A Love Lost. A Love Gained.

Chapter One

~~~Chapter One~~~

"Ugh. What are we even doing here Nat?" I ask, feeling annoyed with myself for letting her drag me out of the house when I should be studying.

The club we're in has been open for hours, but we've just arrived. It's typically not my kind of place with the loud music blaring and the lights flashing different colors along with the beat of whatever song they've chosen to torture me with. Not that I don't enjoy the occasional hip hop or rap song; but when it feels like the bass is going to pound out of my chest, I get a little irritated.

"You need to relax and have some fun. You can't keep yourself shut up in your apartment with nothing but your books and your studying." she answers, equally annoyed with me.

"I happen to quite enjoy my books and my studying. I don't see anything wrong with intellectual advancement."

"Oh don't give me that intellectual advancement crap, Gwynn. You've been holed up in your apartment for 2 years now! You need to start getting out again, learn how to have fun and make a connection with someone. "

I don't reply to my best friend of nearly 6 years. She knows me to well and has also lead us to the bar effectively cutting off any reply I may have had. She smiles at me knowing that she's won this battle. We quickly order our drinks from a blonde haired blue eyed man. He smirks at me when I order my drink, but I almost don't even see him. I haven't seen any man in about 2 years. With the Jameson and Coke's in our hands we walk away to an empty table.

Natalie, seeing me resign to my fate of this club, smiles and says encouragingly "Look, I'm not saying you have to go home with some stranger and bang him until you forget. All I'm saying is that you need to take a step in the right direction." She's right of course. I need to try to live again, I need to become more than the living ghost I've been for 2 years.

"Ok. You've won. I'll try to have fun tonight. But no men! Let's just stick together tonight, deal?"

"Deal."

Now that our "deal" has been reached, we both go into party mode. We said no men, and by that we meant no men to spend the night with. I'm no where near ready and Nat is too good to me to push. But that doesn't mean we can't do some harmless flirting, although with Nat it's rarely harmless.

Natalie is the kind of girl you want to hate, but just can't. She beautiful with warm chestnut long hair, and the most stunning pair of aquamarine eyes I've ever seen. She has a rounded face with light pink heart shaped lips. She only slightly taller than I am at 5'4", but what she lacks in physical height she makes up for in spunk. She keeps herself moderately in shape, but never hesitates to chow down a good hamburger. She's one of the most sincere and down to earth people I've met, but with that comes a dose of reality that can be hard to swallow sometimes.

Tonight she dressed fairly modestly in a strapless black dress that hugs her curves, but leaves a little something to the imagination. She's always been better at fashion than I have and has wrapped a copper colored sash around her midline for a bit of added flair. She's stunning and I can see the eyes of many on her tonight. With her 4 inch copper stilettos, she looks like she should be on the cover of a magazine.

I shift uncomfortably as a man with a pink dress shirt walks up and try's to flirt with me. I never understood pink dress shirts on men. Not that I'm opposed to men wearing pink, but it's just not flattering on most.

"My name is Jared." He almost slurs at me.

"Well Jared, it was nice to meet you, but my friend and I are going to dance." I reply, hoping he gets the hint and doesn't try for more conversation. I detest drunk men hitting on me. And I rarely give my name to someone I've never met, in a bar.