Loop

Chapter one - Party

I put my bag on the edge of the dirty sink to rummage through it, looking for my favourite bright red lipstick.

The thumping music in the background is honestly giving me a bit of a headache, but I try to ignore it while I lean forward and pout my lips to apply a new layer of red. In my head, I make a mental note that going to a party after a long day of work isn't a good idea. Kendra asked it so nicely though; I just couldn't decline.

I look in the dingy mirror to check how I look one last time before I enter the crowded club again. My mat green eyes look back at me. I smile to give myself some courage and open the door, almost bumping into another girl that tries to enter the bathrooms.

Don't get me wrong, I like to party from time to time! But since I've got my job at the mall, my tiredness level went through the roof.

'Don't complain so much' I mutter to myself while walking back to our spot at the bar. When I arrive, I see my drink, abandoned by my two friends. Great. I grab it and take a sip of my cocktail frowning while leaning on the bar.

'Hey pretty, can I buy you a drink?' a dude comes over to me and casually leans against the bar, trying to impress me. I intuitively pull on my dress as much as I can to cover my legs and shake my head, pointing at the almost full glass I'm still holding. 'No, thanks. I still got some' I smile awkwardly.

I quickly look around for my friends but I can't immediately find them, so I decide to pretend someone is calling me and walk up to the first girl I can spot in the crowd. And oh, no wonder she was the first one that caught my eye. She is so beautiful. Her brown eyes, her red hair and her thin lips are the definition of perfection for me. I give her a smile and shyly tell her: 'I'm sorry, I briefly used you as a so-called friend to shake off a scary man...'

She laughs and grabs my shoulders: 'oh, don't worry about it! I know how annoying some guys around here can be! You can use me as a distraction whenever you like, girl!'

My cheeks redden as I smile at her: 'thank you...'

'I am Jasmine! What's you name?' she smoothly asks.

'Uh, my name is Lex' I reply.

Then my friends suddenly appear: the tall blonde and the one with pink hair, right off the dancefloor. 'Lexie! Come with us!' they shout in unison while dragging me towards the dance floor. I wave Jasmine goodbye and give her my brightest smile before she dissapears in the crowd.

Kendra, Billy and me have been best friends since high school. Even though we look totally different, our interests almost align completely. We graduated together three years ago and our ways split for some time, but we always came back together. Kendra is still finishing her degree while Billy is struggling to figure out what to do in the near future. And I just got a job at a small clothes shop in the nearby mall. It's not much, but I like my collegues and the working hours are very flexible, so I don't complain.

'Lex! Let's dance! Wooohooo!' Billy screams. They both are far gone, unlike myself. I have another shift to work tomorrow, so I want to stay kinda sober to show up at work in a somewhat dignified manner. Though, I already feel my head become a little lighter. Dizzy, almost... I shake it firmly to get rid of the weird feeling and walk towards my friends.

'Alexandra! Alexandra!' they both encourage me to show them my best dance moves. 'You guys are so embarrasing' I whisper-scream to rise above the music. They just grin and take my hand to dance together.

After a while, Kendra whispers in my ear that she goes to the bathroom and leaves us behind. The empty spot on my right is filled quickly. By that dude from earlier. I try to turn towards Billy to ignore him as much as possible, but he tries to dance with me nonetheless. Doesn't he get the hint?

I lean forward to Billy and rest my hand on her shoulder to support myself: 'Billy, I'm not feeling very well...'

'Oh dear, you indeed look a bit pale! Let's go outside, so we can take some fresh air! I'll text Kendra where we are' she tells me while helping me navigate to the exit.

We push ourselves through the crowd that's in front of the club, taking a smoke and we look around for a place to sit. A small bench some metres away ogles us and we plop down on it.

Billy takes her phone to type a message in our group chat and I take mine to read the conversation:

Billy🤠:
@Kendra, we went outside to get some air. Lex didn't feel quiet well... 🤢

Kendra🎀:
Okay, I'm still waiting in line for the toilet, but I'll be there asap! I'll bring a glass of water for her! To the rescue! 💪🏼

We put away our phones and I breath in and out very slowly a couple of times while looking at the skyline of our city. It's pretty nice here, with the river right underneat us and all the nightly lights of street lanterns and passing cars.

'Did you drink too much?' Billy asks.

'No, I think someone spiked my drink. There was this creepy guy who was way too interested in me...' I reply, rolling my eyes.

She gasps. 'Oh no... Lex, I'm sorry. We shouldn't have left your drink but we didn't think about people who do such things! I...' she mutters.

'Don't worry about it, I'm okay... But can we please leave when Kendra is here? I want to go home...' I wave away her apologies, even though I'm a bit mad at her.

Kendra comes our way and hands me a small bottle of water: 'here, drink some water to get that sickness out of your system!'

Drinking a lot of water: that's her solution for everything. But I appreciate her kind gesture. It makes up a tad for leaving my drink out there for every predator to poison. But not fully.

Kendra sits down on my other side and the three of us sit on the bench for a while before all of a sudden, a single fireworks arrow fills the night sky with bright color. I jump up a bit of surprise but recollect myself quiet fast.

A bunch of people gather around us and soon it seems as if the entire club is standing on the riverbank to watch the sudden fireworks show. I can even spot Jasmine in the audience, smoking a cigarette and talking to a guy.

While the bright patterns of orange, green and red fireworks explode and dissapear in the dark night, I have some time to focus on making the dizzyness go away. I still feel unwell and the thought of laying in my warm bed after the fireworks makes me long for home.

Ten minutes later, the air gets silent again and Kendra jumps up: 'come on,
let's go! I'm so cold, I forgot my jacket in the car.' She rubs her arms and beckons me to leave.

So we do. The next part of the evening is very blurry to me. Billy drives and Kendra takes place in the back seat so I can sit in front, but I need to focus on not puking all over the car so much, that the conversation blurs to the background. I'm glad when the car stops in front of my house. I step out and don't even bother to wave them goodbye. They'll have to work for earning my trust again after they were so ignorant with my drink.

I walk upstairs, kick out my red dress and pull on my warmest pyjama's before I lay down and close my eyes for a long, restful sleep...

[End of chapter one]

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Hi y'all! First of all, thank you so much for reading this first chapter! Whether you know me from my other book 'Game of Hearts' or you're a new reader, I really appreciate the time you took to read this! It was just the start so you can think not much already happened, but please hang in there, I promise it'll get more interesting when you read some more of it. This is going to be my first original story and I must say that I'm a bit anxious of how it will turn out, but I'm looking forward to seeing this book unfold nonetheless! As always, your feedback is much appreciated so don't hesitate to comment and vote! I'm posting the next chapter soon... Love, Midnightwritings