Status: Currently writing
Clubs
The Venue
The Venue was crowded with people pouring through the doors. None of which were drunk yet considering it was only seven o’clock. I went and found Jeremy at the front chatting up the bartender.
‘So… you have a pen, I have a phone number. Just think of the possibilities!’
The bartender handed him his drink a little taken back and quickly searched for a new customer to find.
‘Uh, Jem I think he’s straight…’
‘He won’t be when I’m done with him’ Jeremy replied, preoccupied by the rather nice view of the barman’s bum.
I have to admit, it was actually really nice to just chill out. It’d been a while since I last went out and had a drink or two. I caught up with Marissa, a girl in my department. Her office is just down the hall from mine. She’s just about on the brink of getting herself a new man. Apparently he's coming later tonight, I think she said his name was Ryan.
‘About time we found you one of those, isn’t it honey?’ Jeremy butted in. ‘Oh, speak of the devil.’ He nudged me to look at the other side of the club. Skimming through the crowd I saw all the girls in mini skirts/dresses and six inch heels, the older women who wore the same but more make up and less attractive, the young lads who’d all come here to pick up someone to go home with tonight, the older men at the bar beer in hand inspecting the female percentage of the club on the dance floor and a few odds that lurked about in corners. Probably drug dealers.
‘Not there you idiot.’ Yanking my shoulders either side Jeremy twisted me into his line of view. There he was, leaning on the surface at the very end of the bar. Just radiating tall, dark and handsome all across the room.
'Oh is this the one you were telling me about?' Maris asked.
'Yeah, yeah that’s him' I batted Jeremy’s arm down as he was about to give a camp wave to the guy from our building.
'Stop it!'
'Ah c'mon Annie, you got to make a move some time, you've been swooning over him for ages now.'
'I don't even know his name, how an earth could I be swooning.'
'I don't see why you're denying it.' Jeremy rolled his eyes and went to get another drink off of the bartender he was flirting with earlier.
'Seriously Annie, if you ever get the chance go for it. Hell I would. That’s if I wasn't about to get with Ryan of course.' She winked and we giggled like school girls pointing out the ugly men in the club. It was weird watching people dance in a club. You could learn so much about someone by the way they dance. Take status for example, the people coming out with wacky moves would normally be the fun people, the comedians of the group. The ones that just don't really give a shit as to what other people think. And then theirs the ones that feel awkward and try to do a bit of shoulder twisting and head bop in the process without moving there feet. This normally touches on the ones who get nervous and are uncomfortable, either with their dancing skills or trying to impress the opposite sex. Never normally a social sort of person. Their are the ones that don't dance and just stay by the bar, usually due to having too high of status and not wanting to ruin their ego by busting out a move and looking like twat, these were the cooler kind of people that outside of the club you'd want them to like you, the kind of people that you'd want to be your friend. And then of course their are the people who are just really good at dancing and have brilliant confidence in every move they make, whether its feeling the music or just dry humping someone they found on the dance floor.
'Damn! He' is fiiiiinnnnnne' we cracked up in hysterics.
'One more shot and you really will be off with troll face over there. Watch his moves! They're amazing.' We mutually turned quickly to face the bar as our faces crumpled with silent laughter when the crazy dancing troll looked back at us to see if we were laughing at him. I think he knew.
‘SHOTS ALL ROUND’ Jeremy busted into our little crowd we had going ordering shots to the bartender. A few people heard Jeremy's declaration and started edging towards are little group to nab some free drinks. Not that Jeremy gave a shit. He was oblivious to everyone who with wasn't with us or just wasn't hot.
It actually started to get a bit rowdy as Jeremy wasn't giving out free drinks to the people we didn't know. A couple of guys stormed across the dance floor back to the women they had picked up beforehand. Blatantly cheap skates as they didn't even want to buy the girls drinks first before they got them into bed (actually they probably couldn't afford, I wouldn't say they were the best dressed men in the club).
Ryan got here shortly after, Marissa introduced me too him. He seemed like a nice man, short and muscular with near blonde waves in his hair. Ryan looked like the type Marissa would go for, they seemed to slot together nicely as he put his arm around her. She stayed to keep me company for a while but I told her to go and dance, not to worry about me and she headed to the back of the dance floor with Ryan after introducing him to everyone. Poor guy must have been nervous meeting all her friends for the first time. Nonetheless he didn't seem to be fazed by it; it looked like he just wanted to spend some time with her. Which is nice.
Jeremy kept disappearing every few minutes, we didn't know where he went but he'd return again shortly after.
'Just eyeing up the man candy. Keeping my options open ladies.' He whisked off into the crowd again with a sly grin from ear to ear. The rest of the girls were on the floor by now and had been picked up by guys, some of which I thought I recognised. Can't be too sure though. I wasn't really up for sitting at a table by myself so I took the opportunity to go to the toilets quickly to fix my make-up and maybe add another couple of squirts of perfume.
A little smudged mascara. Nothing too extravagant. I wiped it clear and reapplied a little to my eye lashes. The toilets were surprisingly clean. No rubbish, no vomit, no orgies in the cubicles. Even the mirrors were spotless, which was odd for this place, normally you can smell the stench of a bad night out reeking its way from the toilets and out the door.
I washed my hands taking one last look at myself in the mirror and went back into the club. Our table was still empty so I decided to sit by the bar instead. I didn't want to be that person who sits at a table by themselves at a club. That's just sad. Anyway I'm sure Jeremy would be back in a minute to offer drinks out again just so he could go and talk to the bartender.
'Can I get you a drink?' I swivelled around on my stool to see a tall mean looking ginger man towering over me.
'Huh? Oh no thank you, I'm good.'
'Anyone sitting here?' He sat down before I had a chance to respond. I would've said 'yes, he'll be back in a minute' if he hadn't just sat down. Having Jeremy as my wonderful homosexual best friend had bonuses sometimes. And getting rid of scary strange men was one of them, quite a few times Jeremy’s played the roll of my over protective boyfriend and laid down his territory (and I don't mean peeing on the guy) to chase off any unwanted strange men.
'So are you from around here then?'
'Yes' I heard giving one word answers gives them boring vibes and gets rid of them quicker.
'Ah, me too, me too' he grunted. 'What brings you here then?' That wasn't a yes/no question. Touché.
'Just a night out with the girls.' I looked around to see if I could see any of them that would be able to rescue me right now.
'Oh but you seem to be on your own.'
'Ah, no they're just off having a bit of fun. Actually they'll probably be back in a minute.' I kept looking back at the dance floor, no sign.
'Well they seem to be busy enjoying themselves. Maybe you and I should be having a little fun of our own.' He finger was brushing up and down my arm.
'Look, I'm sorry I'm just really not interested-'
'Of course you are' he growled in my ear taking hold of my wrist and yanked me closer towards his groin.
'GET OFF ME' Shouting wasn't heard in this club the music pounded too loud for anyone to properly hear anything. I hit him in the face with the back of my left hand and threw a drink in his face.
Urgh
I just seemed to make him angrier. I struggled against his grip as he dragged me off the barstool and towards the doors of the toilets. He took my wrist behind my back and groped his other hand on my waist and holding my arm in one.
There was a muffled 'what's going on here!'
'Let go of me!' I hissed at him, he unleashed his grasp. The ugly ginger man had had a punch knocked right into the pit of his stomach. He stumbled back and I fell backwards, the end of the bar surface digging into my back. I clung onto the side. The ginger man fought back and went for another guys face. I couldn't see the person, they were just a shadow behind the lofty ginger shit. He swung another right hook. The shadow figure stepped swiftly out the way and caught his arms behind his back calling to the bouncer. Ginger giant wrestled to get out of the mans hold. He was locked. The bouncer rushed over.
I saw the man whisper something in the bouncers ear, effortlessly passing the swollen ginger -who now had a cut lip and a nose bleed - across to him.
I blinked, regaining my posture and trying to stand. The pain in my back stung a little but it was just like when you accidently walk into something and you bash your hip. I just told myself it'll go in a few minutes.
'Are you alright?'
'You work in my building.' Word vomit. I practically spat it at him.
'Yeah... are you alright?'
'Oh yeah, I'm ok' I replied, hastily brushing myself off. 'Uh, thank you for that by the way. That was, uh, nice of you.'
It was the guy that works on the floor below me. His dark chocolate hair was sexily messy, he just looked so gorgeous.
'Oh, don't worry about it, it's nothing. Anyway you seemed to be doing alright by yourself. That cut lip was you not me.'
'Oh' we laughed.
'Here let me get you a drink.' I hesitated. 'Promise I won't be like the last guy,' he smirked. 'Anyway, I'm much better looking.' I laughed again.
'Alright, go on then.'
‘My names Dean’
‘Annie’ I smiled.
Somehow, after we got past my stuttering and awkward replies we actually got talking. He asked a little about me, how long I lived here and how long I'd worked at Ice for and if that was what I always wanted to do.
'Actually no, surprisingly being the writer of a magazine problem page wasn't what I wanted to do.' He laughed. 'I wanted to write properly, write real life stories about what’s going on in the world. To dig up dirt and write about things nobody knows about and publish it for the better. I want to create texts people really want to read and not something they pick up out of boredom because they’ve got a long bus journey or have a bit of free time. I don’t want people to read my work because they have free time. I want people to make free time to read my work...anyway, sorry I'm rambling-'
'No, no it's fine, honestly.' He looked sincere, either that or he secretly finds me boring and wants me to shut up.
Well... what is it you do for the magazine?'
'Oh not too much, I'm an illustrator so for me this is just a temporary job.'
'I thought you were a transfer?'
'Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah I was.'
'Why did you transfer?'
'Oh, I had a bit of a fall out with one of the workers. So when are you planning on moving up in your career then?' I hadn't really thought about it. I didn't really have a plan. What was I waiting for? Just hoping that something would come along and make me into a brilliant journalist?
'I don't know.'
'Well how are you going to get there if you don't know when you're going to do it?'
'I'll get there. It just takes time and experience.'
Jeremy caught my eye a little later winking and pulling faces at me from behind Dean. I bit my lip trying not to smirk batting my arms at him when Dean wasn’t looking. I nearly toppled off my stool and Jeremy saw me, thank god Dean didn’t. He mouthed ‘smooth’ back at me over the top of Dean’s shoulder and practically skipped off back to the girls.
‘You know I cannot believe you haven’t tried a Sex on the Beach.’ He was referring to the cocktail drink.
‘There’s a first time for everything.’ I replied huskily putting the straw of the cocktail to the closure of my lips.
He’d got me trying samples of all these little cocktails, and I have to say most of them were pretty tasty. Apart from a weird green one that is, god knows what was in that. But it was getting pretty late and I told Dean I was going to have to get back.
‘So you have, like a curfew or something?’ He winked.
‘Totally, daddy said not a minute after midnight.’
'Well we can’t have that now, can we? Its pretty dark outside, how about I walk you home?' I nodded. He grabbed his leather jacket and nodded to one of the security as we left. I thought maybe it was because of the ginger bloke earlier, but it wasn't the same guy as before who took him away.
We carried on talking just like before. I told him that I lived with my roommate Emma and how she hasn't got a job at the moment or not really contributing any money and he said that he once lived with a guy like that. I said they should meet and he laughed. I liked it when people laughed at my jokes. It made me feel more at ease.
Even though we walked at the pace of a snail time seemed to fly by and before I knew it we were standing outside my block.
'So... this is me.' I did an awkward thumb point to the big building behind me.
'Right... well,' neither of us said anything. We just stood. Looking at each other. It felt... right. I mean, it must have been the weirdest thing to have walked past, just two people looking at each other. Or maybe they would think we were having a staring contest? I didn't care. He had such beautiful hazel eyes, they stood out boldly from his tanned skin… and his lips looked so soft. I wanted to kiss him. We were so close. I think he wanted it too... but neither of us leaned in. Just gazed.
'Well I better get back home. I was nice meeting you properly tonight.'
Once again he was pacing down the street just like he did from the lift. He was gone before I even got the chance to thank him for walking me home.
I practically crawled up the stairs banister in one hand and heels in the other (I didn’t take them off until I got inside the building, I did have shoes on whilst Dean walked me home else I would have looked like a bit of a prat) Emma had probably fallen asleep on the sofa watching some chick flick that gets her all emotional.
I fiddled in my bag for the keys; my bags are always full of so much crap. A few more stairs. I'm there.
I held my key up to the lock... but the door was already open.
‘So… you have a pen, I have a phone number. Just think of the possibilities!’
The bartender handed him his drink a little taken back and quickly searched for a new customer to find.
‘Uh, Jem I think he’s straight…’
‘He won’t be when I’m done with him’ Jeremy replied, preoccupied by the rather nice view of the barman’s bum.
I have to admit, it was actually really nice to just chill out. It’d been a while since I last went out and had a drink or two. I caught up with Marissa, a girl in my department. Her office is just down the hall from mine. She’s just about on the brink of getting herself a new man. Apparently he's coming later tonight, I think she said his name was Ryan.
‘About time we found you one of those, isn’t it honey?’ Jeremy butted in. ‘Oh, speak of the devil.’ He nudged me to look at the other side of the club. Skimming through the crowd I saw all the girls in mini skirts/dresses and six inch heels, the older women who wore the same but more make up and less attractive, the young lads who’d all come here to pick up someone to go home with tonight, the older men at the bar beer in hand inspecting the female percentage of the club on the dance floor and a few odds that lurked about in corners. Probably drug dealers.
‘Not there you idiot.’ Yanking my shoulders either side Jeremy twisted me into his line of view. There he was, leaning on the surface at the very end of the bar. Just radiating tall, dark and handsome all across the room.
'Oh is this the one you were telling me about?' Maris asked.
'Yeah, yeah that’s him' I batted Jeremy’s arm down as he was about to give a camp wave to the guy from our building.
'Stop it!'
'Ah c'mon Annie, you got to make a move some time, you've been swooning over him for ages now.'
'I don't even know his name, how an earth could I be swooning.'
'I don't see why you're denying it.' Jeremy rolled his eyes and went to get another drink off of the bartender he was flirting with earlier.
'Seriously Annie, if you ever get the chance go for it. Hell I would. That’s if I wasn't about to get with Ryan of course.' She winked and we giggled like school girls pointing out the ugly men in the club. It was weird watching people dance in a club. You could learn so much about someone by the way they dance. Take status for example, the people coming out with wacky moves would normally be the fun people, the comedians of the group. The ones that just don't really give a shit as to what other people think. And then theirs the ones that feel awkward and try to do a bit of shoulder twisting and head bop in the process without moving there feet. This normally touches on the ones who get nervous and are uncomfortable, either with their dancing skills or trying to impress the opposite sex. Never normally a social sort of person. Their are the ones that don't dance and just stay by the bar, usually due to having too high of status and not wanting to ruin their ego by busting out a move and looking like twat, these were the cooler kind of people that outside of the club you'd want them to like you, the kind of people that you'd want to be your friend. And then of course their are the people who are just really good at dancing and have brilliant confidence in every move they make, whether its feeling the music or just dry humping someone they found on the dance floor.
'Damn! He' is fiiiiinnnnnne' we cracked up in hysterics.
'One more shot and you really will be off with troll face over there. Watch his moves! They're amazing.' We mutually turned quickly to face the bar as our faces crumpled with silent laughter when the crazy dancing troll looked back at us to see if we were laughing at him. I think he knew.
‘SHOTS ALL ROUND’ Jeremy busted into our little crowd we had going ordering shots to the bartender. A few people heard Jeremy's declaration and started edging towards are little group to nab some free drinks. Not that Jeremy gave a shit. He was oblivious to everyone who with wasn't with us or just wasn't hot.
It actually started to get a bit rowdy as Jeremy wasn't giving out free drinks to the people we didn't know. A couple of guys stormed across the dance floor back to the women they had picked up beforehand. Blatantly cheap skates as they didn't even want to buy the girls drinks first before they got them into bed (actually they probably couldn't afford, I wouldn't say they were the best dressed men in the club).
Ryan got here shortly after, Marissa introduced me too him. He seemed like a nice man, short and muscular with near blonde waves in his hair. Ryan looked like the type Marissa would go for, they seemed to slot together nicely as he put his arm around her. She stayed to keep me company for a while but I told her to go and dance, not to worry about me and she headed to the back of the dance floor with Ryan after introducing him to everyone. Poor guy must have been nervous meeting all her friends for the first time. Nonetheless he didn't seem to be fazed by it; it looked like he just wanted to spend some time with her. Which is nice.
Jeremy kept disappearing every few minutes, we didn't know where he went but he'd return again shortly after.
'Just eyeing up the man candy. Keeping my options open ladies.' He whisked off into the crowd again with a sly grin from ear to ear. The rest of the girls were on the floor by now and had been picked up by guys, some of which I thought I recognised. Can't be too sure though. I wasn't really up for sitting at a table by myself so I took the opportunity to go to the toilets quickly to fix my make-up and maybe add another couple of squirts of perfume.
A little smudged mascara. Nothing too extravagant. I wiped it clear and reapplied a little to my eye lashes. The toilets were surprisingly clean. No rubbish, no vomit, no orgies in the cubicles. Even the mirrors were spotless, which was odd for this place, normally you can smell the stench of a bad night out reeking its way from the toilets and out the door.
I washed my hands taking one last look at myself in the mirror and went back into the club. Our table was still empty so I decided to sit by the bar instead. I didn't want to be that person who sits at a table by themselves at a club. That's just sad. Anyway I'm sure Jeremy would be back in a minute to offer drinks out again just so he could go and talk to the bartender.
'Can I get you a drink?' I swivelled around on my stool to see a tall mean looking ginger man towering over me.
'Huh? Oh no thank you, I'm good.'
'Anyone sitting here?' He sat down before I had a chance to respond. I would've said 'yes, he'll be back in a minute' if he hadn't just sat down. Having Jeremy as my wonderful homosexual best friend had bonuses sometimes. And getting rid of scary strange men was one of them, quite a few times Jeremy’s played the roll of my over protective boyfriend and laid down his territory (and I don't mean peeing on the guy) to chase off any unwanted strange men.
'So are you from around here then?'
'Yes' I heard giving one word answers gives them boring vibes and gets rid of them quicker.
'Ah, me too, me too' he grunted. 'What brings you here then?' That wasn't a yes/no question. Touché.
'Just a night out with the girls.' I looked around to see if I could see any of them that would be able to rescue me right now.
'Oh but you seem to be on your own.'
'Ah, no they're just off having a bit of fun. Actually they'll probably be back in a minute.' I kept looking back at the dance floor, no sign.
'Well they seem to be busy enjoying themselves. Maybe you and I should be having a little fun of our own.' He finger was brushing up and down my arm.
'Look, I'm sorry I'm just really not interested-'
'Of course you are' he growled in my ear taking hold of my wrist and yanked me closer towards his groin.
'GET OFF ME' Shouting wasn't heard in this club the music pounded too loud for anyone to properly hear anything. I hit him in the face with the back of my left hand and threw a drink in his face.
Urgh
I just seemed to make him angrier. I struggled against his grip as he dragged me off the barstool and towards the doors of the toilets. He took my wrist behind my back and groped his other hand on my waist and holding my arm in one.
There was a muffled 'what's going on here!'
'Let go of me!' I hissed at him, he unleashed his grasp. The ugly ginger man had had a punch knocked right into the pit of his stomach. He stumbled back and I fell backwards, the end of the bar surface digging into my back. I clung onto the side. The ginger man fought back and went for another guys face. I couldn't see the person, they were just a shadow behind the lofty ginger shit. He swung another right hook. The shadow figure stepped swiftly out the way and caught his arms behind his back calling to the bouncer. Ginger giant wrestled to get out of the mans hold. He was locked. The bouncer rushed over.
I saw the man whisper something in the bouncers ear, effortlessly passing the swollen ginger -who now had a cut lip and a nose bleed - across to him.
I blinked, regaining my posture and trying to stand. The pain in my back stung a little but it was just like when you accidently walk into something and you bash your hip. I just told myself it'll go in a few minutes.
'Are you alright?'
'You work in my building.' Word vomit. I practically spat it at him.
'Yeah... are you alright?'
'Oh yeah, I'm ok' I replied, hastily brushing myself off. 'Uh, thank you for that by the way. That was, uh, nice of you.'
It was the guy that works on the floor below me. His dark chocolate hair was sexily messy, he just looked so gorgeous.
'Oh, don't worry about it, it's nothing. Anyway you seemed to be doing alright by yourself. That cut lip was you not me.'
'Oh' we laughed.
'Here let me get you a drink.' I hesitated. 'Promise I won't be like the last guy,' he smirked. 'Anyway, I'm much better looking.' I laughed again.
'Alright, go on then.'
‘My names Dean’
‘Annie’ I smiled.
Somehow, after we got past my stuttering and awkward replies we actually got talking. He asked a little about me, how long I lived here and how long I'd worked at Ice for and if that was what I always wanted to do.
'Actually no, surprisingly being the writer of a magazine problem page wasn't what I wanted to do.' He laughed. 'I wanted to write properly, write real life stories about what’s going on in the world. To dig up dirt and write about things nobody knows about and publish it for the better. I want to create texts people really want to read and not something they pick up out of boredom because they’ve got a long bus journey or have a bit of free time. I don’t want people to read my work because they have free time. I want people to make free time to read my work...anyway, sorry I'm rambling-'
'No, no it's fine, honestly.' He looked sincere, either that or he secretly finds me boring and wants me to shut up.
Well... what is it you do for the magazine?'
'Oh not too much, I'm an illustrator so for me this is just a temporary job.'
'I thought you were a transfer?'
'Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah I was.'
'Why did you transfer?'
'Oh, I had a bit of a fall out with one of the workers. So when are you planning on moving up in your career then?' I hadn't really thought about it. I didn't really have a plan. What was I waiting for? Just hoping that something would come along and make me into a brilliant journalist?
'I don't know.'
'Well how are you going to get there if you don't know when you're going to do it?'
'I'll get there. It just takes time and experience.'
Jeremy caught my eye a little later winking and pulling faces at me from behind Dean. I bit my lip trying not to smirk batting my arms at him when Dean wasn’t looking. I nearly toppled off my stool and Jeremy saw me, thank god Dean didn’t. He mouthed ‘smooth’ back at me over the top of Dean’s shoulder and practically skipped off back to the girls.
‘You know I cannot believe you haven’t tried a Sex on the Beach.’ He was referring to the cocktail drink.
‘There’s a first time for everything.’ I replied huskily putting the straw of the cocktail to the closure of my lips.
He’d got me trying samples of all these little cocktails, and I have to say most of them were pretty tasty. Apart from a weird green one that is, god knows what was in that. But it was getting pretty late and I told Dean I was going to have to get back.
‘So you have, like a curfew or something?’ He winked.
‘Totally, daddy said not a minute after midnight.’
'Well we can’t have that now, can we? Its pretty dark outside, how about I walk you home?' I nodded. He grabbed his leather jacket and nodded to one of the security as we left. I thought maybe it was because of the ginger bloke earlier, but it wasn't the same guy as before who took him away.
We carried on talking just like before. I told him that I lived with my roommate Emma and how she hasn't got a job at the moment or not really contributing any money and he said that he once lived with a guy like that. I said they should meet and he laughed. I liked it when people laughed at my jokes. It made me feel more at ease.
Even though we walked at the pace of a snail time seemed to fly by and before I knew it we were standing outside my block.
'So... this is me.' I did an awkward thumb point to the big building behind me.
'Right... well,' neither of us said anything. We just stood. Looking at each other. It felt... right. I mean, it must have been the weirdest thing to have walked past, just two people looking at each other. Or maybe they would think we were having a staring contest? I didn't care. He had such beautiful hazel eyes, they stood out boldly from his tanned skin… and his lips looked so soft. I wanted to kiss him. We were so close. I think he wanted it too... but neither of us leaned in. Just gazed.
'Well I better get back home. I was nice meeting you properly tonight.'
Once again he was pacing down the street just like he did from the lift. He was gone before I even got the chance to thank him for walking me home.
I practically crawled up the stairs banister in one hand and heels in the other (I didn’t take them off until I got inside the building, I did have shoes on whilst Dean walked me home else I would have looked like a bit of a prat) Emma had probably fallen asleep on the sofa watching some chick flick that gets her all emotional.
I fiddled in my bag for the keys; my bags are always full of so much crap. A few more stairs. I'm there.
I held my key up to the lock... but the door was already open.