The rest of the day past in a colorless blur, the thought of going to the club that night haunted me the rest of the day. I felt like the person in Shel Silverstein’s poem What If for the rest of the day. My brain was panicking, and I was thinking thoughts like, ‘What if I get drunk? What if my mom finds out?’ I must have looked worried, because Aria took time out of her busy schedule to reassure me that everything was going to be fine, “Celeste, you cannot back out now. It is going to be amazing I mean, remember what I said about the stars, they are in your favor, and I mean you cannot argue with the stars.” “Okay, enough with the pep talk, I am ready to look beautiful,” I said with as much confidence I could muster up. It must have passed by Aria, because her response was a high-pitched squeal.
Aria’s idea of beautiful is probably why she is never single e. She dressed me in white skinny jeans, a skintight black halter-top, and silver wedges. To finish her masterpiece she accessorized me with studs and a silver chain necklace. After I got dressed, I put in the hazel contacts, I had to admit, and I did not look that bad. For makeup, she stained my lips with clear sparkly lip-gloss and applied two coats of mascara to my eyelashes, making them look even redder. “We are going for a natural look Celeste, less is always more,” Aria explained when I asked why she only applied makeup to my mouth and eyelashes. My hair took the longest, she tried to do Marcel waves, but my hair was being defiant so she gave up and settled on flat ironing it twice, and put it in a bun. I was almost as drop dead gorgeous as Aria, almost meaning nowhere near. She was wearing a strapless black high-low dress that had a pink bow on the front, with black ballet flats. We had the same makeup, except she used black mascara. Her hair was in a bow; to me she looked like a life size Barbie doll.
Oliver came to pick us up at nine thirty. He looked amazing; he had on a pink Polo shirt, black skinny straight jeans, and high top Converse. “You clean up nice, Bozo,” I said as I stepped into his car. “You do not look so bad yourself, Cruella,” he countered. “Ugh, nerd fest can continue later, but for now drive!” Aria shouted.
We reached Club Indigo at nine forty-five. The humid New Orleans air made goose bumps on my neck and arms, and I could feel my hair fluffing back out, good thing it was in a bun. The line to get in was not long, but it was definitely forming. Aria was literally bouncing up and down, “I cannot believe we are actually here!” she shrieked. She looked at me timidly, “Oh yeah, you are going to need this to get in,” she pulled out three fake ID’s out of her black clutch. “Hold up, we have to use fake ID’s to get in? Have you officially lost your mind? No, I will not!” I screamed at her. “Shut the hell up! You are going to get us caught, this is exactly why we did not tell you, we knew you would spas out, but guess what, it is too late for you to do anything about it so get over it,” she whispered just loud enough for me to hear the disdain in her voice. We waited in line for five minutes in silence. When we reached the entrance, a short, rotund, African American man with dreads met us. He looked like he was counting down the minutes until his shift ended. “I need to see your ID’s and scan you to make sure you do not have any weapons,” he said in a bland voice.
After we got past the bouncer, we entered the club. The shift in the mood was apparent. The humidity outside was nothing compared to the humidity inside the club, the relatively cool air from outside was replaced by the body heat of the clubbers on the dance floor. The deejay was playing an upbeat dance song, which explained all of the movement. “Come on guys, what are you waiting for?” Aria yelled over the music. She was jumping up and down so much, if I did not know any better I would have suspected that she was on drugs. So to get her to stop jumping, Oliver and I followed her unto the dance floor.
The eccentric vibes that were coming from the dancers was addictive. I started causally swaying to the beat, and then I let loose. “Whoa, you go girl!” Aria cheered from somewhere amongst the crowd. I was dancing as never before, I was dancing on Oliver and Aria. The buzz I had quickly subsided when I felt something cold and wet on the back of my shirt. Someone yelled, “Oh shit!” I turned around to see a boy with beautiful brown eyes staring at me with resentment. “Will you please watch what you are doing next time?” he yelled making everyone in earshot stop and stare. I could feel the blood rushing to my face. “Well, since you said please,” I said in a sugary sweet voice, “then again no, you were the idiot who’s dumb enough to bring a drink on the dance floor, with dancing people, so it getting spilled was the inevitable. You need to go ask somebody because I am definitely not the one, okay?” I was getting ready to storm off when Oliver and Aria reached me. “Okay, my bad, calm down,” the boy stuttered, visibly shaken. “Come on, Celeste,” Oliver began while towing me away from the boy. “Celeste, Celeste Anderson?” the boy asked. “Yeah, who the heck are you?” I asked suspiciously. “Oh wow, you do not remember me do you? It is I, Liam Robinson, we went to elementary and middle school together, but I moved to Nebraska the summer after eighth grade.
Of course, I remembered him now, the long brown hair, and the super cute facial features. I also remembered the insistent flirting with me, and any other girl who would give him the time of day, and the bad boy attitude. “Oh my stars, hi, what are you doing here?” I exclaimed as I gave him a hug. “My parents and I just moved back two days ago. I am so sorry about your shirt and my rudeness. So what is new with you?” he asked causally. “Well, believe it or not, I am like top in my class, but I mean other than that, same old same old, what about you?” I answered wishing I never said anything about my grades, I mean he was hot and my grades were an automatic turn off. “Nothing much, I mean I am in a band, Snakebite, but that’s it,” he said it so nonchalantly, as if it was an everyday feat. “Dude, that is huge! You always wanted to be in a band, I am so proud of you. Now, let me guess, you are the lead guitarist of the band?” I asked. “Yeah I play the guitar. I cannot believe that you are a nerd! You did not care about schoolwork in middle school, I mean you were good at it, you just did not do it, and now you are runner up for class valedictorian that is just, wow that is mind-blowing. Now look, I know you came here with Aria and Oliver, but you are leaving with me,” he said the last part with a devilish grin. “Okay,” I said giggling like a maniac, “I am sure they understand that we need time to catch up.” I turned around to give Aria and Oliver my best puppy dogface, but to my surprise, Aria and Oliver had already made their way back to the dance floor. “I’ll send her a text,” I said, great now I was a nerd that sounded like a fifth grader. “Okay, but hurry, I turn into a wolf at midnight,” Ryan joked.
“Went home with Ryan, talk to you later.”
Two seconds later, my phone vibrated.
“You go girl, text me the details tomorrow.”
“All set?” he asked. “Yep, let’s go,” I replied.
