Chapter 12. Clubbing.
Warning: Language
The place of the so-called celebration was a small club in one of the urban entertainment districts of True Cross Town, not too far from the contradictory high-class red light district, where the rich men would visit at least once while attending University. There were a few other bars and clubs in the district, and many students would go dancing and bar hopping on the weekends. The whole boulevard was lit with neon lights in every color of the rainbow, and different songs echoed from each establishment into the streets; the sidewalks were full as people spilled in and out of every door.
Surely this couldn't have been the correct location, the girl thought as she arrived; there was no way in her mind that the headmaster would invite his students out to a place like that. She double checked the address on the invitation and compared it to what she had typed into her phones GPS, only to be horrified that it was the same.
The club she stood in front of was the loudest, most crowded, and probably the most colorful one on the whole block, with blue and violet lights illuminating the pavement each time the doors swung open. Dreading entering for a multitude of reasons, the girl tugged at the bottom of her short dress, and attempted to check her hand at make up with her cell phone camera as a way to stall time. It may not have been a weekend, but everything was packed as the sky began to grow dark. A group of people walked over and entered the club, the music only becoming louder when the door opened.
Hearing her name being called, she nearly shrank into her shoes; three classmates from University had been sitting outside of the building, having a smoke. They motioned her over, readying themselves to go inside. "I didn't know you came here!" one of the two girls called.
The girls' shoes tapped on the cold, dark pavement like a crude metronome. "Oh, I've never been here. I'm meeting some friends," she responded nervously.
"Right on, right on," the guy said, bobbing his head and looking her up and down. "Well, come by and grab a drink with us while you're here, yeah?"
"Yeah, don't be shy!" one of the other girls yelled louder than necessary, already a bit sloshed.
She tried to negate the offer casually. The girl who had called out her name took a long drag from her cigarette as she stared her down. "Seriously, this is the first time we've ever seen you out anywhere. Come have a drink with us while you're here!" She rubbed her cigarette onto the building and tossed it into the large ash-trays, and scooped the girls' arm into her own, locking elbows and leading her into the nightclub. "You look killer, by the way!" she said loudly as the doors opened.
They were hit with a rush of music, clanking, laughing—she could barely hear her classmates talking to her any longer. People were dancing all over. Some girls were hanging all over a few of the obviously wealthy men, sitting on their laps or leaning over on them to hand feeding him the expensive food offered at the club. It always amazed the girl what some people would do, for something as trivial as free drinks.
After waving to her classmates, she pushed through the crowd of energetic patrons, trying to locate her friends from cram school while keeping others from bumping into her and spilling their drinks all over in the process. Suddenly, she felt hands grab her shoulders and she nearly jumped out of her skin with a massive yelp. Turning, she was met with Rin's eager beam. "You scared the shit out of me!" she huffed.
"What?!" he yelled, turning his pointed ear towards her more. She leaned in closer to him, repeating herself a little louder. He laughed and then spoke back into her ear. "My bad! I'm glad you're here though. Let's go grab a drink!" She nodded in response. Placing a hand on the small of her back, he helped her maneuver to one of the walls where a large bar with a crystal purple lighted counter-top was placed. She hopped up onto one of the tall stools and adjusted her dress hem, hooking her heels onto the foot rest.
"Is anyone else here?" she asked, leaning into Rin.
"Yeah, we have a booth. I saw you come in so I came to get you."
Raising a brow and squinting, she chuckled. Saw her walked in, she thought; how could he have seen her walk in? She had barely made it very far, and there were people all around and so much commotion there was no way he could have just spotted her right away, she reasoned.
"Do you know what you want?" she nodded and blurted out her favorite go-to drink; simple, and a little fruity. She wasn't well accustomed to all the many different mixed drinks that you could order, and never wanted to make it apparent how inexperienced she was.
Leaning over the counter, which had begun to change colors from a deep purple to a violet pink, he talked to a bartender who was crouched down, cleaning and organizing under the bar. Rin waited for a moment, but got no response. "Hellooo?" he droned loudly, leaning back over the bar. "We're ready to order, dude," he said, poking the bartenders head.
And as dramatic as possible, the bartender jumped into the air and onto his feet, pulling out a towel and tossing it above him, revealing himself as headmaster Faust. Rin's jaw dropped to the floor, and the girl nearly passed out from sheer shock.
"Well, hello there! Finally decided to join us, have we?" Johann exclaimed, rubbing the inside of a glass with a dish towel.
"W-what the hell are you doing here?!" Rin screeched.
"I'm just having some fun interacting with students and listening in on conversations," he answered, beaming. He turned his attention to the girl, leaning over the counter slightly. "Glad you decided to make it. I was worried you might not come this evening."
She could feel her face turning warm as his eyes were on her. "Rin actually talked me into it."
Johann's sharp eyes shot over to Rin, lips twisting into a half smile. "Did he now? How lovely." He stood straight up. "Let me make you your drinks – on the house!"
Rin glared. "I was going to get it."
"Nonsense my boy!" he exclaimed while turning his back to the two. He mixed their drinks, only to set a very large one in front of the girl. Leaning over the counter toward Rin as he passed him his drink, he spoke into the ear on the side opposite of the girl. "You can pay for yours if you'd like," the administrators voice wrapped around the boys ear like a snake.
Rin steamed beneath his skin. "Let's go. The group's waiting for us." A little surprised at Rin's change in demeanor, the girl got to her feet and prepared herself to push their way through the crowd once more.
Sir Faust then pulled the apron off over his head and hopped up over the counter-top, landing between the two. Instead of his normal extravagant outfits, he was wearing his normal lavender gloves, and a dark dress shirt, unbuttoned at the top to where his collar bones were exposed. He placed his arms over both of their shoulders and smiled deviously, exposing his sharp canines. "Shall we?" he sneered. As if he had known where the group was sitting, Johann drug the two students along to the very back corner of the club to a C-shaped booth. Most of the cram school students were there, including Yukio sitting next to a tomato red Shiemi, sitting around a table. Everyone greeted the approaching trio by either hollering or waving.
The girl smirked as she eyed Yukio and Shiemi, and she quickly shoved Rin into the booth next to the shy blonde girl, and then plopped down next to him so he couldn't escape. How fun would this be, she snickered to herself, already imagining Rin struggling to keep his composure. Johann sat across from the girl at the other end of the large seat, his eyes never straying too far from her for too long.
Rin was quiet as the group talked and the two girls on each of his sides leaned over his lap in order to talk to one another. His mind was elsewhere, torn between blushing from his predicament to being irritated by the two men at either ends – his own brother, and his headmaster.
