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DANNA
“Come on, let’s go do something,” Cassie said when we took off our aprons and hung them on the hook in the diner staff room.
“I don’t think I want to do anything,” I said. “I’m dead on my feet, and tomorrow I’m doing two shifts back-to-back.”
“This diner is your life,” Cassie said and flipped her dark hair over her shoulder. “You can’t live and breathe this job; it’s notthatgood.”
I laughed. “It’s not forever, I’m just saving up for bigger things.”
I’d been penny-pinching for months now, only paying the bare necessities and putting away everything else so that I could get out of here and do something better with my life.
I’d grown up in Vegas, and it wasn’t nearly as glamorous as everyone thought. The strip was great, the casinos, the shows, the hotels, but behind all of that was just another city with a bunch of people who scraped by. That world of glitz and glam was reserved for a select few. The rest of us had to make do with what we got.
“Come on, Danna,” Cassie said again. “I have a friend who works at Velvet Groove, so we can skip the line and not stand out there all night, waiting. It will be fun.”
I sighed.
Cassie wasn’t going to leave me alone. The other girls at the diner weren’t friendly toward her. She was different than the rest of us, a little weird, a little loud, a little overbearing. I didn’t mind it, but without me at her side, Cassie had no one. We’d known each other for a long time, and she really was a good friend.
“Okay,” I said. “But it can’t be a late night.”
“We’ll see when we get there,” Cassie said with a grin. “You’re always so anxious. It’s just a night out! Come over to my place, and we’ll figure out what to wear.”
I wanted to go home and sleep before my next shift, not go out and spend my hard-earned money, but I hadn’t been out in a long time. Cassie always said,You know what all work and no play does,and maybe she was right.
We went to her apartment and got ready together, just like how it used to be in high school. It had been five years since then—I was twenty-three now, and not the same person I’d been when I’d believed the world was my oyster—but it was nice to do something mindless for a change.
We drank cheap wine from Cassie’s fridge, and she made me try on her clothes until she told me how hot I looked in a silver sequined dress.
“It makes me look like a showgirl,” I complained when I looked in the mirror. “Or a hooker.”
“Stop it,” Cassie giggled. “This is Vegas, babe. You look amazing.”
I looked in the mirror at the woman staring back at me. Cassie had slicked back my brunette hair, and I wore darker makeup than usual so that I barely recognized myself.
Cassie had put on a shimmery red dress, so we looked like two-of-a-kind. I guess in Vegas, that wasn’t a bad thing.
We left, took a cab to the strip, but Cassie asked the driver to drop us off a block behind the Velvet Groove. We walked into the alley. I felt uncomfortable on my heels.
“This looks dangerous,” I said.
The alley was dark and dirty, with bins overflowing and puddles of dark water, although it hadn’t rained in a while.
“It’s fine,” Cassie said. “Look, there she is.”
A door had opened, and a girl with platinum blonde hair and feathers all over smiled at us, beckoning us closer.
“Come on, Jake is having a drink at the bar. He won’t see you if you hurry.”
“Is this legal?” I asked. It felt wrong to do what we were doing.
“Stop worrying,” Cassie reprimanded me, and we slipped in through the back door. “You’re way too uptight.”
Debbie—Cassie’s feathered friend—led us through the underbelly of the club, through kitchens and a storage room and finally a dressing room of sorts, before she opened a door into the club itself. Music thumped loudly, pouring into the quiet hallway. A guy came toward us down the hallway.
“Hey!” he yelled and hurried toward us.
