Inside, the club was booming and somehow the music seemed louder now.
I tried to see the positive side of the situation, namely that I didn't have to sit there somewhere between all the noise and all the sweaty people and communicate under the shattering bass.
And then, out of nowhere, I felt a sharp pain in my neck like I'd never felt before. Like teeth were digging into my flesh. Next, the images raced through my head, but they were too fast. The pain was too intense for me to perceive anything other than it. Until finally a very familiar voice came through to me.
“Ems!” Someone shook me. “Ems! Where is she?!”
“Who are you talking about, Julian?” it came distantly from Mia, who stared at me in horror.
“Emely! Where's Bay?!”
Chapter 65
Julie
“And third, don't forget you have our numbers. Just in case anything should happen.”
Larissa looked at me insistently, her hands on my shoulders. The physical contact with her no longer bothered me, because my head was all about Erik and how I was going to survive this meet-up without scaring him off.
My whole body seemed to tremble with nervousness because I wasn't ready to take that step, to leave our safe online world and let him become part of my unpredictable and destructive reality.
But Erik wasn't just any young man. It was fucking Erik. My best friend, with whom I spent nights discussing Greek mythology, with whom I exchanged books on philosophy and with whom I felt like someone, not something. And I would meet him. Here. Now.
“And now get moving. I'm sure he's waiting!”
Larissa pulled me off my barely safe bar stool and down into the unknown. Closer to Erik than I could handle.
Was it normal to be overwhelmed? Was he perhaps feeling the same?
“I don't know, Larissa. Maybe it's not such a great idea,” I voiced my doubts. Loud enough for her to hear me.
She wiggled her index finger before downing her Cuba Libre and indicating to the bartender that she hadn’t had enough yet.
Her stamina was remarkable. I would have been drunk by now, that's how little I could handle.
Perhaps it was simply because I had only secretly borrowed the good whisky with the maple syrup note from Amara a few times and otherwise knew only the disgusting wine from the formal temple ceremonies in Moenia.
“Forget it, you're going to see your Prince Charming now. I'm sure he's been waiting for you for a long time. And if it helps, take a sip of this.” She held out her freshly served drink with a slice of lemon stuck to it. “To help you come out of your shell.”
I waved my hands in thanks and she rolled her eyes.
“Then stop being like that and get going. Otherwise, I'll tell the DJ to ask for your Erik.” She grinned mischievously at me and my heart stopped beating.
“You're not doing that!” I stuttered, stunned, because by now I trusted Larissa to do anything.
“Don't challenge me!” she laughed loudly and sipped her drink.
I felt sick to my stomach and reached for her glass, took a generous sip and immediately regretted it. I had to cough as the cooling liquid flowed down my throat.
“There you go,” Larissa said cheerfully and also got down from her bar stool. “And now hurry! It's late enough!”
Without warning, she pushed me into the crowd, which simply swallowed me up with its movements and pushed me in a different direction, away from Larissa. All I could see was her waving excitedly after me before two dancing men blocked my view.
The beat intensified the feeling my loudly pounding heart was giving off and as I took my cell phone out of my pocket, it almost slipped out of my cold, shaking and sweaty hands.
I found myself in the middle of a huge crowd of people, which increased my nervousness. Every touch seemed to sting me and I could feel Gloria's serum slowly losing its effect. So, I hastily pushed my way through the crowd to an edge of the club where it was less busy, but the dancing and talking people still obscured my view so that I was protected from any chance encounters with Grace or other people I knew. I was afraid my cousin wouldn't let me go, especially after her statement yesterday.
My hands began to shake harder. So, I rummaged in my little white bag for the bottle of Salma I had taken from Gloria. The liquid shimmered slightly, but I didn't look at it for long, instead I hastily gulped down the contents of the small vial.
Inwardly, I hoped that nothing would happen to me tonight. This potion didn't guarantee it, but it did make me less emotional and less likely to have an outburst. I only drank half of it because I didn't want to lose all my feelings. It was still Erik I was about to meet and I wanted to react authentically to him.
Damn it. I was going to meet Erik.
My heart pounded and pounded.
Then my cell phone vibrated.
My trembling intensified.
God, I had never felt so nervous.
This morning I'd hardly been able to get anything down, apart from three cherry tomatoes. My hunger had simply passed, as so many times when excitement messed with my emotional world.
Then there was the shaking. Grace had put my make-up on and warned me that if I kept shaking like that, the make-up wouldn't work, but she had somehow managed it anyway.
