"Emily, you're officially being ridiculous," Clara declared with a decidedly pointed look, thoroughly exhausted by putting up with her. "It's been a week, I think it's time to stop moping."
"I'm not moping," Emily retorted, voice muffled by the pillow her face was buried in. "I'm mourning. An appropriate response to the end of a relationship."
Clara scoffed. "Relationship?" she repeated. "It wasn't a relationship, you were barely even dating."
Emily lifted her face from the pillow so she could glare at her. "Don't you have somewhere you need to be right now? Don't you have potions to make wrong or spells to fuck up?"
Clara rolled her eyes. "Nope. Tonight, we're going out," she said firmly. "Club Borealis is hosting Ladies' Night."
Club Borealis was a popular nightclub with a theme loosely based off the East of the Sun, West of the Moon fairytale. Which mostly translated to winter decor and Northern Lights effects. But it was still the most elaborately themed club in the city, which meant it was always packed.
"No, Clara, we're not going anywhere – I'm really not in the mood to..." she tried to protest.
She refused to hear it, though. "We're going out." She proceeded to push on the back of the couch until Emily spilled off it onto the floor. "Get up and get dressed."
Emily glared up at her. "Why are you such a bitch?" she grumbled.
Clara just laughed. "Because left to your own devices, you make stupid decisions."
Emily had started the night in a pissy mood, nursing her drink and wishing she were anywhere else. Wishing she were with Alex.
Apparently, though, that was no longer an option.
And therein lay the source of said pissy mood. Well, that and Clara's apparent plan to get her laid if it was the last thing she did...
Clara had forced her (under threat of hexing her) to wear a low-cut red bodycon dress that she reserved specifically for nights she either wanted to have sex or piss off her mother. Or both.
Emily also strongly suspected that when she wasn't looking, Clara had cast some kind of irresistability spell on her, considering just how many men had offered to buy her drinks. (She wasn't interested in men, but Clara was a shitty witch, afterall.)
And, given her bitter mood, she wasn't about to turn down a free drink. Which is how she ended up absolutely blitzed and waxing poetic about Alex to anyone who would listen...no matter how many times Clara scolded her.
Tipping back the remainder of her latest drink, Emily turned to the girl seated next to her at the bar, blinking a few times to force her eyes to focus, she heaved a wistful sigh. "She was the first vampire I ever dated, you know?" she said. "I always thought they were like these big stupid self-important stupid jerks, but she's not like that..." She shook her head, pouting. "She's perfect. And I miss her."
"Why did you break up?" the girl asked politely. It wasn't clear whether she was genuinely interested or whether she was just being polite...not that Emily could tell and/or care, in her drunken state.
With a small humourless laugh, Emily said, "She doesn't believe in happily ever after. Or even just ever after." Her mood shifted then. "Which is fair, I guess. 'Cause she drew the short straw with her ex-husband, but still..."
"I'm sorry," the woman murmured. She reached out to rest a hand on Emily's wrist in a gesture of comfort. (Her hand was ice cold and Emily couldn't have been certain if it was because she was a vampire or if she just took the winter theme really seriously...) "Maybe she was just afraid? Sometimes people get scared when things get serious...especially if they've been burned before."
Emily's eyes went wide as if the woman had revealed some kind of well-kept secret about the universe to her. "You think?" she asked in a dramatic stage-whisper.
She shrugged. "Maybe? I mean, it's a possibility. You should ask."
"That's a great idea!" Emily whispered. Then, something seemed to occur to her, a pout crossing her red-painted lips. "Clara took my phone..."
"Oh, well, here," the woman said, "Borrow mine."
With a grateful smile, Emily dialed Alex's number from memory, then waited while it rang. Stumbling through the throng of people on the dance floor, she emerged into the chill night air just as her voicemail clicked on.
"Oh, umm... Alex... Hi," Emily stammered. "I guess you're at work or something. I was just getting drunk and stupid and lonely and, well, I don't know. Anyway. I was just missing you. A lot. And hoping that maybe you missed me too?" She heaved a sigh. "Do you regret it? The breaking up? I'm so sorry about everything and I'd take it all back if I could and..."
The door opened behind her, the noise of music and chatter spilling out into the night. Emily turned on her heel to find Clara glowering at her, hands on her hips, looking like she'd just caught Emily with her hand in the cookie jar. "What do you think you're doing!?" she hissed.
"Nothing!" Emily lied, hiding the phone behind her back.
"Liar!" Clara scolded, reaching for the phone. "You called her, didn't you?"
She shook her head insistently. "No, it's, umm...it's someone else." She plastered on a smile that begged her to believe her.
"Hang up," Clara demanded, reaching for the phone again. "Hang up now!" They scrabbled for the phone for a moment, then finally Clara managed to grab hold of it. "Say goodbye," she ordered as she turned off the message.
Staring daggers at her, Emily said, "Well, can I at least have the phone back so I can return it to the girl I borrowed it from?" But as soon as the phone was in her hand, she stuck out her tongue childishly.
"Emily..."
"Don't worry, I'm not calling Alex." A beat. "I'm calling Kristy."
Clara reached for the phone again. "Don't you dare!" she threatened.
"Screw you, you're not the boss of me!" Emily shouted.
