Okay, finals are done, I'm home and... I still need to unpack. And get a summer job. Easier said than done. And I'm very sorry this took so long, but just between school ending and the start of summer, and the lack of inspiration, it was slow working. But I forced myself to sit down and write for the last two days, so here we are. I will try to get the next chapter out soon.

"Ant, good race tonight man," Carlos slapped the newbie on the back. Emma rolled her eyes, barely containing her annoyance as she turned from the scene.

"What's your deal?"

Emma turned to Kyle before rolling her eyes again, shaking her head.

"Don't worry about it."

Kyle tried to stare her down, but Emma avoided the gaze with expert practice.

"Party at Las Noches!"

Emma's head snapped around.

"Why there?" she asked Carlos.

"Because, we need good drinks and loud music."

Emma narrowed her eyes when Ant answered, turning away from the pair.

"Whatever," she said shortly. "Lissa can't say I don't bring in customers," Emma added in a mumble. Nevertheless, she clambered into Kyle's truck, as the crowd slowly dispersed.

They made it to the club in record time, not even speeding, and Kyle drove down to the back, parking in Emma's normal spot. Emma let them in through the back door, slipping her keys into the pocket of her skin tight, mid-thigh denim shorts. They made their way up to the club.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Tim asked, seeing Emma when she walked over. He was one of the few male bartenders.

"I just thought I'd warn you. The crowd is about to pick up."

Melissa cursed.

"How bad?"

"You remember when there was that pool tournament?"

Melissa gritted her teeth, not liking where it was going, but nodded.

"Yeah, worse than that."

The brunette let her head fall to the counter, as for the moment it was a slower point in the night. Sure enough, hardly five minutes later, people started pouring through the doors.

"Shoot me now."

"If you need help just holler," Emma ordered, turning from the group with a nod. Aside from Tim and Melissa, Jenny was back on the clock, and Emma knew that Aimee would be in within the hour.

"Where did you go?" Letty called over the music, a few minutes later.

Emma grinned.

"Here!"

Letty rolled her eyes, shaking her head slightly. Emma watched the other woman head off towards the pool table, smile disappearing as she bit the inside of her cheek when Ant passed.

"I really don't like him."

"You don't even know him," Kyle said, voice close to her ear. She turned her head slightly.

"What's your point?"

Her roommate just shook his head at her stubbornness.

"Nothing! I said nothing."

Emma's attention turned to the bar, seeing an overwhelming amount of people surrounding it.

"Hey, find me when you want to leave," she ordered the blonde, making her way through the crowd. She levered herself over the counter, landing easily on the other side.

"What do you want?" She asked Carlos, who took her appearance by surprise.

"This is where you work?"

"My nine to five," she affirmed shortly. "So what can I get you Carlos?"

"I need two beers."

"Any kind?"

"Any kind."

She served him, accepting the money and tip with a smile as she moved to the next customer.

"Em, you need to do something about your crowd," Melissa finally said nearly two hours later. The group in the Lounge was still overwhelming, several pool tournaments in progress. Emma sighed, stepping back from the bar as she looked out over the crowd. There were not nearly as many people on the dance floor. She grinned, trailing her hand along Melissa's back as she passed.

"I got it, don't worry."

Melissa looked skeptical, but nodded as Emma made her way away from the bar and across the dance floor. She tugged Kyle along when she passed him, and they both climbed up to the raised platform the DJ was on, who Emma tapped on the shoulder.

"What's up babe?" the Hawaiian boy asked smoothly. Caden's white teeth contrasted sharply with his tanned skin.

"I wanna start a dance off, you down?"

The recently graduated high school senior laughed, nodding his head.

"Hell yeah, you know it Em."

"Good, use that little dominating loud speaker thing," she ordered Kyle, turning to him. "Say something to gather everyone onto the dance floor. When I signal you, start up our song."

She waived between Caden and herself. Kyle nodded.

"Wait, our song? We've never tried them in front of a crowd. And you're a bit out of practice. Are you sure?"

Emma rolled her eyes.

"If I wasn't sure I wouldn't have said it. And I've been working on it, okay? Have a little faith."

"Oh, don't worry babe. You have all of mine," the teen assured her. "Just checking, my rep is on the line here."

Though they flirted lightly, when it came down to it Caden was more of a little brother to Emma. She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, like you have one."

"You know I do, doll face."

Emma nodded, grinning.

"Right, sure."

"Which dance though?" Kyle asked before they could leave.

"The easiest one," she said, as though accusing him of even having to ask. "I wanna start off light."

"Okay."

She hopped off the high level, landing easily on the floor, followed by Caden. She started slowly clearing people from the center of the room. The commotion drew some attention but Kyle's announcement grabbed most of the people.

"What's up everybody? You havin' a good time? Enjoyin' some good tunes, some good company, some good booze?"

There was a clamor of agreement.

"That's what we like to hear," though he was not a DJ, he had hung out with Caden enough to pick up some tricks, and he was confident that he could hold his own for at least the one song. "Now, my second favorite girl in this whole building has issued a challenge. You think you can take her and DJ Cade, step right up. If you just want to have a great time, see some totally hot moves, well, that works too."

Emma noted, with satisfaction, that nearly half of the crowd in the lounge had cleared out. She caught Melissa's eye, and the dark haired woman was nodding gratefully. Emma swallowed thickly, looking at the crowd. It had been a long while since she had danced in front of a lot of people.

No problem Em. Just like a recital, no biggie.

It was different seeing a sea of faces that she knew fairly well, extremely well on some parts. She let out a long breath, before taking another in.

So the bar's a bit higher. You got it.

The transition to hip-hop had been easy, but she had slowly been learning some break-dancing before she had moved. She picked up on it decently, but it was not until she had met Caden months prior that she had really started dedicating time to it. The teen had been break-dancing since he was ten, and together the two had created several routines, some a mix of both of their styles and some just different. It was true she had not had a dance lesson in several months, but with Caden's help she had not completely ignored it.

She took a deep breath, wiping the palms of her hands on the bottom of her royal blue top, which complimented her eyes nicely, before scuffing her well worn Converse against the floor, shrugging her shoulders as she set her body.

With a glance, she and Caden nodded slightly, and the boy waived back to Kyle, who nodded at the cue. A moment later Franz Ferdinand poured from the speakers; it was definitely much more of an alternative song, and their routine started rather awkward, both to match the beat and due to being out of their usual genre.

"Is this an interpretative dance?" Emma distantly heard, somewhere in the crowd. Caden and she were both moving out of sync, in a sporadic pattern, twisting their bodies as they moved their arms just as awkwardly in contrast. It was nearly a minute into the song, when the beat of the drum and strums of the guitar fell into a brief harmony, before they started to settle into a more cohesive movement.

The pair's motion had slowly turned them to face each other, and they fell into a smooth, but punctuated, dance together. Emma grinned as she let her instincts take over her body.

'I say 'don't you know?'
You say you don't know.
I say... take me out.'

People seemed to have come to an understanding of the routine, as the crowd had grown louder with cheers. Emma and Caden were close now, complimenting each other's body movement, but broke apart shortly when he spun her away from his body.

Both dancers moved gracefully, following the practiced steps as they leaned and twisted their bodies. In the end it was neither a particularly hard, nor flashy, dance, but it was creative and still took a degree of skill to execute.

As the song ended, their movements slowed, before halting, in sync.

"Oh yeah, that's what we're talking about, right? Now, anybody want in? You don't need a routine or even a partner, just pick a song and strut your stuff."

Caden moved back to his work station, pushing Kyle out of the way with a grin.

"Yeah, and if we keep this going long enough, we might share another dance with you. What do you all say to that?"

The crowd clearly agreed.

"You looked good out there."

Emma spun to the voice, grinning at Letty.

"I forgot what it was like to perform in front of people."

"Coulda fooled me."

Emma rolled her eyes, but nudged her shoulder playfully. Letty returned the gesture, which lead to a light, brief wrestling match before the pair laughed and settled down. They watched as several more people, some couples and some not, step onto the cleared part of the floor.

"Hey, I'm gonna go grab something from the bar, want anything?"

Letty shook her head, grabbing and holding up her half-full drink, and Emma made her way through the packed crowd before sliding her way across the bar.

"Liss, I just need something. Anything," she said finally, and Melissa had two shots right in front of her in hardly a second. Emma grimaced after the first, taking a moment to adjust to the Tequila. The second was much easier, now that she knew what she was drinking.

"Thanks. Now we can finally breathe a bit," the older woman said, nodding to the dance floor.

Emma grinned.

"No prob. It was fun."

"I didn't know you could dance like that," Aimee admitted from her other side, as she leaned against the counter next to Emma and looked on as well.

"I've been taking dance lessons since I was little."

The black girl's mouth formed and 'O' before she shrugged.

"Huh... learn something new every day."

"Indeed. I want more alcohol."

A long while later the challenges had stopped but people had stayed on the dance floor. As a result, the lounge much emptier than it had been at the start of the night.

Eventually Emma somehow found her way into a crazed, disjointed dance next Letty, as the Latino woman looked on with slight embarrassment and much amusement. Letty eventually lost her internal struggle and burst into laughter at Emma's manic movement.

"You look like an idiot."

"Well this is the only way you can dance to Call On Me! Seriously!" the younger girl defended herself over the start of the loud techno beat. The alcohol only helped along her usual care-free attitude.

Though it was, indeed, a funny sight, Letty found herself agreeing with the statement. She finished up her drink and, after much coaxing from Emma, and some influence of the beer, she joined the brunette for the rest of the song.

When it ended both were in hysterics, and Emma felt like she was flying, light headed from a combination of drink and activity.

"You need to take a seat," Letty said, as they escaped to the lounge.

"I need more alcohol."

Letty shrugged, but pulled Emma away from the bar, making her pout.

"Seriously, you need a break. Just a couple minutes," she bartered.

Emma let out a long breath, but nodded as she looked around the room in a bored manner.

"Have you ever seen the music video for that song?" she burst out suddenly. "You know... the one just playing, by Eric Prydz?"

Letty gave her a look as if to ask 'do you seriously think I watch music videos?'

Which was a good point.

"Well, it is the hottest thing ever. Seriously, YouTube that shit."

"I'm not much of a computer person," Letty countered.

Maybe one day if she was bored enough and remembered.

"Hey," Kyle broke into their conversation. Emma turned toward her roommate.

"Wassup?"

"Jen needs a ride home," he explained, motioning to Emma's coworker. The two had been dating for several weeks.

Emma's shoulders dropped. She had been enjoying the night, for the most part.

"Hey, you can catch a ride with me," Letty offered, reading her expression easily. Emma's grin came back.

"For real?"

"Yeah, it's hardly out of the way."

"I think I'll take you up on that offer."

"So you set, then?"

"Yeah dude. See you later."

Kyle nodded, and Jenny gave a small wave before following him out.

"Are they-"

"Yep, for a while now."

Letty nodded. Though she did not know the blonde very well beyond what she had heard from Emma, Kyle and she seemed to make a good pair.

"You're not driving are you?"

Letty grinned.

"Nah, I'll call up Mia. She didn't go to the race tonight, had some paperwork to do, so she's sober."

Emma nodded.

"Good to hear."

By the time they ended up leaving, Emma had drank much more, and was beyond wasted. Letty was helping her down the street to where Mia was parked, stumbling occasionally herself.

"You know how some people just get on your nerves," the younger girl slurred heavily. "And you can't really stop them. It's just how they are, you don't even know them but you really just hate them. And you can't help it."

Letty was nodding, though she did not quite follow Emma's point.

"But it's not biased or nothing. It's legit, and you know... it's real. You don't like someone, but there's a reason behind it. But you don't know the reason, just that there is one. Somewhere."

"What happened to her?"

Letty shrugged at Mia's question as she helped Emma into the car.

"I have no idea. She just went at it."

"Okay, we've seen her pretty drunk before, but never this bad."

Letty just shook her head.

"She must really hate Ant."

Mia rolled her eyes at the mention of the new kid, but did not comment. She had met him twice before, and he seemed alright, if a bit cocky.

"Odd."

"Tell me about it."

I apologize about any mistakes; I'm on my sister's computer because mine is at my step-mom's house, about 20 minutes away. It's not far, but I'm not gonna go over to use it just to write. Anyhow, my computer tells me when I make a spelling error or something, and my sister's doesn't, so that's all.