A Night To Remember

Chapter 4

Lacuna (n.)

–  a blank space or a missing part.

.

"And you're sure trips like these are covered?" Evelina questioned exiting the bathroom of their hotel room. She glanced at herself in the mirror assessing her appearance, she was dressed in black jeans, a red lacy corset top and an oversized black biker jacket with red heels she borrowed from Bea. 

Bea, who was dressed in a pale blue dress and white lacy sandals, sat on the bed furthest away from the door as she looked up the address of the club and ordered the Uber. 

She nodded even though she was lying, Evelina's caseworkers had expressed they were dropping the funding for her treatment over eight months ago, and the order had come from the top with no further explanation. She had been paying for the whole trip out of her pocket because she was determined to get answers to what happened to her friend.

"I still don't see why we can't just go to visit the apartment tomorrow morning in the daytime, you know- when it's safer," Evelina said looking out into the starry sea of building lights known as the manhattan skyline.

"We can't just turn up at a stranger's house without meeting them first, we'll be approaching them blindly and that puts us in danger too." Bea concluded grabbing her purse and waiting for Evelina to put her heels on "We won't stay long at all, we'll ask a few questions and leave my card. When you want to leave you have to tell me."

Evelina nodded and remained silent for the whole trip to the club.

Bea watched her as her eyes flickered over everything, trying to remember if she had been or seen something before. Hoping that something would jog her memory.

"How are you feeling after seeing your family again?"

Evelina's head turned to the side, a glassy look in her eyes.

"I don't know," she started off "Before I went I was nervous and I didn't want to go there, but now it's like I'm upset that they didn't seem to want me back."

Evelina sniffed "I mean we were never as close as I'd have liked to be but, what could I have done that warranted a response like that?"

"Hey you gave them a chance, and it's like they said things have changed and now you get to find peace, don't forget that you need a happy ending too." Bea smiled, kissing her forehead as Evelina rested on her shoulder.

"Why do you always know what to say?"

"I say the things that I know I would've needed to hear. I'm just glad that it's being said."

Evelina glanced at Bea, she had known only snippets of why Bea had started working with defenceless women. Bea's parents had not been the best and had put her up for adoption when she was a teenager leaving her to get abused by the new families in the foster system. Bea had resented her family for years but she understood why they had done it, they wanted a better life for her, but she was a young girl and had fallen prey to the harsh reality of the world.

"Bea-" Evelina started only to be cut off by the Uber stopping.

"We're here, and it's free entry for women till 12." Bea interrupted her opening the door to end the conversation.

Evelina followed her out and observed the place, it appeared to be a club with Jade Palace written in Neon green lights outside. There were two queues and they approached the one that was the shortest and full of men waiting as the door opened and closed letting in the strong bass of music filter outside.

There were three bouncers dressed in suits that stood by the doors, all of them looked unmovable like big rocks with uninterested faces on them and they watched as some girls flashed them a smile with their ID and were let inside.