Your Biggest Misconception

My small round table in Starbucks shook as a load of something heavy was quickly dropped onto it, making the metal stand shake and wobble slightly.

I turned my eyes up from where I sat reading my book and saw Amanda standing before me with a very grumpy look on her face. "I don't know why the hell my mom makes me do the finances for the cafe. I haven't taken a finance course in my entire life!" She exclaimed with a huff as she took the empty seat opposite me.

I sat my book down and noticed that the pile she had dropped consisted of a bunch of finance and economics books that had been checked out from the Huntington Beach library.

"Maybe she wants you to learn?" I suggested with a lighthearted chuckle which only made her glare at the pile of books even more.

"She knows more then I do though!"

"Ah. So she makes you do it, then double checks it to make sure it's done correctly. My first idea stands and is supported."

With a groan Amanda dropped her head down so it was resting against the pile of books. She looked tired and worn out and I knew she probably had a late night at the café after our beach day yesterday.

"I don't know why she does this to me." She mumbled into the cover of a book.

"Honestly, I don't either." I chuckled before leaning back into my cushioned chair. "You look beat Manda."

Slowly she lifted her head and propped it up on her hand. "I'm just tired of everything. I'm tired of working at the café, tired of my mom, and tired of having such a boring life!"

I sympathized with Amanda on that. Often times I found myself feeling the exact same way. I would admit to myself all the time that I lived a boring life. It needed to be spiced up every now and then. But the question was always how? Between Amanda and myself we did a pretty good job at keeping things interesting but when the time rolled around where we both felt the same, there was a need for a change. Or rather, at least something fun to take our minds off of our boring lives.

Yesterday had been fun for the most part. It would have been ten times better if Zacky wasn't there though. Unfortunately, I knew he was going through a rough time and had been for some time if I recalled Brian's phone call in the café correctly. In my mind though that didn’t make it alright for him to be a jerk to me.

"I want to go out tonight. Are you game?" Amanda asked as she looked at me with wide puppy dog eyes.

Usually I wasn't really a 'go out at night' person. I enjoyed being at home in my pajamas and just reading a book or watching tv. I liked to relax and usually a late night out wasn't on my list of relaxing activities.

"I guess so. What did you have in mind?" I could tell Amanda needed some time away after our beach outing got cut short yesterday. After tonight I could stay holed up in my apartment tomorrow and do nothing but lounge around and be lazy. I did have to make the most of my time off after all.

"Well, a guy that came into the café told me about this bar in the city that I should try out. He said it's one of his favorites. It's called Cherry Street. I figured it might be a fun place to go." Her tone was light and airy and I knew she really hadn’t put much thought into this idea she was entertaining at the moment.

Quirking an eyebrow at her, I crossed my right leg over my left and gave her a questionable look. "Do you know anything about this bar? Or the guy for that matter?"

"Oh come on Kali! I'm not stupid." She rolled her eyes but we both knew on several occasions she had been known to roll with a few crazy ideas that usually pitted us in positions we didn’t necessarily want to be in.

"The guy is one sort of like Brian. He comes in all the time and we talk. He's nice. And I really don’t know about the bar but I trust his judgment."

I continued to give her a skeptical look because I really wasn't so sure about this adventure of hers she seemed to already have planned out. "Please Kali?" Her bottom lip jutted out and at this point I knew she was desperate. She only pulled out the bottom lip when she really wanted to do something. It was a sign she gave me to let me know she was serious.

"Alright." I sighed as her head lifted up and her eyes shone with excitement.

In the midst of her practically jumping up in a cheer, she ended up pushing her pile of books across the table and right into my iced coffee. I watched helplessly as the clear cup filled with the sweet light brown liquid slid across the table and fell right onto the floor. The lid popped off and the drink spilled out across the floor and also across my flip flop covered feet.

Hands still in the air, Amanda looked up from the floor with wide eyes and centered her gaze on me and my jaw dropped expression.

I noticed out of the corner of my eye Sean's head poked around the side of the barista bar to observe what the commotion had been about.

"Oh boy." He stated with a chuckle before his head disappeared to go get the cleaning supplies.

"Oh my gosh." Amanda said as she stood there in disbelief. "I am so sorry." She said as her eyes drifted from my coffee covered feet to my face.

We stared at eachother for the briefest of moments before suddenly erupting in laughter.

This sort of thing was common with the two of us. That was partially why Sean didn’t look too surprised.

Amanda scurried off to go get some napkins but by the time she reached the table again Sean was coming from the back with a mop, bucket, and a yellow caution wet floor sign.

"I love having you guys around." He chuckled as he started mopping up the liquid while I dried my feet with the napkins the best I could. I would have to try and go wash them in the bathroom in a few minutes when I could stand without stepping in the mess. "You two make my life interesting."

I looked up at Sean and shook my head as I laughed. He would say that.

Manda moved her books and mine to a different table and then helped me stand as Sean mopped up the floor. "So what happened exactly?" Sean questioned as he glanced up while wringing out the dirty mop in the bucket.

"I got excited." Amanda blushed. "Knocked my books into her drink and it ended up on the floor."

Sean let his laughter ring throughout the small commercial coffee shop. He always got a kick out of our misfortunes and I knew our visits were always a highlight of his day.

"Damn." He said as he picked up the bucket after placing the wet floor sign nearby. "You can't catch a break can you Kali?"

I glared at him and then stuck my tongue out. When I first came in he had asked how our beach day was and I had gladly shared the entire story of our day. He found it hilarious and had told me to give Zack a chance to redeem himself. I still wasn't feeling so forgiving though.

Sean left into the back room again and I sauntered to the bathroom with my sticky feet. Every step made a yucky slapping sound on the floor as the bottom of my flip flops stuck ceremoniously to the tile floor. It was gross.

I twisted the bathroom door handle open and pushed the unnaturally heavy door aside before sauntering in and shutting and locking the door behind me.

I slipped my flip flop off and hoisted my leg awkwardly up and into the sink bowl. I cranked the water on and adjusted it such so that it was warm. With my hands and some paper towels from the dispenser on the right wall I scrubbed at my feet until the remains of the drink were off of my right foot. I then grabbed my flip flop and ran it under water before drying it off the best I could.

After repeating the procedure with my other foot I deemed myself fine for walking.

Exiting the bathroom I fought hard not to groan as my flip flops now made a squeaky sound against the floor. Amanda saw me coming and started laughing. I didn’t know what was better, the loud high pitched squeaking or the squelching of them being sticky. I'd rather them just be normal right now.

"Oh shut up." I grumbled as I reached the table and plopped back down.

"So…" She said slowly after I had settled back in. "Wanna help me with this crap?" She asked in reference to her finance books that still remained untouched.

"Nope." I mumbled as I picked my book back up and buried my nose in it.

Her hand came up and she pushed my book down forcing me to look her in the eyes. "Yes you do. I know you do!"

"No I don't. Not since you spilled my drink." I huffed like a little kid would just to be annoying.

"Oh for goodness sake. If I buy you a new one will you help me?" She asked as she took her wallet out of her purse.

"Possibly." I said as I closed my books and crossed my arms.

"Already taken care of babes." Sean said as he walked over with a fresh new iced coffee for me.

"Awww. You're such a sweetheart." I cooed as I gave him a sweet smile which he dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"And now I get to save four bucks! Yes!" Amanda cheered again, more calmly this time for the sake of my drink and her life.

"Just for that I don't think I'm going to help you." I laughed as I took a sip of my fresh coffee. Manda stopped her cheering and frowned at me.

"Oh come on." She pleaded. "I'll pay for your drinks tonight." She offered with wide eyes.

With a smirk I set my drink down and then grinned. "Deal."

***

I sat in the passenger seat, nervous as Amanda made her way toward the club she had in mind. She had forced me to wear a clubbing outfit, which I wasn't too thrilled with, and had then did up my makeup for me. I thought I looked trashy. She insisted I looked hot.

"Where is this place again?" I asked skeptically.

"Los Angeles." She replied cheerfully. She was excited. I needed to try and be excited too. There was nothing worse then being a fuddy duddy and I didn’t want that label tonight.

I fought to suppress a groan when she mentioned L.A. though. L.A. was notorious for their trashy clubs so now I really had my doubts about this one.

She made a few more turns on side roads and then the gps informed us we were nearing our destination. My head whipped back and forth as I noticed the building were only becoming trashier and trashier the further we went.

Manda pulled into a driveway of a parking lot that was jam packed with cars. A neon red sign was lit up that read "Cherry Street" and there was a somewhat old looking building behind it that was black with red trim.

"This doesn't look so bad." Amanda commented with enthusiasm.

"It looks like a strip club." I said with wide eyes as I remained buckled while she began to get out of the car.

Manda just rolled her eyes at me and opened up the passenger door. "Oh come on. Get out of the car." She instructed with her hands on her hips.

"Nope." I said with a shake of my head.

"Yes. Kali, get out of the car."

I looked up at her out of the corner of my eye and saw she was dead serious. So with a frown set in place, I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed out of the car. I tugged my skirt down so it was set in place and then closed the door behind me.

Manda gave a cheer and grabbed me by the arm so ours were linked together. I forced a smile and tried to look happy as we reached the entrance to the club.

The bouncer that was standing beside the door gave us a nod and motioned for us to go inside. Manda gave him a flirty smile and led me into the black abyss.

Upon entering we were greeted with loud music that was coupled with something I certainly hadn’t wanted to see. "Amanda!" I hissed as she continued to pull me through the crowd. "This is a freaking strip club!" My tone clearly expressed that I wasn't happy about this one bit.

Amanda and I reached the bar and she stopped to finally turn and look at me. "Well." She started as she surveyed the club she had chosen. "At least it's a nice one." She stated airily as if she didn’t mind.

I gave her a look of disbelief which she dismissed wit ha wave of her hand before turning to the bartender.

"Good evening ladies." He stated with a polite grin. He was definitely cute but was most likely a sleaze for bartending in a strip joint. "What can I get you two?"

"Two Jack and Coke's please." Manda informed him with yet another flirty grin. I leaned up against the bar and rolled my eyes at my best friend. Sometimes I thought she tried too hard.

We received our drinks and stood there staring at eachother. Manda would take a sip of her drink, look up at me slightly, then look back down and take another drink once she saw me glaring at her.

"Oh come on." She said exasperatedly after awhile.

With narrowed eyes I took a sip of my drink and placed my hand on my hip. "You brought me to a strip club. That wasn't part of the deal."

"I didn't know!" She argued.

"Clearly." I said with a light chuckle. She really didn’t but honestly that didn’t surprise me. Manda was never known to do research beforehand. She was extremely last minute and impulsive. I should have expected as much.

"Well, well, well." A deep voice sounded that made me cringe. I shut my eyes as Manda's widened at the guy who had appeared behind me.

My night just got ten times worse.

"Shit." I mumbled as I opened my eyes and glared at Manda even more. She gave me a small smile before leaning around me to wave at the obnoxious asshole I didn’t want to see.

"So what brings you two girls to a place like this? I didn't think you swung this way Kali."

I swung around and clenched my fist as I sneered at Zacky. "I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer. Just go away."

"Zack what's taking you so fucking long? Oh!" I looked behind Zacky to see Brian had walked up to check on his friend. "Hey ladies! What brings you here?" He leaned up against the counter opposite us and gave us a friendly smile.

"Someone wanted to go out tonight. Unbeknownst to us this was a strip club."

I noticed Manda and Brian both had this funny look on their faces. I looked between the two of them and was beginning to piece two and two together. My eyes widened before suddenly narrowing at my best friend before shifting to Brian. "You! It was you who told her about this place!"

Brian held his hands up and Zacky was beginning to look as confused as I had been previously. "I hate you both." I grumbled at Brian and Manda. Snagging my drink I sulked off to an empty booth by myself toward the back.

The velvet seat was red and I groaned not even wanting to know what kind of things had gone on in this booth. Shoving the thought to the back of my mind I sat down and began grumbling to myself.

They had both planned this. How annoying! She could have at least told me! I'd have been more apt to come tonight if I knew it had been Brian who suggested it and that he was going to be here. I should have known he would bring Zacky though.

"Kali I'm sorry!" Manda said as she flopped down in the booth on the opposite side as me. "I just knew you needed to get out. I wanted you to have fun! And Brian suggested we come here. He didn’t actually tell me they were going to be here. I didn't know and I certainly didn’t know it was a strip club." She explained honestly.

With a sigh I propped my head up on my hand. "It's ok Manda."

I couldn’t be mad at her. She was always trying to help and I honestly knew she needed this night out too. I needed to enjoy it. Zack might be here but so was Brian and he was a hoot.

"Mind if we join you?" Brian's voice cascaded over the table as he approached with four other guys in toe, Zack being one of them.

I recognized the other guys as Matt, Jimmy, and Johnny, the members in Brian and Zack's band. Figured they'd all come here together.

"Not at all." I said as I looked up into Brian's brown eyes with a grin.

I could turn this night around. I had to.

They all filed into the booth and unfortunately for me, Zacky sat beside me.

The others fell into conversation with Manda about how we ended up here and it was her brilliant story telling that had everyone rolling in laughter. Everyone except for Zacky who would let out a deep chuckle here and there. He sat next to me in what seemed to be a bundle of nerves. His leg kept twitching and his hands were wringing eachother out awkwardly.

Jimmy and Johnny announced shortly that they were going to go sit stage side. Matt and Brian were taking Manda to go get more drinks and unfortunately, that left me and Zacky there alone.

"I'm sorry." Zack mumbled softly beside me as I took a sip of my drink.

I turned and looked at him skeptically. "I'm sorry for being an ass earlier at the bar."

Looking into his unusually green eyes I cocked an eyebrow. "This is becoming a habit you know."

With a chuckle he nodded sadly. One of his hands came up and ran through his hair in a stressed out way. The gesture made me allude to the fact that he was still having issues with his fiancé.

"Still problems in fiancé land I take it?" I asked softly trying to be nice and get to the point of him always being a jerk to me. This man had more mood swings then I seemed to.

"Well, fiancé land no longer exists." He laughed bitterly as he drank from his glass that I was pretty sure was filled with straight Jack Daniels. "That’s why we came here tonight. Brian wanted me to get out."

"So you guys come to strip clubs often then." I stated as a joke but Zack just nodded.

"Actually, yeah. We're kind of a perverted bunch incase you didn’t have that figured out yet."

I furrowed my brow and imagined I looked slightly put off. Zack just looked at me and laughed. "Guess you hadn’t pieced that together yet."

There as suddenly a cheer from the stage and I looked up only to drop my jaw and stare awkwardly at the stage where Amanda now was. She had joined the stripper on stage and was playfully swinging from one of the poles. "Oh no." I mumbled, clearly embarrassed at my friends actions of choice.

Zack was watching with amusement and even let out a laugh at my clearly frazzled and embarrassed state of mind. "I don't know her." I mumbled under my breath as I let my head flop onto the table with a thunk.

I felt a hand on my back and groaned knowing it was Zacky's. "Oh come on now. She's only having fun. Let her be. Brian seems to be enjoying himself though." At this I snapped my head up and saw that sure enough, Manda was clearly playing with Brian from the stage. She was purposefully flaunting her self as she strutted in front of him, his eyes glued to her as if he were in a trance.

"Damn it."

"Oh lighten up." Zack laughed as he took a sip of his drink after removing his hand from my back.

I grunted and gave him a sideways glare.

It wasn't fair. Amanda had the body and the personality most guys went for. She always got the guy and seeing Brian oogle her just made that small fact even more apart to me. I mean, I had always known this but now it just made me mad. She barely knew him and she had him eating out of the palm of her hand.

Why couldn’t I ever have that? Why did she always have to get the type of relationships I always longed for?

Amanda looked away from Brian and caught my now narrowed gaze. Her face fell and she knew how I was feeling. She had always been able to read me like a book and now was no exception.

I let out a jealous scoff and downed the rest of my drink before shaking my head and standing up.

Without so much as a second look back at Zack who was looking extremely confused I left the club and went to get some fresh air.

Life wasn't always fair but I just wished for once it could be me who got the guy's attention.

"Kali!" I didn’t stop when I heard the male voice call after me. "Kali wait!"

I kept walking and eventually Zack caught up to me. "You shouldn't be out here alone. It's not safe."

"I don't care. I'm not in the mood."

I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and almost went tumbling to the ground but a pair of arms caught me. My vision was becoming blurry and I silently cursed myself for being such a lightweight when it came to mixed drinks. One was all it took.

"Woah there." I looked up at Zack and saw he was grinning at me but there was a slightly sad expression there. "I know how you feel." He said softly.

"How could you know? You don't know anything about me or how I'm feeling." I argued back as he steadied me but still kept a hold of my body so I wouldn’t stumble further.

"I can tell. The second I mentioned Amanda and Brian you got that look in your eye. Not the jealous kind because I can tell you don't like Brian like that. But it was a look I'm very familiar with, trust me." He explained softly.

I let out a sigh and allowed Zacky to guide me back to the club but he didn’t take me inside. Instead he sat me down on the curb and sat beside me, making sure I was going to be alright. "I just need to cool off. I tend to be irrational when I have a drink."

He emitted a low chuckle. "I can see that."

I let out a shiver from the feeling of the cool air against my skin. The outfit I was wearing really didn’t cover my upper body too well and I knew I should have brought a jacket.

At the sight of my shiver Zack hesitantly wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his body sideways. Had I have been sober and I would have insisted against it but my drunk mind was telling me to be grateful for the warmth.

I exhaled a deep breath and when I inhaled I noticed just how good he smelled. It was almost intoxicating.

The door to the club opened and I heard heels clicking as they advanced on us. "I got it taken care of." Zacky told who I assumed to be Amanda. She started to say something but whatever it was that Zack did with his arm which moved slightly silenced her.

Biting my lip I closed my eyes and knew I was going to have to apologize to Amanda tomorrow for my jealous behavior. It wasn't fair of me. "I'm sorry Zack."

"You don't have to apologize. I know how you feel."

His arm which was around me rubbed my arm as I leant my head onto his chest drunkenly. His chin came down on top of my head and my thoughts continued to swim together even more.

"Damn do I ever know how you feel." I vaguely heard him mumble before everything became a blur.