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“A whiskey?” I shout back at him, obviously not thinking about Dante was easier said than done.
Ricky makes a face at me and shakes his head.
“Let’s make it a whiskey sour. I actually want to party with you, not hold your hair back in the next hour.” I smile at him and he orders our drinks from the bartender.
Drinks in hand, we make our way to the dance floor. I take a sip and thank Ricky repeatedly. The drink is sweet and doesn’t make me think about Dante at all. It makes me feel like a girl who just wants to let loose with her best friend. He grabs my hand and pulls me to the middle of the dance floor, dancing with me to a techno song that I’ve never heard of, but it makes me feel alive and free.
We must have been dancing for at least an hour together. My drink is empty and I feel my face flush and my body loosen. He grabs my cup and goes back to the bar to order more drinks. I stay behind on the dance floor and continue swaying to the music.
I never have known how to dance, I’ve never really been given the opportunity to dance, but I let the music and liquor take over and my body follows their instructions. I’m swaying my hips and holding my arms up, moving my body around to match everyone else's. I don’t even think about how I must look or how I don’t fit in, I just blend in and forget. It’s the most gratifying feeling I’ve felt in a while.
I feel a hand on my back and I turn, expecting to see Ricky with our new drinks. Instead, I am greeted by a man who looks maybe a couple years older than me. His blonde hair is messy and his blue eyes are kind. He asks me if I want to dance, and instead of overthinking, I nod eagerly and we begin to sway together.
His hands are soft as they graze the bare skin of my thigh, traveling up and resting on my hip. He’s moving my hips side to side behind me, but his touch is light and non-threatening. I shake my ass against him and continue to sway to the music. We stay like this for the rest of the song and when it's over, he turns me around so that we face each other.
His breath smells like candy with a hint of tequila. It’s what every college boy smells like, I’m sure, and the thought of him being just a normal college boy brings me comfort, but it doesn’t excite me. He begins asking me small questions. How old am I, what’s my major, the usual.
We engage in this small talk on the dance floor for a few minutes before he asks me for my number. I clam up and try to think of an appropriate response, but thankfully Ricky steps in between us. He hands me my drink, mutters asorryto the boy behind him and rushes me to the dance floor outside on the rooftop.
“What if I wanted him to have my number?” I ask before I start eagerly sipping my new drink. It’s fruitier than the last one and pink in color. I love it instantly.
“What is this?” I ask before he can answer my previous question. He smiles and leads me to the dance floor outside, where the warm night air caresses my skin.
“Vodka cranberry with lime and I wouldn’t let you give him your number if you tried. He looks like he majors in political science.” He makes a gagging noise and I laugh.
Once we’re near the edge of the dance floor, I set my now half-empty drink on the ledge and gaze out at the city below us. It glitters like diamonds and even though I’ve seen more of the ugly parts of Los Angeles in my life, I can’t help but love this city. You can be whoever you want here. You can blend in enough that no one would even notice you. That’s how I’ve spent most of my life. A blended body in an imperfectly perfect society. Although now, I feel like I have a set of eyes on me everywhere I go. I’d give anything to go back and live in my blissful ignorance.
It’s all different now. I’m no longer the poor little schoolgirl just trying to make a future for herself. Now, I’m a target. A target of one of the most powerful drug cartels in the world and a roadblock to another one. I toss back the rest of my drink and Ricky raises an eyebrow at me. I smile sheepishly.
“Long week?” he shouts.
“You have no idea.”
He eyes me for a few seconds and I can see the questions brewing in his mind. I shake my head at him, say thatit’s my birthdayand he nods, twirling me in a circle towards the dance floor again. We start dancing to a hip-hop song when a group of girls come up to us. I recognize a few of them from some of my classes. Ricky hugs each and every one of them, and starts gossiping about things that I have no desire to know about.
I feel my face getting hot and my head starts to spin a little bit, the drinks I rushed through creeping up on me like a freight train. I power through a few more dances before I turn to Ricky and let him know that I want to go home and sleep. He nods and tells me he’s going to stay, and one of the girls offers me a ride home.
“It’s all good, I think I want to walk back home and enjoy the fresh air,” I tell them. Ricky starts to protest, but I remind him that he has my location on his phone and he lets up, the exhaustion on my face obviously showing a little more than I like. I hug him and say bye to his friends and walk into the club and back downstairs.
Bodies are flopping against me as I brush my way through the crowds, finally exiting the club and walking into the night. I breathe in the fresh air and stand for a minute, trying to sober myself up. Once I feel like I can stand without swaying, I start walking towards my dorm.
My cheap, old heels dig into my feet for the first five minutes and I get so frustrated that I end up taking them off and walking barefoot the rest of the way. I’d rather risk my chance of stepping on glass at this point. I’m only a block away when I notice a man trailing a few feet behind me. My hairs raise and apprehension fills my gut. I look back for a second and see that he’s in a suit, a black and expensive looking suit and I am immediately terrified. The only men I’ve seen in suits for the last week are criminals and that’s enough to have me on edge for a while.
I pick up my pace and turn a few corners quickly, hoping that I’m just being paranoid, but growing more terrified when I see he’s following every step I take. I can see my dorm building ahead of me and I decide to make a run for it, not bothering to look back and see if he’s chasing me. I rush up the steps into my building and climb the stairs to my dorm room, unlocking the door as quickly as possible before slamming it behind me. I lock the deadbolt and look out through the peephole, breathing a sigh of relief when I see no one outside of it.
I walk into my dark apartment and set my keys down on the counter, tossing my shoes on the living room floor. My body is hot and sweaty from dancing and running, so I take my dress off and walk to my room to grab fresh clothes. I’m taking a shower and then going to bed for at least ten hours.
Once I enter my room, I don’t bother turning on the light. I stare at my bruised and bloody feet from my shoes and make my way towards my closet to get some clean clothes.
“Enjoy yourself tonight, pequeña?” I scream and whip around to the direction of the voice. There, on my college dorm bed, sits Dante.
17
Esmeralda
"What the fuckare you doing here?" I screech at him. My voice is hoarse and he smiles a devil's grin at me, flaring my anger even more.
“Always so eager to see me, aren’t you?” I ignored his comment and kept at him, opening up the door and showing him the way out.
