Chapter Two

Zara

A beautiful, blonde girl stands by the cash register, typing on the system in front of her. She looks up at the chime of the doorbell , eyes lighting up at the sight of Valerie. “ Hey Vee. Are you done for the night?”

“ You bet I am. I brought a friend”

A friend. 

She called me her friend. In all 26 years of my existence, I have not had any friends. I’ve always been closed off to people , except my parents and younger brother. It has never been easy for me to fit in with people. But, this woman whom I just met all of thirty minutes ago , called me her friend.

“ Vee, she’s tearing up”

I look up at the concerned voice of the blonde woman with tears blurring my vision.

“ I’m such a mess. Pardon me”

“ It’s alright babe. I know Valerie here can be a little bit overwhelming, but she’s a nice person.”

“I don’t know whether to be pleased or offended “ , says Valerie, eyeing her friend playfully. 

The blonde girl introduces herself as Emily -Rose. Valerie goes ahead to inform her about my plans for the night, while I just stand there blushing. Emily ushers me in and starts by waxing my legs and letting me soak in a scented bath for a short while.

She washes my hair and trims all the dead ends. Next , she rolls my hair into sections and gets started on my makeup. She plucks my brows, and applies about a gazillion different products on my face, which I have no idea about and I just sit there with my eyes closed. 

“You may open your eyes now.”

The woman in the reflection looks like me but at the same time, looks nothing like me. Emily had managed to make my boring brown eyes come to life with dark colors. My lips are a bold red and my cheeks have been dusted with pink. Valerie squeals in the corner, clapping her hands in delight.

“ I’d totally do you , babe”, she says with a wink. 

I change into the clothes I got earlier and I’m all set. Nervousness begins to brew in my belly. What if nobody likes me tonight and I don’t achieve my goal? . Valerie notices me biting my lip in contemplation comes to stand by me, with a hand on my shoulder.

“ The truth is, I’ve never done something like this before. All this is a first for me”

Valerie and Emily nod in understanding. “ You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. You could join us for a drink instead”, Emily says.

“ Oh no, I would hate to be a bother. Besides, I decided to lose my virginity tonight. So it has to be tonight or never.”

“ We’ll come with you then”

I look at Valerie in shock. This woman just keeps shocking me. “ Why are you helping me? You just met me”

She merely waves me away. “ As soon as I saw you walk into the boutique, I knew you could use a friend”

Fresh tears form in my eyes. Emily chastises me from her position. “ No tears. You’ll ruin my work. Just sit tight for a minute, we’ll go with you. We meant to go out tonight anyway”.

I look at the two women again, adoration for them, increasing by the second. “ I hope I won’t be intruding on anything. It’s Valentine’s night after all”

The two women just laugh at me and tell me that there’s nothing special about valentine’s.

The  girls take me to a club called Oasis. The place is packed with people, some lining up to get in and others already drunk out of their minds. They usher me to the front of the queue, where one of the bouncers let us in without question, amidst the outrage of the people still waiting outside. 

They must be regulars here.

The inside of the club is lit with colored strobe lights, illuminating the multiple bodies grinding on the dance floor.  Mild music plays from the top, making it easy to hear the sounds of peoples’  voices. Some lean on the walls in dark corners, doing unimaginable things. 

This is wilder than I thought.

 Valerie leads us to the bar and beckons on the bartender. “ Start us up with something mild”

“Coming right up”

The first drink is a sweet blue mixture with a miniature umbrella for a straw. I order a refill and down it in one go. Emily’s voice sounds from my left,

“ Take it easy babe. There’s still alcohol in that”

Next, the girls order shots of tequila. I’ve never had tequila so, I don’t know what to expect. I take a sniff of the drink in the tiny glass and immediately hold my nose. “ What is this? Methylated spirit?”

The girls laugh at my outburst.  They throw their first shots back and suck on a slice of a lemon the bartender had given us earlier. I imitate them and erupt into a coughing fit. “ Lord, that’s strong”. 

“ Try another shot. You’ll be a pro in no time”, says Valerie.

I down another shot and another . By the fifth shot, I can already feel the buzz of the alcohol, flowing through my veins in a quiet hum. I close my eyes and savor the feeling of letting go. 

“Now, for the business of the night. Take a look around. Do any of these men catch your fancy?” , Valerie says.

I take a look around the club, the nervousness in my stomach, now full blown anxiety. The faces I see around only increase my nervousness. Men with lewd gazes. I turn back to the girls. “ I don’t think I can do it”

“It’s alright, babe. Let’s dance first, you can look around as we dance.”

I follow the girls on to the dance floor and the slow song from earlier changes.

“It started when I looked in her eyes.

I  got bumps and I’m like bailemos …”

The girls immediately start screaming and pulling me to the middle of the dancefloor. Valerie grabs Emily and they both started dancing on each other . I watch in fascination as they move their body to every beat, in sultry moves. I could never dance like that. The only dance I know is the good old left and right feet movement and the occasional jump. Zara beckons on me to join, pulling me between their bodies. They move with me squashed between them, hands gliding down my body.

This feeling. It’s a strange one. The foreign feeling of another’s hands on me. I close my eyes at the feeling and slowly, begin to move in sync with them. The music takes over my body and I feel my inhibitions melting away. I raise my hands above my head, behind Valerie’s shoulder. I feel eyes on me and I open my eyes , looking around the club. Then ,I see Him.

Standing by the railing of what looks like the VIP Section. Dark eyes that lights a fire on my consciousness. Sharp, defined features. Neatly trimmed beard. This man, with the darkest head of hair I have ever seen. He stares at me so intently, my heart begins to hammer in the confines of my chest.

“He looks like he would swallow you whole. What I would give to have a man look at me like that.”

I think that was Valerie speaking but I’m too lost to decipher what is going on around me. The man lifts his glass to his lip and gulps the entire content of it. I swallow harshly.

I see him move and I follow his every movement with my eyes, even as he descends the stairs and walks towards me. Even as the girls depart my side and I am left standing all alone. Then he is in front of me, and all I can smell is him.