Take Me to Infinity

The strobe lights pulsed erratically as Autum pushed her way through the group of tanned blonde girls crowded around the door of the packed club. Growing up in upstate South Carolina, she’d never seen so many people crammed up into one place, and it was the fact that they basically fought and paid to be able to dance up against the throngs of gorgeous people that irked her the most.

Autum glanced back to find her best friend Kandi not far behind, throwing her head back as she laughed hysterically at some stupid remark made by her guy-of-the-moment, Logan. It was ridiculous how completely fake her friend had become in the short span of two days,well, maybe three days.

They had arrived in Los Angeles at exactly three p.m. Wednesday afternoon; it would have been six p.m. back home. The first thing Autum did after getting off the plane was walk around the terminal, trying to regain at least a fraction of the feeling in her left leg. Kandi just jetted off the plane and darted to the closest Starbucks, which happened to be located in the airport.

That’s where she met him, and Autum had heard about nothing other than him since that day.

“Omigosh Autum, you have to go out with us one night! Logan has these three totally hot friends and they’re all on a television show together! How legit is that? I could totally hook you up with one of them,” Kandi had gushed that first night after going out with Logan to some sushi bar in Hollywood. Her shoulder-length chestnut brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun on top of her head as she fingered with the hem of her Spongebob Squarepants lounge pants, staring at Autum with her golden brown eyes.

“You are ridiculous, K. I’m not trying to date some shallow actor right now. We just got here, like, seven hours ago. You really need to slow your roll down,” Autum explained, folding her legs beneath her as she brushed some scarlet polish on her long nails.

“Yeah…I hate it when you’re right, Sall,” Kandi sighed and sunk into the bed beside her friend.

“Sall” had been their nickname for each other since the tenth grade. Short for “secret agent lover lady,” it was no surprise that everyone thought the friends were lesbians throughout high school, despite the fact that they both kept constant boyfriends.

“So how did the job hunt go today?” Kandi asked as she grabbed a fashion magazine off their nightstand. The girls still had a ton of boxes left to unpack, and they were still waiting for Kandi’s bed to arrive on the U-Haul from South Carolina. For now, the girls were forced to share Autum’s bed and live out of boxes.

“Nothing so far. I did put in an application to intern at Columbia Records though. You’re so lucky to have gotten that job at that casting agency,” Autum sighed, pushed a strand of short maple brown hair from her eyes.

“I know, right? That way, I’ll have first dibs at all the best auditions,” Kandi grinned.

While Autum had traveled to L.A. in hopes of landing a record deal, Kandi wanted to see her face on the silver screen, or at least in the pages of Maxim.

“But seriously, you should go out with us Friday night. We’re going to this new club called LAX. Logan’s twenty-one, he can get us drinks,” Kandi raised her eyebrows, hoping to sway her bestie with promises of dancing and liquor.

And that’s how Autum ended up at LAX with Kandi and Logan at eleven thirty-five that Friday night. It was really a shame that she could be persuaded to do even the most degrading things for free liquor. On the drive over in Logan’s Range Rover, Kandi had mentioned something about this James guy meeting them at the club later that night, no doubt a half-hearted attempt to throw Autum with the most desperate of Logan’s friends. Autum had just rolled her chocolate eyes in protest, but her friend ignored her.

“Hey Logan, can you get us some drinks?” Kandi asked as soon as they finally got situated in the club.

“Sure,” he smiled and wandered off into the crowd.

Three days and Kandi had already had the poor boy wrapped around her French manicured pinky finger.

“So what do you think?” Kandi shouted over the music as she leaned towards her friend. “Isn’t he totally hot?”

“Aside from the fact that he could pass as your brother? No.”

“Oh shut up! Haven’t you ever heard of selective mating? Go for the mate that has the best chance of passing on your genes? Read a book for once.”

Kandi was a Biology major, so she used useless information like that to back up her ridiculous behavior. Autum was used to it.

“I’m sure you two will have beautiful dark-haired, brown-eyed, pale offspring, Miss Professor.”

“Shut up, here he comes!” Kandi snapped as she plastered a smile on her face.

“Here ya go, ladies,” Logan smirked as he slid them two martini glasses filled with an exotic blue liquid.

“Thanks,” Autum mumbled, swirling the drink around in her glass, trying to inconspicuously check for date rape drugs.

You can almost never trust a guy wearing a silver leather jacket.

“When’s James coming?” Kandi yelled to Logan.

He whipped his BlackBerry from his pocket and scrolled down the list of texts. “He’ll be here at midnight.”

Great, Autum thought, I have to spend another half-hour alone with these people. At least if James was there, she’d have someone else to sit awkwardly with while Kandi threw herself all over this Logan dude.

“Hey girl, we’re gonna hit the dance floor!” Kandi yelled, throwing her hands in the air to quickly “raise the roof.” The iridescent white eyeshadow spread across her eyelids glittered under the black light, perfectly matching her flimsy glittering minidress.“Can you watch our stuff?”

Autum rolled her big brown eyes and took a swig of the suspicious blue cocktail. “Sure.”

“Love ya, Sall!” Kandi blew her a kiss as she followed her man out to the floor.

“Love ya too, Sall,” Autum muttered as she played with her cell phone.

Come on and melt your body, let your hips hit your knees.

From her seat at the table, Autum could make out her best friend out on the dancefloor, bopping around to some techno song and doing that ridiculous dance move that Autum had told her time and time again not to do, but Kandi was way too hard-headed to ever listen to her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Autum spotted a tall tanned boy walk past her table, and her eyes immediately darted down to the tribal tattoo inked onto his arm. For the split second that his hazel eyes met hers and the lights thrown off of the disco ball didn’t make her squint up her own brown eyes, the thought that maybe she could date an L.A. boy crossed her mind. Then the disco ball made another revolution around the packed club, Autum blinked, and all thoughts of the boy were erased from her mind.

That is, until Kandi came crashing through the club in a wave of vanilla perfume, with Logan on her arm and none other than Tan Boy tagging along behind him.

“Autum, James is here!” Kandi sang out as she slid into the white leather booth.

Autum smoothed out her plaid miniskirt and scooted closer to Kandi to make room for the two guys.

“Hey, I like your tattoo,” James yelled over the music, nodding towards the lotus blossom on her back.

“Thanks.” Autum flashed him a quick smile. “Your ink’s pretty cool too.”

“Thanks,” he said, his eyes shifting to his lap.

“So what do you do?” Autum shouted, practically leaning across the table so he could hear her.

“I’m sort of an actor and a singer,” he replied, pushing his thick brown hair out of his face.

“What?” Autum asked as she tried to lean in closer.

“Oh my God, James! You’re so tan!” Kandi squealed, holding her own freckled pale arm against his for comparison.

“Thanks.”

Kandi’s eyes drifted back and forth between James and Autum, and Autum watched her lean over to whisper something in Logan’s ear.

“Hey, do you guys just want to go get something to eat and then head back to our apartment,” Logan asked, looking towards James.

“Okay, aside from the fact that I just got here, that sounds great. I am slightly starving,” he laughed.

“Sall?” Kandi asked, pleading at her with big brown eyes.

“I’m kinda tired, can you guys ust drop me off at our apartment?” Autum asked, twirling a short lock of hair around her pinky.

“Way to blow the party,” Kandi laughed as she tried to slide out of the long white leather booth they were all crammed in.

“Yeah, that’s kinda what I do best,” she shrugged, getting up from her seat with ease and grinning at her friend.

Autum and Kandi hung back while the guys went to go get Logan’s car and bring it around to the front of the club.

“So…what do you think of James?” Kandi practically screamed in Autum’s ear.

“He’s…cute. He’s just not my type, Kandi. Please quit trying to throw me together with every random guy you meet.”

“You know I have that sall double date fantasy that needs to be fulfilled pronto. You seriously need a man, and James is totally fine,” the words spilled out of Kandi’s mouth in a rushed jumble that only Autum could have ever comprehended.

“Yeah, okay, you stick with that, K.”Autum gave her friend a pat on the shoulder before darting off towards the door to find the guys. Sure, they were basically strangers to her, but it was better than Kandi trying to force her to be with James.

“Hey Autum, get in!” Logan yelled as he rolled down the tinted windows on his S.U.V.

Autum slowly climbed into the backseat beside James and quickly texted Kandi to “get her ass out there.”

Kandi exited the club, one thumb hooked in the belt loop of her denim shorts and a hand halfway through her thick, wavy hair.

“Hey loves, where we going to eat?” she chirped as her eyes darted around the dark car. The only light was a soft blue glow radiating from the clock in the dash.

“There’s a killer Mexican restaurant just down the street from your apartment,” James spoke up. “Let’s just go there.”

“Sounds good,” Logan nodded, grabbing a pair of sunglasses hooked onto the visor.

“Sure you don’t wanna come, Autum?” Kandi asked, but it was more like a beg than a legit question. She quickly turned to Logan. “Why are you wearing sunglasses? It’s fucking dark outside.”

“The headlights make my head hurt, plus, I gotta keep my swag on.”

Autum flashed her infamous “you’re a dumbass” look at the back of his head before turning to Kandi. “Yes, someone has to unpack all of our stuff anyways, might as well be me. What exactly is ‘swag’ anyway?”

Kandi rolled her eyes dramatically and faced forward in her seat as Logan pulled out into traffic. “Swagger is like, when you just exude confidence and you just know that you look good.”

“Ah, thanks for the explanation. I thought it was just another word for ‘douchebag.’”

Autum thought she heard James chuckle in the seat beside her.

“So you moved here from…?” he asked as soon as the car flooded with awkward silence.

“South Carolina, can’t you tell by the accent?” she laughed. “What about you?”

“Oh, I grew up here. I’m a native, yo,” he joked and threw up a twisted gang sign.

“Okay, so that was an epic failure.”

“Definitely. So why’d you move here in the first place? Nah, don’t tell me! You want to be a model.”

Autum rolled her eyes in the dark. “Pssht, I’m not skinny or foreign enough to be a model. I moved out here to sing, K moved here to do the whole acting/model thing.”

“Cool. I’m a triple threat in this town.”

“Why you say that?” Autum couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m an actor, singer, and model,” he smirked.

“Well aren’t you just talented?”

“Duh,” James laughed, throwing his hand up at her.

“Glad to see it hasn’t went to your head or anything.”

“Aw, look Logie, they’re flirting! I told you I make the best matchmaker,” Autum heard Kandi’s attempt at whispering from the front seat.

“Aw, look at Kandi, she’s kinda sorta a slut,” Autum yelled, kneeing the back of her friend’s seat.

“Don’t hate me ‘cause you ain’t me. You know you love me,” she joked in her southern drawl.

“How could I not?”

“Alright Autum, here’s your stop,” Logan announced from the driver’s side as he shifted into park.

“Sure you don’t want to go back with us? It’ll be fun! We can play spin-the-bottle or something!” Kandi laughed, throwing her arms out the window.

“Yeah, I actually considered changing my mind until you mentioned spin-the-bottle. Night guys. Nice meeting you, Logan, James,” she smiled as she closed the car door behind her.

“Wait, can I get your number?” James asked as he scooted over to the window.

“Sure,” Autum said as he handed over his iPhone. Autum punched in her number and pressed the phone into his palm. “See you guys later. Kandi, text me to tell me if you’re coming home or not.”

“Alright, alright. Will do.”

Autum watched as the car pulled out and began the long walk up to their apartment on the fourth floor.

A strange sort of calm fell over her as she unlocked the door and stepped into the living room. The beige carpet felt comfy beneath her bare feet after she slipped off her heels. For the first time since she’d moved here, the apartment actually felt like home, and she was actually happy to be returning to it after all that had went on that night.

Autum walked into the bathroom and changed out of her uncomfortable clothes and into an oversized tee with her and Kandi’s graduating class on it. She flipped on the TV to some mindless reality show, finished painting her nails, and sank back into her comfy bed, one of the only reminders of home.

As she was just beginning to drift off to sleep, Autum heard her phone vibrate harshly against the nightstand. The glare from the screen blinded her as she attempted to squint and read the text. It was Kandi; she was sleeping over at Logan’s. Autum texted back a short “K” before flipping the lamp off and rolling back into bed.