How to Fall... Without Trying To (GirlxGIRL)

Lana

I end up at a bar down the street from my dad's house. I texted Dante to see if he was busy, but he's with his girlfriend tonight. I ask for a dirty martini and sit back to watch two females play pool. As I'm watching the bartender brings over my drink and tries to strike up conversation.

"So where are ya from? Haven't seen you around before" he smiles and I can see he's missing a few teeth, probably in a bar fight.

I laugh a little at my own joke before replying "I'm from here, just came back in the states after a long stay abroad"

"Abroad? Like Canada abroad or Africa abroad?"

"More like Europe abroad" I shake my head, noticing a group of 4 females walk into the bar.

"Nice" he follows my gaze to the females, walking away from me to attend to them.

One of the females happens to be the female I was staring at in Walmart, I duck my head in embarrassment and to take a sip of my martini. I watch them for a bit, joking and talking amongst themselves. There's an average height, pretty, Hispanic female with dark hair and beautiful dark caramel skin; who just seems like the life of the party. I can't fully see the female next to her but her short dark hair and honey colored skin are prominent. I also noticed the girl from the other day at Walmart sitting amongst them. The last female has long light brown hair and gold hazel eyes, with a pretty smile. I think I stare a little too hard because they all look over to me and I look awkwardly back to my drink.

"What were you doing abroad?" The bartender asks me, throwing his elbow on the counter. He flashes me another smile and I cringe a little inside, looking down at my phone before answering. He is honestly working a little too hard for this tip, which he is getting either way if he didn't realize it.

"School" I shrug. I look through my phone to see I don't have any text messages, but I do have a few notifications from this app I downloaded at Dante's insistence that it could "help with getting female friends".

"That sounds exciting" he pours a drink then walks away. There's a little flash of movement from the females across the bar, and I try not to look over as I sip down a little more of my martini.

I scroll through the app, filtering some of the messages from the females I swiped on, then I receive a message from someone I didn't swipe on. Who happens to be one of the females across the bar. I look at the name, "Queen", and open the message.

-Hey! We're sitting across the bar from you! Come on over!
-Give me a second

I grab my drink, stand up, take a breath, then walk over to the other side of the bar. Catching part of a whisper from the female with the hazel eyes.

"Fucking Leslie!" She shakes her head.

"Hey! I was invited over?" I smile

"Yea!" Aria smiles, throwing her hand out for me to shake, "name is Aria!"

"Jhené" I use my middle name instead of my first name. I use my middle name to source out the weirdos online, it also is a security measure my father tried to enforce on me when I moved out to Europe, due to his business. He apparently doesn't want me being used for ransom. 

"Adrianne" the female with the short dark hair sips on her drink.

"Leslie" the pretty Hispanic girl smiles

"Queen" the female I couldn't help but stare at from across the bar looks away toward the bartender. Her name is on the profile that messaged me, but how she is acting it doesn't seem like she is the one that really messaged me. Interesting. 

We converse for a little bit, sharing jobs and such when Queen mentions she works for my dad's company.

"Kingston Inc. you say?" I raise my eyebrows. Not bad, dad. "That's a pretty large company and a huge responsibility"

"Yea, but I can handle it" Queen sips on her drink.

I have no doubt for that, my dad's company is a large one but he also does not try to overload his employees too much beyond their capacity. His assistant, Amanda, seems pretty chill from the conversations on the phone I've had with her when I couldn't contact my dad directly.

"So when are we going to see you again?" Leslie  asks, leaning back in her chair.

"Whenever" I see a pen on the bar receipt from the bartender and grab it to write my number down on a napkin. "Just text me and let me know. I'm always down for a little adventure"

I notice Adrianne wink at Queen before she grabs the napkin off the counter, "trust me. We definitely will be texting you later"

"We all will" Aria smiles at me.

I notice they're all a bit more outgoing than Queen, who sits back and hardly speaks while the others talk about their work schedules and how their week is going to go.

"Well guys! I hate to leave during such a good time, but I have low wages to get to tomorrow" Leslie stands up, taking a long sip of her drink. Placing the empty glass on the counter

"Damn it, Leslie!" Aria laughs "You're suppose to be paying for the drinks, remember?"

"Guys! I'm a broke hoe! We talked about this!" Leslie shakes her head, a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

"No we didn't, puta!" Adrianne laughs, "You said you weren't a broke hoe"

"True!" Queen nods her head, sipping down the rest of her drink, "We would not be here had you not suggested we go to the bar, plus offered to pay"

"I even have this recorded" Aria laughs, taping a few times on her phone before playing a recording of a previous agreement where you can clearly hear Leslie volunteer payment for drinks, "You should know better that your words can be used against you in friendship court"

"Damn it, Aria" Leslie rolls her eyes, "fine"

"Pinché, Leslie!" Adrianne rolls her eyes, "of course you'd try to get out of it"

Leslie walks away from the group toward the bartender, talking to him for a minute before handing her card to him.

"I swear she does this all the time" Aria laughs, turning back to me "thanks for hanging with us, Jhené"

"You're welcome" I smile, "it was great to hang out with you guys! My friends are all abroad, and there's nothing more pitiful than sitting at a bar alone!"

"No female left unattended" Leslie comes back over at my last sentence.

They all burst out laughing and Adrianne says something in Spanish, that I don't catch, but it makes them all laugh even harder. I can already feel that this group is a pretty close knit group.