditation.
A few more minutes of sipping and Anna found herself with an empty glass. She hailed the bartender and asked for another gin and tonic. The man nodded and went off to make her a second drink. Soon enough he came back with a new glass and switched it with the old one. Anna looked at the drink for a moment before taking a sip of it. This one was slightly different. Last glass had Tanqueray gin while this one has Bombay Sapphire gin. Yet Anna didn't mind. Both gins were good. She just cared about the quality and not the slight difference in flavor.
Anna took another sip before she felt another hand on her left shoulder. She didn't bother turning around to speak to the person behind her.
"Look, Rapunzel, I already told you that you could go dance with Eugene."
"That's funny because I wouldn't want to dance with Eugene since I'm not Rapunzel."
Anna's jaw unhinged. She was uncertain if she was actually hearing the familiar masculine voice that belonged to a certain blonde mountain man. Anna closed her mouth and set her drink down on the napkin coaster before turning around to face the owner of the callused hand. She gently removed his hand from her shoulder treating it like a clump of dirt.
"Kristoff."
A shy smile made its way on the said man's face. "Hi, Anna. How have you been?"
Anna crossed her arms. "I don't know. You tell me."
Kristoff nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
"Look, Anna, I'm really sorry what happened last Friday between us. I'm sorry what I said and did to you. But I wanted you to know that I broke things off with Belle before things got too deep."
"Oh….I'm so sorry to hear that….NOT!"
"Anna, I know you're mad at me and I don't blame me, but hear me out please. For the past week, you've ignored my calls and texts but at least listen to what I have to say for however short of a time we have together to talk."
"Fine. I'm listening, but I can't promise that I won't interrupt."
"You're gonna have to try a little because this is kind of important and it be done sooner if you don't interrupt."
"Fine. Go on then."
"Okay. For starters, Anna, I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry that I cheated on you and blamed you for what happened to us before we broke up. I realized soon after you left that was incredibly dumb of me. I wanted to go after you, but I was afraid that if I went after you right then and there that I would only make things worse. So…I waited for a day and tried to call you back. You didn't answer any of my calls or texts this past week and I was starting to lose hope that I would ever have you back in my life even if we were friends. I broke things off with Belle and tried my best to ask about how you've been doing, but I couldn't get any information of you from Eugene or Rapunzel. But I found you here tonight and I want to know two things."
"What are they?"
"I know the first one is a longshot, but I was wondering if you would like to give me a second chance, to give me a second chance of being your man and the second one is in case you don't want to follow through with the first one and that would be: would you like to at least remain as friends."
"No."
"Wait, what?"
"No."
"'No' to what? To us being a couple again or us being friends?"
"'No' to both. I don't want to be with you either way. I don't want you back in my life, Kristoff. End of story."
"But Anna-"
"I said 'no', Kristoff."
"Please, Anna, give me another chance. I can change for the better. I can change for you. I don't want to lose you."
"Kristoff, you already lost me when you admitted sleeping with Belle not just once but three times before. Now, please leave me alone. I want to be able to enjoy part of my evening."
"But Anna—"
"Look, Kristoff, I'll give you a fair warning. I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone right now. I'm going to the bathroom and I expect you to be gone when I return to my drink."
Kristoff didn't utter a sound. He just watched Anna stare at him as she left her drink at the bar and walked off to the bathroom. She may have not acted what he hoped for, but she certainly didn't tear him apart. For that he felt thankful that Anna wasn't tackling him to the ground. He supposed that he deserved the cold treatment that Anna gave him. But he still felt hurt by how she acted towards him.
Elsewhere, Anna was in the bathroom. She had waited for the moderate line to shrink and use a stall and in the meantime she thought of her bad luck she had running into Kristoff. It was bad enough that pain of her break-up with Kristoff over a week ago was still smarting, but now she had to face him again especially at a time when she wanted to recover first and then maybe talk to Kristoff to at least agree to be civil with each other, but he came back into her life too soon.
Shaking her head free of any bothersome thoughts, Anna noticed it was her turn. She used a stall and then later came out washing her hands. When she dried her hands, she looked around and saw that she was alone in the bathroom. Anna tossed the paper towel in the waste basket underneath the sinks and wondered if she should take advantage of this opportune moment of peacefulness in the bathroom. Anna chose to stay to collect her thoughts. She leaned against the counter of the sinks and looked at herself in the mirror.
She wasn't sure if it was karma getting back at her for leaving Elsa by herself at the apartment or it was a bad coincidence that she talked with Kristoff, but Anna knew that she wasn't happy with her life at that moment. It was true that wasn't ready to see Kristoff again without feeling hostile towards him, but she also felt guilty for leaving Elsa behind. She was considering asking Elsa if she would like to come with her and Rapunzel, but then she thought that it would be useless to ask her because she thought Elsa wouldn't be ready to be around so many people all at once without losing control of her….temper.
Anna stared at herself in the mirror. Hard.
Yes. Let's go with that. Temper. I wouldn't want to imply that Elsa wouldn't be able to control her bloodlust because she promised me she wouldn't kill people as long as I gave her my blood when she needed it. But….She could technically lose her temper if she was aggravated and wanted to kill people for their blood. That wouldn't be good.
Anna's thoughts escaped her mind just as the air escaped her lungs after she released a steady sigh.
"I should probably go back out there. I'll go get my drink and go find Eugene and Rapunzel. At least if I'm with them then I'll feel a little better about myself than staying at the bar alone….Or not. What Kristoff is still there? He's been known to be as stubborn as a mule. If he's there I'm going to have to keep my cool and leave with my drink as soon as possible. I just hope I can leave the bar with my drink as soon as I can without any further eye contact with Kristoff. I'm going to have to if I want to enjoy any remains of my evening with Rapunzel and move on with my life. I have to do this."
Anna took in a deep breath and then pushed off of the counter of sinks. She left the bathroom and made a beeline for the bar where she left her drink. Luckily, when she got to her spot at the bar Kristoff was not strawberry-blonde sighed in relief before she picked up her glass and made her way to the dance floor.
In no time at all, Anna found Rapunzel and Eugene sitting at a table on the outer ring of the dance floor. She gave the couple her best, fake smile and sat down with them.
"Hey, guys. Have you done much dancing?"
Eugene took a sip of his Carlsberg before looking at Anna. "Not really, Anna. We just did a few dances. By the way, what's wrong?"
Anna was taken aback. She wasn't expecting Eugene to know her well enough to know that something was bothering her. Unless….Rapunzel talked about her troubles to him more so than she originally thought she did.
Anna nervously wrung her right index finger on the rim of her glass. "Um…..It's hard to say."
Rapunzel's eyes widened in shock. "Oh my gosh, Anna! You saw Kristoff, didn't you?"
Anna blinked in surprise. Sure she expected Rapunzel to know a lot about her, but she didn't expect for her read her face so well. Anna wondered if she was a wide open book or she should give Rapunzel and Eugene better credit for reading her facial expressions and body language.
"Yes…"
"How was it talking to him?"
"It was painful seeing him…..Talking to him was a whole other story."
"What did he say?"
"He said he was sorry for he did to me and he wanted me back in his life either as a friend or lover. He just wanted us to start over."
"What did you say back?"
"I said 'no'."
"'No'?"
"Yes. I said 'no' to starting over with him as both a lover and friend. I don't want be near him ever again. He hurt me too much for me to even want to be associated with him."
Rapunzel reached over and placed a comforting hand on Anna's nearest shoulder.
"I'm sorry you had to deal with Kristoff all by yourself, Anna, but hopefully you'll be able to move on and meet someone who is right for you. Maybe you'll meet the person right for you in the near future or you've already met them and didn't realize it before. However things work out for you, Anna, I hope you can move on and enjoy your life."
"Thanks, Rapunzel. I hope so, too."
Rapunzel patted Anna's shoulder and then leaned back in her chair. Anna lifted her glass and took a long sip of her gin and tonic.
A dead silenced weighed upon the trio of friends like a ton of bricks. Moments later Eugene took the initiative to change to mood and looked between the two girls.
"How about we dance for a bit to shake the stress away?"
Neither Anna nor Rapunzel said anything in reply. They just stared at the wooden surface of the table. Eugene blew out a puff of air.
Just then the trio of friends sensed that a newcomer was arriving to the club. They perked up and turned their attention toward the door just in time to see it begin to open. People near it looked over to make sure they didn't get un-expectantly hit by an opening door. Moonlight spilled into the dark establishment to brighten the atmosphere. But for Anna it was like a beacon of hope.
Once the bright moonlight cleared up, the silhouette of a feminine form could be identified. For some odd reason, Anna felt on edge at the arrival of this newcomer and she was unknowingly excited for the stranger to come through and show their face. She was excited in a good way and so far it was best feeling she's experienced all night since she came to the club.
