– “Sup ’Is! Bar-hopping?”
The following day, just as I was about to leave work, I received a brief text message from Lou. She’s still my best friend after all these years.
– “Hell yeah! After work? Karma?”
– “❤️”
Karma Police, a neighbourhood bar with a sophisticated yet seedy vibe, serves as our go-to place to start our drinking nights. I started humming to myself while waiting for my shift to end.
I work as a spruced-up receptionist at a small computer services company, a few blocks away from my home. It’s honest, hard work where I need to be clean, cheerful, and concentrate on whatever task of the day, on top of answering the phone and the odd visitor.
I affectionately refer to my coworkers as my “kiddos,” since they are total introverts and friendly eccentrics, even though they are older than my modest 22 years. And they refer to me as
– “Momsie? You look happy!”
– “Yeah, heading out on some bar-hopping venture with my BFF.”
– “Oh sweet! You don’t see her much anymore. Have fun! Can I ask you to help me write an e-mail to this client, please?”
– “Oh yeah, sure, everything for my favourite son!”
– “Hey!” interjects another kiddo in the open space, “I thought I was your fave, Momsie?”
– “Oh, sure hon, you’re amazing too, I couldn’t choose, and you know it! Now let Momsie work a little. She has to leave soon.”
A few minutes later, I tidied up my workstation, bid my farewells to the remaining colleagues, and embarked on my journey to the bar.
I arrived shortly after, with my earphones still on and a grin on my face, happily humming along to the current top rock song of the moment.
Lou was not alone; she was accompanied by a few of our closest friends. One of them, Marianne, first saw me.
– Marianne: “’Is! Here!”
– Jamie: “W-we started waiting, and ordered you a Long Island half-booze.”
– “Oh yeah! What a great way to make an entrance! The Queen is here! Bring out the half-booze, you peasants!”
Life is great with friends.
Lou, my bestie, has that Japanese-Korean hot mix look, coupled with a petite stature. Her diminutive figure contrasts with the energy she exudes and the strength of her personality. She’s responsible for my move towards being an extrovert and applying theatrics whenever I feel comfortable. Her multiple earrings and piercings, death metal band crop top, and assorted metal band opened waistcoat, on top of puffy sweatpants and the beginning of a tattoo sleeve, reveal that she’s more than meets the eye.
Marianne is the opposite in every way, possibly because of her ancient name. She mostly wears medieval robes, long painstakingly braided blonde hair, and ornate trinkets. She always looks dignified, and you’d believe any sentence she says unquestionably. If somehow you ever can doubt her word, that medieval dress does wonders to keep your mind busy enough not to care if you’re right or wrong.
Jamie is our resident tomboy. Strong, wearing leather or stretched t-shirts, and sporting a platinum bleached crew cut. But also infinitely shy and reserved. Whoever she looks at, you’d believe she has the biggest crush in front of her, with her face becoming beet red with any direct look. One drop of liquid courage, though, and she transforms into a more confident and socially adept individual, albeit still stuttering and not exactly outgoing.
On my side, I’m the nearly 6 feet tall, slightly pudgy, slightly olive-skinned piece of happiness, with a body full of love. The only thing I dislike about myself is my face, which got a little bit too much scarring from teenage pimples. As for the rest, I would neither change my friend’s appearances or mine.
– “So…? What’s up with my awesome crew?”
– Lou: “It’s been sooooo loooong! Sincerely, I can’t believe that the school year is not yet over; it drags on!”
– Jamie: “Word, I cannot b-believe I’m still s-truggling with my m-ajor.”
– Marianne: “I’m still a glorified cosplayer! And you? Didn’t die from your father’s cooking yet?”
– “Heh, they are still trying! I’ve always been the same, you know, playing momsie with my kiddos and reading novels”
– Lou: “Oooh come on, I’ll neeveeer read noooveeels!”
– “You jerk!” I started laughing at that never-old joke while making believe I am ready to throw my Long Island on Lou. “It’s because of you that my life is in shambles. Speaking of shambles, I need to eat something or else…”
Oh, yeah, right, even if I weigh twice my bestie, I can drink less than half as much as her before you have an incoherent deadweight to bring back home. On a dead stomach, and you can probably reduce it to a virgin screwdriver until I crawl on the floor.
❀
– Jamie: “Life’s hard, huh?”
– Marianne: “Euphemism of the century. You might say that trying to survive as a paid spokesperson while the planet burns and the government seems determined to create a live-action Mad Max is not what I would call a good time.”
– Lou: “At least, we don’t have thugs here, and life’s shit, but our city remains relatively safe.”
– Iris: “Oh! My! Lou! Don’t you know that jinxing us like that is a no-no? Now something will happen. It’s such a basic rule, I cannot believe you would condemn us like this!”
– Lou: “And what are you telling us we’re in a novel? Come on, drink up that first glass, you lightweight, and let’s move to the next one!”
– Iris: “Sincerely? Lou, I have one quarter of my drink remaining while you still have that huge second mug of beer to your name, and you called another one that’s not there yet. And you’re telling me you’ll finish before me, and less drunk?”
– Marianne: “…”
– Jamie: “…”
– Lou: “…”
– “Okay, okay, okay, I’ll be quick.”
Everyone laughed at this, and we all slowly prepared to move to the next drinking station.
❀
We slowly took our bags and left for the outdoors. The temperature is great, with a slight cold breeze and a sky full of… no, only the moon. We’re in a major city, so we can’t see the Milky Way. Still, a beautiful evening.
– Iris: “So, where are we going next?”
– Jamie: “Where else? Same next spot? Or you got something in mind?”
– Lou: “I’ll drink to that!”
The street between the two bars was empty, with few pedestrians, no cars, and, of course, at this precise moment, I felt a blade painfully digging into my back, and a menacing presence.
– “Don’t move if you don’t want to die.”
Lou, my good friend Lou. Why did you have to throw that bad omen at us?
