Be Careful What You Wish For (PUBLISHED)

(1) - Conversations with Nemo

CHAPTER 1

Ana looked around the club as she nursed her drink. The whole place was bathed in an eerie blue glow that made everyone look like they had just stumbled onto the set of Avatar. The air was thick with cigarette smoke, playing a hypnotic game of peek-a-boo with the multi-colored laser lights that flickered from the ceiling. The whole place pulsated with loud music-mind-numbing techno beats that hardly had any actual lyrics. All around the room, people partied like there was no tomorrow.

Groups of people gyrated in the miniscule dance space in the middle of the room; hands raised and assess wiggling in time to the beat. The mirrored walls of the bar were lined with tables where people sat watching the dancers, chatting to each other over beers and colorful, fruity cocktails. In the dark hallway leading to the restrooms, couples were avidly making out in the dim light.

Oh yeah. Worst. Birthday. Ever.

Ana took a large gulp of her mojito and stared at a pair of tropical fish that peered out at her from the slim aquarium that curved along the length of the counter.

"Hey Nemo," she poked the glass with one fingernail, "Even you guys are having more fun than me," Ana toasted the fish with the last of her mojito. The pair stared at her for a few seconds before swimming giddily into a clump of corals at the other end of the aquarium.

"Dear god, she's talking to the fish. Can it get any worse?" Hissed a girl to her left.

Ana looked towards the curvaceous brunette and gave her friend Kaye a patented I'll-kill-you-if-you-don't-shut-up look. Then she glanced down the bar and waved the bartender over, "Tequila kudasai," she handed over a thousand yen bill.

"Hai, kashikomarimashita," the barman slid her shot over and counted out her change.

"Wow, tequila shots. How imaginative." A man drawled beside her.

Ana turned to frown at Jon too. She downed the contents of the shot glass in one go, and slammed it back onto the bar.

"Careful hon, you break it, you bought it," cautioned Kaye, who nodded a silent apology to the barman, "We don't want to get thrown out of this bar, do we?"

"Who cares?" Ana glared at Kaye. Glaring was good. It helped to channel the anger.

"Ana, haven't you had enough?" asked a younger girl who sipped worriedly at her drink.

"C'mon Tessa," Kaye admonished the girl, "We all know that Ana passed that point a long, long ago. Didn't you hear her trying to chat up the fish?"

Jon snorted. "Well it is her birthday. And I guess she needs liquid fortification to forget that little scene in the restaurant."

"Don't remind me," Ana rested her head on the bar, hoping the room would stop spinning soon.

"Ana, are you alright?" Tessa asked.

"No I'm not alright. I want to die," Ana groaned.

Kaye tsked. "Seriously, hon? Over a guy?"

Ana glared at Kaye. Easy for her to say, she could date a different hot guy every week if she wanted to. But for Ana, for the past two years at least, it had been Dan. And when, earlier this evening, she had seen him walk into the restaurant with that ... that slut in tow ... Ana groaned again, "How could he do this to meeeee?"

"Uh, hello? Earth to Ana," Kaye tsked again, "I hate to be the voice of reason, but you weren't even together."

"Since we're being honest, did he even know you existed?" Jon asked.