Us and Them

Prologue

1968

The record on the turntable played softly in the background noise of my room as I painted on a large canvas. The window was open, letting a warm summer breeze blow into my London flat I had been living in for a year. The city has always been my home ever since I was a little girl, and I loved everything about it. It was the perfect place for me.

However, the peaceful afternoon was interrupted when my best friend, Courtney, barged into my flat. I had a bad habit of forgetting to lock my doors, and she was practically always here anyways.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I laughed.

She sat down on the chair in front of my makeup mirror and twirled her long red hair in her fingers. She had big brown eyes and pale clear skin; she really was beautiful.

"Are you coming to that party tonight?"

"I don't know..."

"Pink Floyd will be there!" She could barely contain her excitement.

"How the hell did you get invited to a party where Pink Floyd is going to?!" I almost dropped my paintbrush.

"I know the people who are hosting it at the club" she laughed. "It's not an everyday thing that you get to meet Pink Floyd, Emma."

"It's going to be packed, it's not like I'll get to meet them out of all people" I closed the cans of paint and put the brush away.

"Just come and have a good time" she begged.

I knew that she wouldn't leave my apartment until she got her own way, so I agreed to go. Courtney went into the living room and started to read a book that she took off my dresser and waited as I got ready. I jumped in the shower and quickly got out before drying my long dark brown hair into neat curls. I put black eyeliner around my light grey eyes and batted my long eyelashes before going into my closet to pick out an outfit. I rummaged through it, tossing things over my head as I dug through the clothes on the hangers, until I finally came across a colourfully designed dress. I put it on and evened it out before looking at myself in the mirror. The dress hugged my curves tightly and went down above my knees, and showed off just the right amount of cleavage without looking like a hooker or a groupie.

"You take forever" Courtney mumbled as I walked out of my room.

"You're lucky that I'm even going, so shut up" I joked.

Walking up to the club, we could tell that it was packed. There were tons of people hanging around outside, as more and more people entered the large building. We slowly walked up to a security guard who towered over us in his tall stance, and he looked down at us without a single expression on his face.

"Name?" his deep voice was heard over the loud people around us.

"I'm Courtney Wakewich, and this is my friend, Emma Hale" she told him.

He looked at us both and then down at the list he had in front of him. My heart dropped when I knew that my name wasn't on the list, but he moved out of the way to let us enter.

"How the hell was I even allowed in?" I said in shock.

"Well... I sort of put your name down when I got invited" she admitted and let out a chuckle.

"So you had the intention of bringing me all along?" I laughed.

"You won't regret it, I promise you that" she said confidently.

Like we assumed, the club was packed. We stood at the end of the hallway and looked into the large room that held so many people. The music was playing loudly and you could see clouds of smoke fill the air in the dimly lit room. We made our way through the crowd and to the giant bar before sitting in the two empty seats that were available. The bartender, who was quite handsome, brought us the drinks we ordered and gave us a wink before going back to work.