Notes: Nina and Vanessa are 16
Benny and Usnavie are 21
"Come on! You have to come out!" Vanessa pleaded with her best friend. If left to her own devices, Vanessa would live on the dancefloor. Nina knew some of the other girl's enthusiasm to spend her nights out came from a deep-rooted desire to avoid her home life, though no one could deny that she truly loved to dance and be the center of attention.
"One, I need to study for finals, two, we're sixteen. We shouldn't be at the club." Nina reasoned.
"It's Friday night. You can study all weekend." Vanessa argued already pulling stuff out of Nina's closet.
"Just because that dress is three sizes too small for me now, doesn't mean it'll make me suddenly look five years older than I am." She smirked with her arms crossed over her chest feeling victorious over her enthusiastic friend.
"You don't have to look old enough to get in, Domingo is covering the door today so he'll let us in. You just have to look less like a prude so we don't get kicked out."
Half an hour later Nina and Vanessa were very much inside a salsa club. Nina decided it was her duty as Vanessa's best friend to be a chaperone for her best friend, but really she was excited to be in the middle of the excitement. Vanessa was a regular from the looks of things, every few steps someone would greet her or ask her to save them a dance. Much like in school, Nina felt a combination of isolation and excitement when she entered the room with Vanessa. She attracted attention in a way that Nina had never been able to understand.
"You can go dance with that guy you know." Nina finally reassured Vanessa after she turned down the fourth offer to dance.
"No way! I'm not ditching you. I'll wait until two cute guys ask us to dance."
"Um, I'm not really a dancer though," she lamely tried to get out of a situation she wasn't even in yet.
"You don't have to be good, these losers just need a pretty girl on their arm." Nina thought about diving back into her earlier speech about legality and how dancing with guys over the age of twenty-one was potentially asking for trouble but she knew it would fall on deaf ears. "Come on, we can dance together for now," Vanessa exclaimed dragging her to a spot on the dance floor strategically in view of a group consisting of five or so guys at the bar.
It wasn't long before Vanessa's plan paid off and a couple of guys started dancing with them. Vanessa and her partner were seemingly trying to reenact a scene from Dirty Dancing while Nina was just trying to keep an eye on her friend and maintain a respectful distance from the guy trying to dance with her while not being outright rude. That didn't last long. One second the guy was pulling her closer to presumably whisper something in her ear, the next he was on the floor and Nina was looking straight into Benny's livid gaze. She spotted Usnavi with a couple of girls over Benny's shoulder looking shocked before he walked over to Vanessa's partner and calmly pulled her aside.
"We're leaving. Now." He said in a deadly voice. "You too Vanessa," he called over his shoulder not even looking at the girl in question.
"Excuse me macho-caveman-guy, I came here to dance." Vanessa countered.
"You're sixteen." he argued, "Something could happen to you, and I'm not willing to take that chance."
"I'm not leaving," she retorted planting her feet.
"Um, I can watch out for her. Make sure nothing gets too crazy." Usnavi offered.
"Fine. Whatever." Benny relented, knowing Usnavi would probably just sit on a barstool and let Vanessa dance with whoever she wanted then walk her home at the end of the night.
"I don't want to leave Vanessa," Nina argued.
"Too bad. Usnavi's got her, we're leaving." Sighing in resignation Nina went to hug Vanessa goodbye.
The ride back to the barrio was a quiet one. Nina was pouting and Benny was seething. "What the hell were you thinking?" Benny finally demanded.
"I just wanted to have fun." she shrugged, it wasn't like she could admit she'd been dragged to the club against her will. He'd really think she was a stupid little girl then. Plus it would prove his point.
"Fun? You're too young to be having that kind of fun."
"We were just dancing, I didn't even get a soda because statistically speaking bartenders are more likely to slip things in your drinks when you go out than random guys," she exclaimed causing Benny to laugh despite himself as he parked in front of his building, which was only a short walk from the Rosario's apartment. "You didn't have to lose it and punch the guy," she exclaimed angrily walking towards home.
"Trust me, ditching my date to make sure you don't get molested isn't my idea of a fun night either kid." he countered easily catching up to her which only served to drive her even crazier. She didn't need reminding that her longtime crush was dating. She knew he dated obviously but still he didn't have to rub it in her face.
"I think I can manage from this point, thanks. Maybe you can still salvage your date."
"Haha, like I'm going to take the chance you get mugged or worse this close to getting you home. I don't think so. Plus there's no way Sandra will talk to me anytime soon." Great, now she felt guilty. She hadn't wanted to go out anyway, and now, here was her friend Benny being nice and worried about her and she was being a spoiled brat.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled practically feeling him smirk next to her.
"Hey, we all do stupid shit. I'm actually surprised you went sixteen whole years without doing something illegal or reckless. If I hadn't been so worried when I saw that punk reaching for your ass I'd have been proud of you."
"Wait...what? EW! He was not reaching for my butt!" she gasped loudly.
"Seriously Rosario? You're way too oblivious to be going out to clubs." he laughed. "What would you do without me?" he asked ruffling her hair.
