Broken Inside

15 - The Rise After the Fall

Neesha strutted confidently through the dance floor, pulling Alex along with her, to get across the room. She was in her elements.

They went through a beaded curtains into a private party room. The moment Neesha stepped inside, the whole room erupted with people shouting Happy Birthday. 

Neesha whooped, throwing her arms up in the air. One by one her friends approached her and wished her personally, giving her a kiss and hugs. Neesha was smiling ears to ears.

Alex headed straight for the private bar and ordered a Cosmo. She turned and looked around the room. There were at least 50 people there. Neesha has a lot of friends. 

She grabbed her drink and took a seat. The room was loud with people chatting and dancing, but it was louder out there on the dance floor. She sipped her drink slowly as she crowd watched.

A handsome Black guy approached her with a flirtatious smirk. He asked, "Is this seat taken?"

Alex shook her head and he sat down. 

"I'm Mike," he introduced himself. 

"Alex."

"So, how do you know Neesha?" he asked her. 

"We're roommates."

"Roommates?" he repeated, grinning wider. "So you're a model too?"

"Yup," Alex replied, sipping her drink. She kept her eyes on the room but Mike's eyes were all over her. She felt a little uncomfortable.

A waitress came over to them with a tray loaded with purple coloured shots. "House specialty. Would you like to try?"

"No, thanks," Alex replied.

But Mike grabbed 4 shots and set it on the table. He held one up to Alex. "Come on," he coaxed her, "It's not a party until you've had a shot."

Alex glanced at him and then at back at the room in general. She caught Neesha's eyes and Neesha winked at her. She smiled back and exhaled deeply. She didn't want to be a party pooper. 

So against her better judgement, she took the glass from Mike. He grinned at her and picked up another glass. They clinked glasses and downed the whole thing with one big gulp. Alex coughed. The drink was sweet and it burned her throat. Mike handed her another shot and they did it again.

Mike started telling her the story of how he met Neesha. Alex listened to him but soon she noticed that her vision was coming out of focused. His voice started to sound distorted. The loud music was pounding in her head. 

Alex excused herself and she tried to stand up but the room started spinning. She held on to the wall to steady herself. She moved, step by step, holding on to walls and columns, to get to the bathroom. She managed to exit the party room and moved to the dance floor. The lights and the loud music made it worse for her. She forced herself to move.

Then a pair of strong arms grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back. She could feel the guy's warm breath on her neck as his arms snaked over her belly. He started moving her side to side. He pushed aside her hair and she felt his teeth grazing her earlobe. 

Alex turned around and tried to push him away. But then she gasped. It was Jesse! She couldn't believe it! Everything around her was a blur but his handsome, smiling face came into focus. She was so happy to see him. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, with her eyes shut. She kissed him with all the passion that she had been keeping aside since he left.

But something didn't feel right. He tasted different. His scent was different, not the usual sandalwood that she loved so much. She opened her eyes and gasped with shock. She was kissing Mike, not Jesse. She pushed away from him and staggered backwards. Her head was spinning. He was grinning and tried to pull her back to him but she pushed him away and hurried across the dance floor, following the bright neon sign to the bathroom.

She burst through the door and staggered to the first available stall. She reached there just in time. She bent over the toilet and hurled, over and over again until her stomach was empty. She flushed the vomit down and used the toilet paper to clean the seat. Then she sat on it and leaned back, looking up at the florescent light above her. The bright light hurts her eyes so she shut it and all she can see was red under her lids. 

She stayed in the stall for the longest time. She was waiting for the pounding in her head to go away, but it didn't completely. So when her heart rate returned to normal, she pushed herself up. She went to the sink and splashed some water on her face. Then she cupped the water in her palms and drank some. She looked at her face in the mirror and groaned. There were vomit stuck to her hair. She spent some time washing it off. At that moment she swore to herself never to step inside a club again.

She fixed her look as best as she could before braving back to the club. She planned to tell Neesha that she was leaving. She walked past the corridor that leads to the storage area and back alley exit. She was about to head to the dance floor when she heard the sound of metal clanging. She paused to listen. She didn't hear it again but her sixth sense was tingling. Slowly she walked towards the exit. Then she heard the sound again, coming from the storage room. 

Quietly, she turned the doorknob and peered inside. She could see two figures inside. They were having sex. The man had his back facing the door. The girl was lying on some crates. He was pounding her hard, shaking the crates underneath them. Alex was about to leave when she noticed something amiss. The girl's arms were flailing about frantically, grabbing anything within reach and caused them to drop on the floor. 

Alex braved herself and she stepped inside. When she came closer, she realised the girl was Neesha! The guy had both hands on her neck, squeezing hard. Neesha looked like she was struggling to breathe. She saw Alex and mouthed, Help me. Her eyes started to roll up into her head. 

Panicking, Alex grabbed the closest wooden crate she could reach from the shelves and swung it against the side of the guy's head. He hit his head on the shelf on the other side, and crumpled to the floor. He was out. Alex looked at him and gasped. It was Mike!

She dropped the crate and went to Neesha. She was gasping for air, tears streaming down her face. Alex helped her up and they left the room, leaving Mike passed out on the floor with a bleeding gash on the side of his temple and his penis exposed.