Shark and Ronia

How they met

What am I even doing? It was by far not the first time that thought crossed my mind. In fact, it was probably the only thing I had been thinking about since I left the house. I had no clue why I was even going. But now I was already in the elevator to floor 12 and it was way too late to turn back. I looked at my reflection in the mirror, fixed my hair and entered the birthday party of a girl I didn't even know.

The room I stepped into was huge. It was bigger than most gyms and had three chandeliers. In the middle, there was a huge table, with sofas on each side, as well as a bar in the corner across the room. I saw some familiar faces, most of them girls I slept with in High School. Alex was nowhere to be seen. Luckily.

Who I did see was Jannik with his girlfriend. I should have been relieved, but Jannik had never been honest, so who knew if he was meeting Alex? He better wasn't. Jannik spotted me. I could see his eyes opening wide. Then, his face changed to angry. He took his girlfriend's hand and turned away. Don't worry Baby, I thought, I'm not like that anymore. Then I went to get a drink and decided to stay at the bar. I wasn't here for small talk. I wasn't here for anything but to proof myself I could handle it. And I had to say I was doing pretty well. The bartender handed me my drink.

"Is it possible?", a female voice said behind me, „The one and only Shark - Ethan Smith!". I turned around. The girl next to me had to look up to look me into the eyes.

"Could be, hm?". She smiled. "And you are?", I asked her, as she was one of the few people who were not avoiding me on purpose.

"Ronia.". I nodded.

"You want a drink?". She refused, holding up her beer, and asked:

"So, what brought you here? Are you a friend of someone?". I laughed.

"More of an enemy, but I do know a lot of the people here." She smiled brighter.

"How do you come to be an enemy?" I was just about to tell her, but then I hesitated. This was going way too fast. She must had noticed I wasn't comfortable and raised an eyebrow.

"I am a friend of Emely. But I don't have the best reputation either, so don't worry."

"Tell me about it.". I sat down on a bar chair.

"Alright. Do you know Jannik? When I first met him, he treated me like a slut, which I didn't like, so I stepped on his foot really hard. With a Stiletto. Then, people started talking, of course.". I smiled. She really seemed to be my kind of person.

"You wanna get out of here?". She seemed happy I asked. And I was happy she was, because I had noticed Jannik was staring in our direction. I didn't want to get in any kind of trouble today.

We went out to the terrace, which was just as long as the living room, but except for a couple making out in a seating area, totally empty. Ronia looked at them disgusted.

"They should get a room already!", she said and went to the railing.

It was already dark, but the city was a sea of lights under us. You could see the streets like glowing worms, and the Skyscrapers as clouds of lights. There was something about it that made you feel so small. Ronia's hair got blown up by the wind, and she hugged herself, trying to stay warm in her blouse and the wide black fabric pants she was wearing. The only thing ordinary about her outfit were her stilettos. Her shoulders were quite wide for a girl, but yet, she was so female, standing there with her messy hair, leaning against the railing, looking down.

"Only nice thing about Manhattan.".

"That's true. Where do you live?", I asked. She pointed at some point far in the distance.