Meanwhile...
"Ah...now isn't this nice, babe?" Candy asked her girlfriend as the two were eyeing around the semi-empty bar they were in, sitting at the exact same table where Crystal sat when she was signing her job-applications days prior. "This has got to be the most perfect time for us to hang out here, where you and I can just enjoy ourselves away from the club for once; and no boys to come over and try to flirt with us either, since most of them here seem to be already taken. We should consider doing this more often if this is how it's like here every Tuesday."
"Totally." Sapphire says in agreement, taking a sip of her beer afterwards. "Although, it's such a shame that Zack wasn't able to come along with us tonight."
"Well, somebody's gotta watch over the club while I'm gone." Candy stated before taking a sip of her beer. "The last time we left that place unattended during the night, we found someone making himself breakfast in the snack-bar. Luckily for us, it was that Edwin guy you've helped get together with that Maria girl who works at that restaurant a few blocks from the club; and we're even more lucky that he was only there to get out of the hurricane that had came to Simport that night, and not to take any of our equipment."
"That sounds like something Derek Oaken would do." Sapphire comments. "Edwin's a totally nice guy, who wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was bugging him while he's eating."
"Well, that's good to know...I guess..." Candy muttered with a hint of a chuckle, before turning to look at the window next to them. "Speaking of Derek, it looks like-"
"OH MY GOSH!" Sapphire blurts out, interrupting her girlfriend in the process. "Don't tell me that asshole's here right now!"
"He's not." The blonde tomboy assured her girlfriend. "But his ex-girlfriend is."
The two party girls paused their conversation so that they can look at the window, seeing the sight of Crystal standing there and waving at them awkwardly; this in turn causes the couple to wave back, before the rebel proceeded to make her way to the front-entrance of the bar. Once she was inside, Crystal ran over to the table and sat down next to Candy. "Hey guys, I'm here." She greeted. "Did I miss anything?"
"Nope." Sapphire answered as she moves a bottle that was next to her over to the rebel. "By the way, we ordered this one for you."
"Uh...thanks guys." Crystal says in a confused and suspicious tone. "I don't know why you girls invited me out here, but if it's for drinks, then-"
"It's not just for drinks, Crystal." Candy told the rebel, stopping the girl in the middle of her sentence. "Sapphire and I wanted to let you in on something."
"But before we go any further, we just have one question to ask you: have you heard anything from any of the pharmacies yet?" Sapphire asked as she leaned closer to the rebellious tomboy, as the latter's confused expression became that of worry. "Uh oh...that can't be good..."
"Throughout the past two days, I've received calls back from at least twelve of the forty that are in town...all of which rejected me." Crystal answered in an awkward tone, causing the party-loving couple to exchange worried glances. "But w-what does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, I've been giving it some thought, and in case things don't work out for you and any of those pharmacies...then you're free to come work with us." Candy informed the rebel, causing the latter to look at the former in surprise.
"Really?" Crystal asked as she continued stared at the party-loving tomboy. "You're actually telling me that I'm hired at Club Candy?"
"Totally." Candy says, before taking another sip of her beer. "It's up to you though, since there's still about twenty-eight pharmacies left that hasn't given you their final word yet; but in case you wind up changing your mind on that occupation, then feel free to stop by the club and let us know."
"Well, uh...thanks girls." Crystal says as she held up fist, letting the tomboy she was sitting next to bump it with her own. "This is totally generous of you to do for me."
"Despite you weren't planning on it, Candy and I came to an agreement to hire you anyway, since your situation was kinda like Zack's when we first met him." Sapphire explained as she took another sip of her beer. "Before he came to Club Candy, he wanted to go work at one of the party stores over at the mall, but he was unfortunately rejected by...uh, all of them; because he moved into town the moment every last of them had enough employees. Then, when he felt as if all hope was totally lost, he found us; and now we're the best of friends."
"So where is he?"
"He's back at the club, making sure that nobody sneaks into it while we're gone." Candy answered as she glances over at the rebel for a quick second. "Whenever we're not having a party at the club, we'd usually take turns watching over the place while the other two go off and do something elsewhere."
"You guys stay at Club Candy overnight whenever there's not a party going on?" Crystal asked with an eyebrow raised, clearly intrigued by the piece of information that was just given to her. "So, what you're saying is that whenever you guys have a day-off, or in this case the night-off, then I, or you, gets the club all to themselves for a whole night?"
"Yeah...that's exactly what we're saying." Candy answered while giving the rebel a suspicious look. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing...it's just that if what you're saying is true, then that means that I can have a night away from my four sisters; and if this tends to be occasional, then-"
"My club is a club, not a hotel." Candy says in a deadpan, yet serious, tone of voice. "You're only staying overnight to make sure that nobody breaks in and to take inventory of our food and storage, not sit around and act as if you live there now."
"Chill out, dude; I'm not actually going to treat your club as if it's suddenly my new home." Crystal assured the club-owner. "Although, it would be nice if I had lived somewhere far away from my pesky sisters again."
"There's always the apartments that are, like, a few blocks away from our club." Sapphire says as a suggestion. "That's where Zack lives now, so..."
"I'll probably look into that whenever I have the time." Crystal replied as she held up a fist towards the party girl across the table, allowing the latter to bump it, which she does. "Thanks, Saph."
"Your very welcome, Crystal." Sapphire replied back, which was when she glanced over to the bar's main entrance; and when she did, her smile instantly turned into a frown. "Oh no...it, like, totally can't be." She says clearly horrified, much to the confusion of the two tomboys.
"What?" Candy asked her girlfriend with an eyebrow raised at her, before the latter pointed off towards the entrance.
"Look who's here, girls."
Without a word, both tomboys peeked out from behind their seat to look at the person Sapphire was pointing at: the person was a woman with black hair tied into two pigtails and had part of it dyed purple, and was wearing an eyepatch with a black and gray striped shirt with a dark gray long-sleeved undershirt, as well as black baggy pants with a chain attached to the side. Upon seeing this person, Crystal knew right away who she was; and after having to remember one specific moment that she's previously had with this girl, the rebel grew angry. This person, who just walked in, was none other than Brandi Smith; the girl Crystal caught making out with Derek back when they were dating.
"That bitch..." Crystal muttered as she balled her fist, keeping her glare focused on the bad girl. "I could wipe that smug look off her face right now-"
"Crystal, don't you even think about it." Candy says calmly as she gently placed a hand into the rebel's fist, causing the latter to turn and glare at her for trying to intervene. "Brandi might've ruined your relationship with Derek in the past, and you have every reason to be pissed her for doing so; but going up to her and provoking a fight isn't going to change anything, let alone make you feel better."
"Oh, I'll feel much better once that bitch gets a second eyepatch!"
"Uh...girls." Sapphire says worriedly, pointing towards the left side of the seat across from her. "Brandi's, uh..."
"So, it's nice to you three punks sitting around here and talking about me..." Brandi says as she leaned against the seat that the two tomboys were sitting in, all while glaring at Crystal.
"Don't talk to me..." Crystal told the bad girl in a very cold tone of voice. "You've got a lot of nerve to after everything that went down between you and Derek back at that movie theater..."
"Yeah, I had a feeling you were STILL pissed with me for all of that..." Brandi says under her breath as she leaned forward in order to glare directly into the rebel's face, all while the latter was keeping her eyes focused away from the former, who just proceeded to taught her. "Maybe Derek just wanted to be with someone who'd be a much better girlfriend than someone like you, Crystal; because I'm way more fun to have around, and you're a boring piece of shit who doesn't know what 'fun' is."
"I don't find dropping a baseball down the pizzeria's chimney 'fun'."
"This coming from the girl who'd ruthlessly prank our school's cheerleading-squad, without taking consideration of how any of them felt."
"Well, that's different." Crystal retorts as she turned her head to finally glare at the bad girl. "Summer and her little group of bitches were one of the meanest cliques from our school, and since she reminds me of my worst sister, that gave me enough reason to hate her and every girl that's on her stupid squad."
"Hypocrite..." Brandi remarks as she stood herself back up, still keeping her eyes focused on the rebel as she did. "You're really pathetic for a tough girl such as yourself..."
"Brandi, knock it off!" Candy demanded the bully, which the latter unfortunately ignored and continued to pester the rebel.
"Maybe being friends with that dentist has really done a thing to you, huh?"
"Leave her out of this..." Crystal muttered under her breath, fist balled once again; the sight of this began to worry Sapphire, as she was slowly lowering herself down into her seat.
"That's enough, Brandi!" Candy barks to the bully, who was still ignoring her throughout all of this. "Leave Crystal alone and get lost!"
"Hey! What's going on over there!" The bartender asked from the front-counter, who was only now starting to take notice of the argument that was slowly starting to escalate; and just like Candy, he was also ignored by both Brandi, who just continued to taunt the rebellious tomboy.
"Perhaps Derek decided to go from you to me because you decided to be friends with some girl who thinks and acts as if she's cool, when in reality, she's nothing but a complete loser and a total nerd!" Brandi teased, which unfortunately caused the rebel to instantly stand up from her seat, glaring the former directly into her eyes.
"NOW YOU'VE ASKED FOR IT!!!" Crystal screamed as she swung a punch into Brandi's face, much to the shock of both party girls sitting behind her. "YOU DON'T EVER INSULT MY BEST FRIEND RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!"
Brandi stood up from the ground while wiping the bruise she received on her lip, giving the rebel a smirk as she held onto the table in order to regain her balance. "I'll give you this, pal: at least you've got strength compared to that nerd..." The bully says as she straightens herself up. "Too bad it's my turn now!"
"Not if I-" Before Crystal could finish the rest of her sentence, Brandi punches her in the stomach, making her kneel forward where she then elbows her in the back of the head, sending the rebel falling to the floor. Once she was on the ground, Crystal glared up towards the prankster and flipped her off. "Go to hell, you boyfriend-stealing bitch!" She says bitterly.
"Ha, I could've came up with a way better insult than that!" Brandi stated as she held up one of her fists, prepared to punch the rebel again; but right before she could do that, Candy grabbed a hold of her arm. "What the fuck are you doing, loser?!"
"Stopping you from hurting our friend, that's what!" Candy answered angrily, glaring directly into the bully's eyes. "Don't you think she's had enough?!"
"BACK THE HELL OFF AND MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" Brandi demanded as she swipes her arm out of the party girl's hand.
"I SAID LEAVE HER ALONE!" Candy shouts as she pushed Brandi away from the rebel, then proceeded to help the latter off of the floor. "Are you alright, dude?"
"It's not like I haven't been in a fight before." Crystal jokingly stated as she got back onto her feet, right as Brandi launched herself towards them.
"THAT'S IT!!! NOW YOU'RE DEAD, MONTELL!!!" Brandi screamed angrily as she leapt towards the table, where she promptly crashes into it, knocking everything that was on top of it onto the floor; thankfully, all three of the girls had gotten out of the way in time, with Candy and Crystal jumping out of the way, and Sapphire already having to be standing next to the side of the front-counter.
"Girls, please just stop this!" Sapphire says in an attempt to reason with the three who were fighting, which was when the bartender and a few of the waiters came over to put a stop to all of this themselves.
"That's enough you three!" The bartender shouts, all while a few of the waiters got in between the small trio to prevent any of them from making any further moves. "If you girls are going to fight, you're gonna have to take it outside!"
"SHUT IT AND STAY OUT OF THIS, BLUE HAIR!!!" Brandi shouts at the bartender, who just stared at her stoically in response.
"How petty..." He muttered, before turning towards the waiters that were next to Brandi, pointing at the front-entrance behind him with his own thumb, signaling them to toss the prankster out of the building; then he turned to face Candy and Crystal. "Luckily for the both of you, my girlfriend, Violet, informed me ahead of time about Brandi and her tendency to cause trouble; but because of the fact that you, with the black vest, were the one who threw the first punch in that fight, I'm afraid I'm still going to have to ask you both to leave."
"Do I have to leave too?" Sapphire asked as she stepped into the conversation.
"Since you weren't one of the people who took part in that fight, you're still allowed to stay; but if you don't want to, then that's fine as well." The bartender told her, before proceeding to head back to his post.
'To heck if I'm staying here and my girlfriend's kicked out...' Sapphire thought to herself as she headed over to Candy, who was currently heading out the door with Crystal following from behind. 'This place is dead anyway...'
Once all three girls had left the building, they all turned their heads in unison to see Brandi was standing in front of the ice-container that was near the front-door, collecting one of the cubes inside to place onto her bruised lip. "So, I'm guessing you three came out to finished what you've started, huh?" The prankster asked as she kept the small bag of ice she collected held against her bottom lip. "If so, then I'll gladly-"
"We were kicked out, just like you." Crystal told the girl in the eyepatch, before she and the party couple began walking away from her. "Also, no; we're not finishing up this ridiculous fight which, by the way, you started."
"You've started it, not me." Brandi retorts as she continued to watch the trio walk away from her. "H-Hey! Don't you dare walk away from me, Crystal!!!"
"I can and I will! Crystal shouts back as she and the party girls got into Candy's car, which was thankfully parked nearby; and then once they were inside the vehicle, the trio took off back into town, leaving the girl in the eyepatch to wave her fist at them as they left.
"Fucking cowards..." Brandi muttered as she decided to just walk back into the bar.
"Hey, sorry for having you guys kicked out along with me back there." Crystal told the party-loving couple as they were driving down one of the many roads that were in the neighborhood. "It just pisses me off that I have to be constantly reminded of how shitty things went between me and Derek; the fact that Brandi of all people was there didn't make things any better for me."
"It's cool, dude." Candy says as she causally shrugged at the rebel's apology. "Honestly, who wouldn't want to kick Derek or Brandi's asses at this point, knowing that both of them are just so fucking reckless and stupid; and even worse, totally fucking rude to almost everyone around them?" She proceeded to ask, before shrugging nonchalantly again. "Something like that was bound to happen to one of them eventually."
"Tell me about it..." Crystal mutters as she faced forward for a second, before looking at the blonde tomboy sitting next to her and continued talking. "To tell you guys the truth though, I was actually kinda hoping that it would've been Derek showing up at the bar."
"Why?" Candy asked as she raised an eyebrow at the rebel. "The asshole broke your heart."
"I know; but after my encounter with him at the ball yesterday, I kinda wanted to teach him a lesson for messing with James."
"Derek attacked my cousin yesterday?!" Sapphire asked, aghast by the information that the rebel was saying.
"Well, I think he attempted to attack him; although, I'm pretty sure James was doing everything he can in order to provoke him."
"Typical James doing totally typical things..." Sapphire mutters while rolling her eyes. "How am I NOT surprised?"
After hearing her girlfriend's comments towards her own cousin, Candy decided to revert the conversation back to what the rebel was previously telling them, feeling a little suspicious about something regarding what she had said. "You're not still in love with Derek, are you?" She asked Crystal. "It might just be me mistaking everything here as something totally different, but with you wanting him to show up at the bar instead of his girlfriend, I can't help but think that-"
"I'm not in love with him anymore." Crystal interrupts, stopping the blonde tomboy mid-sentence. "Like I've said, I just want to kick his ass for trying to attack James yesterday, and let him know for the one-hundredth time that it's over between us; because now that I'm back in town, the world apparently doesn't have me to hear the end of it..."
"Hey, Sapphire; do ya think you can make some sense out of all this for me?" Candy then asked her girlfriend, all while keeping her eyes focused on the front-mirror.
"For the most part, that would usually mean that the person in question's still in love with the person who broke their heart." Sapphire stated, which earned her a glare from her rebellious friend. "Look, I'm not saying that you still have feelings for him at all; because trust me, I don't know what the hell I was even thinking when I've gotten you two together in the first place. What I'm saying here is that there's probably one part of you that wishes things could've gone better between you and Derek; that maybe you and him could've been one of the greatest couples in this town if he hadn't cheated on you."
"Well, I do wish that things have gone better between us, and maybe there is a part of me that does miss him deep down; but even if I hadn't found out what he and Brandi had done behind my back, I don't think that our relationship would've last after, like, a whole year." Crystal said to the brown-haired party girl. "I don't believe I've ever told you girls this, but Derek tried to have Gino's Pizzeria burn down thanks to dropping a baseball down the chimney, which he tried to get me involved in too; but thankfully, I declined for obvious reasons."
"Which is exactly why I now believe that getting you together with him was a mistake." Sapphire commented while nodding her head in agreement.
"Eh, don't blame all of this on yourself, Sapphire." Crystal says in a means to comfort the party girl behind her. "Besides, I fell in love with him and thought he was handsome to begin with; so I'm partially, if not mostly, to blame for my last relationship happening." She then paused so that she can point out where her house was to Candy, allowing the latter to pull up against the side of the road that they were currently on. "Whoever I'll fall in love with next, I'll let you know if they're a good person before I tell you; does that sound good, Saph?"
"Totally." The party girl says as the two bumped first; but right before Crystal could step out of the vehicle, Candy decided to stop her for a second.
"Uh...hey, Crystal." Candy says as she reached into one of the pockets of her own jeans. "Do you mind if I give you something before you leave?"
"What is it?"
"This." Candy replied as she pulled out a folded piece of paper. "In case you decide to come work with us, this is a small list of rules and pointers that are required for you to work at our club; most of which are pretty basic, since we're supposed to be fun and we don't like to complicate things, or go into large amount of detail whenever it comes to new employees. But regardless, feel free to read it over and if you change your mind on working as a pharmacist, then come down to our club, or give one of us a call and let us know what your decision is."
"Um...thanks, Candy." Crystal told the blonde tomboy as the former proceeded to step out of the vehicle now. "I'll let you know what my decision is later on in the week."
"Alright." Candy replied as she started up her car once again. "We'll see you later, Crystal."
"Same to you, dudes!" After the rebel says this, the two party girls headed back into town, leaving the former of the bunch to turn around and head back inside her own house.
Note: So, there's really nothing much for me to say here, other than that a new character has decided to join in; the prankster and MorcuCorp minion, Brandi. We've seen how Crystal felt being reunited and encountering Derek on a few occasions throughout this story so far, and now we're seeing how she feels having to see the girl who her boyfriend had cheated on her with; and needless to say, our rebellious tomboy is anything but happy about it. Brandi might make some more appearances in the story later on, but I'm not quite sure when and where she'll be popping up.
Now, let's see what reviews we have for today are...
lordgemini: The fact that Katie's in love with Chaz, yet she's willing to try and help fix his relationship with Summer, really says a lot about her; and it's clear that she's being genuine about it too. Also, it's kind of coincidental that Chaz is trying to force himself that he's totally fine, because that's exactly what Katie's doing when it comes to her late mother; and now that I think about it, the previous chapter's a lot more sadder than I originally thought.
Hopefully, the next chapter will be a lot less sadder than the previous one, and have a lot less fighting than this one. Until then, I hope you're all having a wonderful day and I will see you all next time.