The flower does not dream of the bee

1- You're still holding on

September 20th

Most students don't remember their evening after going out on a Friday night. Most students don't even try to, as if it was another goal to reach, as if it was something to brag about. 

Trying to forget the future, the exams, the stress of grades, the pressure, trying to forget everything, it was done by living in the present and ignoring all else. Then immediately try to drown the present in alcohol and loud music, tiny dresses and a phantom feeling given by foreign hands on your waist. 

His hair was so soft to your touch, he tasted sweet, almost familiar, he was so tall he had to bend down even if you were on your toes, his strong arms caging you between his body and cold concrete. You felt his hands travel from the back of your neck to your waist, softly, but firmly enough to keep you against him. You could feel the grin tugging at his lips.

★

It was like every other Friday night: events happening once every two weeks on and off-campus throughout the tiny pubs and bars that loitered the general vicinity of the student residence that expended kilometers into the surrounding neighborhoods.

The X-Wing Club was recognizable by its dark exterior, some students even called it the black one due to its brick coloring. It also had a peculiar bouncer known only by the nickname Chew, a man so tall he scarred off the teens trying to pass as adults with their big sister's university card. But most of all, it was famous for its owner, a young entrepreneurial man with too much charm to capture who disguised himself as a mere bartender to observe the clientele which consisted of the richest kids of campus whose parents could forgo half their wallets to allow them to attend, or the next billionaires of our generation who would most likely graduate at the top of their class with all the necessary funds to pursue their own researches. Whoever they were, they all enjoyed clubbing.

Poe was making his fourteenth mojito in the last hour, quietly hoping someone would order something more interesting than the basic lemony cocktail or a disgusting low-calorie gym-bro beer bottle. Although, the repetitive movement and the effortless orders he was getting from the students leaning over the bar seemed to allow him to notice the interactions of the new clients at the beginning of the autumn semester that would stay for the following years.

The X-Wing's music echoed in the street from sundown to the early morning. Poe threw a quick wink at his DJ, who called himself FN, a new favorite of his. The dark-skinned man with a headset on his ears raised his glass to Poe from a distance and nodded his head in mutual appreciation, taking it as a sign to start shifting the music as the hours ascended deeper into the night. 

A new group of students stopped at the bottom of the black stairs, taking their time to look around in amazement at the loitered dance floor full of strobing flashes of light and the big circular couches covered in dark leather that lined the walls. Newcomers, Poe thought immediately. He noticed a short girl who pointed at an empty booth, a much taller girl who had three buns on the back of her head and a particularly unfashionable pair of capri-pants, followed by a blond girl with her hair braided around her head at the crown who extended her hand towards the last one wearing a dress so short he made a mental note to watch over her drink. 

★

It was the first time you went out since the start of university. After almost a month of classes, of getting caught up on things you were already behind in, you figured the small group of exchange students should enjoy a short break from the smell of the school's library and the old scratchy carpets of the student dorms.

You had arrived from overseas for the second year of your bachelor's in dead languages. The opportunity had come too fast, and you had accepted it right away, fearing it might disappear if you took the time to consider. A promise for classes with the best professors and a request to participate in one of the leading researches of the faculty. There truly was no considering there.