Also roughly 9 years later...
(Nina's Pov)
The loud, blooming music, the rowdy crowd, the constant chatter, the mindless, empty laughter, the sound of glasses being slammed down on any surface in sight, the bright, flashy lights hitting each and every surface of the massive building - The Lobby.
That was the best description of this hell hole that reeked of sex, perfume, body odor and alcohol. On a Saturday night, many people found pleasure in spending their night letting loose and partying - not realizing they looked incredibly foolish doing so. Not only would they end up swapping saliva and grinding against random strangers, but they would act uncivilized, like wild animals being set free from a damn zoo.
I hated it. The entire scene - it made me sick. If it weren't for my shitty job as a bartender, you wouldn't catch me dead in a place like this. The funny thing about the place was, it wasn't a cheap, lower/middle class club. In-fact, it was the opposite - directly only for the rich and wealthy. Only they were allowed access in a place this, but the very second they stepped inside, it was like all their little facades would melt away and you'd be introduced to a crazy side of them.
It was as if they aspired to be... 'normal'.
It repulsed me.
"Can I get a beer?" An older man with a skinny girl on his arm questioned, no doubt was he triple her age and she definitely not the reason behind the wedding band on his stubby finger.
"Sure," I muttered, snapping out of my little daze and flashing him a forced smile. He grinned at me in pleasure, which inwardly made me sick, but made me sigh in relief, knowing I would be getting a tip from him.
"Here you go," I placed the beer down in-front of him.
"Johnson - put it on my tab," He said with a wink, and slid over a crisp note. I nodded with a false flirtatious smile, taking the note and sliding it inside of my tip jar.
Disgusting.
Sighing, I rolled my eyes as I leaned forwards on the counter and took a glance around the wild atmosphere. It was complete chaos to me and there was nowhere more than I wished to be other than in my little apartment, curled up with my fuzzy, brown cat, watching people make fools of themselves on reality shows.
Three more hours, I reminded myself. The only thing that made me tolerate this crap, was the pay. It was around $18 an hour (I worked 5 hours on weekdays and 8 on weekends), and with generally plenty of tips received, it was the only thing that kept me around here. It was the main reason why I managed to afford my decent apartment. I had been incredibly lucky bagging this job, knowing it was only because of my appearance that I had received it.
Yeah, the owner was a fat, shallow pig.
Mindlessly glancing around, my eyes zeroed in on the private area of the club. Also known as the VIP area. It was mostly reserved by the filthy rich people who would usually be celebrating some sort of 'important' event in their busy lives. Judging by the fancy looking balloons tied around the place, it seemed like they were celebrating someone's birthday.
I was snapped out of my little daze when I heard a few excited whispers.
"See, I told you he's here!" A cheery blonde with pink highlights in her hair stated, a matching pink dress barely covering her body.
"It's really him?" Her friend with a handful of curves questioned, her raven hair pulled into a high bun, causing your attention to fall to her large, exposed chest.
"Yes! God, I think I just creamed my panties." The blonde whispered and I nearly gagged. My curiosity perked up and I followed the direction of their gaze, it landing on the sight of a male who managed to make me, for once, speechless.
From the slight lack of lighting, I could make out very little, but enough to make my heart rush and my interest to be piked. He had dark blonde hair, combed back slickly, with permanent ink stained around certain parts of his neck. He wore a navy blue blazer that was open, with black trousers and a fitting white button down shirt, the fact he had muscles, clearly explicit.
There was a busty red head settled sideways on his lap, wearing close to nothing. His arms were lazily wrapped around the low of her waist, whilst he looked unamused with the event going on around him.
"What's his name again?" The curvy raven head questioned, making my own ears zone in.
"I think it's.... It's something McCan." Her friend replied with a longing sigh, which made me roll my eyes once again.
"Hey, Marie." Karla called. She worked alongside me in the bar, but she worked only part time, due to her attending college. Karla was okay and we got along well, even though we didn't have much in common. I respected her, especially after one night she ended up breaking down and telling me her past that had been an immense struggle for her.
Although Karla had come from a wealthy background, she ended up following the wrong kind of crowd in her teenage years, which inevitably caused her downfall. She got pregnant at the age of sixteen with a shitty excuse of a man and her parents completely cut her off for a couple of years. She went from living in a lavish mansion to living on the streets due to her mistakes. Karla now had a seven year old daughter, she somehow managed to survive through her hard times and only up to recently, did her parents begin talking to her again.
"What can I help you with?" I asked, turning to face her. Her brown eyes stared back at me and I noticed her light brown hair was pulled up into a sleek ponytail, giving her a sort of more sophisticated look. Karla was overall pretty, and I couldn't help but envy how effortlessly good she sometimes looked.
"Could you take these drinks up to the VIP area?" She questioned, moving around the bar, pouring expensive liquor into glasses. "Sherry's sick and I begged Chris to let me go home for a couple of minutes to check up on her."
"Sure," I murmured, tapping my nails against the bar counter. "I'm surprised he let you."
"I have to make up the amount of time I miss," She rolled her eyes, dropping a few ice cubes into another glass. "Help me out here. I need two glasses of whiskey and four of scotch."
I did as she said, the strong scent of the alcohol filling my nostrils as I poured them. It was rather ironic that I wasn't a large fan of liquor, but worked at a bar. After being around it for such a long period of time, I gradually grew sick of it and witnessing how people could transform into complete different people, also put me off it.
I'd only allow myself a glass on certain occasions now.
Besides, I wasn't eager at the thought of damaging my organs.
"Here, do you think you can handle it?" Karla questioned, watching as I held the tray full of a large amount of drinks, her eyes making sure I didn't drop it.
"I'll be fine," I told her, and headed towards the VIP areas. I had to climb a few steps, being careful not to drop the tray and spill the expensive liquor. A couple of months ago, Bryan, who was formerly a bar tender here accidentally dropped two trays of liquor that was worth around $200. Needless to say, Chris (the fat pig) was mad and fired him.
Not wanting the same fate as Chris, I carefully approached the area. They were all settled down in their seats, and I couldn't help but notice most of the people here were men. The only women were the whores settled on a few of their laps or pole dancing, giving them a show.
Forcing myself to move forwards, I exhaled sharply and extended out the tray, letting the men pluck their ordered glasses off the tray. I wasn't sure why, but my heart began pumping incredibly fast as I neared towards the insanely good looking man, the red haired whore still settled on his lap, laughing irritability at whatever she found amusing.
When I extended the tray out towards him, I tried getting a better look at his handsome face. It was, however, quite hard to when the lights flashed across his face. Although, I did manage to capture the sight of his masculine hands with green veins barring through them along with scars scattered across them.
Jesus. Christ.
"Thanks," A low raspy voice suddenly said, and I was pretty sure I was going to faint right there and then. I surprised myself by moving onto the man sitting beside him, and sadly, the lights weren't flashing across his face. I had to witness his hungry eyes trailing across my body with a suggestive look brightly shining in them as I extended the tray, with not many drinks left on them, towards him.
I shot him a glare, the porno moan from the red head, managing to capture my attention, causing me to glance back over to the handsome man. My eyes widened slightly when I saw the handsome stranger's lips moving across her neck, one of his hands pressed against the low of her back, just inches away from her ass, while the other cupped his glass.
I think it had scotch inside of it.
I shook my head when I realized I was staring, and forced my attention back over to the pervert I stood in-front of.
"He's not into brunettes," He told me with a smirk, looking pleased with himself. Instead of saying anything in response to his unnecessary words, I rolled my eyes and moved on, handing out the drinks to any other man with nothing in his hand. When the tray was empty, I began walking back to the bar, only to pause when I felt a hand out of the blue, slap my behind.
My teeth gritted together as I felt an uncontrollable wave of anger build up inside of me. Clenching my jaw, I turned around and shot the creepy pervert a hard glare, knowing there was nothing else I could do. He winked at me, motioning with his chin for me to carry on walking forward, no doubt would his beady eyes be locked on my behind. Shaking my head in disgust, I mentally chanted myself to calm down as I hurriedly moved back down to my bar, ignoring his little whistle.
Blowing out a breath, I noticed Karla was still here, but was buttoning on her coat.
"Is everything okay?" She questioned with a small frown.
"Perfect," I lied with a sharp exhale.
Not soon enough, the three hours managed to pass by and I found myself leaving the rowdy scene that had only grew at 1 am. Before I left, my eyes briefly flickered over to the VIP area, not capturing the sight of the handsome stranger that went by the name of 'McCan' something. Sighing, I signed out and stepped outside, the cold October air embracing me.
I wasn't sure what was wrong with me, but suddenly my mood went sour and bitter. I felt down and... sad. As my bus arrived, I hopped on and paid my fare to the driver. When I took a seat at the back, ignoring the other people sat on the bus, I glanced outside the window and sighed.
Is everything okay?
The easy, intended to be closed question Karla had questioned me earlier on in the night, was ringing through my mind. It should have been insignificant to me, something I brushed off and didn't give a single thought about.
But it wasn't.
For some reason, it hit home and I found myself repeating the question in my mind, breaking it down and trying to mentally answer it with a 'yes' confidently. The thing was, I couldn't. I was failing horribly at doing so and it confused me why I was having so much trouble.
But then it made somewhat large sense.
At the age of twenty-four, years ago I would never, ever have dreamed of myself living the life I was today. No college degree, living in a small apartment with a chubby cat, one shitty job as a bartender and doing other small catering jobs in order to survive. This was not what I imagined myself to be like.
I felt... pathetic.
Staring outside the window, I mindlessly watched the unfamiliar faces walk on, all with a destination they were headed to. I bet it wasn't a small apartment like mine.
Sighing, I rubbed a hand across my forehead and turned to face the front of the bus.
I wasn't always like. My attitude towards life wasn't always this bitter and not too long ago, I had big plans for myself, ones that would lead me to be successful and happy in life... unlike how I was now.
I always aspired to be a manager of a restaurant or a bakery. I was pretty good with numbers and anything related with business had always perked my interest. In-fact, when I was fourteen years old, my plan was to head off to a grand college in hopes to get a business degree by the end of my time there. But somethings happened in life and my plan was alternated.
My life was alternated.
Shaking my head, I forced the depressing thoughts away and tried to focus on something other than what I could have become, simply because there was no use in doing so. This was my life now and I had to accept it regardless about what I felt towards it.
Closing my eyes, I plugged in my earphones and zoned out.
I couldn't help but think how my life would have been if it hadn't been alternated.
If I weren't such a stupid and naïve teenager.
•••••
(AN) Hey guys! So, there you have it! This is Nina nine years later... is this what you guys expected to read? What are your thoughts? What do you think Nina meant by the last sentence? Also, who do you think that handsome man was?
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