Charlie and I made it safely to the after party, courtesy of the mysterious woman at the arena allowing us to follow her car through traffic. I didn't know where I expected the after party of a boxing match to be held, but the most exclusive club in the city hadn't crossed my mind. In my defense, the only after parties I had been to were in college and took place in dirty frat house basements.
"No, they're with us!" The unnamed woman said to the bouncer that tried to deny me and Charlie entrance. We followed her up the metal stairs to a more secluded part of the club, the sole of my boot getting stuck on a piece of gum in the process.
"Sorry, I didn't get your name!" I shouted in her ear over the music. The ambiance of the upstairs was more laid back than the floor, but the music seemed to be 10x louder up here.
"Santana! What's yours?!" she shouted back. Even though the club was dark, her white teeth glowed under the blue and red strobe lights. She handed us 2 shots of tequila as she waited for me to report our names.
"I'm Indica! This is my bestfriend, Charlie!" Santana raised her small alcohol-filled cup in the air, cueing us to join her in a toast. The rims of our shot glasses collided and we each swallowed our liquid courage, being sure to shudder at the end for dramatic effect.
"How do y'all know Nas?" was a question I was not prepared to answer. The NDA he made us sign was crafted for moments exactly like this, though I was sure I'd never find myself speaking about him outside the walls of our support group. The reason behind his secrecy was still foreign to me but that was the least of my concerns right now.
I thought for a quick second, realizing that the more time I let pass until I answered would make whatever came out of my mouth seem like a lie. "I met him at my job! How about you?"
I looked over at Charlie who was oblivious to the predicament I'd found myself in, bobbing her head to the music.
"I'm his girlfriend! Do y'all wanna take another shot?" she asked with a smile.
"Yeah!" I wasn't a lightweight, but Charlie definitely was, so I made a mental note to monitor how much she was drinking tonight.
"I'll be right back!" and she was off to the bar for more tequila.
I did a quick take around the area, noticing a bodyguard at the top of the stairs we came up. The space was the same size as a classroom and had about 20 people socializing among themselves with red cups in their hands. There was a huge black sectional against the back wall that 4 people sat at, but a lot of it was unoccupied.
"Let's go sit down!" I said in Charlie's ear. The space was only moderately crowded, but I grabbed her hand and snaked us through the few people that were standing between us and the spot on the couch I planned to sit us.
"Let me know when you ready to go," she said, "I know you ain't wanna be here."
"This is fine," I gestured around the room, "Seeing that man all bruised and bleeding was just a little triggering for me." I blame myself for not expecting violence at a boxing match, but I would assuredly never go again.
"Can you believe this shit? We been tryna get in this club for months just for Nassau fucking Riley himself to be the reason we in here," Charlie said with a childish grin plastered on her face.
"Do you see him anywhere? I should probably say thank you, right?" I stretched my neck in an attempt to look through the crowd for Nas, but failed at finding him.
"You definitely should. I don't see him, though." What I did see, was Santana dance-walking toward us with shots in her hand and not spilling a single drop.
