When Aless awoke the next day, she saw a message from Danny.  It instantly made her smile.  They messaged most of the day while she worked on her homework and cleaned the house.  By dinner time, he had asked her out for day for following Hyaloc.  Without even thinking, she agreed.  Buzzing with excitement, Aless couldn’t wait to tell Kayla.  Calling her up, Alessandra invited Kay to sleep over that night, which Kay was happy to do. Most weekends, Kay would escape to Aless’s house to sleep over. It was the only thing she could do to escape the loud fights her parents would have. Despite despising each other, Kay’s parents refused to get a divorce.  They claimed it was against their traditional beliefs, viewing divorce as an abhorrent sin. 

“They are such hypocrites,” Kayla complained that night. “They won’t get a divorce because of their beliefs but they will yell and scream at each other for hours and then cheat on each other with other people.  Isn’t adultery against the Message too?”

“Yeah, it is,” Aless nodded sadly.  “There is just no rationalizing with some people.”

“If I ever get married, I don’t care if I get divorced twenty times.  I am not staying married if I’m not happy,” Kayla said bluntly. “Maybe I won’t even marry for real.  I’ll just marry the guys for their money and divorce them like all those famous gold diggers.”

“Kay, come on.  You don’t want that kind of life.  It would be really depressing and most of those rich guys are really old,” Aless shook her head at the very thought.

“That’s true, but maybe I could handle it.  You know I find money and power to be an aphrodisiac.”

“You’d need a ton of aphrodisiac to sleep with someone who could be your grandpa.”

“Okay, so I’ll make it the requirement that he could be my father at most and be stinking rich.”

Laughing, Alessandra smacked Kayla on the arm.  She wished that Kay was joking but part of her knew Kay was serious.  Kay had always been shallowly attracted to the richest, smartest, and best-looking guys in their school even if their personalities sucked, which often they did.  She tolerated a lot of crap from guys who could make up for it with money and gifts.   

“So how did things go with John?” Aless chose to change the subject.

“Really great.  He was so sweet and he is actually a good kisser, not that we kissed that much, but I let him have a good night kiss while you and Tyler were saying good night,” Kayla grinned sheepishly.  “By the way, how did that go?  Did it go okay or am I like permanently indebted to you?”

“You are totally indebted to me, but the night itself had some perks.”

Using this as a segue, Aless told Kayla all about her part of the date.  Kayla interjected her own comments on how gross Tyler was and was thrilled to hear about Danny.

“Girl, that’s awesome.  You haven’t had a boyfriend in like two years.  You need to meet someone,” Kay beamed.

“Yeah, well it’s too early to call him my boyfriend, but I’m not done yet,” Aless giggled.

Continuing, Aless finally reached the end and told Kay about what happened at her front door with Tyler and the delivery guy, Kayla got upset.

“What a creep!  You should have told me and John right away.  John would never tolerate such behavior!” Kayla burst out, her face tinting periwinkle in anger.  “I can’t believe he would try to force himself on you even a little. And to suggest you two could just be friends with benefits, what a pig!”

“Yeah, luckily that guy was dropping off that package for my dad.  He intervened.”

“That was nice of him, but he is right.  You can’t be that nice with guys.  If they think you are too nice or weak, they will do things you don’t want.”

“I know, but I’d never been in that situation before.   You know I don’t date a lot. I didn’t want to cause a fight, but I didn’t want to kiss him or anything.”

“Now you know.  You have to be a bitch sometimes.”

Chuckling, Aless agreed.  She knew better now than to be too nice.  It was just a question of if she could stop acting too nice.  Changing the subject, Aless redirected the attention back to John and then Danny.  They speculated what Kayla’s second date would be like with John and Aless’s first date with Danny.  It was fun and, half the time, crazy impossible.  They ordered pizza for dinner and Kayla had a few glasses of wine.  She always drank a little on the weekend, especially on nights that her parents were fighting.  Alessandra was satisfied with the pizza and soda.  This was not to say that Kayla drank too much.  She rarely got drunk, capping herself off at two drinks.  It just helped her relax. 

“Hey, do you want to go dancing?” Kay asked.

She had finished her wine and they both were stuffed from pizza.

“Huh. Yeah, I would be up for dancing.  We haven’t been in a few weekends and I’d love to work off this pizza,” Aless grinned.

“Great. Let’s go change.”

Giggling, the girls ran upstairs and threw on some club clothes.  Heading out the door, they piled into Aless’s car, which her father had bought as an apology gift for missing both her last birthday and her Pakido senior testing.  In a flash, they arrived at Michin, one of their favorite clubs.  It was large with four rooms and eight bars.  Kay had already had her drinks for the night and Aless was driving, so both knew they weren’t going to drink.  Approaching the security guards, who they all knew by name, the girls smiled and flirted as they gave each one a hug.  Spending about fifteen minutes talking to security, Aless and Kay felt amped and ready to party.  Once inside, they immediately headed to the dance floor. For hours, they danced, sweat ruining their hair styles and wearing down their makeup, not that they cared.  Under the black-lights, Aless’s gotong glowed bright, appearing to fly as she twirled and danced.  They danced with a few men, who were honestly too old for them, but mostly the girls just danced with each other. 

“I need some water,” Kay gasped.

“Okay, I’ll save our space on the dance floor.  Get me one too,” Aless panted.

Her body felt electric and alive.  Nothing but dancing gave her this feeling.  She didn’t want it to end by leaving the dance floor. Nodding, Kay weaved her way through the crowd. As she did, someone touched Aless’s shoulder.

“Would you like to dance?” the voice asked.

Not bothering to look at the person, Aless shouted sure above the music.  Aless didn’t care what the person looked like as long as they didn’t get too handsy.  Moving together in time with the music, Aless found her new partner was a good dancer.  Continuing to laugh, Aless lost herself to the music, closing her eyes.  With her eyes closed, Aless could feel the pulse of the music and the heartbeat of her partner. Together they danced for about four songs before her partner suddenly spun and dipped Aless.  Gasping in surprise and joy, Aless opened her eyes to look into the bluest-green eyes she had ever seen.  It was like looking into dark sea glass.   The man also appeared startled, for he straightened them both up and just stared at Aless. His shocked expression confused Alessandra until she realized it was the delivery guy from the night before.

“Hey!  It’s you,” she grinned.

“It’s you.  What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Dancing, duh,” she chuckled.

“Aren’t you underage?”

“Only by two months and I know the security here.  Why are you a cop or something?”

Winking, she laughed so hard she missed his stony expression.  Forcing a smile, he shook his head.

“No, of course not.  I just didn’t expect to see an underage girl here.”

“I’m just dancing. Its not like I’m drinking or getting high.”

“Yeah, but It’s not safe.  You know that, right?”

“What are you? My dance partner or my dad?”

The question was silly for he was clearly too young to be her father.  Guessing by his features, Aless assumed he had to be around twenty-four, but his eyes were so serious that she thought he could be older with a baby face.  In the flashing lights, Aless could see his Josӕng.  On either side of his face, on his temples, Aless saw a body made of three woven diamond which had four angled crescents threaded through them. A single crescent marked the designs mouth and Aless realized it was a spider.  An animal Josӕng was unheard of in Mᴔjin culture, which could only mean he was from a different country.  Mᴔjin Josӕng only permitted nature based Josӕng, never animals.  Only Alᵫmdaun and Sӕloun cultures had animal Josӕng.  Swiveling his head to look around, Aless saw that his spider Josӕng were tinted red.  That would mean the ink used was very expensive.  How could a delivery man afford such ink?

“You are very upfront for a girl who couldn’t tell a guy to back off,” he said.

Stunned, Aless stopped dancing and stared at him.  Locking her jaw and narrowing her eyes, Aless opened her mouth to speak when he held up his hands.

“Sorry, that was uncalled for,” he said. 

“Yeah, it was.”

“I have a bit of a temper, sorry.”

“I do too, so I can understand, but watch it.”

“It’s good to see that you aren’t really a pushover.  I always appreciate strong women.”

Blushing, Aless turned her face away from him to hide the heat in her cheeks.  Bobbing up and down at the edge of the crowd, Kay’s face beamed at Aless.  Waving her over, Aless smiled again.  The man watched her, his face expressionless. 

“Aless, you wouldn’t believe the line for water,” Kay said breathlessly.

“I can imagine.  You were gone for like seven songs,” Aless replied. “Oh, Kay, this is that guy from last night.  The one who helped me out with Tyler.”

Turning, Aless pointed to her dance partner who blinked in surprise.  He had not expected Aless to introduce him, let alone tell her friend about what had happened the previous evening.  Bouncing up to him, Kay grabbed his hand and shook it eagerly.

“Oh, my goodness, I can’t believe we ran into you here.  It must be fate,” Kay giggled.

Her body leaned forward ever so slightly, so the man got a good view of her chest and small hips.  Crinkling her eyes in a smile, Kay tilted her head, highlighting her beautiful face in the club lights. Smothering a laugh, Aless knew this stance.  It was Kay’s flirty, knock-them-off-their-feet stance.  It never failed and, based on the man’s stunned expression, Aless knew it had worked again.  No man was ever immune to Kay’s beauty. 

“It was nothing,” he managed to stammer. 

“It was so something!” Kay gushed. “That guy Tyler is such a creep and Aless is far too nice to tell him so.”

“Kay,” Aless interjected.

“What? We all know it’s true.  Aless, you are just too nice.”

Turning to Aless’s rescuer, Kay continued.

“You would never know that she is two tests away from beginning her top tier training in Pakido.”

“You are?”

The man’s face creased in surprise and respect.

“She has been studying it since she was ten.  Her dad signed her up after these druggies broke into her house and she was home alone.”

“Kay!” Aless interjected.

The conversation was getting a little too personal.

“You have always attracted trouble, huh?” the man teased.

“No, it was just that one time.”

“She is being modest. She always attracts bad guys.  It’s those big moon eyes of hers,” Kay shook her head.

“I do not have moon eyes!” Aless protested. “And I do not attract bad guys.  I just don’t date.”

“She really doesn’t.”

Kay fake whispered this to the man, who gave Aless a teasing smile. 

“Okay, okay! Enough about me.  I just wanted Kay to meet you since I really appreciated you helping me out last night.”

“It’s not problem.  As I said, I don’t like seeing people being mistreated. I need to go catch up with my friends.  Thank you for the dance.”

He bowed and disappeared into the crowd.

“Hot!” Kay said, fanning herself.

“Really?”

“Well, he has kind of a baby face, but did you see his body?  Damn.  He must work out a lot.”

“I didn’t notice his body.”

“You danced up close with him and you didn’t notice all those muscles?”

“He wasn’t bulky or anything.”

“No, but I could see his six pack through his shirt.  Jeez, Aless, I swear you are blind when it comes to men.  I bet he liked you.”

“He didn’t even know it was me until a few minutes ago.  He was really shocked.  For a moment, I thought he was going to report us for being minors.”

“We are only minors by two-three months.”

“Still he seemed really upset that we were allowed in here illegally.”

“He’s a total wet blanket then.”

“He seemed okay.”

Searching the crowd, Alessandra tried to find the man in the crowd, but couldn’t.

“What was his name again?” Kay asked.

Pausing, Aless thought for long moment.

“Huh. I don’t know.  I read it off his shirt, but it was some foreign name that I couldn’t begin to pronounce.”

“Oh, so he’s from a different country.  Even sexier.”

Hugging Kayla, Aless laughed at her friend.

“Enough about him.  Let’s dance,” Aless chuckled.