“I don’t drink – and you know that.”
“But you do dance, right?” Mallory crowed happily. “C’mon, Miss Party Pooper! Me, Renee, Angelique, and Deidre are here – and it’s wild. Come have some fun, let loose, and act like a college student for once in your life before you get out in that insane world full of stuffy idiots that rely on you to fix their mistakes…”
“Boy, you aren’t kidding…” she muttered.
“What? I couldn’t hear you!” Mallory hollered. “Get up here, girl, and have some fun! Live a little – and bring that sexy brother of yours, if he is in town.”
“Uhhh no…” Everly laughed. “Stay away from my brother.”
“You know you’d love me as a sister-in-law…”
“If I know my brother, he wouldn’t marry you or anyone else.”
“I’m everyone’s type and we both know it,” Mallory laughed – and Everly knew that she was. Mallory had long, sleek black hair, pretty green eyes, and a body like a model… whereas Everly was just ‘there’.
Her blond hair had a tendency to stick up in places where it was frizzy, so she always kept it swept up in a twist, held with a claw hairclip, and had yet to lose the ‘freshmen fifteen’that she’d gained years ago.
“Alright, but only because your timing is impeccable.”
“Yayyy!” the girl screamed loudly. “Everly’s coming too!”
Everly couldn’t help but smile as she heard her friends cheering, knowing that this was probably the last ‘hurrah’before dissertations, exams, and the parental boot out the front door that was about to occur. No, she would start hammering out details tomorrow – but tonight?
Tonight, she was going to have fun and try to lose herself for a little bit!
* * *
Fifteen minutes later,Everly was parked on the street in Downtown Dallas and walking towards the building that was thumping audibly from her vantage point. As she walked up, the bouncer nodded, and immediately Mallory’s arm appeared out of nowhere, grabbing her by the shoulder of her shirt, tugging her forward into the crowd.
“C’mon!” Mallory yelled loudly – and she saw several guys hanging out at the bar talking to women, then spotted the rest of the girls on the dancefloor together.
Everly threw back her head, laughing, as Mallory held her hand up over the crowd, pulling her into the throng of people.
“Haaaay girl!”
“EVERLY!”
“Omigosh – youactuallycame this time!”
Everly couldn’t help but smile as she was welcomed, and realized that she was going to miss her friends. Deidre was headed back to Portland, attending S.M.U. for her doctorate only. Angelique was already placed with a hospital in Boston, and Mallory was talking about finding herself some ‘Hot, young, cosmetic surgeon that can maintain her body and pay for some fun upgrades’…
Yes, they were all going in different directions for a variety of reasons, but tonight? They were just four girls having fun and letting their hair down.
“Hey sweet thing…” some guy said, tapping her on the shoulder. “Can I buy you and your friends a drink?”
“Nope,” Everly said easily, ignoring him.
“She means ‘YES’…” Mallory interrupted, making a face, and immediately taking the man’s arm, looking over her shoulder at the girls and winking.
They danced for a while, and Everly was amazed that they were playing some really good music. This wasn’t her type of thing in the slightest, and while she had driven past this club several times – this was the first time she’d actually indulged in this.
Last time the girls got together, they were getting tattoos, and she’d passed on that experience as well. Yeah, her friends liked to party, have fun, but when it came to their studies?
That was the one field where they were very much alike. All four were driven to excel in their studies – which was how they became the best of friends.
“They always go for Mallory first…” Angelique muttered loudly. “You want something? Some water or something?”
“Water, please.”