Hey, Soul Sister

Beneath the erratic movements of the strobe lights and the mirrored gleam of the disco ball, she was a star. Chestnut waves flowed out in every direction as she waved her arms and shook her hips to the hip hop beat bursting from the speakers. There was just something about the way she moved, so wild and carefree, that he just knew that she wasn’t like the other girls in the packed club. She was something else entirely.

She wasn’t constantly grinding on him or trying to grind on other random girls around them on the dance floor in a lame attempt to try to get his attention; she didn’t need all that. Instead, she just rocked her shoulders back and forth in time with her hips to the rhythm. Occasionally she’d throw in some completely goofy move, such as “raising the roof,” and her features would twist into a fit of laughter. She glowed from the inside out.

More and more, Logan found himself letting go with her, his tense movements melting with every song. Their hands were in the air, their arms swaying back and forth to the music. Kandi would take his hands in her own and swing his arms to the fast-paced songs. They looked like idiots out on the floor, making up their own moves as they went along with wide, lopsided grins spread across their lips. It wasn’t long before they were both sweating, pushed closer and closer together as more people flocked to the dancefloor. She flashed him a quick smile and grasped his hand, leading him towards the edge of the floor.

“I just needed to catch some air,” Kandi’s voice rang loudly over the noise around them. Logan watched as her chest heaved in and out, but her deep brown eyes still glimmered beneath the lights, and she still wore that smile on her face.

As Kandi waved wildly to her friend sitting on one of the plush leather sofas that flanked the dancefloor, Logan grabbed a couple jello shots from the tray that one of the club girls was passing around the area. He quickly passed her one, watching as she downed it before anyone could notice the chunky black X on the back of her hand.

She offered him a smile in return. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he replied before sliding the contents of his own small plastic cup down his throat. The familiar burn of vodka stimulated his senses for a moment.

“I’m gonna go check in with Autum for a minute. Meet you back on the floor?” she said. She pressed her hand against his thigh as she spoke; the gesture causing his cheeks to grow hot.

Logan nodded in response and watched as she weaved through the crowd, the sequins on her white flowing tank top picking up the pink, green, and purple beams of light bouncing around the club.

As Logan sat there at the bar, he felt his stomach begin to tighten. It wasn’t often that he felt that way, especially around a girl, but she had turned the tables on him. And even though he’d just had her the night before, her brunette waves splayed like a halo against his starched white pillowcase, he couldn’t help but crave her again.

His dark eyes wandered over to her, sitting on the couch with her friend, giggling as she pushed her bangs out of her face. Occasionally he’d catch them glancing his way, and Kandi would raise an eyebrow at him from across the crowded club before she eventually gave in to a fit of giggles.

He almost didn’t notice the familiar face that drifted through the crowd towards him until he and James were almost face-to-face.

“Hey man, what’s up?” he said as he stood up to meet his roommate.

“Nothing much,” James replied loudly before leaning down. “So where’s this girl?” His honey eyes darted around the club as he spoke.

Logan’s gaze moved towards the couch where the two girls had been just seconds ago. Autum was still sitting there, her features bogged down by her obvious boredom, but Kandi was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly she was standing right in front of him, her jaws still locked in a grin as she looked up at James. Logan couldn’t keep himself from smiling right along with her.

“I’m guessing you’re James?” she asked, her eyes glazing him over, trying to gage if he was good enough for her friend. When he answered with a slow nod, she smiled approvingly. “I’m Kandi.” One hand worked through her head of waves while the other shook James’s.

“Nice meeting you.”

The three stood around awkwardly, three pairs of eyes glancing anxiously around the club.

Kandi shoved her hands into the back pockets of her shorts, the first to break the silence. “Anyways, should we all go sit down for a bit, get to know each other?”

“Sure,” James said as his perfect white teeth formed a smile.

Logan draped his arm around Kandi’s bare shoulders as they moved towards the seating area, and she responded by faintly smiling up at him. Though every other aspect of her expression was warm and soft, her brown eyes were filled with questions, and he automatically regretted pulling such a possessive gesture. There was just a small part of him that wanted every single person in that club to see that she was with him, that when it was all said and done, at the end of the night, she’d be back in his apartment, his name on her lips.

Kandi shrugged him off as soon as she spotted her friend, leading James over to her as they both took a seat on the white leather. Though Logan couldn’t hear their voices over the music, he assumed that introductions were being exchanged. He only snapped back to attention when he noticed Kandi motioning for him to come over.

“Can you get us something to drink?” she shouted in his ear, her gaze focused on the bar. Logan was the only one out of their group that was twenty-one.

“Sure,” he yelled back. “What do you want?”

“Surprise me!”

As he made his way back to the bar, the constant flicker of the strobe lights starting to blind his eyes, he noticed the deejay spinning on his turntable, glancing between the record he was scratching and the screen of the laptop beside him. Instead of stopping at the bar, Logan took a little detour through the crowd on the dancefloor. He didn’t stop until he reached the booth at the front of the room.

“Hey, do you take requests?” he shouted to the guy above him, squinting his eyes against the flood of light.

“Not usually, but I mean, I can be persuaded,” the deejay laughed, his hand never straying from the turntable.

Logan rolled his eyes and reached for his wallet, handing the guy a ten dollar bill. He immediately pocketed the cash.

“What do you wanna hear, dude?”

Logan thought for a moment, his hands thrust in his pockets as his eyes surveyed the scene around him.

“Play that new Train song,” he replied before losing himself in the crowd.

He stopped by the bar and picked up a couple glasses of some blue liquid the bartenders were handing out before making his way back to the group.

Kandi quickly grabbed the glass in his hand, holding the drink up to her nose as she swirled it around. “Well, this is definitely a surprise,” she laughed before chugging the drink down.

“So Kandi, do you wanna go dance?” he asked, his hands planted in his jacket pockets once again.

“Sure!” she exclaimed, practically leaping from her seat to follow him out to the floor.

As they fought their way towards the center of the dancefloor, Logan could hear the upbeat opening of the song begin to echo over the speakers.

“I love this song!” Kandi yelled as she threw her hands into the air.

Logan smiled a little to himself as he took her hand, twirling her around underneath the disco ball.

She paused for a moment, looking up at him from under her thick eyelashes. White eyeshadow glittered iridescently across her eyelids, making the mahogany hue in her eyes that much more intense.

“You remembered…” she mumbled as a faint smile crept across her lips.

He nodded and pulled her closer to him, her palms pressed against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. While the people around them moved quickly to the rhythm of the song, they slowly swayed back and forth to their own rhythm. Kandi pressed her lips against his with force, but as the kiss deepened, they seemed to melt into one another in the center of the floor, the lights flickering and fading around them.