The Story of Us (Camren)

Nostalgia

flashbacks are italicized

-

The year was 2018. I’d just turned 22, so it was in the summer. I had a serious case of writer’s block that night. Scratch that, I’d been suffering from writer’s block for over two weeks. So you can imagine how stressed I must have been at the time. I decided to get out of my loft to search for some form of inspiration, and I even invited my girls to tag along with me, but they declined. Said they had better things to do than roam the streets of Manhattan. Dinah was out with her boyfriend. Ally had her own dilemmas to tend to, and Mani insisted on staying on the couch to watch a good ole Netflix film. It was all good though. If either one of them would’ve came, I wouldn’t have gotten a damn thing done. For a long time I thought that I didn’t accomplish anything that night, but in retrospect, I got a whole lot more than I bargained for. I stumbled upon some bittersweet inspiration that has and will last a lifetime.

“How the hell did I end up in here?” I muttered to myself, taking a look around the raunchy nightclub that attained many gross odors.

The gigantic room was rather smoky, decorated in colorful flashing neon lights bright enough to give any normal person a seizure. I’d only been to a club like this once and I told myself I’d never do it again. Although I immensely enjoyed a little partying every now and then, I figured this would be no fun since none of my clique were present. I knew I looked awkwardly out of place standing at the entrance of a club donning a gray cardigan and some jeans, so I walked on in, attempting to blend with the crowd.

This place was more than likely filled with tons of opportunity and inspiration though. Perhaps not the kind I was looking for, but hell, I was going to get something out of this tonight. I wasn’t necessarily aiming for that one thing to be sex until I laid eyes on her sitting over at the bar all lonely with her cheek in her hand. She was stunning, and I knew for a fact there had to be some lucky moron of a guy around here who she belonged to. And if not, there was one with his eye on her for sure, and he’d have a better chance with her than I ever would.

The bartender was standing in front of her, his palms pressed to the counter. She was ordering. I was oddly excited to see what she was drinking tonight, and I decided I could use a drink myself, so I headed on over to the bar, also in hopes that she was into girls just as much as I was. There was an empty seat right beside of her. I was feeling pretty fortunate tonight.

About a minute later the bartender came over, sat three margaritas down in front of her. I shook my head, chuckling quietly to myself. I ordered a simple coke when he came my way. In my peripheral view I could see the brunette chugging down her drink like it was nothing, and then onto the next one.

“Might wanna take it easy there, princess,” I said, briefly cutting my eye in her direction. Wearing a cheeky smirk, I nonchalantly twirled my straw around in my cup.

She placed her second glass down with a loud clank and stared me down disapprovingly. I flipped my hair out of my face, shooting her a bold look. Somewhere in her eyes I swear I saw a bit of wonder. Her brows were furrowed curiously, yet there was a scowl marring that pretty face of hers. The scowl on her face didn’t do her any justice, because she was nothing but a mad little puppy in my eyes.

“Says the chick drinking a coke. Do you know how lame you look?” she countered with the roll of her eyes.

“Well, I’m not aiming to get stone cold drunk tonight.”

“Maybe I am.”

I studied her fiery, wide-eyed gaze momentarily before speaking. “Are you here alone?”