The Bennett boys arrived at the club a quarter of an hour later in Jacob's ten-year-old red Chevy Cavalier. As soon as they were parked, Michael and Kevin ran out of the backseat, hollering with excitement as they ran to the entrance.
The club had been rented out for the twenty-first birthday by a well-off acquaintance of the two elder Bennetts, a friend from high school they barely knew. He had spared no expense at getting the wildest party he could get.
Eli, Jacob and James lost track of the younger brothers as they ran up ahead, and by the time they got through security and into the dark club, the loud music blasting, and full of college kids dancing and drinking, they had no idea where they were anymore.
"Such vociferous music seems like it could cause permanent trauma to the tympanic membrane," shouted James.
"What?" said Jacob.
"I can barely understand him in a quiet room," said Eli.
"There you are!" shouted Michael, Kevin following after him. "Can you believe they made us wear these stupid wristbands so we can't drink. What is this crap? Oh, Eli, you're gay friend Chase is here, he's at the table in the corner."
"He's not gay," said Eli.
"Oh yeah, then how come he hasn't had a date in the last six years?"
Eli saw Chase sitting down, gulping down a beer. They had worked together at the video store for a year, and were great friends, although Chase was seven years older. They had the same taste in games, and the same ironic detachment in their outlook on life. He was, perhaps, more bitter than Eli, but that would be expected.
Chase Lewis was not gay. In fact, he thought about women all the time. His problem was that he was socially clueless. He was unattractive, had a pot belly, had greasy, unwashed hair, and bad breath. His constant rejection and bad luck with love had made him positive he'd spend the rest of his life alone.
"Hey Chase!" said Eli, sitting down at the stool next to him. "Drinking, huh? So what else is new. Didn't expect to see you here."
"Meh, I figured it was a chance to be around a lot of vulnerable drunk women. Plus I forgot to pay my World of Warcraft bill, so I had nothing else to do. Come on, let's sit here and make fun of the idiots we see."
"Hey, I'm going to get something at the bar," said Jacob, "You want anything?" Eli decline, and Jacob left.
"We found her!" Michael came racing to the table, pushing past dancing couples, Kevin puffing behind him. "Look, over by the bar! It's her, Chloe Brown!" Eli looked at, and across the room spotted the same attractive woman that he had seen in the magazine ad. If possible, she was hotter in person.
"Not so quick, bro, she's with a guy." They saw her talking with a very well-dressed man.
"Don't worry, I got the lowdown on that from one of my buddies. That's her brother. Those other two on her side are her other brother and his fiancee."
Eli saw an older couple by the woman's side. They were talking to another girl. Eli's eyes widened. She was even more beautiful the model. Tall, elegant, with long dark hair. She had an incredible figure.
"And who's she?" he asked. Michael looked where his brother was pointing, did a double-take, and then fumbled into his pocket.
"It can't be..." He pulled out a rolled up magazine, folded on the perfume ad with Chloe Brown's figure.
"What?" said Eli. Michael unfolded the magazine to the cover, and held it inches from his brother's face.
"Her." Eli looked at the cover, a candid snapshot of a woman was on it, promising a juicy secret about her within. It did look like the stranger at the bar.
"Faith Diaz. Only one of the sexiest and richest women in the world - and she's just a few yards from us! Can you believe it? Compared to her, Chloe Brown's the girl next door. She's this famous heiress, her family's worth millions, her name's always in the tabloids. How do you not know about her?"
"I really don't follow that stuff."
The five men stared at the two beautiful women across the bar. Suddenly, they saw Chloe Brown jump up. Someone had accidently spilled a drink on her. It was Jacob.
"Oh God, Jacob just got beer all over her shirt!" said Michael. "Damn it, she'll never talk to us now."
"I'm so sorry," said Jacob frantically, oblivious to who he was talking to. He quickly grabbed her a napkin to dry off with, but her shirt was stained. "Oh man, I really didn't mean to, someone pushed past me and I just slipped. I wish I could make it up to you. Do you want money to - "
"I'll tell you what," said Chloe, who to his surprise was smiling. "You can pay me back by giving me the next dance."
"I don't believe this," said Kevin.
"What?" said Michael. "They're dancing. Dancing! He spills his drink on a model, and now he's dancing with her? Jacob's got game."
After the song was over, they saw Jacob and Chloe, laughing at some joke, walk off and start talking with the rest of her friends. After some five or ten minutes, Jacob and his new friends crossed the room to his brothers.
"Guys, I'd like you to meet these wonderful people. This is Chloe, she's a model visiting in town. These are her older brothers Carter and Logan, Logan's fiancee Hannah, and this is Faith Diaz. Guys, these are my brothers - Eli, James, Kevin, Michael, oh, and that's our friend Chase."
Chloe smiled brightly as the Bennetts nodded at each introduction. Her brothers, but especially Faith, seemed much less enthused.
"Chloe, er, Miss Brown, great to meet you," said Michael. "Big fan of you, er, work. Say, would you, uh, like to dance?"
"Um, sure," she said, nervously, as Michael grabbed her arm and pulled her on the dance floor with him. This caused a roar of laughter amongst the group, though Carter, the smartly dressed on, only half-grinned and rolled his eyes. Faith seemed not to have noticed as she checked the time on her cell phone.
"Hey, Faith, I'm Kevin, I knew we just met and stuff, but you think you'd like to, you know -" He pointed at the dance floor.
"Maybe later," she said. She barely made eye contact as she said it. Without another word she took an empty seat next to Chase and started looking at her fingernails. Kevin shrugged, then went searching for Chloe to see if she would give him the next dance.
"You know," said Chase, "this is probably the last time in my life I'll be so close to such an attractive lady."
"Yeah -" she said. A few seconds later, she turned her chair slightly so she was not facing the others at the table.
Chloe did have the next dance with Kevin, and after that with Jacob again. Everyone had a good time that night. Kevin and Michael got ten phone numbers each. Eli danced a few times and even managed to get James along with him for one. The rest of the night James and Chase were happy to try to discuss the finer details of World of Warcraft over the loud music. Chloe's brothers were a bit quiet towards them, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and were joking a lot with Jacob. The only person who was not having fun, it seemed, was Faith. She sat at the bar most of the night looking bored, like she was above everyone there. She shot down any attempt to try to talk to her, except with Chloe or her brothers, who she didn't seem to mind as much.
Late into the evening, Eli stepped outside to catch some air. He was sitting on the curb round the back of the club, staring out into nothingness. The chill night air and quiet was a nice break from the party. He suddenly heard the echoing clicks of high heels round on the side of the building.
"God this place is lame."
"Oh, you're never happy, are you." That was Chloe's voice. It was her and Faith round the corner. "You haven't even danced once tonight."
"Well, this really isn't my scene, like, at all. Seriously. And you had to grab the only half-decent guy in the room for yourself."
Chloe giggled. "He's nice, isn't he?"
"You really like him?"
"Well, he might just be one of the cutest guys I've ever met in my life."
"You are easily pleased."
"Come on Faith, you have to dance with someone tonight. You're telling me you didn't see one good guy tonight?" There was silence. "How about, um, Jacob's brother Eli. He's pretty good looking."
"What, the one in the sweatshirt?" She snorted. "Not even."
"Oh, what's wrong with him?"
"He's alright, I guess, for some women. But I can do way better."
"Oh be nice, he hasn't danced with anyone all night either."
"Exactly. Since when do I have to settle for the loser reject of other girls?"
Eli waited until he heard them walking inside before going back too. He sat at the table with James and Chase, and saw Faith across at the bar. What had he been thinking earlier. She wasn't even that attractive. She had a permanent ugly sneer on her face, she was way too skinny, her tan looked sprayed-on, and her breasts were probably plastic.
The Bennetts left in good spirits that night, Michael and Kevin again thanking Jacob for letting them come. Jacob couldn't stop talking about how great Chloe was, and her nice her brothers were to him. They agreed that Chloe was sweet, were split in judgment on the brothers, but the other four Bennetts were quick at bad-mouthing Faith. She may look nice, but she was obviously a total bitch. Stuck up, impolite, no fun at all. Eli seemed quite happy hearing the others say it too.