Page 20 of The Tempted

I had excused myself after I finished my drink making a beeline to the ladies’ room after Mikey’s little declaration of why in fact Rico was a lucky bastard. I don’t know what it is about him, but Mikey made me feel things I had never felt before. I can’t say that he brought out confidence in me because I always prided myself on being a confident person never relying on the words of others to boost my ego. However, something about Mikey’s words made me feel sexy and maybe even wanted.

I should’ve stayed home tonight. I knew there was nothing wrong with me going out with an old friend, especially since the reason we were here tonight was to educate him on the nightlife that was about to play front and center in his own life. However, there was a big problem with the way being with Mikey made me feel and think. I wanted him way more than I should considering I had a boyfriend and Mikey was my friend. I think the fact that my relationship with Rico was on shaky ground didn’t help matters much either. Still, I needed to get a grip on the way my body reacted to Mikey, that’s why I was standing in the ladies’ room applying a third coat of lip gloss to my already sticky lips stalling from going back into the inferno that Mikey and I created whenever we were in one another’s company.

I gave myself one final glance in the mirror before I found the courage to stop hiding in the bathroom. I turned around about to leave when one of the stalls opened in front of me and out stumbled a girl. She nearly knocked me over as she tried to walk in her six-inch heels. I was sure I rolled my eyes at the hot mess.

“Excuse you,” I said disgustedly.

“I know you,” she slurred brushing her bleach blonde hair out of her eyes.

I looked her over. It should be illegal to wear spandex anywhere let alone to a nightclub. Her royal blue dress scrunched up causing my fingers to itch wanting desperately to pull the slinky fabric down covering the parts no one wanted to see of her. She was a mess. Her hair disheveled and in knots and her makeup smeared across her sweaty face.

“Luckily, I don’t know you,” I said as she poured the contents of her purse onto the vanity. She was frantically searching for something. I wanted to tell her to forget about putting lipstick on or whatever it was, she was looking for in her purse. It would so not help. Nothing would.

“You’re Rico’s girl,” she said still rummaging through her stuff. She might as well have brought a suitcase and ditched the clutch bag since she had stuffed it with so much shit. “I didn’t see him here tonight.”

I cocked my head to the side trying to place the girl’s face how she could possibly know my boyfriend? I definitely did not remember ever seeing her before. You remember a face like that it haunts the shit out you.

She grinned as she held up the little clear bag full of white powder. I hated this part. I hated being around drugs and these days they seemed to be everywhere. She opened a compact and with her, shaky hands pouring the contents of the baggie onto the mirror.

In my twenty-one years, I had never touched a drug. It wasn’t my thing. I never had the urge to try them always afraid that if I did I’d be the person who tried drugs one time and died of a heart attack on the spot. I didn’t get the point of getting high anyway. If your life was so, fucking bad that you needed to escape it, change it don’t abuse it. I watched as she bent her head and snorted the line off the mirror.

She sniffled a bit, looking up into the mirror checking her nostrils for any residue completely missing a spot of the white powder on the side of her nose. Her eyes met mine in the mirror and I tried to mask the horror my expression held as I looked at her. She smiled a half-hearted smile at me the poor soul that she was.

“Did you want some?” she asked. I shook my head quickly, and she laughed.

“That was a stupid question.”

I shook my head not able to find my voice. I’m sure when I look back on this I will kick myself for not telling her that she was a fucking idiot or maybe that if she wanted to ruin her life that was fine but I planned to live mine. I turned on my heel forgetting to ask how she knew Rico and why I hadn’t ever met her, I just wanted to get the hell out of the bathroom.

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