Unbreakable Read online

  "Yay! Let's go out around 10:00. We'll grab drinks at The Store and then go to Urban."

  Urban was a new club that had opened a few weeks before and the line was always out the door and down the block. I'd wanted to go there since I first heard about it but me and Gigi didn’t do lines, so we were going to have to flirt our butts off so that the bouncer would let us in ahead of the crowd. We were both pretty girls, so it never failed.

  "I'll call Carrie and Jenn to see if they want to come with." Gigi reached for her phone.

  "Okay but, we can’t stay out super late because the parents are coming over to help us unpack tomorrow morning at like 9:00 or some ridiculous hour.”

  “I know, we’ll reign it in at like 2 o’clock, at the latest.”

  "I'm going to be a total zombie by the time we are done tomorrow evening, Gigi. It's a good thing that I don't have to go in to an office for work, and the same goes for you.”

  She smiled at me absently as she searched her phone for Carrie’s number. “Yeah, it is.” She tapped her phone and then glanced at me as she held the phone to her ear, waiting for Carrie to pick up.

  “I hope Carrie doesn't bring her obnoxious friend Trisha, that girl is annoying."

  Gigi rolled her eyes and covered the microphone. "I know. I don't want to hear any more about her loser boyfriend who doesn't call when he should. She should just dump the guy."

  "Yeah. Well, hopefully we won't have to deal with her."

  She nodded at me and then held her finger to her lips as Carrie answered the line.

  “Hey, do you and Jenn feel like going out tonight?”

  I walked into the other room digging for my clothes as she finalized plans. Carrie and Jenn were cool, I really liked them, we were like the four musketeers and we always had a great time when we all went out together. The only time things changed was when Trisha came out with us. The girl was as dumb as a box of rocks and thought she was the most gorgeous thing in the world. Her arrogance was almost laughable and she always turned off all the guys. I remember one night when we were all out together, a guy was trying to flirt with me and he actually said he was surprised that I wasn't a bimbo. That totally caught me off guard and I looked at him and got a little pissy.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “I don’t mean to insult you because obviously I was wrong, but when a guy sees a group of girls and one is a bimbo we automatically assume it’s a group of bimbos.”

  He was a dick and I was dating Steven at the time so I blew him off and told Gigi what he said. We agreed that we wouldn’t go out with her again if we could help it. We didn’t tell Carrie because she had known her since they were in kindergarten and we didn’t want to hurt Carrie’s feelings, but Trisha totally cramped our style and I did not like being around her.

  I went back into the other room and by that time Gigi was off the phone.

  “So what did she say?”

  “They’re coming out with us!” There was a lilt in her voice but it was somewhat reserved. I could tell something was up.

  “What aren’t you telling me Gigi? Please don’t tell me that Trisha is coming with.”

  She gave me an apprehensive look and then avoided my eyes as she nodded her head.

  “Gigi! Come on! That girl is the worst!”

  “I know, but she was at Carrie’s when I called and basically invited herself. We’ll ditch her in the club, she won’t hang around us all night, I promise.”

  I let out a deep sigh. “Fine, keep her away from me.”

  "I will. Anyway, what are you going to wear and what are you going to lend me?" She gave me a devilish grin.

  "Let's go raid my boxes, I'll find something fabulous for you!"

  Gigi always borrowed my clothes and she didn’t have to ask, the girl hardly ever wore her own stuff. I didn't care because she agreed to be one of my models for my website for free so it worked for both of us. As we rummaged through my closet we both agreed that we would take a quick nap before dinner so that we would be able to stay out late that night. Moving was way more exhausting than either of us imagined so I couldn’t wait to take a nap. We found sexy outfits for the night and then crashed for a couple of hours.

  We ate dinner at Emilio’s, this awesome Italian restaurant, and had a really good time chatting with our parents. Gigi’s dad looked at both of us and pointed back-and-forth between us.

  “You girls make sure that you look out for each other living in this big city. Make sure each of you always knows where the other one is. Agreed?”

  I glanced at my mom and dad and then at Gigi’s parents and nodded my head.

  “Agreed.”

  Gigi looked at them and nodded her head also.

  “Agreed. Daddy, don’t worry, we will be fine, promise.”

  All four of our parents were looking at us with a worry in their eyes and I almost started to giggle. It was sweet that they were so worried but we had lived in the city for the past four years and were always careful. I think they weren’t prepared to accept that we were on our own and we were going to be taking care of ourselves. I smiled at all of them and reassured them that we would be okay.

  "You guys raised pretty smart daughters so you don't have to worry about us, we’ll be okay. We will call you guys all the time so you won’t have to wonder if something has happened to us.”

  My dad put his hand on my mom’s arm before she could say anything. “Okay, honey.”

  My mom was a total worrywart so thank goodness my dad was there to level her out. I gave him a grateful little smile; my dad was so awesome. It took a long time for me to feel that way about him again. I was 12 when he cheated on my mom, and I knew something was wrong because my mom was crying all the time but she wouldn’t say what it was. Finally, one day, my brother Jeremy (older by two years) and I went to my mom when our dad wasn’t home and told her that we were worried about her and she had to tell us what was wrong. She must have seen how worried we were because she immediately picked up the phone to call our dad and with a stern voice she told him that he had to talk to us when he got home.

  Later, we learned about the affair and because it was my dad who cheated on mom she told him that he would have to be the one to tell us. My dad broke my heart when he told us that and it took a long time for our family to forgive him. He and I had a really special relationship before he cheated on mom, I could go to him about anything and he was perfect in my eyes. I didn’t talk to my dad for over a month after I found out he was unfaithful and my poor mom was devastated. She didn’t divorce him because she took their vows seriously and she wanted to work things out. They went to therapy and were able to repair their relationship, and we all ended up going to family therapy because I was determined to never speak to him again. I eventually did start talking to him again, of course, but it took a few years for us to get back to what we’d had before.

  We finished dinner, said goodbye to our parents and went home to change. Jenn, Carrie and Trisha came over at 10:00 and then we headed out. I gave Trisha a quick once over when she wasn’t looking, and could not believe what she was wearing; she looked like a straight up prostitute. She had on a tight, sheer white tank top and a short black skirt. Her bra was on display for everyone to see. I was polite and said hello to her and vowed that would be the only time I spoke to her that night. There was no way I wanted anyone to think that I would be hanging out with someone who looked so trashy. I could practically see the bottom of her ass cheek her skirt was so short.

  Gigi and I glanced at each other and raised our eyebrows as we walked out of our apartment. I whispered to her as she was locking the door.

  “What is that, hooker chic?” It was bitchy, I know.

  We giggled and quickly composed ourselves as Trisha shot us an inquisitive luck.

  When we got to The Store, Gigi and I offered to get drinks for everyone and it was my way of avoiding Trisha. I didn’t feel like standing around and having mindless chitchat with her. As soon as we went u
p to the bar, two guys approached us.

  “Hey ladies, can we buy your drinks?”

  One was tall, with dark hair and the other one a little shorter with blonde hair. They both were dressed really well and I could tell the clothes were expensive. They looked okay, they just were not my type and I knew that Gigi wasn’t interested either. But who is going to turn down free drinks? When we told them that we were buying drinks for our girlfriends they offered to buy drinks for all of us. I was totally shocked by this I guess because I had been out of the dating game for so long.

  Since when did guys become so generous?

  Gigi managed to get rid of her guy and Chad, the guy who was interested in me, was nice but really not my type. I chatted with him for a few minutes and then Trisha sidled up to us and practically purred as she thanked him for her drink. He was wearing really expensive shoes and an expensive watch and I gathered that she could smell the money a mile away. That was another thing that I did not like about her, she was not subtle about the fact that she was a gold digger.

  I probably should have been annoyed that she was openly hitting on the guy who seemed to like me, but I wasn't interested in him and by leaving the two of them alone I could get rid of both of them in one quick motion. I excused myself, told them that I had to go to the ladies room, and I went to find Gigi.

  I found her near the jukebox (the bar was so retro, I loved it) talking to a couple of pretty cute guys. This is more like it. Her eyes lit up when she saw me.

  “This is my friend Sophie, Sophie this is Matt and Jacob.”

  They both smiled at me and I could see their eyes light up as they glanced back-and-forth between the two of us. That happened a lot when Gigi and I went out together and we always laughed about it later. Sometimes guys were not subtle about showing that they couldn’t decide which one of us they wanted to talk to.

  Matt was the first one to say hi to me and Jacob turned his attention to Gigi.

  “So, Sophie, where are you from?”

  “I am from a small town in Wisconsin.”

  He looked surprised. “No way, so am I! Where are you from?”

  “Neenah. Where are you from?”

  “Sheboygan Falls. Man, what a small world! So, do you live here now or are you just visiting?”

  “I live here, with my best friend right there. What about you?”

  “Me too.” His eyes sparkled when he looked at me and I could tell that he got more and more interested the more we talked.

  “So Matt, what you do for work?” He was nice enough but I didn’t feel any spark at all and I was beginning to get bored with the conversation.

  “I’m in dental school, what about you? What do you do, Sophie?” He smiled at me and he looked smitten. I had to nip this in the bud because I did not want to lead him on.

  “I’m a blogger.” I didn’t feel like going into detail about what I did, so I just kept it simple.

  “Oh wow, so that’s, like, your job?” He looked confused.

  “Yep.” I took a sip of my drink, glanced around the bar and then shot Gigi a knowing look and she same right over to me.

  “Sophie, let’s make a quick trip to the ladies room.”

  She told Jacob that she would be right back so she obviously liked him, and I quickly told Matt it was nice to meet him and we walked away before he could respond.

  “You didn’t like him Sophie? He seems like a nice guy.”

  “He is nice but just not my type.”

  She stopped in front of the bathroom door, put her hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Are you even giving him a chance? I know you’re on this kick to forget about guys for a while, but you might let a good one slip through your fingers, Soph.”

  “Gigi, I just don’t feel any spark with him so why lead him on? He’s on his way to asking me out and I don’t want to go out with him, so I’ll save him the embarrassment and not go back to talk to him.”

  An exasperated sigh escaped her lips. “What am I going to do with you?”

  I shrugged my shoulders and smiled at her as we walked into the bathroom. I checked my hair and makeup and then I was washing my hands when Trisha walked in. Ugh.

  She flashed a smile at me and started to say something as I smiled back and pressed the button to the dryer. Thank goodness it was so loud. She looked annoyed as she went into the stall and I hurried out the door. That was close. I waited for Gigi outside and she came out a few seconds later.

  “So, are we staying here tonight or did you still want to go to Urban? You seem to be having a really good time with Jacob so if you think that’s going somewhere we can just hang out here tonight. I can find something to do or someone to talk to.”

  “No, let’s go to Urban, I feel like dancing. He already knows that was part of our plan. He asked me out for dinner this week.”

  “Gigi, that’s awesome!”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think I would like him too much at first but the more we’ve been talking the more I’m finding out that we have a lot in common. He seems pretty cool, so we’ll see what happens.”

  “Okay I’m going to go find Jenn and Carrie to let them know that we’re going to the club and you go say goodbye to Jacob.”

  “What about Trisha?”

  I gave her a fake surprised look and she laughed. “Oh, did I forget about her?”

  “Yeah, you know you did, silly.”

  I put my hand on my hip and stomped my foot like a child. “Gigi, she looks like a skank. We should just leave her here with that guy that was talking to me first.”

  “We can’t leave her, Sophie, you know that. Just tell Carrie to find her so you won’t have to talk to her, okay?”

  I decided to drop being annoyed about Trisha because I could see that I was annoying Gigi and I didn’t want to ruin our night. I slapped on a smile and agreed.

  A few minutes later we all left and squished in a cab to Urban. The line was around the corner and as soon as we hopped out of the cab we walked right up to the bouncer, flirted a little bit and his gaze lingered on Gigi and me for a few seconds before unhooking the rope and letting us in.

  I could feel the bass thumping in my chest as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s newest song blared through the speakers. I grabbed Gigi and Jenn pulling them on the dance floor.

  “I love this song!”

  Carrie and Trisha joined us and we all danced our butts off. I quickly glimpsed at Trisha who was gyrating like a whore and I had to turn around before I said something to her. I danced with my back to her for the rest of the song and when it was over we all went to get drinks.

  We looked around as we sipped our drinks and the place was packed.

  The music was pounding so we had to yell to hear each other.

  “This place is pretty cool!” Carrie looked around and I could see her eyes light up as she spotted a good-looking guy. “So many of the guys are hot!”

  “Yeah, it’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be!” Jenn took a sip as she looked around.

  “It’s exactly what I thought it would be, it’s not bad, I guess. I’ve been to better clubs!” Trisha always had to be different and always knew about the bigger, better place. She was so annoying.

  “Maybe you should have gone to one of those tonight instead of coming with us.” Gigi was the only one who could hear me, but I looked right at Trisha so she knew that I was talking to her.

  “What did you say? I couldn’t hear you!” She leaned in toward me and I brushed her off.

  “Nothing, it’s not important!”

  Gigi shot me a look and I took a sip of my drink and widened my eyes trying to look innocent as I glanced down at the floor.

  The strobe lights were swirling all around and the music was thumpin’ but I wanted to check out the rest of the club. I looked around at the girls and spoke up so that they could hear me.

  “I think this place is awesome and it’s totally cool! I want to go check out the rest of the rooms, who wants to co
me with me?”

  “I’ll come!” I could always rely on Gigi. Everyone else decided to stay behind and dance in that room.

  The club had something like 12 different rooms with a separate DJ in each one, so Gigi and I went to check things out. We walked into a room that looked like Andy Warhol had decorated it, and it was so cool. It had tons of colorful paintings on the walls and modern furniture everywhere. We went over to the bar, ordered drinks and surveyed the crowd as we bounced to the music while we waited.

  Gigi tapped my arm and gestured with her head for me to look down at the end of the bar. There were two tall, really good-looking guys (from what I could see) standing there with about six women around them. One guy was wearing a white shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to the middle of his forearm, and the other guy was wearing a simple dark t-shirt.