Perfect Strangers

“You ready, M?” Grace asked when she suddenly appeared in full view of Myla, cutting her off from her malevolent pacing.

With a frantic nod, she slipped her heels back on. “You look stunning, Grace,” she said as she looked at her sister who was and unusually for her, in a skin tight, short burgundy dress and her hair was curled in lots of ringlets that hung down her back. “Where are, we going again?” Myla asked heading outside to the waiting cab.

“It’s a club called Saints and Sinners, it opened about a month ago, the rest of the girls are meeting us there.”

“Do I know any of these girls?” Myla asked taking a seat in the cab and trying to pull down her impossibly short dress.

“Yes, you know Victoria and April, don’t you, from school?”

“What, Victoria Edwards and April Harris?”

“Yes, that’s them although April is now Mrs. April Carrington, she married about two years ago, you’ll be one of the last of us all to get married, Myla.” She laughed causing Myla to mock laugh with her before she fixed her steely gaze out of the cab window.

*

The club was heaving and the bass of the music vibrated through their bodies, they held hands and tried to fight their way through the heaving throng of sweaty revelers to the bar. “Is it always this busy?” Myla hollered in Grace’s ear.

“I’ve only been here twice and both times I was too out of it to remember. What you having?”

“Whatever, I’m not fussy, just not spirits, I black out on them.”

“Seriously? You black out on spirits?” repeated Grace with bug eyes and slackened jaw.

“If I have too many, yes,” she shouted back with a shrug of her shoulders as if it was the most natural thing in the world to happen. After drinking a large glass of red wine at the bar, Myla retrieved the two full bottles and followed her sister towards the upstairs of the club, the VIP section, where it was a little less crowded.

“Here they are, my God, Myla, it’s been a while,” stated Victoria, who bypassed Grace and threw her arms around Myla.

“Great to see you too,” she replied returning the hug. Victoria was tall and very slim, with no backside and a flat chest, her hair hung in a sleek blonde bob, complete with a doorstep fringe. She didn’t look any different from their last days at school, the only tell-tale signs of her age were the bags housed under her eyes.

“Myla,” April sang after she finished dressing up Grace as the bride to be. April however, was a different story. She had aged rapidly, she looked nearly forty, not the twenty-seven-year-old she really was. Her once long flowing locks were now cut short and spiky; her nose and ears were decorated with all manner of piercings, and her arms were covered in tattoos. Myla gulped when she flung her arms around her.

“You’ve changed so much April, what happened? Did you turn into a lesbian?” Myla asked, as she started to laugh uncontrollably. She soon stopped when she spotted Grace shaking her head and looking at her like she was the scum of the earth.

“Yes, for your information, I married my girl two years ago,” April snapped, clearly disgruntled.

Way to go me!! Sharply turning away, with a mumbled apology, Myla plonked herself at the table and proceeded to pour a small wine, slamming it back.

“You’re engaged then? What’s your man like?” Victoria hollered over the loud dance music, eyeing Myla’s engagement ring.

“Oh, he’s fucking handsome, and he has a body to die for,” Grace drawled with a laugh.

“You’re taken, sister,” Myla reminded her with a glare of warning, “she’s right though, he’s very good looking, nice body, he’s a gentleman really,” replied Myla with glassy eyes. Her thoughts wandered to Kai for the billionth time today.

“And you haven’t married him already? If he’s as much of a catch as you say, you get him up that aisle quickly before someone else turns his head,” Victoria replied leaning her body over the table.

“Where’s Jack?” April asked, changing the subject while she eye-balled Myla sternly. Ignoring her, Myla finished off the bottle on the table.

“Oh, all the lads are in the club two doors down,” Grace replied, nonchalantly.

The heat in Myla’s body rose to a frantic temperature when she learned Kai was only two doors away. Now she knew he was so close, she had no chance of ridding him from her thoughts. This is going to be pure torture. Just get pissed Myla and push him from your thoughts.

An hour later, and another bottle of wine shared, Myla was gyrating her body around the VIP area, singing her heart out to the music. The bodies around her swayed as she looked around through her slightly blurred vision and tried to focus. “You okay, Myla? You’re stood swaying on the spot?” Grace shouted to her and grabbed her hand to make sure.

“I need …air.”

“Come on, let’s go outside,” replied Grace with a smile. She grabbed Myla’s hand and led her down the stairs and out to the fresh air. The instant contact with the cool night breeze, knocked her off balance and she fell against the wall laughing uncontrollably. She felt Grace’s hold on her hand fade away and she turned her back and rested against it with her eyes closed. World, please do me a favor? Stop spinning. She became vaguely aware of familiar voices nearby through her muffled hearing. Then she felt warm hands slip into hers and her name being called.

“Open your eyes, Juliet,” he said loudly into her ear. Her heart rate picked up when she heard his voice and then her senses were flooded with the scent of his familiar cologne.