Mythica

The Jeweled Girl

Two bodyguards stood at the entrance to the lounge and opened the ropes for them as the walked up. "Excuse me, we were looking for the VIP restroom," Jade said in a cool voice. For being Harin, she didn't sound as though she had an accent like those who spoke Haric fluently often did. Then again, those in the Andaria didn't frequently use Haric for everyday conversation.

"I'm sorry miss, the VIP restroom is currently out of order at the moment. You'll have to use the downstairs one," one of the men said.

Jade made a short noise of disgust. Lia could hardly blame her; the main restroom for the club was always in shambles and smelled largely of urine and vomit. Still, she was at least used to it. They headed downstairs into the large dance floor area, where the delicate music of the lounge fell away into loud electronic music. Bodies were closely pressed together in the pit like shadows, obscuring what anyone really looked like. Lia felt a sharp pang of guilt as she'd almost forgotten about Allie entirely. She reached for her phone, thankful she'd brought it down with her, and saw no new notifications from Allie. She must be having a good time then, Lia thought hopefully.

"This way!" Jade yelled next to Lia, escorting her towards the public bathrooms. They entered into the dingy women's restroom which only had three stalls, one of which was always unusable. Jade looked like she was on the verge of puking, which Lia thought only half of which was due to drinking. It smelled rancid in there.

"You go first, I don't have to use it as bad," Lia said to Jade as someone exited the farthest stall. Jade gave her a small smile that said thank you, and ducked into it. Lia turned to the dirt-stained mirror on the wall and set down her phone on the counter as she looked at herself. One of the lights was flickering on and off annoyingly. Her hair looked a little out of place and her mascara was smearing, but otherwise she thought she looked okay. She grabbed a napkin and tried to clean up her makeup a bit before heading into a recently-vacated stall. In the next stall over, she could hear the tell-tale signs of Jade throwing up and tried to block it out.

She emerged a moment later and saw Jade had finished as well and was standing by the door, waiting for her. The line grew longer since they'd come in. Jade stuck out from everyone else like a jewel in a pile of coal, Lia thought achingly. She was so breathtaking, from her golden features to her dress, which put the rest of the girl's outfits around them to shame.

"You alright?" Jade asked. A few of the girls in line were looking at Jade oddly; some with jealousy, some with fascination. Lia felt color rush to her cheeks and hoped Jade would write it off to the alcohol. She was struck by how much she liked Jade. It was a long time since she'd felt so into someone like she did her.

"Yeah, are you?" She asked as she walked back up to her, taking her arm again.

"Yeah. I think I'm going to lay off the drinks for a bit, though," Jade said with a small smile. They headed back up to the lounge, where all of Jade's friends sat chatting still. They sat down as Luna turned to Jade with an accusatory grin.

"Biting off a bit more than you can chew?" She asked, clearly a bit amused.

"I'm just partaking in the celebrations," Jade said lightly.

"You're going to need to pace yourself a bit if you want to last a while, you know that," Luna said tauntingly. She was still on her first drink, whatever it was. It's peachy contents sparkled with a clear layer on top.

Jade gave her a wry look. "I can pace myself however I like to, darling." The way she said darling made Lia's heart skip. She couldn't help feeling a bit jealous of not being the one it was said to, however. Which is ridiculous, Lia reminded herself. Luna and Jade were clearly only good friends. Still, looking more at Luna, she could see how much prettier she was than Lia. How her long lashes fell delicately over her cheeks as she talked, how her lips seemed to form into a perfect curved heart, how her slim fingers held her glass with precision-