A Beautiful Mistake

“Rachel, are you ready yet?” I heard my best friend yelling at me from outside my bathroom door. “You take so friggen long to get ready, you’re wasting time.”

“Katie, just go outside and wait for me there. I’ll be out in a minute,” I yelled out to her. I put on a swipe of lipgloss and some mascara, and voila. I was done.

“Okay, you better not take that much longer, or I’m leaving without you,” she yelled back.

I laughed and shook my head. I then stepped back away from the bathroom sink to look over myself fully in the mirror. My chestnut hair was half pulled up, in loose waves. My make up was light, showing off my brown eyes. I had on silver hoops that matched my silver pumps. I was wearing my favorite little black dress that I thought I looked great in. “All those intense workouts are finally paying off,” I said to myself. I walked out of the bathroom and grabbed my purse. “This is it, tonight’s your big night, Rachel,” I muttered to myself as I walked out to Katie’s car. “It’s your 21st birthday. The night you’ve been waiting for forever is finally here.” I squealed with delight as I got into the car.

“You ready for tonight, Rach?” The car roared to life. “I’ve got to hook you up with someone tonight, for sure. I know you say that you don’t mind, but you’ve got to stop being the third wheel with Andrew and I. You need a man. You need a man!” She got over animated and excited about this, as usual.

“I know, I know. You know I’m not exactly the biggest flirt though. Nor am I good looking. Plus, I’m picky with my gu-"

“Shush, none of that!” she interrupted. “Stop being picky. Just relax. Be yourself, have fun. Get it, got it, good?”

I sighed, shaking my head. “Whatever am I going to do with you, Katie?” She just smiled and laughed, her blonde curls shaking around her porcelain face. We pulled into the parking lot for the club we were meeting some of our friends at. It was called Rave, in downtown San Jose, and it was just down the block from my apartment. Not to mention, it was one of the best clubs in the city.

I got out of the car and immediately saw my friend Samantha.

“Rachel! Happy birthday!” she hollered as she ran over to me, and pulled me into a hug.

“Sam! Thank you, I’ve missed you! How’s San Francisco been?” I asked her. I hadn’t seen her in a while, since she had gone to San Francisco State for college and I stayed in my hometown and went to San Jose State.

“It’s been great,” she said to me with a smile, as she, Katie, and I all walked towards and into the club. We headed towards the back where Katie had reserved a table for us. The rest of our friends were already sitting at the table, and Sam and I plopped down next to them, smiling. I was showered with birthday greetings, and they handed me a sash that said “birthday girl” on it. I obliged and put it on.

Immediately, Katie went to the bar and got us all a round of drinks. Since everybody hadn’t really seen each other in a while, we were doing some catching up. Katie continued getting drinks for everyone as we downed our other ones.

By round three, we were all getting a bit tipsy. “Let’s all go to the dance floor!” Katie yelled. She took my hand and dragged me there, with our group following behind me.

“S&M! By Rihanna! This is my jam! my friend, Amanda, screamed out, as we all began to dance to the beat. We were singing at the top of our lungs, and Katie, who was apparently trying to get us all drunk, kept bringing us shots. We all happily obliged.

About 10 songs and 4 shots later, I began to feel dizzy, so I went to go sit down. Right then I noticed a group of guys walk in to the club. Even in my drunken, tipsy state, I could recognize them. Well, most of them at least. It was some of the San Jose Sharks players, mostly the younger half of the team. They weren’t in uniform or anything, but with my job in the sports section of the Mercury News, I wrote about the team quite a lot. I knew my fair share of information about hockey, and loved the game too.

“What the hell are they doing here?” I mumbled to myself, sort of in a daze. They all walked to a table kitty-corner from mine and sat down. I decided not to worry about it, so I went back over to the bar to get another shot. I couldn’t stop noticing the Sharks though, watching them do some shots as well. I threw back the the contents of the tiny glass in my hand and went back over to the dance floor to rejoin the girls.

“Hey, where’d you go?” Samantha asked. “Is something wrong?”

“No no, not at all.” I danced next to her to the beat of the music. “Did you notice the group of Sharks players that walked in?”

“Oh, they’re here? Ooh, girl, I know how much you like them. Go get some!” Sam hip-bumped me, with that trademark smirk on her face.

I laughed, bumping her back. “Nah, I don’t want to bother them. I’ll just let them chill.”

Katie then came over, gathering everyone up. “It’s present time!” she wailed. We went back to the table, I opened up everything and thanked everyone, and of course, Katie got us more drinks. By this time, pretty much all of us were full on drunk. My words were slurred.

Nonetheless, Katie dragged us to the dance floor yet again. I let loose with my friends, not really caring what anyone thought of me. And then, stupid reckless me, I completely crashed into someone, sending their drink flying.

“Ohmygosh, I’m so ss-sorry!” I said to him. I took a look at him and knew he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him in my current state.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” he said with an intoxicated air. Obviously he had been drinking tonight too. He held out his hand with a smile. “I’m Logan.”

Fuck. Logan. I knew this person somehow, somewhere. But I still couldn’t place it. Well, fuck it, I thought. I smiled and took his hand. “I’m Rachel.”

“Pleasure to meet you. Would you like to dance?”

“That would be amazing.” I beamed. We started dancing together, to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”, and even some dance remixes of a few Drake songs, which he really seemed to enjoy. He bought me yet another drink and we made some small talk. He didn’t talk much about himself, but he was really nice and funny.

Eventually I remembered my friends were here, but when I looked for them they were nowhere to be found in the club. I did find the clock on the wall however, and made the time out to be a little after 1 am. They probably left this place already. Logan came back over to me.

“Hey so I know it’s getting late, and I want to make sure you get home safely, so can I take you home?”

“Yes, of course.” I replied politely. “I live just a block away.”

“Can I walk you home then?” I nodded and he took my hand. Somehow, we ended up safely at my apartment door.

“Thank you so much for tonight,” I said, unlocking my door. I turned around in the doorway and smiled. Are you sure you’ll be able to get home okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine,” he assured me. “But there’s something I’d like to say and do first. I think you’re really gorgeous and sweet.”

And the next thing I knew and the last thing I remembered late that night was him leaning in and kissing me, with the smell of alcohol on both our breaths.