Queen of the Living

Chapter 2

    The entrance to the RedRoom was a door above a parking garage that led to, well, an underground parking garage.  At some point it had been converted to a club with a live room, a jazz room, and a large dance hall.  Nawal had been to it before with her friends while she was still in college several years back, and although the years hadn't been kind to it, it still held plenty of memories from days gone by.  There were several people mulling around the entrance with your standard security guard checking ID's and taking the five dollar cover.  As door men do, he eyed Nawal up and down and checked her ID to make sure the person in the picture matched the girl standing in front of him.  He took her five dollars, returned her driver's license and waved her in.  Once past, Nawal navigated her way through the long corridor down that led into the main room.  There was a bar in the center with two guys and a girl tending to the crowd of club-goers ordering drinks and a stage at the far end with a DJ playing some sort of techno-house music.  How techno ever reached the popularity that it did was beyond Nawal.  To the left and the right were the other rooms which played jazz and live music respectively.

    Nawal made her way around the club looking for Jack among the throng of scantily clad girls and drunk guys wearing the standard button down shirts with dark jeans and either black dress shoes or extremely white sneakers.  Hopefully nobody would have their shoes stepped on, lest a fight were to break out.  The whole underground theme didn't really work well for the air conditioning as it was hot and muggy inside and everyone seemed to be sweating whether they were dancing or not.  A thin layer of smoke rested above the crowd refracting the lights from the ceiling.

    Jack, when she finally found him, was at the far end of the bar entertaining a group of girls who looked like they were a part of a bachelorette party.  It was strange to see Jack this way.  The girls looked like they were thoroughly enjoying his company, eagerly waiting for the next line or comment he gracefully threw their way. She had talked with Jack several times through the years and he had recently been explaining his new-found success with girls, but talk was talk and it was odd to see him actually be as  successful at it as he claimed.  His hair and clothing were new too, Nawal noticed.  He had finally grown out his hair to the point of combing it, and his clothes spoke of a man who actually paid attention to the latest trends in style.  He definitely stood out from the standard guy uniform that everyone else was wearing.

    Nawal waited until Jack finished playing some sort of guessing game with three of the girls before she tapped him on the shoulder.  He turned around to glance at the intrusion and was about to turn back to his new entourage when realization hit him.

    “Nawal?!” He yelled, a rather large smile enveloping his face.  “Are you kidding me?”

    “Hey, Jack,” Nawal replied.

    Jack lifted his hand to the crowd of girls in dismissal and turned to face Nawal.  “Wow!  What the hell are you doing here?”

    “I was in town, saw your status on Facebook and...”

    “No shit!”  Jack turned to the only other guy in the group he had been talking to and pulled him over.  “Dude, Rudy, this is a friend of mine from like a million years ago.”  He put a hand on his friend's chest and said, “Rudy, this is Nawal.  Nawal, Rudy.”

    “Nice to meet you,” Nawal said, extending her hand.  Rudy took it in with a shake.

    “Pleasure.”

    Jack released Rudy and put an arm around Nawal's shoulders as he placed his beer on the bar.  “It's so good to see you.  Shit, you haven't changed a bit, well, except for the contacts, but they look nice.”  He began to signal to the bartender.