archimedes |b. allen|

new romantics

new romantics

This is not a nice dinner.

"Bennie, why are we here?" Maude asks, raising her voice so she can be heard over the pounding bass.

"We just thought it'd be easier for everyone to meet here instead. A little more chill, ya know?" she shouts back to us, taking Maude's hand who then takes mine as she starts to lead us toward the back of the packed club. "She said they're by the bar in the back."

The three of us looked like we were all headed to different places, and none of us looked like we meant to end up here. Bennie was dressed in a sweet cream ribbed sweater dress, hair curled into gentle waves with baby pink smeared on her eyelids, cheeks, and lips. Maude was squeezed into black leather pants, the kind that looked like they were custom made for her because of how well they fit. She'd paired it with distressed vintage Sublime shirt and old combat boots. Her fingers, ears, and neck was covered in silver jewelry that all jingled as she walked. And I was wearing an off-the-shoulder black long sleeve with a pair of jeans and black pointed toe slingbacks, maybe the most middle of the line of the three of us.

Either way, Bennie continued to drag us through the crowd of people while a Flo Rida song bleeds into my ears. Bennie's the shortest of the three of us, and she's obviously having a very hard time trying to pick out her girlfriend with her group of friends.

I swear I hear my name being called out to me, someone toward the bar in the back shouting to me, but I think I must be mishearing with the level of volume in this place. But then I hear it again, and I realize that the direction Bennie's leading us is also toward Caitlin?

My hand drops from Maude's as I try to hide the confusion on my face and give the brunette a nice smile anyway. That's before I see the two men with their backs to the club, appearing to be waiting on their drinks from the bartender. One shorter man with long black hair with another man next to him with clean cut brown hair, wearing what looks to be a denim button up and khakis.

"Yay, you guys made it!" the woman next to Caitlin says, jumping down from her barstool and wrapping Bennie into an embrace.

Now my eyes nearly fall out of my head.

Iris was Bennie's new girlfriend. Iris.

Fate followed us with this group.

"Woah, what are you guys doing here?" Cisco asks, finally turning around, obviously very confused as he eyes Maude and I, not even noticing Bennie and Iris who seem to be in their own little bubble.

The long haired man takes a sip from his beer as the man next to him turns around, a glass of what I can confidently assume to be water in his large hand. His steely blue eyes meet mine, and I swear the entire room feels like it falls away as he just looks at me.

"I thought you said you were having dinner with your friends tonight," quickly falls from his lips, even though I can barely hear him.

Jesus Christ, I had spent so much time trying to keep my two (2) (just fucking TWO) friend groups apart from each other, considering I felt like I was two very different people depending on which one I was with. And here I was now, stuck with them all for one night.

I needed to start finding an exit. I gotta go.

I swallow the lump in my throat, trying to force myself to speak, but Maude does it for me, "Yeah, Bennie, what happened to dinner?"

Bennie and Iris are no longer tangled in each other, instead they stand side-by-side, both with adorable smiles on their lips, and I can't help but to think how cute their height difference is.