When the Sleeping Bird Sings

Live: September 29th, 2017

On Friday's they always meet at nine o' clock sharp. I always show up around ten past nine on a good day.

It was twenty-four past nine.

"Holy shit, where were you?" I made my way to the back where my girlfriends made home in a red plush booth. I could tell by the haziness in their eyes when they looked up at me they were already one margarita deep in gossip. Neveah must have arrived here first since they were sitting under the rainbow tiled panel of a giant scorpion.

The unofficial rules we kind of made official: whoever arrives first gets to choose the booth. After over a hundred visits to Cactus, we each had a booth to call home.

"I a.m so so.rry," I huffed, too flustered make out which friend I was talking to.

"We were about to hire that big man over there to find you and bring you to us," Jen said as she pointed to a bald, burly man on a bar stool in the corner, approximately fifteen animal panels away. He looked over at us and flashed his gummy teeth. The girls snickered together.

"I kn.ow, I kn.ow. I was with Mar.issa and she.'s be.en driv.ing me wild. about this n.ew proj.ect I'm help.ing her on. She wa.nts me to go all the wa.y to Des. Moines to me.et with- Wait. where is Am.elia?" I felt bad it even took me a minute to notice she was gone.

"She texted and said she has a test on Monday so she'll be too busy for us all weekend," Neveah told me.

"She did.n't men.tion any test to me wh.en I work.ed with her a f.ew days ago." Neveah and Jen shared a glance between each other. They knew something I didn't.

The pit of my stomach told me this had something to do with the way Monday at Literary City played out. I wasn't sure if I wanted to get into that quite yet.

"What happened," Jen said. Sometimes I feared this girl could read my mind.

"Noth.ing worth get.ing in.to right now." I threw my bag into the booth and slid in next to Neveah who plopped her head onto my shoulder.

"Whatcha' drinking tonight, playa'," she asked. Without Amelia there we didn't have to worry about buying pitchers that night.

"Remember the first time we came here," asked Jen.

Of course.

"Fresh.man year," I replied.

"Yeah, and we couldn't find any parties," Neveah said between the breath of a laugh.

"I was the only one that was twenty-one so I ordered everyone pitchers and snuck you all your drinks!"

"And this was the only place that actually let us get away with it," Neveah added. Although I truly think we kept coming back because when we drink just the right amount we're calling it a kaleidoscopic adventure.

"You hear they're shutting down Cactus Two? Something to do with not properly checking the I.D.'s of students and underage drinking."

"I can ima.gine."

"Wasn't that the life," Jen commented.

We looked to each other and indefinitely shrugged, laughing together after Neveah said, "I can't believe I almost joined a sorority." I didn't even drink yet.

"You not coming out with us tonight, B?" Neveah said, after I came back inside from my second cigarette break of the evening. Neveah wore a frown on her face that accentuated her freckles and heavy eyelashes. "Pretty please."

I gestured to my faded blue jeans and purple zip up sweatshirt before pointing to Neveah's stunning sequin halter top. Even sitting slumped over chips and salsa beneath the larger than life scorpion and fluorescents, I could tell how much attention she would attract dancing in the club in a flashy outfit like that.