"Aria, wasn't that just amazing?" asked a petite blonde girl as she pulled along another girl who topped her height by about a foot or so. They were both pretty beat from the concert that they had just gotten out of; even though it wasn't Aria's type of music, she did her best to appear pleased by the goings-on at the concert.
They walked down the nearly never vacated strip of Las Vegas, clad in clothes that were a grungy type of tattered, ripped skinny jeans and band tees clinging to their bodies. While Aria nodded and said the right things at the right times, she was never really fully engaged in the conversation with her best friend, Kimmy. Even though she had grown up here, this city never failed to astonish her with it's beauty, gleaming lights from casinos seeming to warm them, even on the chilly desert night they were having.
Blinking lights had been the backdrop of most of her childhood, and while other kids were content to sit back and just watch the lights flash past them, she was determined to have her name emblazened in them, someday.
"Ooh, hey, Aria, let's go into the Starbucks here before we walk all the way home," Kimmy steered the two of them toward the nearest Starbucks, and into the path of several displeased tourists; Aria apoligized to all of them quickly as they passed. They marched on into the café and Aria let go of Kimmy's arm.
"Aria, can you order?" asked Kimmy, rifling through her purse for her wallet, "Aha. Okay, I just want a grande chai latte, and you can get whatever you want with whatever I have leftover from the concert."
Before Aria could object, Kimmy walked over to the other side of the café, making a bee-line for a guy with brightly dyed hair that Aria could've sworn she saw somewhere before.
Standing in line wasn't too tedious, as there were hardly any people there. Once she'd gotten to the front of the line and ordered, Kimmy was already marching her way back over to Aria with her new friend in tow.
"Hey Aria, this is Michael. He is in the band that we saw earlier," she smiled over at him, and he smiled back. Oh. So that's what was going on.
Over the years, if Aria was sure of anything, she was sure of this; a night out with Kimmy was never boring. Most nights out with Kimmy weren't even planned, to be quite honest. They just happened. And that was the best part about being friends with Kimmy. Besides the free coffee, of course.
"Hey, Michael," Aria greeted, giving a small wave to him, "I really liked your set earlier. I heard some great stuff," she gave an obligatory thumbs up. He smiled at her compliment; an actual, genuine smile. Maybe he wasn't so bad afterall.
"Thanks, Aria, but me and Kimmy here didn't just come over to talk about my band," he spoke, in an accent that Aria recognized as Australian, "See, I was just on a coffee run for these two other guys in the band, 'cause there's going to be this sick after party at this one bar not far from here." While Aria was slightly tense, she knew that this would be what Kimmy wanted, so she grinned pertly.
"Should I take that as a sick invite?" she asked, and Michael nodded enthusiastically, talking about how it was going to be so cool with the both of them there.
After the trio waited for their drinks to be made, they exited the store, and Michael walked up to a sleek black car that had been parked outside since Kimmy and Aria had got there. "Hey man, I've got the coffee, and a few friends. Take us around the back entrance though." Ah, so he must've been aware of their situation. Their age situation, that is.
It wasn't anything super drastic-- they were twenty, going on twenty-one-- but it still blew that they couldn't legally drink. Not that they ever really observed that law. Because no one did.
The whole ride there, they were all seated in the back. And, comfortable as it was sitting next to two people that were sucking face, it did nothing for Aria to be sitting there, sipping on her coffee alone. Such was the curse of being Kimmy's best friend. Not like she'd never had friends with benefits before, but she'd only done anything like this once. And the guy's band wasn't even that big, so it didn't even really count.
