Scaling the corridors - Alex Turner one shots

Hello, you

Daniella is celebrating her birthday with her family, but they're bickering and don't notice when a mysterious man steals her away from them for the night.  2019.

TW: A bit of an age gap in case you're uncomfortable with that. This is strictly fantasy material, I know the real risks and harms of grown men dating teenage girls, so don't read too much into it please. I'm setting aside my feminism for just a day to write this ;) I just want to make sure there's no misunderstanding.

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~My old man is a bad man, but I can't deny the way he holds my hand...~

09:00 PM. London, UK.

The room was dimmed but quite loud, especially where I was seated. We'd been at the restaurant for less than an hour but my mother and father were already at each other's throats. Something about how my dad worried too much about leaving the stove on, or how my mum ordered wine when she was supposed to drive home. I didn't know and I didn't care, I had zoned out when they started shouting in that way where you're whispering because you're in public but everyone gets uncomfortable anyways.

My parents' bickering hadn't been a problem when I was little. My older sister had always been there to either talk to me and distract me, or take me away and get a soda. Until she had moved out and in with her boyfriend. Then she barely came over anymore, and when she did they sat with their tongues down each other's throats the whole time. Not literally, but she never had any attention left for anybody else.

Even at my birthday dinner, the four of them couldn't let their own shit go for a couple hours, and now I was sitting silently by my empty plate. Their food had barely been touched as they were busy with more important matters. I was feeling embarrassed by my family so obviously being dysfunctional, and disappointed at the same time. A while before tonight, my mum had promised to take me into the city for dinner at a real fancy restaurant, just the family. I guess I had gotten my hopes up.

I was still a child to the people at the table, after I had thought that it would change when I became of age. My dad had always treated me as a little kid who couldn't make decisions for myself, resulting in a less than perfect relationship with him. He didn't want me to drink at family dinners because I 'looked like a little girl and it would make him look bad.' And it wasn't like I hadn't had alcohol before tonight. I had been of age for a full year, and I had been to parties since I was fourteen, and my mum never even noticed when I would sneak a bottle of wine out of her collection.

So I was sitting there, with my coke, looking around the room out of sheer boredom. I noticed the bar on the other side of the restaurant and got nostalgic for the times when my sister would take me away from the table for a little while. I looked over at her. She was giggling and whispering something down her boyfriend's ear. I sighed and took the last sip of my soda and then wiped my mouth with the napkin in my lap. I stood up and grabbed my purse.

"Excuse me," I mumbled as I did, but not a single pair of eyes even looked up. I took that as my cue and left the table. I walked towards the bar with my high heels and determined steps, and sat down on one of the high stools. It was one of those round bars and my side of it was fairly empty. It was a big and expensive restaurant, one of those you needed a reservation for weeks ahead. My father had most likely taken me here to be able to brag about it to his colleagues, rather than trying to give his daughter a good birthday.

"What can I get you?" the bartender asked as she wiped off a glass with a towel.

"Uhm... A porn-star martini?"

"Coming right up."

I watched as she mixed the drink, in lack of something else to do.

"Can I see some ID," she asked and I dug my drivers license out of my little bag. She checked it and must've noticed my birth date because she continued with, "Happy birthday. I guess this should be on the house."