Gracie’s POV
What am I even doing here? They are the first words to wander through my head as I get dragged through the club by my best friend Annie. She’s got a death grip on my wrist so there is absolutely no way on earth I am going to wriggle out of this. I can’t believe I let her drag me off the couch let alone out the house. She hauls me to the bar and orders two shots. “Gracie, drink,” she orders me as the glasses are placed down in front of us. I shift uncomfortably in my high heels which are already beginning to kill my feet while pulling down the hem of my dress so it covers more of my leg. “Gracie you look fine, leave the dress alone, it’s not too short and drink,” she continues as I stare at her with a reluctant glare.
“I really don’t see how this is necessary,” I retort. I should be at home right now recovering with a cup of tea and a rom-com. “Gracie the asshole left you, AGAIN. But this time he ran off with little-miss-lip-gloss AND he even had the audacity to make out it was your fault!” Annie explains to me making me wince. To be honest I’d rather forget that information. I mean do we really have to talk about this. “But maybe I was asking too much of him. I mean I did…,” I protest.
“No. You are not going down that road. He left you. He’s a low-life, no-good, idiotic, asshole and you are better off without him,” she tells me placing the shot glass in my hand. “Who needs him?” she concludes clinking my glass and drinking her shot. A group of women directly beside us turn and in unison repeat, “who needs him?” with a knowing look on their faces. Oh great we’ve got audience participation now. “Gracie…,” Annie warns. I sigh and roll my eyes.
“Fine… who needs him?” I mumble unconvincingly. Okay I have to admit I feel slightly less like I want to throw myself off a bridge after saying that. “Come on Gracie you can do better than that,” Annie encourages.
“Who needs him?” I state confidentially; the words this time bringing a smile to my lips.
“One more time,” she instructs.
“WHO NEEDS HIM?” I shout and then immediately drink the shot and slam the glass back down on the bar with a satisfying clunk. Annie along with the group of random women cheer and applaud while I order another shot. Annie’s right. Dan is an idiot. I can’t believe I took him back after the first time. But this time he bloody well cheated on me! To add insult to injury she is tacky, tarty and I’m pretty confident she is severely deficient in the brain cells department. Oh and get this apparently it’s all my fault. Apparently I asked for too much too soon. He was the one who begged to have me back saying that I was the love of his life. He wasn’t even a good boyfriend. He was never romantic, he never paid for dinner, he never showed any interest in my life or my friends and he’s not even that good looking when you really look at him. Okay he looks like a male model but sometimes that can be off putting. In my opinion he is so good looking it comes across as smarmy and self indulged which sort of repulses me. Why did I even agree to go out with him in the first place? Why did I take him back after he dumped me the first time round because he couldn’t take the commitment for that matter? I take my second shot from the barman and down it again. “Okay maybe we should slow down on the shots. How about a cocktail?” Annie suggests.
“As long as it’s alcoholic I’m really not that bothered,” I reply.
“That’s the spirit!” she giggles putting an arm around me with a joking smile on her face.
Annie hands me a glass filled with liquid which looks like it’s pretty much radioactive. I eye it suspiciously. “Annie what the hell is this?” I ask her.
“I don’t know the people over there ordered them and I thought they looked pretty cool,” she explains pointing vaguely to the opposite side of the bar. I nod sceptically and take a tiny sip. Oh My God. This is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. Who cares if it looks like it’s just been dropped off from the nearest power plant? I quickly take another sip of the stuff. “Good order,” I inform Annie pointing to the cocktail. “I know right?” she replies taking another sip of hers. “Okay we got the drinks now let’s dance,” she declares grabbing my arm and leading me to the dance floor. But this time I’m much more co-operative. I have to admit this is much better than being at home in front of the T.V.
Zack’s POV
“I’ll go get some more drinks then?” I ask Matt who has already finished his entire beer. He nods as I rise to my feet to make my way to the bar. I fight through the crowd of sweaty, drunk, dancers. I hustle to the front and quickly catch the barman’s attention ordering two more beers. But while I wait patiently for my beers someone almost falls off her bar stool slamming down on my shoulder in the process. Her friend immediately catches her arm and pulls her up right while tears of laughter stream down her cheek. Wow those girls are drunk. The girl who fell of the barstool flips her head around. I quickly give her the once over. She’s pretty I’ll give her that, nice eyes. But she’s cute attractive not hot attractive ergo she’s not my type. She’s glued to her friend’s side so even if I did want to hit on her I wouldn’t get a shot and although she’s very drunk she’s quite clearly a good girl so she would probably play hard to get. “Sorry,” she giggles to me before returning back to her friend.
“He’s cute!” her friend giggles so loudly that everyone in the vicinity can hear. The girl who fell off the barstool giggles while shushing her. I shrug my shoulders at the barman collect my drinks and head back to Matt.
Nothing much happens until a little while later I’m at the bar ordering drinks again when I look next to me and it’s the same girl as before on her own this time ordering drinks. She flicks her head to look at me and then beams at me from ear to ear. “Hey you’re the guy I fell on,” she declares with joy gesturing to me with her arms. I’m surprised she is aware enough to remember me. She has gotten much worse than before. This girl is very much a happy drunk and every word that comes out of her mouth is delivered with a joyful ring. I smile back at her and then give her another once over. Either it’s the fact that I have consumed a lot more alcohol or the fact that I couldn’t see how long her legs were when she was sat down but I’ve suddenly changed my mind about this girl. She’s kind of hot. “Can I have another one of those radioactive thingies?” she asks the barman brightly. He must know what she’s on about because he comes back with a ridiculously vibrant cocktail. She begins to root around in her bag for some money so I immediately leap into action. “I’ll get this,” I tell the barman handing over some money. Her head snaps up. “Fine you can buy me this drink but just to let you know I hate men,” she informs me. But it sounds ridiculous as she keeps the cheery tone to her voice. “You hate all men?” I repeat in amusement.
“Yup, you’re all a bunch of assholes,” she elaborates in a sing song voice before taking a sip of her drink. “Right well, on behalf of men I’m sorry,” I reply.
“Sorry is not good enough. He dumped me for some, some, bimbo,” she informs me.
“Well he sounds like a complete asshole,” I humour her.
“She wears lip gloss. I hate lip gloss,” she continues.
“So do I, it’s not nice to kiss a girl with lip gloss. It’s sticky and disgusting,” I cut in.
“Exactly and then when it’s windy it gets stuck to your hair and it’s just annoying!” she says as her eyes light up at the joy of me agreeing with her. “I don’t really get that problem,” I reply smiling jokingly at her. She immediately breaks down into giggles. I didn’t think what I said was that funny. “So what’s your name?” I ask her.
“Gracie,” she answers holding her hand out for me to shake. I laugh and take hold of her hand.
“Well it’s lovely to meet you Gracie, I’m Zack,” I tell her.
“So Zack why do you think he left me?” she asks me.
“Because he’s an idiot…” I reply.
“You got that right. He’s an idiot,” she repeats.
“…Because you’re gorgeous,” I continue.
“Exactly I’m… wait what?” she asks incredulously. I laugh at the look of complete shock on her face.
“I said you’re gorgeous,” I repeat causing her to blush slightly but she stops herself.
“Liar,” she snaps indignantly.
“No I’m serious, you’re the prettiest girl in the bar easily,” I retort.
“Do you really think that’s going to work on me?” she scoffs.
“Well is it?” I ask her.
“No…,” she answers unconvincingly. “But I’ll let you buy me another drink,” she tags on gesturing to her empty glass. Bloody hell she drunk that quickly. “Fair enough,” I laugh waving over the barman.
“Zack we’re going to the club across the road, are you coming?” Matt suddenly calls from the crowd.
“No I’ll catch up with you later. I think I might just stay here for a little bit,” I call back tilting my head discreetly to… to… oh crap what was her name again? Never mind. Matt nods while walking away. “Hey you know what we should do?” Gracie, (thank god I remembered,) asks me abruptly.
“What should we do?” I ask her with a smile playing along.
“We should get shots!” she declares with the excitement of a child. She gets the attention of the barman and orders us both shots. I laugh pick up my glass and clink it with Gracie’s.
After about the third shot things start to get a little bit fuzzy and I don’t remember much. I’m laughing a lot... I’m getting a taxi home… I’m walking through my front door with a giggling Gracie behind me… I’m wrapping my hands around Gracie’s waist as she locks her lips onto mine… and then I can’t remember a thing…