According to Plan

Sienna bounced her head to the music and took periodic sips of her drink, as she looked around and observed women shaking their hips, groups of buoyant friends raising shot glasses in the air and a couple in the corner publicly displaying their affection, she felt good about being surrounded by people but not the subject of any of their attention.

Sienna was back to facing the televisions mounted high above the bar, displaying old videos that didn’t match the songs pumping through the speakers. The music and conversation blended into one big muffled chorus, so the fact that she was able to distinguish a voice made her assume the greeting was meant for her.

“Hey we saw you from across the bar, you looking real fly tonight.”

She turned to face the voice, slowly enough to be able to play it off in case she was not the intended target. Standing next to her were two women with big smiles. One wore braids flipped to one side and stopping at her knees. The other had styled her shoulder length locs half up, half down with jewels and beads placed throughout.

“You here by yourself?” the woman with the braids had a seat on the empty stool, to Sienn’s left which was also the last seat at the bar.

“Oh…um..yeah, I needed to unwind from this week.”

“Us two girl. What you sippin’ on”

“Oh just a long island.”

“Is it strong?”

“It’s doing the job.” She shrugged. She wasn’t much of a drinker and so her intentions with ordering a drink containing four different alcohols was to get the buzz she was looking for in the most inexpensive way.

The woman that was still standing signaled the bartender and ordered three shots, one of which Sienna knew would be offered to her. And to prevent herself from being perceived as a prude she clinked her glass against theirs and poured the drink down her throat when the bartender returned, with them practically spilling out the brim.

The one with the locs introduced herself as Amber, followed by the seated one introducing herself as Kali.

“Sienna.”

She took another sip of the drink she originally ordered and bounced her head to the music awaiting the two women to decide that the good deed or the dare they were set to fulfill was complete so she could move on with their night.

“Girl its dead in here.”

“I know let’s go to Lush. You wanna come with us?”

This was Sienna’s third time at this bar and each time was on a Friday, each time the crowd size was the same: enough room to walk through without bumping into anyone but there was still an effort that needed to be put in to get one of the three bartender’s attention, tonight was different. There were enough people for her to enjoy a drink, listen to music and go unnoticed (so she thought).

Sienna had mentally already ended this interaction, so she rushed the sip she was already taking and responded.

“Oh…Oh no. I was just going to finish this and then go home, thanks though.”

“You got kids?”

“A man?”

“A dog?”

Sienna shook her head to all three questions with a shy smile on her face.

“So come with us! You said you wanted to unwind.”

“No really I’m okay.” Sienna could tell that “no” wasn’t going to be an accepted response, and she had already given up three of the best unquestionable excuses.

Amber and Kali exchanged the same look and that was Sienna’s confirmation her night was not going to go as she had planned. Bar, bath, bed was now looking more like bar, another bar, bath, bed.

“You parked in the back lot, right? Your car is good there until we get back, finish your drink the Lyft will be here in three minutes.”

Regretfully Sienna followed their instructions and then followed them out of the bar.

In the Lyft Sienna was shown pictures of older and younger siblings, videos of gender reveals and first dances at weddings. She was read four tweets, and only laughed at two before Amber and Kali engaged in a series of “remember this?” through pictures and videos that promoted tales of recounting of inebriated nights.

Sienna’s phone remained in her fastened clutch thanks to the digital hiatus she had no social media to scroll through and due to her recent move she had no family or friends to contact in the same time-zone but more importantly she didn’t really want these strangers to know anything more about her, than her first name, where she was from and maybe a hobby. She was already doing the exact thing every girl was forbidden to do, lest she be featured on an episode of Dateline: go out by yourself, accept a drink from a stranger, and leave with the stranger. But this was different, this was two black women in their late twenties, not exactly the profile of a serial killer, but then again there is first for everything. And with that last thought she hoped enough people in the first bar saw her, or that the bartender would remember her because of her request for a top shelf long island and spent the rest of the ride attempting to make eye contact with the driver, who was entirely too focused on the road ahead.

No line and no cover to get in the door, Sienna followed Amber and Kali through the much more populated club and decided that as long as they did not drug her, she could defend herself enough against them. Amber, who she had at least a three-inch height and twenty-pound weight advantage over, and Kali who although they were about the same size, Sienna could tell was clumsy and unsteady even outside of the mixture of heels and alcohol. While Sienna collected and memorized as many details as she could about the potential first pair of black female serial killers she realized she also needed to be paying attention to where she was walking, she wasn’t just following Amber and Kali she was being led by them. Past groups synchronously singing along to the music, past a sign shining with LED lights and the sparkling tops of champagne bottles to a corner section, where two other women sat scattered around the glowing purple table.

“Hey y’all.” Amber said attempting to grasp the attention of the two ladies sitting opposite to another currently distracted by their cellphones.

“About time y’all got here.” The woman sitting on the edge greeted them with a fake harshness.

“Everyone this is Sierra.”

“Sienna.” Amber corrected, elbowing Kali in her side

“Sienna. I’m sorry, the drinks must be kicking in, Sienna this is Deena, and Lydia.”

Sienna returned the soft smiles and stiff waves before sliding into the empty space next to the one woman who initially greeted them, Lydia.

“Your earrings are cute.”

The compliment began a conversation that led to the best locations to shop for jewelry, quality bras, and decent coffee. It was a nice distraction from the fact she was out later than she wanted to be, but not from the fact Amber, Kali and Deena who had gotten up from the booth were standing huddled, stealing glances at her, passionately discussing something. She kept herself partly engaged with the bushy haired and gold dress wearing woman sitting beside her and partly trying to summon super hearing abilities to break through the music and into the conversation she was clearly the subject of. And just as she was shrinking the voice closest to her and magnifying the ones in the huddle, a man dressed in all black placed a tray of plastic cups filled with Sherbert colored liquid on the table.

After Lydia took her drink, and the huddle passed them along to each other it became apparent to Sienna that she was expected to take the last cup. Although the buzz from her last drink had faded during the Lyft ride, she only wanted to loosen up enough to sing along once the D.J. began playing throwbacks, but not enough to ignore a set of eyes watching her. She stirred the ice around; she took a polite sip.

“Do you live around here?”

“Yeah, I’m right by the university.”

Stir, sip.

Sienna, being only a four-month resident of the city, shook her, confidently ignorant to what university she was speaking of.

“I’m new to the area. I’m from Texas.”

“Texas? Oh, what part?”

And like anytime when Sienna had to answer this question, and reveal she was from the small town of Pflugerville she watched the disappointment of not being able to share a fun memory about Houston or Dallas take place on Lydia’s face. Luckily the conversation moved on and with each stir and each sip Sienna’s conversation with Lydia and now Deena who had deserted the conspiring group began breaking its way through the surface-level Sienna had intended to not let it go past. She even joined them on their run to the bathroom.

Sienna reapplied her lipstick and made sure her flyaways were slicked down, Lydia readjusted her tights and Deena scrolled on her phone. They could hear the D.J. cutting into the music to entice the crowd.

“Shoutout to all the ladies in here tonight!”

“Shoutout to you if you getting money!” A rally of hoops and hollers followed both calls

“Shoutout to Minerva and crew! Hope y’all somewhere in Mexico counting up that shmoney!”

He continued on with the shoutouts and music, and Sienna decided to acknowledge the glance that was exchanged between Deena and Lydia.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“I just saw y’all look at each other.”

She was trying to keep her voice low but stern. But something about this friend group was off and she was going to figure it out before the liquid courage faded.

“You haven’t heard of the group of girls that they’re looking for?”

Sienna shook her head.

“They robbed a bank, like three weeks ago all of them were wearing masks but as they were getting away one of them got into it with a hero cop and her mask got pulled up enough for a camera to do facial recognition and because of the amount they stole the FBI got involved and put her face everywhere. Apparently, her name is Minerva Jackson, she’s the only one they’ve been able to identify but they haven’t been able to catch her or any of the others yet. Its been all over the news.”

“We looked at each other because we work at the bank they robbed. Crazy that people glorify criminals like they don’t victimize real people.”

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I don’t watch the news and I’ve been off social media. The liquor must have me paranoid, I didn’t mean to...”

“No it’s fine, we’re alright. It wasn’t that bad they didn’t hurt us or anything. Just still shaken up about it, the fact we still have to go back there.”

“Wow and I thought my life was in shambles.”

And with that last remark Sienna abandoned the general discussion and expressed the inner feelings surrounding the recent death of her grandfather, and the grief that caused her to quit her less than fulfilling job and move across the country to live with her long distance boyfriend of two years. She teared up telling them about the man who she was beginning to plan a future with and his claim to not be ready for a commitment even though they had discussed this very thing frequently. She held those tears back and the ones that formed as she expressed the loneliness she felt after losing her friends to the isolation her newfound despair had pushed her into. She let a few tears fall while she expressed her gratitude for their generous inclusion this evening . And in true drunk girl in the club bathroom fashion the three women embraced in a group hug.

When they arrived back at their table, a slightly embarrassed Sienna ordered a Lyft and announced her intent to depart for the night, but as she feared was met with rebuttals and bribes to get her to stay.

“Just sip on this until your Lyft gets here.”

Kali placed another sunset-colored drink in her hand and after three slow and spaced out sips was notified of her Lyft’s arrival. Deena and Lydia walked out with her, but the closer they came to the exit the more her vision became harder to distinguish the distance of shapes and colors surrounding her, and the dizziness caused her to stumble and her hands only grabbed air as a she reached for something to support herself. She hoped the fresh air of outside would relieve her symptoms of what she was able to process was indeed a drugging. She hoped the bouncer at the door or any of the people waiting in the line he was managing noticed her, noticed how she had her hair styled, noticed the color of her pants, noticed anything besides how impaired she appeared. She wanted the nausea to cause her to throw up so she could scream at them for help. But nothing comprehensible would come out. She wanted to sit. No, not in the middle seat. She needed to keep her eyes open long enough to see where Deena and Lydia were leading the Lyft driver.