{ Anaela }
I walked in with the group of people I came with, already feeling guilty for what I was about to do. I thought I saw Dom in the crowd, but I figured it was just my nerves.
"Anaela, we're going to the bar," Ariana told me. I nodded but went to go sit down on an empty bar stool away from everyone. I clutched my phone in my hand, reading from the notes section silently. I have to do this.
I grabbed the slippery counter and maneuvered myself on top of it. I shouted at the DJ and he cut the track. Everybody was slowing to a stop in their dancing, drunkly looking up at me. Somebody shouted out, asking if I was an angel. This moment felt so surreal.
"There are some people in here who have done me wrong," I said loudly, looking across the crowd like they were commoners. "Ariana is an ass kisser. She'll agree with whatever anyone says and party til her feet hurt. That's not her secret though, she liked her cousin Reneah last year." I saw Ariana at the other end of the bar trying to make her way towards me angrily. A security guard was coming my way and her way.
"Reneah was never hard, she just acts that way to put down other people. She's a bully by heart, and her and Ariana are of the same peas in a pod. If that makes sense," I scratched my head. I kept reading from my list as security got closer to me, weaving through the confused crowd. Some people were recording.
"Sissy, always hated me for how I was. I tried to ignore it, I thought she was my friend. She always hated that a lot of people knew me at school but not because of my looks or because they wanted to copy answers off of me. People loved me there for my personality. They loved both me and Pouty for our genuine way of love."
"Ma'am, please come down," the security guard asked,looking upwards at me with a walkie talkie in hand.
"Mayah...I feel like she's splitting our group apart, but we won't know until all of the truth is revealed." The security guard grabbed me down. I guess he was done with being polite. "And Siara, that's Pouty!" I shouted, "I thought she was my friend but I don't know anymore! I never did anything wrong to her! That shows what type of friends you all are to believe that I did!"
I was almost to the exit. "They have fake ID's!" I shouted for extra measure. My old group of friends were crying and angry, surrounded by security guards asking them questions and trying to keep the two hotheads of the group in check. Mayah held my gaze as I was kicked out, disgust in her eyes.
The security guard simply placed me off the club premises and headed back inside; people outside waiting to enter the club were shooting me curious glances. I called a Lyft, hoping that the car would arrive before my old friends did in the parking lot.
I was unlucky.
"There she is!" somebody shouted.
I looked back and started running. This was a relatively busy street, but I couldn't run out into traffic. I also don't need a death involved with me if one of my friends were to still try to chase me through the traffic if I somehow managed to survive.
I started running around the front part of the parking lot, on the sidewalk as my friends left the parking lot as well and followed after me along the cement. I went back into the parking lot through another entrance and raced towards the side of the building.
I saw the dead end before everyone else.
"Dead end! Dead end!" they each cheered, I heard their feet slapping against the uneven, gravelly pavement. I jumped over a pothole and took a risk. I grabbed onto a raggedy ladder alongside the building and hoisted myself up. Ariana was the closest to me, and grabbed at my legs, digging her nails in deep.
I heard my dry skin tear but I kicked Ariana in the head then the nose. I kicked off my shoes as well and let them fall against her. The rest of my friends crowded at the bottom when I glanced down. I almost fell seeing how far I had jumped to climb the ladder.
This was some action movie type of shit.
They helped Ariana up and started walking slowly away. I ignored them and kicked in the window closest to me. It didn't break but it easily slid open. I was in the bathroom. I left the window the way that it was and looked around. Now what was I going to do?
They probably were going to steal my Lyft or either get me arrested. I heard rustling in the bathroom and looked around. I don't know what compelled me to kick the door open but I did. The club was back loud again and drunk people were running into the wall and drugging drinks. Nobody would care to hear me making such a commotion in the bathroom.
I opened the broken stall door and gasped.
I don't know what I was expecting to see but it surely wasn't Dominique and Valentine huddled together. Valentine eased up when she saw me, like she was embarrassed to see me witness her afraid. "Anaela?"
"What the fuck are you guys doing here?" I yelled. "You're supposed to be leaving the state! Or at least the city!"
"She wanted to let me live a little," Dom puffed up her chest, staring at me defiantly. "All these years, I've been treated harshly and the rest of my friends got to enjoy their teenage years. You guys ignored me- Everybody did. So I started acting out and doing what's best for Dominique. All we did was go to a club, the cops aren't even after us," she glared.
"Dom..I'm not trying to hold you back from your potential or whatever it is you think. I'm trying to keep us all safe- My gang included," I told her seriously.
"How about we all just leave now. You can just leave your friends behind and we can leave the city," Valentine suggested, putting a hand on my shoulder. I brushed it off, "Me and them ain't friends no mo. I got a Lyft, did you guys come in a car?" I asked Dom. I don't even want to look at Valentine right now.
"We came in my car," Valentine spoke up, leaning casually against the stall wall. I heard a shift and it almost fell down on us.
"I may or may not have exposed them," I told my friend and my co leader. "So, if they recognize your car, it may or may not be there," I chuckled without a smile.
"My foot may or may not- Valentine began.
"Wait, why are we walking towards the window?" Dominique asked, following behind me as Valentine headed in the opposite direction. "Because, that's how I got in here."
"Yeah, we didn't know what that noise was," Dom chuckled, referring to me breaking into the bathroom. "And I kind of got kicked out of the club, so I don't know how it'll look if I walk back through," I explained.
"Look, we can just walk back through and get out of here," Valentine said, sounding irritated.
Dom and I shared a look, but kept quiet. Valentine took off her jacket and put it over me; I pulled the hood up and walked closely behind her, holding her hand, as we made our way to the exit. I didn't bother looking around to see if any of my ex friends had decided to come back inside.
Dom brushed into my back and grabbed my waist towards Valentine. Someone in security was headed our way. "Run," Valentine said under her breath. I broke out in a run towards the exit, moving past different people as Dom briskly followed behind.
Valentine was loudly trying to hold the security woman up, asking her random questions.
I got outside and a sense of freedom washed over me. I saw my ex group of friends huddled by the car we came in. Reneah was wiping Ariana's nose, avoiding her gaze. I hid on the side of the building and whispered out to Dom that I was over here once she finally power walked her ass out here.
"Why are you hiding?" she whispered back.
"They're near Valentine's car," I hissed.
"We can just casually walk over there, and get in. Pull her hood up," she told me. Something new was going on with my only friend. She was more mature. More mature than she had ever been. She was taking on leadership. Maybe she could have my position. I don't want it anyways.
I zipped up Valentine's jacket over my layers of clothes and pulled the hoodie tighter against my hair. Dom was bare and naked basically, with her face exposed for everyone in the world to see. I snatched her back around the corner and gave her my jacket then put back on Valentine's.
Mine didn't have a hoodie but she huddled against me as we began to walk out from around the corner. Valentine finally exited the club, looking carefree as ever. I snatched Dom back around the corner.
A light bulb dinged in my head.
"Valentine," I whispered, from our hidden spot.
Valentine looked around confused until she spotted me and Dominique. "Why are you guys hiding? Are they still here?" she asked. "Yes," I hissed. "Now, go get into your car and drive it around this corner to pick us up. "How will I back up though?" she asked, eyeballing the narrow alleyway. "Just figure it out," Dom whispered back to her.
Valentine huffed, but Dom and I watched as she hurriedly made her way to her white Lexus. My old friend group didn't even notice her. "What did you say about them?" Dom asked, now able to see Ariana's broken, bloody nose from here.
"A lot," I sighed. "I'll show you the notes," I told her. Valentine pulled up around the corner, not going all the way in. I saw Reneah's attention briefly look up, but then Ariana began to moan loudly in pain as blood gushed out of her nose.
Dom and I went on the other side of Valentine's car, out of their view, and hopped in. We sped off, sighing in relief.
I unlocked my phone and handed it to my friend to read. Valentine glanced back in the windows every so often to see if my old friends were following...or anyone else. We were good.
"Guys..the next time I give instructions, please follow them," I sighed, taking my phone back from Dom after she was done reading off of it. She looked down at her hands, now silent.
"Well, if we hadn't been there you'd be dead."