Lukewarm

The sound of the music in the club was loud, as Tiffany sent a wide smirk to her friend. The music was pumping, the drinks were flowing and the guys were hot.

Tiffany had already hooked up with three guys, whilst her friend (Lara) had been with the one all night. They were having a good time and no one was going to ruin that.

The club music had stopped however, and a cover band was now on. Finding this not as fun to dance to, the two girls decided to go outside to the smoking area. Neither of them were smokers, but it was the only place to catch a break from the busy venue.

They both ordered their drinks (strawberry daiquiri) before heading outside and standing against a wall as they looked on to the entire area.

"This has been really fun!" Tiffany said to Lara, taking a sip of her ultra-sweet drink.

"It has, even though you invited her." Lara hissed, talking about the third member of their trio who remained forgotten, who had been on the dancefloor all night screaming along to the cover band.

"Hey, who cares? We're meeting hot guys." Tiffany smiled brightly.

Tiffany and Lara were girls who were very sexually liberated. They came to the same club each Friday and Saturday night and went home with different men every time. They weren't the kind of girls who did it as an empowering "don't need no man" way. Instead, they did it to feed their already over-inflated egos, when deep inside they were insecure.

In return the entire club knew who they were, and they had a reputation. Guys who had struck out with every other girl always approached them as a last resort, and all it ever took was one drink. They were girls you'd usually feel sympathy for, except they weren't nice girls. They were nasty, showing they weren't just naive girls who got played.

"Yeah well, she's a stupid bitch. You'd think her getting skinnier would make her hot, but she looks like a rat. At least I have bigger boobs than her again." Lara said, speaking about the girl inside. Lara took great pride in her breast size, and always felt competitive with the girl who was inside.

"Yeah well... let's just let it go, okay?" Tiffany asked, who was the more reasonable one out of the two.

"You invited her." Lara snapped at her, but stopped when she saw a man approach her.

This man was fairly tall, and of African American appearance. He had some sort of dark liquor in his hand, and a huge smile on his face.

"Yo sup girls?" He grinned, taking a confident sip of his drink.

"We are very well thanks, how are you?" Tiffany asked, in an attempt to flirt with the man.
Lara shot daggers at her 'best friend' and decided to up the ante in order to try and land this man for herself.

"I'm just looking for a man to go home with, know any takers?" Lara said, batting her eyelids at the man in front of them both.

"You're in luck, girl. My boy Franklin and me are looking at inviting some girls to our hotel room. You in?" The man asked the two girls, sending a confident grin their way.

The two girls looked on at the outside bar, and saw a similar looking male leaning onto it. The two girls then looked at each other and gave a look they could both easily read, 'let's go for the kill' however both girls failed to realise how nonchalant the other male at the bar appeared to be.

“Yeah, we’ll come.” Lara immediately responded, and her friend Tiffany just gave the stranger a wide smile.

“Alright. I’ll go speak to him, then we will bounce.” The stranger said, sending the two girls a wink as the two girls began to squabble over who got the confident one and who got the nonchalant one as the stranger walked back to his friend.

“What are you doing, homie?” Franklin asked Lamar when he returned to his best friend, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Man, you need to get the fuck over Tanisha. You can get way hotter bitches, homie.” Lamar complained to Franklin, saying words he had said a million times over.

Franklin should have known better, however. Going out with Lamar was guaranteed this treatment, especially with the kind of money both young men were pulling in these days. He had made it rain a few times at the strip club since getting paid, but nothing seemed to fill the void that Tanisha left in his heart, and no amount of exotic dancers seemed to make him happy.

“Hotter bitches, right.” Franklin said sarcastically, as he watched the two girls argue a few metres in front of them both.

Judging them on their less than perfect appearances was cruel, but hey, Los Santos was a cruel city. They were both large, safely in between “overweight” and “obese” with one being larger than the other, but she was taller. They were both blonde, naturally blonde too, with blue eyes. Such fair features were meant to be the most attractive things to a vast majority of men, but these girls were not attractive at all. It wasn't just their large weight that made him feel they were unattractive, but the way they presented themselves. Make-up that almost seemed shoveled on, with cheap and tacky clothes that made them look even larger. He had also seen them earlier on in the night, eating the faces off many other men. Not a good look.

But Franklin was also in a bad mood because this place was outside his comfort zone. He preferred R&B clubs with great dancers, not a place with cover bands filled with white trash. He had no idea why Lamar wanted to go here, but he did.

Lamar could see his friend's discomfort a mile away, and continued speaking.

"Okay, so they're not Victoria's Secret models. But man, they're easy. That white guy that gave you that hotel said one night only, we may as well have a sure thing in a sweet room. We can get hot bitches any other time." Lamar commented, still attempting to convince Franklin.

One of the organisers of his recent crimes, Lester, had given Franklin a night in a very prestigious hotel. Franklin didn't completely understand the money laundering business, but his free hotel stay was something to do with making dirty money clean, and he wasn't complaining.

Franklin sighed as he looked at his friend. It didn't matter how attractive the girls they were bringing back were, he was going to miss Tanisha anyway. The sooner Lamar went home with someone, the sooner Lamar would be off his back, so maybe this was a good thing.

"Alright, fine homie. I'll go grab us a cab, you get the girls." Franklin said reluctantly, giving his best friend a fist bump as he grabbed his mobile phone from his pocket and walked off.

Meanwhile the two girls had stopped fighting and decided who got which man. Lara had won the fight for Lamar, and Tiffany had settled for Franklin.

"He's cuter anyway," Tiffany said in order to spite her friend "he seems more intelligent"

"So should we just leave... her on the dancefloor then? No one wants her anyway." Lara cruelly said about the third girl that came with them tonight, avoiding Tiffany's observation.

"Ummm... yeah, okay. She's having fun anyway I guess, and she's such a prude anyway. She never goes home with guys. Let her get in a cab to Rockford Hills alone." Tiffany hissed, not realising her words had switched on a cruel thought and idea in Lara's mind.

"You're right. She never goes home with anyone. Let's take her back with us. I'm sure there's a couch to sleep on, we're just educating her on the outside world, outside her little yuppie bubble." Lara quickly suggested.

Lara's suggestion made no real sense, but her real idea was simple. Her jealous mind had twisted the idea it would be hilarious to drag the poor girl along, and make her feel like a fifth wheel, sleeping alone outside as she would hear the fun the two couples would get up to.

Tiffany only shot her friend a look, she didn't really feel like babysitting someone who's presence was redundant, but before she could protest Lara had disappeared back inside, just as the young man from before reappeared.

"My man has just gone to get a cab. Where did your friend split to?" Lamar asked Tiffany, making Tiffany scrunch her nose as Lamar had noticed her presence missing.

"I'm not sure. I think she wants to bring our third friend home with us. Well she's not really a friend, I just invited her out because I feel sorry for her." Tiffany stated.

Lamar only nodded, as he didn't want to get involved with his one night stand's petty girl dramas. So instead, they both just waited around in silence. Surprisingly it was Franklin who returned first, to let them know that a cab was waiting for them.

"You know...we could just go on without Lara." Tiffany purred, and Franklin shot Lamar a look before Lara reappeared, the third girl looking very sick on her arm.

"It took a lot of convincing, but after three shots in the space of two minutes, our little friend here has agreed to come and crash on the couch." Lara smiled wickedly.

Franklin and Lamar shot another look at each other, this time in surprise. They expected the third girl to look the same as the other two, but she was a lot different. She was still a white girl, with a few small freckles remaining on her face from childhood. She had bright blue eyes, long brunette hair, and unlike the other girls she had a nice figure. Her clothes were nicer too, they not only suited her figure, but they were more subtle, a nicely coloured black.

She definitely didn't fit in with these girls, and Lamar could instantly see why they were trying to create drama with her.

The third girl finally landed her gaze on the two strangers, and a smirk grew upon her face.

"Hello, I'm Mackenzie." She smiled, catching the two men off guard as she bought her hand out for a high five.

Franklin smiled, for the first time tonight, as he high fived her, with Lamar following through too. White girls weren't really Franklin's thing so he wouldn't be trying with Mackenzie, but he had a feeling her presence was going to make his night a lot better.

***

Franklin was wrong, the third girl didn't make his night better. She passed out the second they got into their oversized cab and was dead to the world. He nearly slipped the taxi driver some extra money to take her to the address listed on her license, but before he could get her license, the largest girl there (Lara? He thought that was her name but wasn't entirely sure) pinched Mackenzie until she woke up.

The hotel room was a large penthouse with three rooms. Therefore there was plenty of room for the two couples and the third guest. The second they got in there the two almost sober girls put the drunk girl to bed, before going to bed with their respective man.

***

A few hours later, Mack woke up. She didn't get so drunk she blacked out, but she still did get pretty drunk. She didn't have the alcohol tolerance she used to now she weighed a lot less, and the fact she didn't drink frequently anymore didn't help. Letting Lara talk her into those last three tequila shots is what sent her over the edge, from tipsy to trashed.

In fact letting Lara talk her into coming was a bad idea too. Lara had never liked her, but she was just a downright bitch to Mack now. Tiffany used to be her best friend and was pretty mean too. Mack only went out with them both to possible repair the friendship, but she wasn't going to throw away her dignity for the sake of false comfort.

But now she was hungover as hell in a strange hotel room.

Mack took a few moments to compose herself, before heaving out of the very comfortable 5-star hotel room bed to get to her Drone phone (because iFruit phones are for plebs) to check her location on her phone GPS, and to go outside to call a cab to get home.

She saw she was in Vinewood, and decided she would go downstairs into the foyer to call a cab and wait there. So she packed her small bag, put on her cardigan and slowly exited the room to sneak out of the hotel room.

What she didn't expect to find was one of the men sitting on the couch, drinking a beer, watching shitty cable TV.

He immediately turned his attention onto Mack, who nervously pulled down her dress, fluffed her hair and gave him a smile.

"Leaving?" He asked, a small smirk on his face.

"Hi! Um... yeah. I appreciate your hospitality and all, but I thought I'd get out of your way and go home." Mack smiled at the man, rooted in the spot she was standing in.

"I'd say you're welcome, but it feels we didn't really do much. Man, I don't know why your friends got you to come here." Franklin said to the girl attempting to leave.

"Because I was very drunk, and made a dumb decision. In all honesty it's pretty weak compared to bad decisions I've made while drunk, but it's still a decision that would have been different sober." Mack admitted, taking a step towards the couch but remained standing.

“I hate to get involved in yo little girly bitch fights, and I hope I ain’t telling you shit you don’t already know, but those girls were sayin’ some real mean things about you.” Franklin said to the girl in his presence.

Mack smiled a bittersweet smile, and sighed as she sat down on the spare couch next to the other couch where the man was sitting. He opened the can of worms, Mack was now going to open up to him.

"Yeah, Tiffany and I had a falling out a while ago. It was over cocaine, the most stupid fight ever. Lara never liked me. I don't like saying negative things about overweight people, but she's a fat bitch who has a chip on her shoulder," Mack blurted out, but her eyes widened and she covered her mouth.

"Sorry I never get involved in drama like this, just their negativity towards me tonight has gotten to me."

"You fought about cocaine?" Franklin asked the girl, raising an eyebrow.

"Um, yeah," Mack said shifting uncomfortably in her seat as she wasn't sure what his stance on illegal substances was "I used to be a user.... kinda."

"That shit killed my mom." The man stated, and Mack bit her lip to try and distract from the awkward situation.

Before she could apologise and try and cover up the situation, he pulled out a small zip lock bag with pure white powder in it.

"Therefore I shouldn't have this, but I do. It makes it easy to get girls, and I get that pure stuff, none of that cut shit," Franklin said, waving it in front of Mack's face "Want some? You seem you could do with some cheering up."

Mack smiled, and shook her head.

"It's nearly been two years since I used. Even then, it was only ever a couple of lines in a high end club with my brother every now and again, we never sat around the house using it on a daily basis." Mack admitted.

"Well if you want we can go out, the night is still young. Luckily Lamar chose easy girls, I didn't have to waste any coke on them and don't feel bad about leaving." Franklin stated, which made Mack giggle.

"That's pretty terrible, but pretty funny too. Just so we're clear, I'll go to the club with you, but I'm not putting out. I've seen what girls will do for a free line and it's disgusting." Mack said to Franklin, studying his face.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Franklin said, raising his hands in a defense fashion "You're definitely not my type, I prefer women of colour. I'm just getting over heartbreak, so I just want to go to the club."

"So, we're really doing this. It's currently 4am, we're going to go out and call a cab, go to a club, drink some more, meet new people and probably still be messed up at lunch time? You know what, sure. I haven't done that in years. You get the best stories out of it." Mack stated, a huge smile on her face. She used to have lots of fun when she was in this scene a while ago. Even though she was a retired (some would call it reformed) party girl, it was fun to do it once in a while.

"Don't forget to do a line first." Franklin said, pouring a small amount onto the table and getting his credit card out.

"So, tell me about this heartbreak of yours." Mack asked of Franklin as he began cutting lines.