Months Later...
Felicia knocked on her sister's door. She shifted her weight to one hip, applied lip gloss in a tiny mirror and knocked again.
"Camille!" she chirped. "C'mon, Cam, open up!"
Cam appeared behind the door. She was wearing an oversized sweatshirt, her hair was pulled into a ponytail. She looked exhausted.
Felicia pushed her way into the door. "Wow. You get hit by a bat? I mean seriously, Cam. Maybelline called. They want their before picture back."
Original.
Cam rolled her eyes and walked into the living room where she had been curled up on the couch.
Felicia let her eyes roll over the apartment. "You seriously gotta get yourself outta this rut, Cam. I mean, what? It's been like a month, right?"
Cam laughed. "I'm just buried in school work, Felicia. It has nothing to do with Eric."
"That loser? He wouldn't know a good woman if she hit him in the face with a wet towel," Felicia muttered as she walked into Cam's bedroom.
For a moment, Cam didn't know what she should do. Follow her sister?
Cam got off from the couch and went into her bedroom. "What are you doing, Felicia?"
Her sister was busily digging through Cam's closet tossing dresses onto the bed. She held up a few to her own body, tossing them into a pile.
Cam shook her head at the total destruction of the only tidy room in the house. She began to pick up the dresses from the bed as fast as Felicia could throw them down. Felicia swatted her hands away, throwing the dresses back into the pile.
"What are you doing?"
"You're going out with me."
"I've got midterms at the end of this week, Felicia, there's no way--"
"What? You think that every time a hot stupid guy breaks up with you that you can suddenly bury yourself in more college? Honey, please. Life isn't about getting doctorates, Cam. It's about living life, having fun every once in a while, hooking up--" Felicia's large eyes were full of excitement over the prospect of teaching her sister how to 'live life' properly.
"I'm not going to do any hooking up."
"What? You'd rather stare at a laptop all night? This one's cute." She held up a very short red thing.
"I haven't worn that since I was twenty."
"Well, you're twenty-one tonight. Anyone asks, you're twenty-one. Old enough to get into the club--Oh this one's hot!" She held up a short black number.
Cam swiped it from her sister's hands, holding it against her body almost defensively.
"Put it on, Cam. You've got all week to fight crime and study for midterms or whatever. Tonight, you're going out with me."
"I don't think so--"
"For my birthday?"
Cam froze. "It's your birthday, isn't it? I'm so sorry--"
"If you go out with me, all's forgotten." Felicia flashed that patented puppy-dog-eye look.
Cam rolled her eyes. Going out with her sister was one thing. Going out and dealing with a drunk Felicia was a completely different thing altogether.
"Fine."
Felicia grinned. She even bounced a little. She always wore her hair curly. The curls jounced. "Yes! How about this one?" She grinned, mischievously, holding a teeny purple dress up.
Cam sighed. With a tight-lipped, annoyed look on her face, she took the dress from her sister. "Only because it's your birthday, otherwise you'd be out the door."
...
The deep base beat from the club could be heard, and felt, nearly two blocks away. Cam and Felicia walked among the late-night drinking and partying crowd to the club.
"Daaaaaaaaaaamn, Cam," Felicia whispered. "You look so fine."
Cam did not feel like wearing such a revealing dress. It fit great on her, she had only gained maybe two pounds since she last wore it--and mostly in the parts where it would really count--but she definitely felt more like wearing a sweatshirt.
"Now this is the part where you compliment me," Felicia snipped.
"You look fine, too, sis."
"Wow, Cam, that was heart-warming."
They filed in line.
"IDs please."
Felicia gave the bouncer both of their IDs.
"You twins?" He handed the IDs back.
"God no," Cam whispered.
"Do you want us to be?" Felicia replied, shooting the man an enticing look.
He grinned back. "You ladies can go right in."
"Thank you." More sexually-iced looks.
Cam tried to keep her eyes from rolling around her cranium.
Felicia shook it as they walked into the club. Every man within a ten foot perimeter of the women nodded approvingly. Some hollered. Others whistled.
"Dance with me!" Felicia yelled above the music.
"I really don't feel like--"
Her sister grabbed her by the hand, dragging her into the crowd. The music thudded in her head. How could anyone risk getting drunk in such a place? Talk about a trip.
Her sister was dancing, shaking her hair around, the gel loosening, the 'Fro growing larger with every wild toss of her head. She screamed with the crowd when they yelled out the repetitive line from the live Rap Artist.
I'd like to say that it didn't take long for Cam to get into it, but it actually did. She didn't like being around her sister that often. She loved her, yes, but the death of their mother made the women go in two very different directions. Cam delved into her work and her studies. Felicia partied hearty, dating men with money, picking up a class or two at the community college at her leisure.
The song ended with Felicia fanning herself. "It's hot!" She looked thoroughly blissed, smiling ear-to-ear.
"I'm going to get us some drinks," Cam offered. She really just wanted off from the crowded dance floor. Dozens of hot bodies slamming against hers. The floor was at least twenty degrees warmer than other places in the club.
"Get me some water!" Felicia turned and smiled at a man standing beside her. "I'm Felicia."
"Davis." He smiled.
Cam turned, ignoring that whole interaction and walked up the stairs, weaving between clubbers and people groping each other on the steps.
Finding the bar was simple. She followed the heard. She pushed between people and stood at the bar for several minutes before one of the bartenders noticed her. "What can I do for ya?"
"Two waters."
"Aquafina?"
She nodded.
The water was passed.
She took it into her hands as a man beside her asked for a scotch on the rocks or something to that extent.
She turned, running immediately into a tall man.
He smiled, recognizing her. "Camille."
"Cam," she corrected, rather irritated.
"This is my, um, brother Jared. Hey, Jared."
His brother turned, one hand holding the alcoholic beverage, the other extending. "Jared Booth."
Cam smiled, shaking hands with Booth's brother.
"You work with Seeley?" Jared asked.
"Cam's a cop," Booth told his brother.
"Nice. So I'm guessing you came along a nasty one? Had to pass it off to my brother here?"
"Something like that," Cam replied.
"You here alone?" Booth asked.
Cam rolled her eyes to the dance floor. "My sister dragged me out."
"Dragged you? Something tells me Cam Saroyan doesn't get dragged." Booth smiled. One of those smiles.
"It's her birthday. Otherwise, I'd be curled up on the couch with a glass of wine a textbook the size of Manhattan."
"Textbook? Going to school?"
"Long story short, yes." She sighed. "Well, it was nice seeing you again, Seeley. Jared, nice to meet you." She walked away, through the crowd, leaving the two men to watch her walk away.
"She single?" Jared asked, turning around toward the bar.
Booth took the seat beside him. "I dunno." He took a drink.
"A hot woman actually takes the time to talk to you and you don't even catch her status?" Jared laughed, shaking his head and lifting his drink to his lips.
"Call me crazy, but I'm not exactly on the prowl." Booth reached up his elbow, knocking Jared's drink just enough to slosh over the edges of the glass.
Jared laughed, pointing a free finger at his brother. "You keep it up and I'll--I'm too drunk to think of a good enough threat." He took a drink. "So how's Rebecca? Still treatin' you like shit?"
Booth glared at his brother. Without a word, he stood up and left the bar.
Jared turned on the seat, gesturing his innocence with a tumbler, "Fuckin' touchy, man!"
Booth walked through the crowds, down the steps, between the groping couples, the drunk and laughing people, the ones wiggling their butts erotically to the music, following the woman with the long dark hair. He caught up with her on the dance floor.
She was taking a drink of water and caught his eye as he walked up to her. "Can I help you?" she asked when she had swallowed.
"I dunno," he said, smiling-- almost flirtatiously. "You wanna go get a bite?"
She laughed sarcastically. "If it's sex you want, you should've either chosen someone who's drunk off their ass or waited until I've had a few. It's not like you don't have a lot of options." Booth followed her gaze to her drunk sister, laughing hysterically a few feet away.
"I don't want sex," Booth said.
"All men want sex."
"Not this man. I actually have a girlfriend--" He scrunched his face a bit. "Off an' on."
"Off an' on?"
"How about I save you the life story? Just say that I don't want sex, but I do want out of here. And from the looks of it, you're in the same boat."
Cam looked at her sister again. By then, Felicia was being pressed against a wall, her hands threading the man's hair, his hands squeezing her bare thigh, their lips attacking one another.
Cam put her water down on a nearby table, grabbed Booth's hand and dragged him back up the stairs and into the cool night.
--
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