Once we had paid a small cover fee and showed we were all at least eighteen, we had officially made it inside the club. The club has three levels. Downstairs, in the underground, was the twenty-one plus area, while the ground floor and upstairs level were free game. We all head towards one of the bars on the first level. Kai orders a vodka and soda, then follows Lorenzo upstairs who said he was going out for a smoke.
"Three shots of tequila!" shouts Dmitri to the guy behind the bar, handing him money. The guy pours the three shots, putting them out with small lime slices on top and then hands us three salt packets. I look at Dmitri and Kamila, confused about what to do, but I follow along with what they're doing. I open and pour the salt on the soft part of hand between my thumb and pointer finger on my left hand, while holding the lime between those fingers. Then, I grab the shot glass with my right hand.
"Ready?" Kamila says giving us a smile.
"Ready." Dmitri and I say in unison. Salt. Shot. Lime. We all let out a little whoop after finishing the shot, then we get 3 vodkas with cola to take to the dance floor with us. We find a small section with a small table and seats nearby that were still empty. We begin dancing to the music coming from the DJ's stand. Lorenzo and Kai came back to join us after a few minutes, but opted for sitting in the seats we found, rather than dancing. Kai spends his time sipping his drink and scrolling on his phone. Lorenzo, on the other hand, has his eyes glued to Kamila's figure as she danced. I learned during our games earlier in the night that Lorenzo is asexual, but that doesn't stop him from appreciating the beauty that is Kamila.
Every once in a while, Dmitri would pull Kai to the dance floor and try to start grinding on him, which would just result in Kai laughing, before sitting back down with Lorenzo. Kai was the least likely person to dance out of all of us. Lorenzo, on the other hand, would stand up and face Kamila as they danced very closely, while giggling and sharing small kisses here and there. Meanwhile, I just dance with who ever is free at the time. I might not have someone specific to dance with but I'm still having plenty of fun.
The time is just passed midnight now and we all have a few more shots in our system. We all move closer to the center of the dance floor, making a small circle where we all danced very close to each other. Throughout the night, Kamila, Dmitri, and I all ended up grinding on one another. It was all safe fun and I made sure I wasn't making any stupid mistakes with my new friends. At some point, I give Kamila a small playful kiss on the cheek, but to make up for it, I also give Dmitri a small kiss on the cheek as well. Which just resulted in cheek kisses for everyone. Which didn't seem stupid at all compared to what was about to follow.
"Are you having fun with all of us?" Kamila leans forward and whispers in my ear while we danced front to front.
"I don't remember the last time I had this much fun." I answer her truthfully, while wrapping my right arm around around her neck as we started dancing closer together so that we could talk easier. She is one hell of a dancer.
"Anything I can do to make your night better?" She says, giving me a small wink and pushing the lower half of our bodies together as we dance. By now in the night, Kamila is past tipsy to drunk and I don't want to put too much thought into what she is asking me. I'm also pretty tipsy, but I've learned that I could definitely hold my liquor.
"As long as you are close to me, I'll be happy." I say, returning the wink to her. I'm definitely feeling more comfortable around her now. I can also feel Lorenzo's eyes on me which subconsciously makes my body move farther away from Kamila's, and removing my arm from her neck.
"Then where are you going?" She asks, moving closer and placing both of her arms around my neck. My heart is definitely beating faster and my blood pressure must be off the charts.
"I just don't want to get in Lorenzo's way, if he wants to steal you back from me." I say with a small laugh, trying to play it off as a joke, hoping she would get what I'm talking about. But obviously she doesn't get the idea because the next thing that happened causes my brain to shut off completely.
Kamila's hands are on either side of my face, pulling it close. While her soft red lips are pressed to softly to mine and her eyes are closed. My eyes are wide open. I'm in shock. I don't know how to react. This woman is the most beautiful person I had ever seen, but she has a boyfriend and she is a Psychic. The last kind of person I would ever want to be romantically involved with. Not to mention, her boyfriend is also one of my friends, and if anything, the least likely person I would even want to betray. He's not a Psychic and he just got dragged into this. He doesn't deserve this kind of life. Returning to the main thought in my head, before I can even fully respond to the kiss or try to kiss her back or anything, she's already pulled away from me and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling my face close to hers so that my ear is near her mouth.
"You could say that me and Lorenzo are in a pretty open relationship."
These are the only words she could get out before moving her face away from mine and kissing me again. Which doesn't give me time to respond, but this time, I just go with it. I slide my arms around her waist, pulling her closer. Our hips are swaying in sync to the music, but our lips are moving in sync with the fast beating of our hearts.
"WOO! GET SOME KYOKO!" Dmitri shouts from beside us, as he danced with Kai and Lorenzo. Kai, on the other, had just let out a small snicker, he's pretty quiet. Lorenzo, who is pretty talkative, is completely silent. He also seems tense, as if he doesn't enjoy what was going on, but he isn't mad. As if he's used to it at this point. What had happened between him and Kamila to cause this, I wonder. My brain can't comprehend any reasonable answer as my thoughts have shut down to just going pretty girl at Kamila. After separating from our kiss, she smiles at me and gives me a soft kiss on the cheek. She goes back to dancing like nothing happened, before moving to dance with the guys. Dmitri, on the other hand, does stupid dance motions as he moves in my direction.
"That's pretty normal for Kamila. I just want to make sure you are okay, Kyoko." He gives me a small smile. It's almost like he actually cares about my feelings.
"I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy it, but it also kinda broke my heart a little bit. She's amazing, but why would she do that when she has a boyfriend?" I ask, as my eyes begin to water. No. I'm not going to cry over this girl, no matter how perfect she is.
"I could tell you enjoyed it." He says with a small laugh. "But the reason she does this is because they have been dating for many years now and have had many arguments about not being good enough for the other person. The fact that one of them isn't a Psychic and that one of them is, but most importantly, they feel like they are only really together because they wouldn't be able to find anyone better. I think Kamila is just taking the initiative to find that better person, while Lorenzo is just happy where he is. They love each other, but they don't think they are soulmates. I can't relate to them. I'm happy right where I am and never want that to change. I don't know what would happen to me if I didn't have Kai. But I want both of my friends to be happy and find the person they think they are really meant to be with. I think if they don't find that person in a few years, they will finally just settle down together. But for now, I just want them to get to live their lives to the fullest. If you know what I mean."
"I get what you are saying, but I just don't get between them in anyway." I begin to regret everything that happened tonight, should I even be here? What am I thinking? I can't be friends with Psychics, but I need to keep this up for longer if I want to get anywhere with my plan. I need them in my life, but I've fucked up and just want to end this all right now.
"Hey, Kyoko, calm down, I can feel that you are getting heated up, literally. But it's not worth it. Lorenzo isn't going to feel any different towards you, he knows that either way they will probably separate one day. Better you than someone else. I would think. Take a few deep breaths and just come have fun with us. You can kiss me to make up for it if you want." He says with a wink.
"I would need a few more drinks for that," I laugh.
"That can be arranged," Dmitri winks again.
"Do you have a twitching problem going on with your eye?" I ask, pointing to his eye that he keeps winking with.
"Rude, don't appreciate my humor then." He pretends to be offended as he walks back over to the group with the rest of our friends. I laugh at him before taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down. Dmitri will never let me down, even if I let him down. We continue to dance through and drink throughout night. I do end up giving Dmitri a kiss as part of a dare later on, which Kai just laughs at Dmitri for kissing a girl for once in his life. Towards the end of the night, I decide to approach Lorenzo and make it seem like I'm dancing with him. Then I lean over, giving Lorenzo a small kiss on the cheek.
"I'm sorry for kissing Kamila tonight. You are my friend and I respect you and I would never do anything to hurt you."
"It's okay, Kyoko, really, I don't mind. At least it was just you tonight and no one else in the club." He says with a shrug and a laugh, even though I can still tell he's a little heart broken. Though he does seem very genuine to me. I smile and give him a hug which, thankfully, he returns. "Thank you for coming out with us tonight, I think you make a really good friend for us. You fit right in and it's almost like you complete our group."
I can't help but to smile and give him another hug, I can't tell if how I feel towards him is genuine or if it's just the alcohol talking, as everyone that has been drinking is completely gone by now. I let the thought slide and continue to hug him. At least I know when I'm done with all the Psychics, I might have one friend to come back to, hopefully. We all go get a couple more shots before the club closes, so that we can be on our way back home.
Kai and Lorenzo lead our group out of the club. Although Kai is drunk, he is still walking pretty good and could probably pass as a sober person. Dmitri, Kamila, and I on the other hand. No way. Once we're outside of the club, Dmitri, Kamila, and I locked arms around each others shoulders. I'm in the middle and I'm happy to have my friends around me as walking is definitely hard and I keep almost tripping every 10 steps. Those last two shots were kicking in and I could definitely feel it. The chain of us start singing Oops, I Did It Again by Britney Spears as a way to pass the time to the car, it is obvious to everyone around us how drunk we are at this point, but we aren't ashamed. If anything, our singing gets louder, because it's not like most of us would remember this in the morning. Lorenzo and Kai even join in singing with us. We finally get the van and all pile in with Kai in the front seat with Lorenzo this time, because apparently the front seat isn't for people who are completely wasted.
"So, what's your address so we can take you home Kyoko?" Lorenzo says, looking at me. The only reply I can give is to giggle at him.
"What even is an address?" I ask while laughing.
"Can you lead me to where you live?"
"Oh, no no. My address is top secret. SHHHHH." I say with my finger in front of my lips to go with the shushing noise. "You can just drop me off at the mall."
"Kyoko… It's past midnight and that's not safe right now"
"I'll be fine!" I say, waving my hand at him.
"She could stay with us!" Kamila shouts from beside me, as a chorus of drunk giggling follows.
"I'm cool with that, but Dmitri, you have to give her a ride home tomorrow. Even if you have a hangover." Lorenzo says, looking at Dmitri for a reaction. Dmitri just laughs and gives him a thumbs up. With that, we all head back to Lorenzo's house.
As we are driving home, over a bridge, we notice that the lights around the city begin to shut off, starting with the the main skyscraper in the centre of the city and spreading out to the rest of the city. Thankfully, no one else is on the bridge with us this late at night. Lorenzo pulls over the van and we all step out, walking to the railing on the side of the bridge. The only thing visible in the distance is the The Memorial Circuit Stadium. Purple light floods upwards from the stadium, when all of a sudden something emerges from the stadium.
It looks like a head, then follows, wings and a tail. It looks like a dragon, but it's made of, what appears to be, red and black matter. What is going on? Pain strikes my forehead as if i've seen something like this happen before. A blinding white light appears from the dragon and spreads out over the stadium as the dragon spreads his wings. Then, as quickly he appears, he is gone. He appears to disintegrate from the bottom up. The last thing we see is smoke filling the area from the stadium. We get back in the van, just as the lights around the city all come back on. We don't say much about what we just saw. If anything, we pretend it didn't happen. That was for us to worry about another day, we just didn't know that day would be tomorrow.
"Welcome home!" Stella exclaims as she ushers us all to the kitchen where four glasses of water and four doses of aspirin are laid out. "You will all thank me in the morning."
Everyone but Lorenzo takes their medicine and drinks their water. Lorenzo, on the other hand, gives his mom a hug and grabs a tin of biscuits from the cupboard. With that, we all give Stella hugs and head upstairs.
"Have a good night." She says after us as we are going up the stairs.
"Good night." We all say in unison, the exhaustion hitting all of us.
Once we are upstairs, we make a large pile of blankets on the floor to sleep on. We all lay around in a circle with the biscuit tin between us snacking away.
"Thanks for all the fun you guys." I tell them all.
"No, thank you." Dmitri says. "We all had lots of fun with you tonight."
"That's gay." I joke.
"That's the point." He says laughing, before looking around at his other friends who are all all gave him nods like they knew what he was going to say next. "Plus, I think we can all agree that we would like you to hang out with us more often."
"I would love too." I say looking around at all of them, making sure that they know I like to be around all of them.
"Good. Because we have an extra ticket to go watch the Fortune Cup in two weeks." Dmitri says reaching on Lorenzo's desk in the room and handing me the ticket.
"The dueling tournament?"
"Yep!"
"I'm so excited to go! But, my real dream is that I wish I complete in a dueling tournament one day!"
"Well, you get to go with your new friends and maybe one day you will be lucky enough to compete in one yourself, maybe even with us." Dmitri says with a wink and a smile. This was a dream come true to watch a professional dueling tournament. I'm so excited, plus I would get to go with my friends. So, the four things I learned tonight, who my friends are, where to find Psychics, I would be going to the Fortune Cup in 2 weeks, and something strange was beginning in the City. That's all I could remember before falling asleep on the floor, surrounded by my new friends. In the morning, I would wake up with a hangover and find news of the strange events at the stadium everywhere.