Drew J.
Yelp
As dawn broke, the fog rolled in and she thought to herself, "What if I'm wrong about this?" Lake Arrowhead was calm and the fog was slow moving; she drove up for the night, alone, to soak in the silence and reflect. Her boyfriend of two years was going to propose to her in a week. He thought his secret was safe but she found the email to her father laying out all the details. She wasn't sure when she became sure, but she knew this was not what she wanted. That day, she drove back to Los Angeles and broke up with him.
A year had gone by and now she was leaning up against the glass window of a TD Ameritrade in Greenpoint, on line for a club called Good Room. After a year of excuses, her friends had finally convinced her to come out. She was still not over the breakup and she was willing to try anything to get herself out of this mood she was stuck in.
They were let in, and she ascended the staircase. She could hear the muffled sound of the music getting louder and as her friends grew excited, she grew anxious, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both..." the beginning of a poem she had memorized to help her cope with her anxiety. It usually worked.
They reached the club and she got her first look at the place. It was packed and she was immediately turned off, but her friends did not seem surprised. "What are you drinking!!?" Her friend yelled over the music.
"What do they have?"
"What!!!!????"
"What do they have?"
"Come on!!!!!!" her friend commanded as she walked off, giving up on the conversation. It was a dumb question anyway.
They reached the bar. Despite the place being crowded it was surprisingly easy to order a drink. "Here, this is vodka with something called club-mate that we really like, they don't always have it"
She drank it and loved it, "This is something Henry would have liked" she almost thought to herself - but didn't.
"What do I owe you?" She asked her friend.
"Don't worry about it, it was cheap."
She was surprised. It hadn't cost them much to get into the place either, even though the DJ playing that night was pretty well known. She thought it had to cost a lot of money to go out in New York, but not at Good Room, "And be one traveler long I stood, and looked down one as far as I could..." she continued with her anxiety poem but realized she didn't need it.
She wasn't sure if it was the poem, the second sip of her drink, or the music picking back up, but she wasn't anxious anymore, she was excited, euphoric, and beginning to have fun. She looked out at the dance floor and it suddenly didn't seem crowded anymore. Sure, there were a lot of people, but they were happy, positive, not in each other's way, not bothering each other. Just enjoying the music.
She almost didn't notice her friends walking off when her buddy grabbed her by the arm, "We're going to dance now!!!" and so they did.
They danced all night. At one point she noticed her friends and realized this was normal for them, this is what their nights out were like. One of the best nights of her life and for them: just another Saturday. It was a bitter-sweet feeling, sad she had been missing out on so much, but happy to be there now... She went back to herself, danced, lost track of time... And as dawn broke, a different kind of fog rolled in, and she thought to herself, "What if I'm wrong about this?"