90s Queen Bee #Wattys2016

Chapter 6 - Old skool

2015

'One, two, three!' shouted Penny.

I licked the salt from my hand, gulped down the tequila and sucked on the lemon wedge.

'Here's to Sammy's birthday!' squealed Penny. She downed her tequila and then fluffed the faux fur trim on her iridescent pink mini dress. She was channelling Lisa Kudrow in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. She'd even bought a big blonde wig for the occasion. I'd backcombed my hair so it had a tonne of volume and worn a shiny blue mini dress with a silver triangle on the chest, just like Romy.

'Woo!' cheered our friend Anisha. She'd gone all out and worn a Union Jack dress like Ginger Spice.

Penny shook her phone at me. 'Mei-Ling sends her love from London!'

'Bec wished me happy birthday, too,' I replied. 'She couldn't get a babysitter tonight.'

We screamed in unison as the 'dum-diddily-dum-dum' intro to 'Show me love' came on.

'We've gotta dance to this!' I led Penny and Anisha through the crowd to the middle of the dance floor and let the warm, tingly sensation of being drunk wash over me. All around us people were shouting the lyrics. One woman next to me clutched her chest as she sang. The passion was infectious. I closed my eyes, raised my hands in the air like I just didn't care and stepped to the music. I used to sing this song into my hairbrush.

I opened my eyes to see Penny spinning her head around, her hair flying everywhere. She must have had about four tequila shots. I hoped I wouldn't have to hold that wig back in the toilets later. A cute guy dressed like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air started talking in her ear and she giggled.

I smiled and turned my attention to Anisha, who was doing the running man in tandem with a woman wearing a black, white and red hat like Dionne wore in Clueless. I had to show my appreciation for such an amazing fashion choice, so I danced on over.

'That's the best hat I've ever seen,' I told her.

'Oh, cheers! It's vintage 90s. I found it in a second hand store in Newtown.' She ran her fingers along the brim.

Anisha gripped my arm. 'Sammy, this is Thora. She's an old friend of mine. We just ran into each other.'

'Great to meet you.' Thora blew me an air kiss. 'I hear it's your birthday.'

'Yep, the big 3-4.'

'Were you born in '81?' she asked.

I nodded.

'Ah, that's the best year to be born. I was born in '81 too.'

With her cherubic face and smooth, tanned skin, she didn't look a day over 25. I told her that, too.

'Thanks babe!' Thora chirped. 'I've been using the same brand of face cream since 1998.'

I was about to ask her which brand when Anisha jabbed me in the arm. Her eyes looked over my shoulder and widened. I turned to see what she was looking at. There was Penny, snogging Fresh Prince. Her long arms were wrapped around him and her hand groped his arse.

'Woo!' I cried.

'Good for her!' agreed Anisha. 'She deserves a good shag after that break up she went through.'

His name was Aaron. They'd been together for five years and we'd thought he was going to propose when he'd booked a weekend away with her in the Hunter Valley. Instead, I'd had a knock on my door at 1am. Penny had stood trembling on my doorstep and told me Aaron was following his dream of working as a journalist in New York. He'd thought the weekend would be a romantic way to ask her to join him. But Penny would never leave Sydney. She loved her job and her dad wasn't well.