Happy Birthday to Me

MARISSA

Harley, me, and the others walked back out to the parking lot.

"What happened?" Emma questioned.

"I couldn't get in." I said quietly.

"Why not?" Ryder asked.

"The bouncer took out a flashlight." Spike said, "She had no chance."

"So where should we go now?" Jon asked, changing the subject.

"Should we just bag the night and call it a loss?" JoJo questioned.

"No way! The party rages on!" Amelia said loudly.

"Then where do you suggest we go?" Pete asked.

"Let's go to the Neon Graveyard. There aren't any bouncers there." Amelia said.

Emma smiled, "That's a great idea!"

Everyone else seemed to agree.

Amelia, Emma, Jon, Ryder, and Pete got into Pete's SUV.

JoJo, Spike, Harley, and I got into Harley's car and we headed off.

X----------X----------X----------X----------X----------X

When we got out of the car again we had only gone a few blocks away from the club where we just were.

We were at a place that seemed to be a museum by day and a pretty cool place to throw a party by night.

Amelia led the way through a gate and once we entered she stepped to the side to reveal a massive graveyard.

"Wow." I whispered as I looked all around.

The entire place looked a lot like a junkyard, but instead of things being stacked in trashy piles, old neon signs had been leaned against the outer walls and free-standing neon signs had been placed throughout. All the neon lights had been turned on which made things glitter and shine in every direction. The signs themselves were from a time in Vegas that had been forgotten. If a casino had been torn down, it's neon sigh now resided in this graveyard.

In one corner of the neon graveyard was a giant white truck and in the bed of the truck was a portable DJ station. On the other side was a black van and the people inside were selling booze...among other things.

"C'mon, let's go!" Amelia shouted before she grabbed Ryder's hand and pulled him over to the DJ truck.

Spike, Emma, Jon, JoJo, and Pete walked over to the van to buy some drinks.

I glanced all around looking for Harley, but I couldn't find him anywhere. "Great. They get into a sort-of club and promptly ditch me." I muttered.

I knew I didn't have enough money to take a cab back to my apartment.

Maybe it wasn't that far and I could just walk.

I started to look for an exit and figure out where the Strip was.

"Hey, where are you going?" Harley asked from behind me.

I turned to face him and I noticed he had a bunch of glow sticks. "What are those for?" I asked.

Harley smiled, "It's not a real party without glow sticks." he said before he gave me all the green and purple ones and kept the blue and yellow ones for himself.

I smiled back and said, "Thanks." before I decorated myself with the glow sticks Harley gave me and he did the same.

"So how do I look?" I asked.

"Great!" Harley replied.

I smiled, "You don't look half bad yourself."

"Do you want to dance?" Harley asked.

I nodded and repled, "Yes."

Harley and I climbed to the top of one of the signs in the center of the Graveyard. People were dancing on top of some of the other signs so it seemed like a common thing to do and not something we were going to get in trouble for.

"Wow, when you're all the way up here things seem a lot higher." I said as I caught my balance.

"Don't worry, I've got you." Harley said as he smiled.

"Thanks Harley." I said as I smiled back.

"No problem." he replied.

A new song started to play and just about everyone in the graveyard cheered.

Shout to all my lost boys
Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shout to all my lost boys
We rowdy

Shout to all my lost boys
Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shout to all my lost boys
We rowdy

Shout to all my lost boys
Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shout to all my lost boys
We rowdy

My smile brightened, "I love this song!" I yelled as we started to dance.

Because the song was fast paced, we didn't really touch each other as we danced, we just kind of moved close to each other for the duration of the song.

At the end of the song I noticed Amelia climbing up the sign Harley and I were dancing on. Once she got to the top I shouted over the music, "Are you sure you should be up here?"

"Of course! It's not like it's illegal!" Amelia yelled back.

"It's not that. You're just pretty intoxicated and I don't want you falling off the sign." I said.

"Well aren't you so sweet!" Amelia cooed, "But I'm just fine."

Everybody get up, WOO!
Everybody get up, WOO!
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
WOO!
Hey, hey, hey
WOO!

If you can't hear what I'm trying to say
If you can't read from the same page
Maybe I'm going deaf
Maybe I'm going blind
Maybe I'm out of my mind
Everybody get up

Amelia smiled widely and said, "This is my favorite song!"

Ok, now he was close
Tried to domesticate you
But you're an animal
Baby, it's in your nature
Just let me liberate you
You don't need no papers
That man is not your maker
And that's why I'm gon' take a

Amelia and I danced together like most girls in a club would. We danced like we were the hottest ones in the room and made all the guys stare at us and want us.

Harley just stood at the edge of the sign and smirked at us - in a non-creeper way.

Good girl
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
You're a good girl
Can't let it get past me
You're far from plastic
Talk about getting blasted
I hate these blurred lines
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
But you're a good girl
The way you grab me
Must wanna get nasty
Go ahead, get at me
Everybody get up

Even though I wasn't a fan of the song, I was enjoying dancing to it with Amelia. She was a pretty good dancer and together we were quite the sight to be seen.

When the song ended, Amelia loudly said, "I'm hungry! I'll go find the others! Meet us in the parking lot in ten minutes!" and with that, she expertly climbed down off the sign and walked away.

X----------X----------X----------X----------X----------X

Harley and I climbed down off the sign and walked out to the parking lot where we met up with the others.

"So where are we going now?" Spike asked.

"We could go to In N Out." Amelia suggested.

"No, we went there last time." JoJo shot down.

"Ooh I know! Let's go to this place that deep fries everything including Twinkies and Snickers bars!" Ryder said excitedly.

"Eww no. That much deep fried junk is disgusting." Emma declined.

"I've got to agree with Emma on that one. I'm not paying for heart attacks." Pete said.

"Well if Pete's out then there's no use in going there." Jon said.

"How about we go to Fat Burger on the Strip?" JoJo suggested, "They have the best all night burgers."

"That sounds like a great idea." Harley said.

Everyone seemed to agree so we piled into the two cars and took off.

X----------X----------X----------X----------X----------X

At Fat Burger I ended up ordering a Pepsi and a medium french fry.

The 9 of us squeezed into a 6 person booth with the girls and Harley squished in one side and the rest of the guys looked uncomfortable as hell on the other side.

Everyone except for Harley and I had a 32oz beer and everyone except for me had a gigantic burger in front of them.

When we finished eating, everyone started to throw out ideas of what we should do next.

I took out the phone the band gave to me and checked the time, "Holy crap! It's 3am?! I've got to get back!" I said as my eyes widened.

"You're wiving in a city that never slweeps." Ryder said as he slurred some of his words, "You'll learwn to stway up for 24 hours and not bwe tired at all."

I shook my head, "I'm not tired. My first day of work is in 7 hours and I don't want to look like a flake."

The girls, Pete, and Spike seemed to understand where I was coming from even if they were wasted. So we agreed to call it a night.

We left the cars at the restaurant because we had a bunch of drunkies on our hands and so we piled into two cabs. Harley, Amelia, Ryder, and I got into the same cab because we were going to the same place and the others took the second cab.

When we got back to the apartment complex, Amelia bounced up to me and asked, "So where are you working?"

I smiled back to her and replied, "Burlesquia."

Amelia's jaw dropped and she smiled at the same time before she said, "That is so awesome!"

When Harley walked past, Amelia reached out and smacked him in the back of the head.

"Oww!" Harley groaned, "What was that for?!"

"You know what it's for! She has an awesome job to go to and you kept her out all night." Amelia replied.

"It's not entirely his fault. I agreed to go out too." I said.

Amelia smiled and pulled me into a hug, "You're cool. I like you."

I smiled and hugged her back, "I think you guys are cool too. It was awesome meeting you all, but I need to crash for the night."

"Of course. You do you. We'll hang again soon." Amelia said.

I said my goodbyes and went to my apartment. I quickly changed out of the dress, put on something comfortable, set an alarm on my phone, and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.