The party was packed, sweaty bodies clumped together in one disgusting mass. But Hasana bobbed and weaved her way through it, pupils dilated, muscles jumping, heart hammering. She was soaring on cloud nine, her lips stained a black cherry color and tainted in brown liquor. She lets her eyes swing back and forth, hazily taking in the swirl of blue and purple lights.
She steps out of the mosh pit and out the front door, taking another pull from the bottle in her hand. The cool night air soothes her damp skin and allows fresh oxygen into her lungs. Hasana fumbles for her lighter, cursing as she struggles to light her cigarette.
"I'm guessing this is the flipside then?" a low voice rings out in the alley, his Australian accent tipping her off to who the voice belongs to.
The black girl tilts her head in his direction, chuckling slightly, "Yeah well I've also been a very...literal person." The neon "FLIPSIDE" sign buzzed above them, blinking in time with the thudding dance music coming from inside the club. She turns towards him, leaning against the wall.
"You know you look very different dry." He gestures to her more or less "put together" attire, her eyeliner and lipstick smudged, ripped fishnets seemingly ready to snap across her thick thighs. Her shirt is long sleeved, black and cropped this time, with thumb holes securing their place, ensuring it doesn't slip up. Her skirt is just as short as her dress was, with two slits on the side, but what really gets his attention is her jacket. His leather jacket, draped across her small frame like it was made for her.
Maybe it was.
Hasana's small smile shifted into a larger, more genuine shark toothed grin. "I could say the same about you Christian."
He beamed, pushing his long blonde hair from his face, "You remembered my name?"
"How could I not? I mean you did run into the middle of a storm for me." she slips back into that sly smile from earlier. "Can't forget the name of a guy like that."
Christian stepped closer to her, shoulder to shoulder with the short girl. He laughs and shakes his head. "Well that's not fair then, because I can't seem to shake the girl I fought a storm for outta my head, and I didn't even get her name."
She pulls her blue hair away from her brown face, dark eyes glittering under the neon lights.
"Hasana, my name's Hasana." She takes a drag from her cigarette before putting it out on the brick building behind them.
Christian rolls her name off of his tongue in a sigh, "Hasana...I like that."
She giggles slightly, looking back up at him, "You're saying it wrong, it's a soft H you ain't supposed to pronounce it much."
He tries it again, until her name sounds like a whisper and lights a cigarette of his own, "Well Hasana I gotta say, you look fantastic in that jacket."
"Oh this old thing?", she tugs it slightly, pushing off the building with her back to him before looking back at him over her shoulder, "some crazy dude gave it to me at the beach once." She saunters back in front of him, leaning on her toes with her chest pressed to his. "I was hoping he wouldn't ask for it back."
He takes a drag and blows the smoke back on her face. "Keep it, looks good on you."
YOU ARE READING
SWIM // CHRISTIAN ANTHONY
RomanceHe moved heaven and earth for her and didn't even catch her name. But she caught his and all he wants to do is hear her say it over and over. "I guess I'll catch you on the flipside Christian."
