Crystal blue ocean. Shimmering white sands. Yellow stone pavements. Five-star hotels offering rooms with sea views. Palm trees. Men in briefs, and women in bikinis. Thirsty throats are quenched by nothing but freshly squeezed juice.
Sunlight, sunlight, and more sunlight.
Costa Del Sol looks and feels exactly like it's marketed in travel agency magazines and websites.
The perfect summer getaways can only be achieved here in this seaside town.
On another day, Tifa would have gone sun tanning at the beach.
If not sun tanning, she would be skinny dipping in the waters, or hitting some volleyball with her tight crew.
But today isn't the day.
Today, she's practically dragging her whole body and feet to be here.
She doesn't want to be here.
She's here only because two days ago, Cloud spent almost an hour begging for her to come.
She lost count on the many times she told him a solid no.
Like why the fuck should she go to a birthday celebration for an asshole who, in her opinion, should have never been born?
When begging didn't work, he tried guilt-tripping her into going by saying she's going to make him lose his job if she doesn't come because then he can't come.
It's 'social suicide' for him, he said… whatever the fuck that means.
The only thing she knows about it is that it's just a stupid and overdramatic threat.
But Tifa gave in anyway because she couldn't stand Cloud giving her the silent treatment, stomping around their apartment and banging stuff on the counters and table – the usual temper tantrum when he doesn't get his way.
So now she's sipping her martini quietly in the town's trendiest nightclub, watching a crowd gather around Zack Fair, the asshole – the birthday man.
He's all sunshine and rainbows.
She wants to scrape that smile on his face to reveal the demon that lies underneath all that pretty guy mask.
In from the backdoor comes Aerith, bringing a birthday cake topped with burning candles.
She's singing the birthday song for him before everyone else decides to join her.
At two steps away from him, she stops and tells him, "Make a wish."
Zack shuts his eyes for a couple of seconds, then blows off the candles.
As the crowd breaks out into cheers and someone's taking the cake away from Aerith, he scoops her into one of his arms and they kiss.
Tifa looks away.
She really doesn't want to be here.
"Tifa! Hey, Tifa!"
Tifa whirls her head to see who's calling her.
At a round stand-up table where the cake is being cut, Zack's looking at her with a smile.
"What're you doing there all alone? Come here and join us," he says, gesturing for her to come over.
She obliges – reluctantly.
When she reaches the table, Zack's offering her a spoonful of the cake with a grin.
She eyes him suspiciously.
His eyebrows shoot up as if he's asking so, are you going to eat it or not?
She's not sure what his intentions are but she chooses to eat it anyway.
Who knows what he's going to do if she doesn't…
Her mouth's munching the cake but her eyes stray to Aerith.
Aerith's giving her nothing – not even a smile.
A flashy guy with sunglasses takes over the DJ decks and techno tracks start booming from the speakers.
The cake's all but forgotten as people rush to the dance floor.
Zack and Aerith are dancing too.
Tifa can't help but stare.
They look… happy, too close to one another and so. sickly. in. love.
She's done being a spectator of their whole PDA.
What she needs are drinks and she's going to get them.
Shots, shots and more shots of vodka.
She doesn't count. She just orders them, one after another at the bar.
Her only goal is to get as drunk as she possibly can.
So filthy drunk that she won't feel anything else.
She's on her who knows what number of shots when she feels someone tugging her arm, pissing her off.
Her anger quickly evaporates when she finds out that it's Aerith.
"Dance with me!"
"But I thought you're dancing with Zack…?"
Aerith tugs at her even harder until she's off the stool, and they're now heading to the dance floor.
Aerith's dancing again like the floor is hers and hers alone.
Hip swaying. Shoulders swinging. Head's moving to the beats of the music, tossing her long brown hair all over her.
Watching her… makes Tifa forget how to breathe at times.
It's giving Tifa a hard time keeping her head together.
The strobe lights are spinning around the room and Tifa finds herself coming closer to Aerith.
A kiss.
That's all she wants to give to the other woman.
She doesn't care if someone's going to see them.
She assumes that the strobe lights would also give them a good cover.
And Aerith's looking at her like she wants it too.
All of a sudden, Aerith's no longer in front of her.
It's happening too fast. Someone's pulling her away.
Tifa searches through the crowd and finds that she's back in Zack's arms.
They're kissing again.
But this time… Zack has his eyes locked onto Tifa.
Cold and alarming.
That's how he's staring at her, like he's daring her not to look away.
It doesn't scare her.
In fact, it emboldens her to defy him.
She turns around to make her way back to the bar and finds that someone's blocking her way.
She freezes.
She realizes who it is.
Cloud has been nearby the entire time.
He's looking at her now with a frown, before his eyes drift to Zack.
Guilt starts eating her up.
"Uhh… wanna dance with me, Cloud?"
It's a pathetic invitation, the best she can come up with to remedy the situation.
But he's not buying it.
Who does?
"Nah, I'm good."
Tifa nods and leaves.
She decides not to stop over at the bar again and instead heads straight back to the hotel room she shares with Cloud.
For the rest of the night, she waits for him to return.
But he never does.