Aurora and Eliza's Night Out

Hello everybody. This will be the third 1st chapter story that I have started, but I wanted to make it clear that I do intend on moving on to the next chapter of each of my stories as soon as time allows :)

This story is one with a fairly slow start, but one which will rapidly speed up and benefit from some of the character development featured in this chapter.

Enjoy! :)

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Aurora

My name is Aurora Gladstone and I am overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. I am 33 years old and disappointed with what my life has become.

I work as a pharmacist for a popular chain of stores that sells everything from pain killers to makeup removal. I have been told by my customers that I am "very sweet." Usually old ladies and lecherous men tell me this. Is it surprising that I find such a compliment so hard to believe? Even if it were true, is sweet simply another word for 'small' or 'not assertive?'

When I wake up for work in the morning I tell myself that I will be okay, but oftentimes I feel so nervous and scared about being judged by people, that I really feel the need to put a lot of make up on! My friend Eliza tells me that I don't need to wear make-up, but my boss says that it's mandatory. Eliza tells me that I am "beautiful and kind," but deep down I know that I am worthless and that I will never be as confident or valuable as other people in my field. I feel like the work that I am doing is often arbitrary and, at its worst, soul destroying.

On Saturday nights I like to go out and dance. I particularly enjoy putting on my favourite coloured contacts (green), a shiny diamond pendant, crimson red lipstick, mascara and my lovely blue capri dress. When I dress like this, I feel, even if just for a little while, a little bit special and protected from the scrutiny of others.

This Saturday, my BFF Eliza has agreed to come out with me. Eliza is 27, an architect, and if you ask me, she is amazingly talented. She has worked really hard designing one of the biggest skyscrapers in the whole city! She showed me the blueprints once, and while it was difficult to gauge how it would look in reality, I could tell that it would be thin, elegant and impressive, just like Eliza.

Eliza says that she will come and pick me up soon, so that we can go together to club Helios. I have never been before, and I hope that the music will be something that both of us can dance too. I am sitting on the end of the bannister from the short staircase that leads up to my room. I don't know why, but I feel a strange mix of nervousness and excitement. I have not seen Eliza for so long! While I do have some friends at work and from high school, no other friend is as kind, funny and bubbly as Eliza. When I do not see her for a while, it often feels like a light has gone out above my head. As corny as it sounds, she really is the light in my life. Out of nervousness I begin to rub my legs together. I am so grateful that I have shaved them, and I really hope that I did a perfect job and that there are not any errant hairs that I missed.

After pulling out my phone and checking the top reddit links for the day, I hear a quick rap on the door followed by a squeal.

"Eliza!"

I open the door, and barely have time to register the blur before it is on me with her arms around me.

"Hi honey!"

We put our cheeks together and do air kisses to prevent out make up from smudging.

"How are you?" She asks while beaming.

Eliza is 6'2, has shoulder blade length auburn blonde hair with dark blue eyes, and a knock out figure. We like to go the gym together and I know from experience how nicely toned her bum, abs and shoulders are.

"Not too bad. How about you bubble butt?" I give her bum a small complementary squeeze, and she returns the favour.

"Rock hard!" We say, while giggling at the same time.

We developed this joke after noticing this muscly, bald and especially creepy guy staring lecherously at us in the gym a few months ago while we were riding the exercise bikes. I suspect that Eliza predicted me to feel awkward and self-conscious and as such, she did her best to distract me. She started by grabbing my bum with her right hand, pushing my shoulder length ash brown hair aside with her left hand and kissing my left cheek. "What a rock hard ass darling!" She said while winking.

Instead of feeling nervous as I thought I would at such an expected turn of events, I comfortably leaned into her and said, just loud enough for the guy behind to hear me:

"with comments like that, it's no wonder you are the girl for me!"

I recall us both smiling at each other and doing our best to repress our urge to laugh, as the guy behind us quickly moved away looking both angry and embarrassed.

Eliza grabbed my hand, dragging me out of my thoughts of the past and out of my lonely 1 person flat.

"Come quickly!" She yelled while holding my hand and powerwalking to a waiting taxi.

I barely managed to shut the door without Eliza wrenching my arm and shoulder.

"Jeez! Slow down!"

"Hurry up darling, we have to get there before 12!"

It seemed strange to me that she called me darling, she had only called me that once before while she was performing in front of 'creepo' at the gym. Strangely though it felt nice. I grabbed her arm firmly in response and met her pace as we quickly piled into the taxi. Funnily enough while she slowed down first to open the backseat door, I was still distracted by her 'darling' comment, and instead sped up, accidentally running into her as a result. Luckily she managed to open the door before this happened, and I merely fell on top of her as opposed to squishing her against the side of the cab.

"Eeep!" I squeaked.

"Hey beautiful it is a little bit too early for that!" She said, her mouth muffled by the leather seat. I began apologising repeatedly as I helped to pull her up and orientate her correctly. Once I saw her face again I noticed that she was pouting. She had a really interesting violet holographic lipstick that I wanted to try on... even if it meant pushing my face towards hers... I was shocked at this thought and quickly looked away. For a second I thought that she had read my mind, her eyes seemed to light up with what I thought was surprise or curiosity. Suddenly the look vanished and a wry smile appeared.

"Don't worry Aurora! It is Saturday night for fuck's sake! Clumsiness comes with the heels It's time to party!"

"Whooo!" We squealed, before the taxi driver turned around and gave us an annoyed expression.

Eliza poked her tongue out at him while I rolled my eyes at her.

Without a word the taxi driver turned around and jumped the cab back into life. He accelerated the cab quickly and impatiently, throwing us further back into our seats.

Eliza and I were forced to hold on to the door handles as the cab started blazing up my street.

"Wow! Where did you pick up this guy?" I said, in a voice that I hoped was too quiet for him to hear.

"Don't worry. I paid him an extra $50 to drive really fast." She said, with a mischievous grin.

I noticed for the first time that she had curled her hair for the night and that a lock had drifted across her right eye. I absent-mindedly pulled the lock back over on to her ear, and did my best to avoid making eye contact. Somehow I felt that if I did that... Luckily she barely acknowledged what I did aside from slightly nodding her head. She went on to talk about her job life, how she was working long hours by herself, and how she hadn't found the time to go out on dates.

"Ah who cares anyway? The men at the office have literally sucked the life out of me, who's to say the men at the club will be any better!" She said, throwing her left arm up in despair.

I had it in mind to say "they aren't all that bad," or "I'm sure we will find some good ones tonight," but instead I kept my mouth shut and nodded profusely. I really did hope that tonight would be a good girl's night out, I had felt so lonely in the past few weeks, and the more time I spent with Eliza, the more time I wanted to have her all to myself.

We arrived at the club just before 12, and were unsurprised to see a line of about 20 people outside the entrance.

The wall beside the club featured a gigantic mural with the Greek god Helios riding a chariot. What was interesting about this mural however, was that Helios had purple lipstick, a dress and sunglasses. Only the first 6 people however, were able to lean up against the mural, the rest of the line was instead forced to lean against unadorned black bricks. I sighed, my shoulders falling as I realised that we would potentially have to stand here for a long time. Noticing my irritation, Eliza pulled out a flask from an inside pocket in her dress.

"Time for pre-drinks!" She said, while giggling.

"What's in this?" I remarked cautiously, I only weighed about 54 kilograms, it certainly did not take much to give me a buzz.

"Oh you know. This and that."

She handed it over to me and I took a large swig. Maybe it was the long week, or the excitement of going out, but I decided that Eliza's flask would either be terrible, which would create a funny reaction on my part and make Eliza laugh, or that it would be super sugary and yummy. It turned out to be the latter.

"Wow!" I remarked, happily surprised by the sweet coconut flavour.

Eliza's wry smile did not change, and after a few seconds I coughed quite loudly.

"Jesus! What did you put in here?!"

"I was going to say 'wait for the vodka,' but you seemed like you were doing okay," she said while smiling.

I gave her a good-natured push and relished the brief sensation of my hand against her tanned and muscled arm. She leant against the wall and opened her eyes wide. For a second it seemed like she was scared, almost as if she thought she was falling, but her expression was one of feigned shock.

"Such a bad bitch!" She said, while giving me a playful shove in return.

We both giggled while doing our best to keep our voices down. We had been kicked out of this club before, and we had promised each other in the cab that we would "100%, no doubt about it, get in".

Eliza grabbed the flask back and took a big swig, taking care to keep her body behind the two broad shouldered guys who were in front of us.

"Oh! I just remembered something!" Eliza said, while trying to casually store her flask.

"It's mainly a gay night tonight... so we may need to look the part."

"What! You didn't tell me that was the case!"

It was only then that I noticed that each person in line was paired up with the same gender. On closer inspection I realised that the guys in front of us were way too cute and buff to be straight.

"Damn it Eliza!"

"Don't worry about it Aurora, why do you think I invited you?" She said while smiling.

"Ah ummm ummm," I stammered trying to keep my eyes focused on hers.

"Because you are my prettiest friend silly!" And with that she put her arm around my shoulders.

My shoulders tensed slightly, but I was quickly disarmed by Eliza's scent, and ended up relaxing into her arms.

"Who exactly is that scent designed for?" I wondered.

"Oh and here is the E that I was talking about on the phone..." Eliza said, pulling out a small plastic bag with some red pills shaped like teddy bears.

Before I was able to protest Eliza simply popped one of the pills and passed the bag.

"Quick before the bouncer notices" she whispered, with her face close to mine. I could feel her breath dancing upon the tenderest part of my exposed neck.

"Get ready Aurora" I heard alongside the faintest sensation of Eliza's tongue against my ear lobe,

"Tonight we may just get what we both want."