The Resurrection of Aubrey Miller(43)

“Hey, where’s Josh?” I ask, again.
Her face falls a bit. “He has plans, something with the guys. He just called me a couple of minutes ago.”
I fight the urge to shake my head in disgust. Over the last couple of weeks, Josh’s presence has been virtually non-existent, and there’s only so much hurt I can see on my friend’s face before I’m called to action.
Verbally and/or physically.
“Quinn,” Kaeleb says softly, his arm still over her shoulder. “Something’s off. I don’t trust him.”
She plasters on a fake smile before looking up at him and shaking her head. “No, he’s fine. I think he’s just stressed about midterms or something.”
“Or something…” I mutter, under my breath. Quinn shoots me a dirty look and I widen my eyes.
Stopping the argument before it starts, I snag my jacket off the back of the couch and shrug it on as I segue into a different topic. “Where are we going, anyway?”
Her face lights up and she quickly disengages from Kaeleb to grab her purse from the kitchen bar stool. “We’re going to BLUE!”
Kaeleb’s eyes shoot wide open and my head jerks back as I forcefully remark, “Quinn, that’s a twenty-one-and-up club. There’s no way we can get in there.”
She responds with a giggle, opening her purse and whipping out her wallet. She hands a laminated card to both of us. “Surprise!” she adds.
Flipping it in my hand, I look it over. With shock etched into my face, I glance to Kaeleb, whose expression is the mirror image of mine. My face pinches when I eye her excitement. “Quinn! These are fake I.D.s!”
She laughs, placing the wallet back inside her purse before hoisting it on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. They’ll get us in, that’s all that matters.”
Utterly astonished, I stare at the picture in the corner and recognize it immediately. It was stolen from last year’s student ID.
My hair is black with blue edges, my eyes are completely white with the exception of the black ellipses in the center, and my face is washed-out and grotesquely pale.
This is Raven. Not me.
“Quinn, I’m not going to be able to get in with this!” Shock and fear lace my tone as I bring my eyes to hers.
She waves at me dismissively. “Oh my God! Yes, you will. They don’t look at that shit anyway, just the date. You’ll be fine.” As she makes her way toward the front door, she grabs her coat off the back of the couch and throws it on as she walks.
Kaeleb and I, however, remain standing in place, both of us extremely hesitant to follow her.
The lack of footsteps must have clued her in, because she hastily whips around and crosses her arms over her chest. Tapping her foot anxiously, she looks up and moans to the ceiling.
“Come oooooon, guys!”
Bringing her eyes back to us, she folds her hands in a pleading gesture. “Pleeeeeeeease! I need to get out! I can’t study anymore!”
My mouth scrunches to the side as I look at Kaeleb. I watch his brows lift along with his shoulders as he answers, “I could get out for a while.”
I narrow my stare, but soon it soon relaxes with the realization that I really need to get out of here too.
Today was beyond stressful.
Quinn jumps up and down with our concessions as Kaeleb confidently strides over to me, circling his arm around my waist before we make our way out of the apartment.
Twenty minutes later we arrive at the club and pass through the entrance with no problem. Kaeleb and I grin excitedly at each other while Quinn makes a beeline to the bar and signals for the bartender.
Once she has his attention, she turns back to us for our order. “Um,” I deliberate. “I’ll take a Colorado Bulldog.”
Kaeleb jerks his head at the bartender. “Corona.”
Quinn orders herself an Appletini and three shots of Patron before throwing her credit card down on the bar. After the drinks arrive, she turns and hands us the shots. We all grin at each other before raising the glasses in our hands.
“To best friends!” Quinn shouts.
“To best friends!” we cheer back.
Licking the salt off the rim, we slam down the alcohol and bite down on the lime wedges. The soothing warmth of the liquid courses down my throat and my mouth spreads into a lazy grin.
After placing the shot glasses back on the bar, we finally find an open table and take our seats. “We’ll have to open a tab with a waitress. I closed up there,” Quinn states, tilting the green concoction toward her mouth.
Just as she finishes her sip, the bass from No Doubt’s Just a Girl thumps through the sound system and Quinn’s eyes shoot wide open. “OH MY GOD!” she screams at the top of her lungs. “I looooooove this band!”
“Me too!” I yell back.
And I do. I have their poster on my wall.
Of course.
She tips her drink and swallows it in one gulp, slamming the martini glass down when it’s gone. Wiping her mouth with the back of one hand, the other reaches forward to grab my arm from across the table. “Let’s dance!”
She wildly launches out of her chair and almost knocks over the table. Our drinks wobble with the force of her blow, but thankfully, nothing spills. Tearing my eyes away from the near disaster, I glance up just in time to see her press the bridge of her glasses back up on her nose as though nothing happened. She simply smiles back at me and I cast a sideways look to Kaeleb, who just grins as he reclines in his seat.
Crossing his ankle over his knee, he laughs and says, “Go tear it up, girls.”
I narrow my eyes, but he just jerks his head toward the dance floor. Before I can say anything, I’m forcefully yanked away and pulled to where bodies sway and bounce to the beats thrumming through the air. Quinn looks at me and smiles before seductively running her hands up her dress and swaying her hips. I can only grin back because I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. But as the tempo builds and the bass pounds around us, I lose myself in the music and before I know it, I’ve kicked my shoes off and finally found the rhythm of the beats with my body.