Show Me What You Can Get Away With

“I don’t like this one as much as the other.” Olivia says, holding a black skirt up to her frame and standing in the mirror as if to examine it on her body.

“Then don’t wear it?” I reply, pulling my tank top over my head. Go figure she’d take way too long to get ready.

“I know but this skirt matches more!” I sigh and roll my eyes. I on the other hand was already dressed in a black tank top, red metallic leggings, and black converse. I slide my cropped jacket on and sit on the edge of the bed to wait for Olivia to finish.

“Olivia, you have your hair and you make up done. You look great. Can’t you just pick an outfit already so we can go?”

Olivia huffs, “Fine.” She goes into the bathroom, pile of clothes in hand to change.

We leave the campus, catching a taxi because Olivia says it’s a bit too dangerous to take the subway at night. No matter what part of New York you’re in. As we ride Olivia points out all the important landmarks we come across in the empire state and an excited yet nervous feeling bubbles in my stomach. I was excited to see the New York night life. When I lived in Arizona, Kasey and I had a crew together. And we were pretty damn good. The crew was like our family. We did everything together, and we were undefeated. We had a good run.

“That’ll be 30 bucks.”

“Yeah yeah.” Olivia says, handing the cab driver her charge card.

“Are you sure you’ve got it all? I can pay if you want.” I felt kind of guilty.

“No, it’s not a problem. Daddy gives me a certain amount of money I’m allowed to spend on cab fair each month and I haven’t nearly used enough of it. Don’t worry about it.” She says, as we get out of the cab. Olivia takes us down a few streets, into a random party store.

“I thought we were going to Parker.” I say, confused.

“We are.” She smiles, nodding at the cashier and handing him some cash.

“Her too?”

“Yeah.”

We continue walking, past the strange man who worked the store and into the back of the store. There are various bottles of alcohol lining the walls; inventory and another door. Olivia opens the second door, and I follow her down a long flight of stairs.

It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The place is huge, with booming music, strobe lights, cage dancers, and a giant neon light, the word ‘Parker’ glowing above us.

“Pretty cool huh?” Olivia turns to me, a smirk finding it’s way on her face. She looks almost proud of where we are. She definitely should be.

“Holy shit this is insane!” I say, bouncing up and down. There are people everywhere, waitress’ serving, a long bar at the back and the DJ booth at the front. “But how does it—"

“No one knows. Parker is sound proof.”

“This is freaking genius.”

“Hey Olivia!” A tall guy with long hair shouts. She smiles back at him and he waves her over.

“Come on!” Olivia says, grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me in the direction of the guy and his group of friends.

“How’ve you been? Haven’t seen you around in forever. Don’t let Kirsten and Danny run this shit girl.” The guy says, hugging Olivia and pulling her into his lap. I also take a seat at the large booth.

“I’ve been good. School’s been tough, I haven’t really been able to get out of anything. They couldn’t run Parker if they had all the connections in New York.” She says, giggling at the end.

“Hey, who’s your friend?” Another person sitting at the booth with us asks. A girl with blue hair.

“Oh! Sorry about that, this is Audri. She moved here from Arizona. Goes to M.A. too.”

“Sweet. You dance?” The same girl asks me, her eyes boring into mine.

“Uh, y-yeah. I do.” I cross my arms.

“You’ll have to show me what you got.” She says, licking her lips.

“Cherri. For the love of God leave the poor girl alone.” The guy Olivia is sitting on says, and ‘Cherri’ rolls her eyes. “I’m sorry about her. She has to hit on everything that moves. I’m Brent.” He says, outstretching his hand for me to shake. I do. “And this is my crew.” My eyes light up at the word. I suddenly actually care about the people who are surrounding me and what they look like. Cherri is the only girl of the group, and the rest of the people sitting around me are various guys. What a shame.

“We should go dance!” Olivia says, bouncing up and down, Brent’s eyes light up. “Oh cut it out skeez!” She pushes him on the shoulder playfully, “Come on Audri! Let’s go!” And Olivia drags me to another destination.

“Who was that?” I smirk at her as we reach the dance floor. I kind of have to yell over the pumping bass but luckily she hears me.

“I know what you’re thinking! I don’t like Brent. He’s just a friend. Besides, he’s too old anyways!” She says, her body moving with the music.

“Sure. Just a friend.” I tease her, breaking into a shuffle.

“Whoa! You’re really good!” Olivia says, I blush. “You should be out there in the middle! Showing everyone else out!” I shake my head but before I know it Olivia is pushing me past all of the other moving bodies.

“Olivia I don’t really think this is such a great idea!” I say, hoping to get her to stop, but she doesn’t, and some people even start to get pissed.

“Just dance!” One final push, and I’m in the middle of the dance floor. I can feel the hundreds of eyes on me and I swallow hard. Thanks a lot Olivia. Now I don’t know what to do. I have to do something. So I take Olivia’s advice, and I begin to dance. I start to do a simple shuffle, slowly incorporating more and more of my own choreography. People begin to huddle around me. I twist my body, moving my feet in time with the music; pounding against the floor as I step, and moving my arms with my choreography. My feet glide across the floor as I do a series of locks with my arms, sliding myself up to one of the guys in the crowd and flipping his hat off of his head. The crowd starts to get rowdy, cheering me on and soon everyone on the dance floor is crowded around me in a circle. I smile cockily, gaining a boost of confidence. I foot work some, turning into a back flip and landing in the splits, as the song cuts off.

“Go mystery girl!” The DJ’s voice pours through the speakers. I blush, making my way back over to Olivia.

“Wow.” Olivia says, her mouth hung open in amazement. I breathe heavily, following her to the bar and wiping the sweat from my forehead. “That was – wow. What are you? How do you move like that?” She asks, dumbfounded.

“I don’t know. Comes naturally.” I reply, smiling.

“Hey, get her something on the house!” Olivia says to the bartender.

“Hey Olivia.” Another stranger approaches us, as Olivia is handing me my unidentified drink from the bar.

“Jason, hi.” Olivia says breathily, smiling like crazy and taking a sip of her drink. Her eyelashes flutter. Chances are she maybe sorta likes this guy. I recognize him as the guy whose hat went flying across the floor when I flicked it off.

“Oh, man! Sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean for it to go as far as it did.”

“No big deal. You were crazy good.” He says, lining his hat with his fingers to emphasize that he did in fact get it back. I hadn’t actually noticed.

“Thanks.”

“I mean it, like, we haven’t had a girl at Parker who’s that good in – hell, we haven’t had anyone that good in a long time. You go to M.A?” He asks. I nod my head. “Man, you will be the talk of the school come Monday. What’s your name?”

“Au—”

“Her name is Audriana. But you can just call her Audri.” Olivia says, cutting me off as to bring the attention back to her.

“Right, well, nice to meet you Audri. I’ll see you guys later. Bye.” He says, walking to catch up with some friends.

“Oh my god, Jason Newman just talked to us.” Olivia grabs me, drink long forgotten.

“I’m assuming that’s a big deal?”

“No. Why would you say that?”

I roll my eyes, “You like him don’t you?” Did I have gullible written across my forhead?

Olivia sighs, “Yeah, but he hardly ever notices me. He doesn’t think I’m cool. I’m not a dancer like you.” I put my hands up defensively.

“You are so cool. You’re gorgeous, and I bet you’re an amazing actor. Listen I’ll help you with him.”

“Really?!” Her voice goes from defeated to hyper again.

“Of course.”