The Night Owl

Clothes everywhere, make up brushes and eye shadows spread on the bathroom sink and loud punk music blasting through the speakers. That’s it. That’s the dream. Although, Avery needed one more hour to get ready for the dream to be perfect, but she’d had to work with what she had. Nothing could ruin tonight for her, and if someone tried, they’d have to do it over her dead body. It was a tough month for Avery; college exams, important essays, some fights between her friends. But now, all of that was behind her and all she could think about was the sweet freedom of summer.

She was making final details to her make up and right on cue, her phone rang.

“Hey, pretty boy.”

“Hello, Avery. Are you ready?”

“You bet I’m ready honey, I’m coming outside in a sec.”

Shoes, purse, keys, phone, money. All check, and she walked down the stairs of her building to meet Steve. He was waiting for her with a helmet on his left hand; he wouldn’t let her on his motorcycle without one.

“You look… ready to party.”, he said with a chuckle.

“What, you don’t like it?”, she fake-frowned.

“Of course, I like it. It’s not my style, but you pull it off amazingly.”

Steve was what you would call a little old-fashioned, when it came to entertainment and fun. He was absolutely fine, to spend his evenings on a classic bar, drinking his whiskey, while soft dancing music was playing. He even got some dance moves, but nothing too wild. That’s why he was terrified he had to go to a club tonight.

“So, there’s no turning back now, huh?”, he half-joked.

“Nope. Just an endless night of fun!”, she cheered as she put on her helmet.

After a short drive through the city, they ended up on Avery’s favorite club; the Night Owl. They showed their IDs to get inside and once they stepped foot in there, she remembered why she loved this place. Loud music, photorythmic lights and a huge space for people to dance the night away. Avery knew that later the pop music would change to house and then to some rock and punk pieces to make everybody lose it. And after midnight, the bartender would flip a switch and the whole club would be under black lighting and all the neon colors would pop up. They’d even hand out neon body markers. She was so excited.

They made their way to the bar, ordering the first round of drinks. Steve wanted to take it easy all night, one or two drinks, enjoy Avery’s good company and go home. But she had other plans. As soon as their drinks came, the bartender also served them two shots of tequila.

“Avery, no”

“Steve, yes! This is gonna be a night to be free and wild. You promised me we would have fun, now drink.”

He sighed and lifted his hands up in defense.

“I did promise you.” He took his shot and raised it to the air. “To fun.”

They both shot back their tequila and Avery just sighed in delight.

One hour later, the club was full of people and Steve and Avery were already on their second round of drinks, talking happily – and maybe a little tipsy. The DJ was doing an amazing job of easing the crowd to the atmosphere and before anyone knew what was happening, one by one, people were on the dancefloor. One incredibly popular song came up and Avery immediately stood up from her chair.

“Up, now.”

“Please, Avery, don’t make me. I – I don’t even know the song!”

“It doesn’t matter to me Steve.”. She offered him another shot of tequila. “And after this, it won’t matter to you too.”

He pouted, but drunk his shot and reluctantly got up from his seat. She didn’t waste any time and grabbed his hand, guiding him through the crowd. The beat dropped and everyone popped up and down in excitement. Avery could feel the beat in her body and let it guide her movements. The alcohol had helped a lot of course, but she couldn’t stop smiling as she danced her *ss off, leaving all her troubles behind.

Steve, on the other hand, was having a hard time to dance to this music. He had nothing against it, but his body literally didn’t know what to do. He could copy everyone around him, but he felt stupid even thinking about it. The fact that he had a high tolerance in alcohol didn’t help much to loosen him up. But, when he watched Avery having fun and smiling while singing the lyrics to every song, he didn’t care. She was happy, he was too. Once he saw she found a new dancing partner, he made his way to their seats. Not long ago, he could see Avery in the other side of the bar, taking shots with some girls.

“She is gonna be so drunk later.”, he murmured to himself. And he wasn’t wrong.

The black lights came on, not long after and the crowd went wild. As expected, the bartender passed some neon markers to anyone that hadn’t brought their own. Avery had lost count of the shots she had and made a drunken beeline for Steve, with a marker in hand. Steve had already started to shake his head, but she wasn’t having any of it. So, he stood there, while she painted little hearts in his cheeks, some lines in his hands and flowers on the back of his neck. He refused to take his shirt off to let her draw his torso, and Avery pouted like a little girl.

“Come ooon, Steve, it would be soooo hot.”, her words came out slurred.

“Avery, that’s enough for now. Let’s draw you!”, he suggested to distract her.

“OH YAY!”

In a second, she unbuttoned her shirt, leaving it hanging around her pink neon bra, like a jacket. Steve felt the heat rising up to his cheeks, but tried to swallow it. Avery always found new ways of making him feel uncomfortable and this was a first. She came closer and told him to draw something on her collarbone.

“Oh, draw something that describes me!”, she shouted happily to be heard through the music.

Steve started without hesitation and a minute after, he held his phone camera, so she’d see the result.

“A sun and a lot of stars?”

“Yes, because you know… you are a warm person and you shine like these everywhere you go.”, he explained.

Her eyes filled up with tears and she threw herself in Steve’s arms, hugging him tightly.

“That’s really sweet Steve, thank you.”

“Just the truth darling. Are you okay, do you need some water?”

She pulled away, shock in her face, like someone insulted her.

“I’m just saying, you had a lot to drink, maybe you should calm down-”

“Absolutely not, in fact-”, she took a long sip from her drink and made her way to the dancefloor again.

“Stubborn girl.”, he thought to himself.

Avery was among some strange people, dancing and spinning around. Well, she wasn’t spinning, but everything else was. And those weren’t strange people, they had told her their names… but she couldn’t remember them now. Thank God, she had eaten earlier and her stomach could handle the liquor. She was having so much fun rocking and swaying to the music, but she felt kind of bad that Steve wasn’t enjoying himself so much. She was pretty sure he changed his drink with water a long time ago. She needed to cheer him up somehow.

All of a sudden, the music stopped and everyone, including Steve, were hearing the drunk voice of a girl all over the club. It didn’t take him long to understand whose was it.

“Hello everybody! Sorry for interrupting, but I want your help to cheer someone up! See, I came here with my best friend, Steve, who’s sitting right there in the bar HI STEVE.”

Everyone glanced at his way, some of them frowning, some smiling and waving at him.

“Yeah, anyways, so, Steve isn’t really of a party animal like the rest of us, so I thought maybe you guys could make him dance or- or we could CHANT! Let’s do that! Ste-ve! Ste-ve! STE-VE!”

The crowd started to chant Steve’s name. Needless to say, he couldn’t be more embarrassed. He quickly stood up, waving nervously to the people around him as he went to Avery’s way on the DJ booth.

“See! Now he wants to dance. And he is single, ladies and gentlemen, so if you’re interested-”

“Okay, let’s hear it for Steve, everybody.”, the DJ took the microphone from Avery, clearly wanting to get back to his set.

When Avery made her way to the dancefloor again, Steve met her halfway, grabbing her by the hand and leading her to the bar. She was giggling uncontrollably the whole way, seeing him red as a tomato.

“You are drinking some water and that’s it!”, he said to her, hiding his face in his palms. She just kept laughing, holding her belly tightly.

“Stop it, I’m gonna pee myself.”, she giggled. “It wasn’t so bad, people rooted for you, maybe next time you’ll even dance longer than five minutes.”

He looked at her behind his fingers, a small smile creeping at the corner of his lips, but he wouldn’t let it escape. Instead, he turned to face her, dead serious.

“Next time? Oh no, I’m never going out with you again.”