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A low rumble sounded in the distance as Gabriella peeked her head over the cab door, surveying the scene before her. Glancing over her shoulder at her best friend Amy, she posed the question of the night, “So what about here?”

Amy scooted over in the seat and snaked her body beside Gabriella’s, taking in the view her friend had already seen. Amy shrugged, “Honestly Gabby…to me, every street corner in this city looks the same. And besides, we’re not going to have time to check them all out and this one looks pretty popular, so it’s fine by me. You decide, but remember, the cabby is still charging us to sit here and gawk.”

Gabriella rolled her eyes at her friend and ducked her head back inside the cab. Leaning over the headrest of the front seat, she nodded to the cabby, “This will do.”

The cabby glanced up in his rearview mirror and nodded, moving his gaze to the meter. Popping the top of the machine, he smiled as it choked out a small printed slip of paper. Handing it over the seat to Gabriella, he quipped in a distinctly Yankee accent, “That’ll be 45 dollars miss.”

Gabriella took the slip of paper from the cabbie’s age stained fingers and slid it into her back pocket, pulling a small wad of cash from the bottom of it. Rifling through it, she found two twenty dollar bills and a ten and pushed the crumpled bills into the cabby’s waiting hand.

“Keep the change.”

Gabriella reached into the floorboard and wrapped her slender hand around her backpack before ducking out of the cab, never giving the cabby a chance to respond. Within moments, the shadow of her friend appeared beside her and she could hear the cab’s tires squealing off to another client.

“Those guys are sooo weird.”

Gabrielle looked at Amy and laughed, “Thanks for stating the obvious. What normal person would drive around New York all day and deliver bitchy customers to some of the rankest street corners in America?”

Amy smirked, “Good point Gabby. So let‘s see… we‘ve been here for two nights so far. We‘ve met at least three homeless people, managed to get a room at a four star hotel dirt cheap, been harassed by a man wearing tights and taken one of the dirtiest cab rides of my life. Tell me, what else IS there to do in New York?”

Smirking at Amy’s sarcasm, Gabriella reached down and gripped her friend’s hand tightly, “Well getting lost in the red light district is not on my list of things to do.”

Amy nodded, glancing around at their surroundings, “So what did you see here that was so amazing?”

“Not a damn thing, but that cabby was weirding me out a little bit and besides, didn’t you hear the thunder? It’s gonna storm soon and I would rather be inside than out in it. Running for cover through a sea of bodies in an unfamiliar city is not my idea of fun.”

Glancing around, Amy noticed a quaint little club on the opposite street corner from where they were standing. Nudging Gabriella in the ribs gently, she pointed, “Let’s try over there. It doesn’t look too overly crowded.

Gabriella nodded, “And by that, you must mean there’s not a line waiting outside halfway around the block?”

Amy smirked, “Exactly. Now get off my wavelength and quit reading my mind.”

“Make me fussy-pants.”
Amy laughed at her friend, “Okay…so…what am I thinking now?”

Gabriella stood and surveyed her friend for a moment. Licking her lips slowly, she grinned as her hand suddenly came off of her hip and made a snapping motion, “Oh…you’re right. It’s not crowded because nobody can get in. Shit… I’m sure as hell not special. “

Rolling her eyes, Amy shook her head, “I swear… we think way too much alike. What about if we…?”

“It would never work Amy… we’ve tried it before.”

Amy wrinkled her nose at Gabriella “It certainly won’t hurt to try, now will it? We DO have boobs… it could work.”

Gabriella eyed her friend for a moment before shrugging, “Guess it won’t hurt… if we don’t get in, we could always just go try to cram our way into the packed normal people clubs.” She smirked as she made air quotations.

The two friends giggled quietly, but quickly stopped when they heard a defiant grunt behind them. Turning on their heels, Gabriella and Amy found themselves face to chest with a man who reeked of cheap cologne. Slowly trailing their eyes up the man’s body, they found themselves gazing into a stone set face that didn’t seem to be amused.

“Excuse me ladies… either enter the club or vamoose…”

Casting a sideways glance at Amy, Gabriella attempted to brush past the burly bouncer, but one well defined arm arrested her suddenly in her stride. Again, the bouncer’s gruff voice infiltrated the air, “I’m sorry miss… but I’m going to need to see some ID.”

Grunting softly from the unexpected barricade, Gabriella fumbled in her backpack for her driver’s license and handed it over to the bouncer. With a deep chuckle, he handed it back to her without even glancing at it, “Not that kind of ID miss. This here…” he said as he motioned to the club behind him, “…is a VIP club, meaning I need to see your membership ID.”

Amy gasped softly behind her, but Gabriella ignored it, glaring intently up at the man, “And if I left it at home?”

“Then I am sorry to say but I cannot let you inside. Too many people ‘forget’ their IDs for me to believe that load of…”

“They’re with us, Gus.”

The man looked past the two girls and nodded in acknowledgement, “Right… I’m sorry. Go ahead then ladies.”

Not even turning to see who had spoken for them, Gabriella reached her hand back behind her and grabbed hold of Amy’s wrist, pulling her inside the club.

Once inside, Gabriella turned to look at Amy who looked dumbfounded. “Amy…snap out of it - we’re in!”

All Amy could manage was a small nod, curiously searching over her shoulder for something.

“Amy…girl… what are you looking for?!? Hello? We just got into one of New York’s trendiest clubs without much of a hassle at all. I swear I thought Mr. Macho was gonna kick our asses to the curb!”

Amy swallowed the lump in her throat and stared at Gabriella in disbelief, “You…you didn’t even say thanks.”

Gabriella blushed furiously, remembering the manners that has so easily failed her. “Right um… I didn’t… Amy…what the hell are you looking for?”

“Not what Gabby…who…”

Gabriella rolled her eyes at her friend’s odd behavior. “Okay fine…then who?”

Amy turned back to look at Gabriella, “Them… the guys that got us inside. Did you see who they were?”

Shaking her head, Gabriella gave her friend the closest look to “duh” she could manage, “Um…no. Mr. Macho said we could go in and I wasn’t gonna hang around long enough for him to change his mind. Why? Amy, what has gotten INTO you?”

Amy put her hand on Gabriella’s shoulder as her eyes widened to the size of saucers. Gabriella waved her hand furiously in front of Amy’s face, checking for signs of life, “Earth to Amy… this is Earth calling Amy…”

Gabriella sighed at her friend’s sudden ineptness and turned to see what Amy was gawking at. As her eyes rose from the floor, they met the deepest pair of cerulean orbs she had ever witnessed and for a moment, she felt immobilized and frozen to the spot.