Page 15 of Imbalanced Minds
Chapter Eight
Iris
After summoning an Uber, we arrive at Seduction twenty minutes later to find it’s insanely busy. Walking past the line that leads halfway down the block, ignoring all the abuse for line hopping, we reach the entrance with non-other than Justin on the door. Great I think to myself; this is going to be fun—not.
“Baby, you gonna let us in, aye?” Nat coos as her boyfriend eyes her up and down with a predatory glare.
“Babe, what are you doing out? I thought you were going to stay in, have a quiet one?”
Turning to me he grunts. “Iris, I shouldn’t be surprised. This has you written all over it.”
Raising my hands in surrender I plead the fifth. “We’re celebrating Jay, don’t ruin our buzz,” I whine as he shakes his head, unimpressed. I don’t know what it is about him lately, but he’s been getting quite snarky with me. Maybe I haven’t given him much reason to have faith in me but still, I’m his sister and we usually get along amazingly. Most of the time. Okay, maybe I deserve it this time.
“Well, if you two want to get in there,” Jay points over his shoulder, “Iris has to walk in a straight line.” Gunner, the other doorman, bursts out in laughter as he looks between the two of us. “Bro, that’s cold.” He seems overly entertained with this scene happening in front of him. “Just let them in man, they’re obviously not drunk.”
“Dude this is my sister, the last time she was here a brawl broke out. I have every right to proceed with caution.”
Irritated, I march up to Gunner and hug him for sticking up for me. Yeah, that got me brownie points.
“Let go of him, Iris.” Justin chides, bursting our bubble.
“You’re such an arse.” I retort. “I was thanking him.”
Gunner moves to the side and pushes me in the direction of the door. If you saw him walking down the street, you’d most likely turn and walk in the other direction. He’s over six feet and built like a brick shithouse.
Nat walks or rather struts her gorgeous arse past Justin which surprisingly has me doing the same as we head inside. No fucks are given as I look over my shoulder; I already know we succeeded in making Justin’s night a living hell.
Take that big brother.
“We should probably take it slow tonight, after what happened last time and all,” Nat yells in my ear. “I think we should find a seat at the bar first and see how the flow of this place is. It seems packed tonight.” Nodding as if I heard one-hundred percent of what she just yelled, I order our drinks.
“Vodka and lime please,” I lean over the bar to yell, “times two.” Holding up two fingers in case the bar lady couldn’t hear me.
“So, where did you go today? You just upped and left.” Nat asks with concern.
“I went to the farm. I needed some time to get out of my head. It was actually good, ya know, and just what the doctor ordered.” I smile at my friend so she doesn’t seem to overthink anything, then I continue with my good news. “I actually broke my track record, hence these,” I point to the drinks that just arrived in front of us.
“Squee, honey, that’s amazing! You’ve been trying so hard to beat that time. I’ll cheers to that.”
Clinking our glasses in the air, we turn on our stools to people-watch. This is something Nat likes doing more than myself. I think it’s kind of strange. Actually, very creepy. She seems to think it helps avoid the weirdos so we don’t get in too much trouble. I suppose she has a valid point, but there’s never been much worry on my radar.
Too little too late I think as a shiver racks over me as the memory of last weekend lingers in my mind.
I start getting restless, becoming bored of sitting down. Having spent too much time sitting at the bar, a few drinks down was all I needed to get amped. I hop off my stool, grab Nat’s hand, drag her off her seat and beeline to the dance floor. I’m ready to mingle and work this body into a frenzy. The only difference tonight is, I’m here alone and intend to keep it that way.
Once we’ve pushed through the crowd to the middle of the mosh pit of sweaty bodies, we lose ourselves to the beat and dance together to avoid any drama.
Little did I know, drama was right around the corner.
I try to think of how many drinks I’ve consumed tonight, including the wine we started at home, but I’m positive it can’t have been that many. Half a bottle of wine and two, maybe three vodka-limes. I shouldn’t be this woozy when on a normal night I can drink some fully grown men under the table.
Becoming hyper-aware of the room starting to waver, I let Nat know I need the ladies and make my way to the restroom. Bursting through the door, I reach the basin so I can splash water over my face. Not caring if my makeup gets ruined, I turn to dry off with a towelette from the dispenser then head back out toward the jungle of sweaty bodies to find my girl. Perhaps I should go find her so we can head home.
Exiting the restroom, I find that the refresher didn’t really help at all as the dizziness is getting worse. As I slowly walk along the small corridor that leads to the bathrooms, I have to hug the wall to help stabilize myself. As I pass the men’s room, I hear the door squeak as someone comes out, but they don’t pass me. In fact, they don’t even ask me if I’m okay. That’s the moment pure terror runs through my veins, as someone wraps their arms completely around me and lifts me up, moving in a direction I’m not familiar with.
On natural instinct, I start thrashing my legs about, throwing stray kicks in every direction possible. But the more I try the heavier my body seems to grow.
My cries are falling on deaf ears because they’re muffled by someone’s hand, so I bite the hand that’s trying to stifle them which earns me a slap to the side of my face.