Chapter 7 : Nightlife

Dawn’s POV

“Agh,” I groaned as I pushed through the heavy door of the ladies’ restroom. I wished I could say a cool breeze hit me as soon as I did, but instead I was engulfed with the stuffy air of an even more stuffy hallway, bodies squished and pushed to one side that formed the line leading to the bathroom that was currently being occupied.

There were only three toilets in there, two of them currently being puked into—I gave the first woman in the line a look that said waiting wasn’t the best idea. She seemed to understand, because she groaned as well before leaving the line and going off somewhere else. Hopefully a bush, and not some obscure corner of the bar Candice had managed to drag me to tonight.

“Are you having fun!” said woman asked me, both her and my drink in her hands covered with their individual coasters sat upon them. I deadpanned at her as I massaged the side of my head. I didn’t know whether it was because the bar scene in Europe was so different to the one back home, or whether I was just slowly but surely becoming way too old for this scene in general, but I, in fact, was not having any fun at all.

“Oh, come on Dawn, loosen up?” Candice suggested as she took the coaster off from my drink and handed it to me. “You’ve been complaining about your bear of a man all day, on top of stressing about the project you guys have to work on. We agreed to let go for one night and pick up responsibilities when we wake up tomorrow. On top of the massive hangover.”

“Call me crazy but I don’t think working towards a hangover in the morning is very responsible,” Candice rolled her eyes at me, but I took a chug of the beer anyway. She cheered when I pulled my mouth away from the cup and made a disgusted face.

“That’s what I like to see! But you’re right, the vibes are pretty dead here, come on.”

“Where are we going?” I asked her as she pulled me through the bar and out into the cold night air. Ah, now this was the cool breeze a girl ordered. I pulled my jacket closer to my body, doing a quick scan to check my pockets and make sure my valuables were still with me, before I turned to Candice and followed her down the street.

“A club one of the mentors recommended,” Candice said as she pulled me towards her, but I stopped in front of the blazing neon sign of the bar we just left and pulled out my phone. “What are you doing?”

“Are they even allowed to recommend stuff like that to us?” I mumbled. “Most of us aren’t twenty-one yet. And I’m taking a picture of this sign, it looks cool, doesn’t it? And the entire point of tonight was also to look for inspiration.” I gave Candice a side-eye and a knowing glance, knowing full well that the last part was just an excuse to get me out of the dorms.

“You got your picture? Come on, it’s cold as b*lls out here at night.” She replied instead, choosing to ignore my accusatory words and instead wrap her jacket tighter around her body. I nodded my head as I looked at the various pictures I had snapped, going over every small detail from the way the light was captured on the camera to the faces in the window—

Wait, those faces…

I zoomed in closer, realizing that two faces in particular were staring right back at me as I took the picture. It seemed like I knew them from somewhere, but I couldn’t place where exactly. I shut my eyes and tried to remember, or tried to get rid of the growing feeling of anxiousness that began rising in me again.

“Dawn?” Candice’s voice called out to me and snapped me out of the haze of panic that slowly began filling my head. “Are you alright?”

I nodded as I walked up to her, dismissing the concerned look on her face as I shot her a smile of my own. “Yeah,” I muttered untruthfully, “I’m alright. Where are we going now? Please say back to the dormitories.”

“At this hour? It’s barely into the AMs and you want to start leaving? Come on Dawn, we’re in a foreign country, in a whole new and exciting environment, it’s time to loosen up! Besides, when will you be able to say you were young and carefree and in Europe again?”

I gave her an exasperated sigh and let my shoulders slump low. I knew she was right. This was the sort of opportunity that only came by once in a lifetime, and besides that, Dawn had made a point of getting me out earlier so that I wasn’t being overwhelmed with the stress of all the work and expectations that were being placed on us.

Stress was not a good motivator for art, and she knew that as well as I did. So with a short nod of my hand, Candice’s face erupted into a wide, open smile and she grabbed a hold of my empty hand before we were shooting down the road again into yet another obscure direction of town.

“A club!” she announced excitedly. “I heard about it from another one of the mentors, come on, I know how to get inside.”

I scrambled to keep up as Candice began dragging me down a road with heavy foot traffic. It seemed like there were a lot of people out tonight, and the university’s night life was alive and bustling despite there having been a busy day only a few hours ago.

The minute we stepped inside of the club I was engulfed with the warm feeling of bodies pressed against each other, loud music, and the sights and sounds of various smoke machines emitting from the DJ pit. It was overwhelming, to say the least, but the music was good and the people were happy.

“I’m going to get us a drink!” Candice yelled over the music, her voice distorted by the sound despite having leaned as close to me as she could.

I nodded my head at her as I let myself sink into the crowd, my body moving to the sound of the music as I tried to let loose. It wasn’t as hard as I imagined. My mind was already looking for the smallest excuse to let go and breathe, despite the stuffy air that surrounded me. A moment later, I opened my eyes again, only to come into direct eye contact with someone I had never seen before, and yet looked so familiar at the same time.

A strange feeling settled at the back of my mind and in my stomach, and when I looked away, trying to chalk it up to a coincidence, when I turned back the man was still standing there—still staring at me.

I began to feel unnerved for a moment, and took that as a gut reaction to find Candice and get out of here. This was the same feeling I had gotten in the alleyway, when I had thought those men were familiar to me—that didn’t end up good either.

I walked towards the bar to try and find her, hoping she was still standing somewhere there. But when I took a step back, the man took one forward. Again, and again and again. Back, forth. Back, forth. I felt the breath in my chest knock out when my back reached the end of something, and suddenly I felt more trapped than I had in my entire life.

But just then the hard, sturdy wall I had bumped back into wrapped itself around me, and my head shot down to notice large hands splayed across my abdomen and pulling me away, turning us around so that the man’s back who had taken me was facing the man I was staring at, and I was placed at his front.

“You just can’t seem to stay out of trouble, can you?” I don’t know why, but it felt like fresh, clean air being injected into my lungs as I heard Craig’s voice whisper into my ear. My body relaxed, and I looked up to see his eyes shining down at me. I didn’t know if it was the lights that were reflecting in his eyes this time, the LED flashes throughout the club illuminating his face in shades of red, green and blue. They lightened his amber eyes, and cast a brilliant light on his dark hair.

“Let’s get you out of here.” the crowd seemed to part as we moved, his larger than life appearance and demeanor seemed to tell them to make way for me as I moved.

“Wait, wait, wait,” I pushed against him as soon as we made it out of the club. “Candice, she’s still in there.”

Craig shot me an annoyed look as he looked down to me, as if he couldn’t be bothered to go back inside there and have to deal with the crowd of drunk, loud young adults. “Please,” I asked him. “There’s no way I can leave without her.”

“She seems like she can handle herself.” He shot back, and I folded my arms over my chest. I tried to ignore the way his eyes followed my movements, lingering there for a moment longer than he should’ve.

“That’s not the point,” I shot back. “Girl code. I’m not leaving her here alone when we came together.”

Craig stood there for a moment, challenging my resolve as he stared down at me with a stubborn stare. I shot back my own hard glare, and smiled slightly when he groaned and turned away from me with a swing of his head and a stomp of his feet. He was miserable about going back, but I couldn’t help the appreciation that shot through me that he not only got me out of there when I felt unsafe, but was willing to go back to get Candice as well.

They came out not more than ten minutes later, Candice holding two drinks in her hand as she shot me a strange look. “What’s going on?” And then her eyes shot to Craig with a questioning look, making sure not to turn her head so that only I saw the look on her face.

“I decided I was kind of tired after all,” I lied to her as I watched Craig walk past me and onto the street. “Can we just call it an early night and go home?”

Candice nodded after a moment of looking at my face and turning her eyes to Craig for a moment.

“Here,” he called out, opening the door to a cab he had hailed. Candice got in first, climbing into the back as Craig gave directions and money to the cab driver.

“Um,” I walked up to him as I pulled my arms closer to myself, trying to fend off from the cold. “Thank you, you didn’t need to—”

“Are you cold?” he asked as he raised his eyes from the goosebumps on my arm. I smiled sheepishly as I nodded up at him, and watched in shock as he pulled his jacket off from his shoulders without hesitation and pulled it over my shoulders. “Get back to the dormitories and stay inside tonight.”

I looked up at him with a questioning gaze. “You aren’t coming?”

Craig shook his head as his eyes moved to something behind me. “I have to take care of some things here. Promise me?”

My eyes widened slightly as he looked down at me, and I nodded my head in promise.