I sigh and let my head drop back. “God! Okay. Tomorrow I want you to tattoo whatever the hell I want, though,” I demand pulling my hands from hers and crossing my arms over my chest.
She nods. “Sure. I promise.”
I look at the time and rub my hands together. It’s just after nine p.m. and it’s cold. I’m waiting for Helena to get Holly as I stand outside Holly’s flat. I decided to stay here because Holly is always running late, and I know if I’m waiting downstairs, it will be an incentive for her to hurry, but damn, it’s freezing. I’m wearing the tightest jeans I own. They stop at my hip bones and along with a ripped crop top—which is exposing my stomach—I’m not dressed to keep out the cold. I try to pull my leather jacket around me, but it doesn’t make any difference to my nipples which are pointing like bullets. I kick at a stone with my six-inch heeled, black ankle boots and groan.
“Hey, sorry.” Holly puffs as both she and Helena rush out of the flats’ communal entrance. Helena has a tight red dress on with rips all down the side of it and her black DM boots. Holly is wearing a short maroon leather skirt, which matches her knee high boots, with a black and white striped top. Her hair is red today. Holly dyes her hair a different colour every week. The nose ring is new, though.
“Hair looks good, Hols,” I tell her as we start walking.
“Cheers Liv. Still got the platinum pixie thing going on with yours I see,” she says pointing to my short hair. “You should seriously consider extensions. I told you I’ll do them for nothing, just let the girls you work with know that you got yours from me,” she says with a smile and a wink.
Ever since I cut my long hair short, she’s been encouraging me to get extensions done. Holly works at a salon in town, but she freelances hoping to have her own business one day. Honestly, I’ve been seriously thinking about having her give me my long hair back, as I miss it.
“Okay Hols, let me call you tomorrow and we can sort out a time for you to come over to my place and do it,” I tell her as she beams at me.
We arrive at Jesters ten minutes later. It’s a club we frequent so the bouncers know us. They nod and smile allowing us immediate access inside. I hear people groan, but I ignore it as I slip through the doors and straight over to Maggie, the lady at the coat check.
“Evening princess,” the older woman says with a lazy grin on her heavily made-up face.
“Hey Maggie, just this tonight please,” I reply, shrugging off my leather jacket and handing it to her with a smile.
She hands a piece of paper to me, which I promptly tuck in my bra. “Have fun!” she calls as we walk away.
As soon as I hit the first club room and hear the music pumping, my body starts swaying.
“Go,” Helena says pointing to the dance floor. I glance at her. “Go on… Hols and I will grab a drink at the bar, maybe a hot guy too.”
Holly giggles at Helena’s words.
I bite my lip and wonder whether I should abandon my friends after less than thirty seconds in the club. Then the music changes to Sigma, ‘Nobody to Love,’ and I can’t resist. I move onto the dance floor and close my eyes feeling the beat but also hearing the words. My body moves without instruction—it’s like the rhythm comes directly from the tune playing and connects to me. At that moment I’m anyone and everyone, I’m life and love and freedom. The music, the dancing—it lets me be me, it reminds me who I am, and all the negative feelings dissipate. I only feel like this in the moment, but wish I could hold onto this free feeling I have when I’m dancing, for the rest of the time.
The song has barely finished when there’s a tap on my shoulder. I open my eyes and see the stares of people watching me. It doesn’t surprise me as it often happens, only because I’m a dancer, and these people see what I’ve been trained to do. If there was another dancer in here and I spotted them, I would also stop to watch. I look behind me and see the tap came from Helena.
“Hey, we’re going upstairs to find somewhere to sit. You coming?” she asks.
“Yeah.” I nod my head. “But, I’ll only come up with you to see where you’re sitting, then I’m going into the other room.”
“’Kay,” Helena replies, and I follow her off the floor.
One of the reasons we always come to this club is because there are numerous rooms and each one plays a different type of music. You want rock, you got it. Dance, they have it. Hip hop, yep, you’ll find it here. I love all music, and dancing to whatever moves me in the moment, which is why I like this place.
I follow them upstairs and they’re lucky to find a table. Once I know they’re settled I leave, heading back downstairs. Moving from room to room, I lose myself for a couple of hours. After three songs in a row that I don’t really like, I decide to go back to the girls. I grab a bottle of water from the bar on the way through.
As I walk toward the table, I can see they have company—a
