The Missing O

It seemed like it would never reach four o’ clock on Friday, I spent the last hour at the office interchanging between forcing out some work and watching the clock, willing that little hand to push on forward to the end of the day.

Charlie and I were going out tonight for what was the first time since the summer. We had been excited about it for weeks, setting some money aside to go and have a few drinks at whatever bar took our fancy. Even though Charlie had lost her job, we decided to go ahead with our evening plans - if we didn’t make it out tonight, we thought we’d never see a martini or dance floor ever again. We may be parents now, but we were still young, and all though Kaitlyn was our main priority, like any parent, we needed a night off once in a while.

Charlie had gotten a friend of hers to baby-sit Kaitlyn, we had a taxi booked for eight o’ clock sharp, and we’d both agreed to spend the four hours we had spare before it was time pampering and enjoying ourselves.

“Hey, Morgan,” I gulped as I saw Claire making a B-line for me, her red hair bouncing as she trotted on her little heels. “Have you heard?”

“Heard what?” I asked, trying to sound friendly but shuffling papers and typing on the Mac to try and make myself look busy. I felt my brain going in to over drive as I tried to keep myself on my toes, aware to not say anything that might be gossip worthy, or more so ‘Claire-worthy’.

“About that new bar that’s opening tonight?” I felt myself relax. This wasn’t one of Claire’s usual attacks, where she would bombard you with the ins and outs of everyone in Sheffield’s lives, hoping for the exchange of something new and juicy that she could run along with and share with a hundred other unlucky people. “Mojos, I think it’s called,” she said. “There’s a big party on, loads of bands playing.”

My ears perked up slightly.

“Really?” I asked, “Were you thinking of going?”

Claire rolled her eyes, and I knew I was in for some big speech. She sat herself on the edge of my desk, her skirt stretching over her thighs, and sighed at me.

“I was supposed to be going tonight, you know, with Andy, seeing as we got company tickets,” Claire and Andy got a lot of free passes into the latest clubs and pubs, all thanks to the kind-eye Mr Wydell had for the pair. “But then Andy backed out because of some rubbish to do with her Granma’s birthday, and it turns out that pretty much everyone I know already has plans tonight, and I certainly am not going to show up there alone…” I wasn’t sure how long I could take of Claire and her incessant yapping, she always spoke for far too long, and much too fast, “…so I was wondering if you wanted the tickets, y’know, since you and your friend were planning a night out tonight?”

I blinked. This had to be the most generous act I had ever seen Claire willingly commit to.

The thought of going to this opening party tonight made my stomach turn with excitement; not only would Charlie and I be going out for the first time in months, we’d be able to listen to live music for the first time in literally years. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful, so instead of snatching up the opportunity, I tried to string it out somewhat.

“Are you sure, Claire?” She nodded and I grinned. “Really? Cause that would be amazing. But, I mean, only if you really don’t want them?”

“Of course, of course,” Claire waved her hands, taking two purple bits of card from the pocket of her tight skirt. “You’ll have to repay me, the next time you get some good gossip, eh?” she laugh, though I knew she was deathly serious.

I thanked Claire probably ten times after she handed over the purple tickets, before slotting them into the card section of my wallet, being careful to remember where I put them. After that, the whole atmosphere in the office seemed to lighten, and I was in an instantaneous good mood, not even minding when Mr Wydell sauntered through and stared at what I hoped was my name tag - attached to my shirt pocket - for a little too long.

Eventually it turned four o’ clock, and I clocked out at five past, practically speed-walking the entire way home. I wanted to call Charlie to tell her straight away, but I decided to just tell her when I got in. I knew she would freak out and be just as excited as I was. I also knew that she’d be anxious for a long while, probably the whole time we were getting ready, about leaving Kaitlyn for the night. Truth was, I felt exactly like that.

Charlie, when I unlocked the front door and danced through into the living room, was on the sofa, talking on the phone - to the babysitter I figured after listening for a few moments - with Kaitlyn playing at her feet, a cuddly bunny rabbit being flapped about in her hands.

I went and sat with her whilst Charlie finished up on the phone, and made her little rabbit speak to her. Kaitlyn soon lost interest though, instead took the door key from my hand, jangling them in her hands, her eyes widening in wonder at the pretty, tinkling sound.

I laughed at her, watching as she closed her eyes, the thick black lashes that I adored brushing down on her cheeks as she gurgled at the noise. I couldn’t wait until she started speaking properly, as of now only able to make out a few odd words.

“The baby sitter will be here at half seven,” Charlie sighed, throwing her phone down onto the couch, watching her daughter as she waved the keys around more. “Good day at work?” she asked.

“Not bad,” Replacing them with the stuffed rabbit, I gently removed the keys from Kaitlyn’s hands. “It felt like such a long day. You excited about tonight?” I smiled.

Charlie nodded, not taking her eyes off of Kaitlyn for a second. I watched my friend, trying to decipher her blank expression, all the while thinking about the purple tickets tucked away in my purse. Maybe she’d cheer up once I told her; I hoped so. She needed this night out more than me.

“Have you heard about that new bar opening tonight?” I asked, and Charlie looked at me for a long moment, until suddenly she seemed to realize what I said and snapped into life.

“Uh, yeah. Momo’s or something?” she asked and I chuckled.

“Mojos,” I corrected, and she smirked at herself. “Well, guess who’s got two tickets to get in tonight?”

Charlie’s eyes went wide, and suddenly she transformed into herself again, full of life, her eyes twinkling with excitement. “You never?!” she cried.

I nodded once, and she jumped up from her seat, dancing around both me and Kaitlyn. Before I knew it she had scooped the baby into her arms, and the three of us were swinging and swaying around the small living room, music soon finding its way playing on the CD player, and the three of us giggled and danced.

* * *

“Fuck me, it’s cold,” Charlie muttered.

We’d chosen to wear simple dresses, with thick tights to keep us warm. I’d worn a cardigan over my grey dress, but Charlie obviously didn’t want to spoil her ‘look’, so was shivering her arse off in the halter dress. I laughed at her, rolling my eyes and swung my little purse in my hand. I couldn’t wait to just get into the club; we hadn’t even found it yet.

The taxi driver had told us that Mojos was going to be one of the biggest opening events this year, and there was no way in hell he’d be able to get down the street, so he dropped us off about twenty minutes away, which, unsurprisingly, hadn’t pleased us.

The snow was slowly turning into slush as we delved into busier areas of Sheffield city centre, and there were people wobbling drunkenly on the side of the road already. Charlie shook her head.

“It’s not even ten o’ clock yet!” she said, astounded.

“Piss heads,” I tutted, pretending to be annoyed. “What has the world come to, eh?”

“You wait,” she grinned, “A few cocktails, and you’ll be worse than those lot.”

I stopped, resting my hands on my hips, “Are you insinuating that I am a lightweight, Charlotte?”

My friend laughed, grabbing my hand and pulling me along. Our heels clipped along the sidewalk, and we tried to move as fast as we could, being careful of any ice. When we reached the street, we knew we were there right away. There was a queue half a mile long, streaming from the door. We got in line, huddling close for warmth, and chattered as we spoke.

“I hope this is good,” Charlie said, and a girl that was stood in front of us in the queue turned round. Her lips were practically blue from the cold, though I’m not surprised, she was more scantily dressed than Charlie herself.

“It’s supposed to be amazing inside,” the girl offered. She was quite pretty, dark brown hair with highlights, and green eyes. She was wearing a sparkly sequined top, and a dark high-wasted skirt. “And there’s so many rumours about bands that are playing. Apparently, Muse are going to show up!”

Charlie and I turned to one another, exchanging an impressed glance.

“I only heard about it today,” I said to the girl. “I wouldn’t even have known if a girl at work hadn’t given me her tickets. I heard it’s a pretty huge deal though.”

“Oh, yes!” the girl beamed, her eyes wide. Her pupils were a little too large, and I wondered what she had taken tonight. “And I heard that drinks are cheaper, ‘cause it’s the opening and all. I can’t wait!”

“We’re pretty stoked,” Charlie offered politely.

Charlie didn’t usually get on with other girls that well, especially if she smelled something a bit off with one of them. Obviously, Charlie didn’t think there was something quite right with this girl, and trusting my friends instinct, I smiled at the girl and didn’t offer any more to the conversation. She soon turned back to her friends, her sequin top shimmering under the orange street lamps.

It took a little over half an hour until we were at the head of the queue and handing our tickets over to the bouncer; a stocky, bald headed man in a thick black puffer-jacket. He had one diamond pierced through his ear, and I caught a glimpse of a tattoo stretching up onto his neck.

Baldy ushered Charlie and I threw, and we darted his sausage fingers, scampering quickly into the club. The moment we passed through the reception room, we couldn’t hear a thing over the music. It wasn’t that hard to figure out where the bar was, green Neon lights advertised it to the entire club.

We spent a few moments looking around, taking in all the newly painted walls and the odd mix and matched furniture dotted around the place - I supposed it was to give it that ‘urban’ chic look - before we linked hands and headed for something to drink.

The music the loud, thumping kind, a remix of some popular rock song that had been in the charts lately that was originally too heavy to shake your arse to.

“One JD and coke,” I ordered for myself when we finally got around to being served. “And a double vodka and red bull.”

The guy behind the bar, who had a head full of thick auburn dreads quickly put together our glasses and handed them over before I’d taken the notes from my wallet. When we safely had our drinks in our hands we scanned around for somewhere to loiter.

“There!” Charley pointed, over to a corner where there were three large, chunky armchairs and a flat glass table that looked as though it might have a light beneath it. We made a B-line for what was probably the only empty seat in the house, and collapsed in our resting place.

“So what do you think?” I asked as Charlie took a generous glug of her drink.

She looked around, pulling an odd face as she summed up her surroundings. The music switched to something more ‘poppy’.

“Not bad,” she shrugged. Her bangles fell down her arm in a mess when she went to stroke some hair from her face. “It’s a bit hectic.”

Charlie and I weren’t really for the whole clubbing scene. We liked to go out for drinks, listen to live music and just chill out. We were teenagers the last time we’d really gone crazy and gotten trashed.

We decided that our little corner was the safest place to stay, rather than make a charge for the rowdy dance floor. I cringed just at the thought. I definitely did not dance.

“You want another?” I yelled when Charlie had finished her second red bull. She grinned, her cheeks already flushed and her eyes scoring a red tint, and I rolled my eyes. Two more of these and she’d be wasted.

The bar wasn’t as busy as when we’d first walked in, people had gotten bored and left already, moving on to somewhere less expensive and where the music didn’t change genre with every flash of a strobe light. Muse definitely hadn’t shown up yet. However, when I turned to look at the VIP section, not too far from mine and Charlie’s hide-away, I saw the area, separated by a short wooden fence, was packed with people.

I sat myself on one of the bar stools, blowing some of my fringe from my eyes, only just then realizing how hot it was in this place. Looking around, I wasn’t all that impressed with the interior of the place. You could see whoever had designed it had worked hard to make it look shabby but modern, with couches and armchairs dotted about the place instead of tables and chairs, and exposed beams all over the place. I’d seen it a million times in a million clubs all over Sheffield.

“Four pints o’ Stella and eight shots o’ Vodka please, mate.”

I frowned. That voice. Where in the world had I heard that voice before?

I felt an arm slink across my back, and smelled beer before I looked up and saw his face.

“Hello there, Morgan,” Oliver grinned sloppily down at me. “Fancy a drink?”