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Before: Good Days and Great Lays


Nick

Chris was gone when I got up later that evening. Other than his necktie, which was on my living room floor, there wasn't even any evidence that he'd been there. I couldn't help but be amused by how much he must've had to drink - or perhaps smoke/snort/whatever - last night to end up at my place of everywhere he could've ended up in the city of Los Angeles.

I got dressed, put on my own suit and tie, and slid my wallet into a breast pocket. I stopped and got a bottle of champagne, red solo cups, and a box of Slim Jims, and headed to Dogface's apartment. I knocked and she opened the door wearing a dress and her hair all done nice. She smiled, "Hey," she said, smiling, "Nice tie." She ran her hand across it.

"Thanks," I said. "I think you bought it."

"Did I?"

I shrugged, "You or some costume designer on some tour," I answered.

Dogface waved me into the apartment, "I'm almost ready," she said.

"Do whatever it takes," I answered. I wandered around the living room. There was chinese container on her coffee table. "So... quiet night last night, huh?" I asked, holding it up. I could see the light from her bathroom spilling into the hallway.

She ducked out to look. "Oh... yeah," she said, "Just... you know, stayed home."

I walked over to a shelf she had and squinted. All the pictures on the shelf were from various things we'd done together and group photos from her various homes she'd grown up in. All her myriad of parents. I licked my teeth. "Aren't you gonna ask how the show went?" I called out.

"Yeah, how'd the show go?" she asked.

"Went good," I answered. "Dude, you should've seen the babe I nailed last night."

Dogface's response was delayed a moment. "Hot one, huh?"

"Oh yeah, I think she was probably like nineteen or twenty."

"Hot and young. Wow. Not even born when you started working. Impressive Carter. No follow-up?"

"Seriously? You have to ask? She was in fucking Pennsylvania."

Dogface came out, attaching earrings to her ears. "Well you never know. She might be small enough to fit in your pocket at that age." She grabbed the clicker and turned off the TV, which had been playing a rerun of Millionaire, from way back when Regis was still hosting it. "I'm ready."

I looked her over, "Not bad." I opened her front door and she picked up a purse from her table and ushered herself out into the hallway. I followed and once she'd gotten all her trillions of locks done, we headed down to the car I had waiting for us out front. "I got us champagne and red solo cups."

"Just like college," she said.

"That was the best part of you being in college," I laughed, "Access to all the sweet frat parties." I opened the car door and Dogface climbed in. Inside, it was dark but neon runners lit the corners of the car ceiling. I poured her a red solo cup of the bubbly and the car started rolling off to the club I'd told the driver we were headed to.

"Only one thing missing, though," she said.

I held up the Slim Jims.

Dogface grinned, "Aw, you remembered."

We rolled along, drinking the champagne and eating Slim Jims until we reached the club. There was a line a mile long stretching on down the street, the beat was reaching the curb.

I climbed out and Dogface followed, leaving the solo cups behind, and we walked up to the bouncer, who gave me a fist bump and asked how I was doin' and waved us on through. Dogface stuck close behind me as we entered, the room was musty and crowded and music blasted so loud the floorboards and walls shook and it vibrated somewhere in my veins. Dogface followed me through it all to the bar, where we found ourselves a corner where we could almost hear each other when we shouted over the music.

"This place is nuts!" Dogface shouted.

"The VIP room's a little quieter," I said, "But I figured we might do better getting a target down here and bringing her up with us."

Dogface stared at me for a moment, then she yelled, "Oh, are we looking tonight? I didn't think we were."

"What else would we do?" I laughed, "That's what we do isn't it?"

"I just thought -- nevermind."

"What?"

"Nevermind, Nick," she replied.

The bartender came over with our drinks and we stood side by side at the bar, staring out at the girls all around us. Her elbow brushed mine and I looked down at it. It was a bony little thing and she had freckles on her arms. I looked at her face. Her dimples, the bright color of her eyes, the way the mascara or whatever framed them. I looked back out at the people grinding and bumping and dancing all over the dance floor.

"So what're you looking for tonight, any particular flavors?" she asked.

I shrugged, "Maybe something foreign?"

She sipped her drink and pointed. "How about her?"

"She looks like a Russian Lesbian," I said, glancing the direction she'd pointed.

"Not that one, the one next to her," Dogface amended.

"Probably the first one's girlfriend," I replied.

Dogface laughed. Her eyes roved the room. She looked back at me. "You know what we haven't done in a long time is just go to that sports bar and talk," she said.

"The Buccs are done for the season," I said.

"Not about the Buccs, just about anything, you know, like just talking."

I shrugged. I pointed across the room, "Her," I said.

"The Egyptian looking girl?" she asked, squinting through a purpley colored fog that filled the room.

"No the blonde," I answered.

Dogface contemplated. "Could work."

I hesitated. "You know, though, the girl from last night was a blonde. Meh." I sipped my drink, scanning the room.

Dogface turned to me, "Hey can we go sit down for a second?" she asked.

"Yeah okay, I can figure out what nationalities I need to complete my map," I said.

Dogface followed me as we wove through the crowd to the stairs that led us up to the VIP level seating and into a small room to the side of the pit that I had reserved. Inside, it was much quieter. Couches lined the walls and a TV hung in a corner. Dogface sat down. She reached up and let her hair out of the bun that she'd piled it into. I grabbed the remote off the coffee table in the center of the room and flipped through the channels that they'd provided in the room, including a porno channel, which I paused on briefly before going on. Dogface was shaking her hair out, running her fingers through it.

"Nick," she said.

I looked over at her.

She sighed, "Nevermind."

"That's twice you've started to say something and changed your mind," I said. I grinned, "Do you want us to get you a dude, too?" I grinned and reached over and shook her knee, "When was the last time you got some?"

She muttered something I didn't hear.

I leaned closer and I caught the scene of her hair. It was like some kind of fruit and a flower or something mixed together, sweet and tangy and nice. I'd never noticed Dogface smelling like anything before. I breathed deeper. I opened my eyes and downed the rest of my drink from the bar. In a cooler beside the table stood two more bottles that I'd ordered ahead of time for the table and I reached in and refilled my glass, did a quick shot, and refilled it again.

I poured a shot for Dogface, too.

"To 2013," I said.

"2013," she replied.

We both downed the alcohol. I refilled it yet again. "May it be ever so awesome, full of good days and great lays."

"Great lays," she muttered, and we raised our glasses and downed them.




Ashley

Looking back, I'm not sure when it is that I started making bad choices that night. Probably somewhere around the fifth shot of whatever Nick was feeding me mixed with the solo cup full of champagne. My head started feeling disconnected from my shoulders and the noise and colors of the club outside the glass wall of the VIP room were hypnotizing and I grinned stupidly up at Nick. It felt like a hundred thousand years ago or more that I'd bitched about him to Chris. Now, Nick Carter looked like nothing less than a demigod.

We were out on the floor again, looking for Nick's foreign dish of the night, and he was several drinks deep, too, and his eyes were getting less and less focused as the night and the music wore on and on. It was probably nearing midnight by the time we spotted the latino girl across the bar that he decided he wanted. He turned to me. "Do I look sexy?" he asked, all sloshy.

I fixed his tie. "Yes," I slurred.

"Okay then," he grinned, "I'ma go tap dat." He waved vaguely at the latino.

"Condom," I managed.

Nick patted his pocket. "Here." He reached into his breast coat pocket. "Hold onto my wallet." He handed it to me.

"Okay." I slipped it into my bra.

"Thanks." He teetered away, carrying a drink identical to the one the latino girl held in her hand.

A guy launched himself against the bar in front of me. He was older and smelled funny. I moved a couple feet away. "Hey sweets," he said, eyeballing me.

I turned away.

"Hey," he said, grabbing my hair, "You got some nice hair here, like fire."

I shook my hair away.

"Let me buy you a drink sexy," he said.

I picked up my glass from the bar, "I already have one, thank you though."

"So another one."

"This is my last."

"A refill for the lady," he called to the bar tender. He looked at me and grinned. "You here all alone? And on New Years? No boyfriend to kiss?"

Even though the density of the alcohol I'd already consumed it struck me that this guy was uber creepy. I hesitated and pulled out my phone, pretending to ignore the guy. I sipped my drink.

"Hey that ain't nice," he grunted. He slapped my phone out of my hand and it fell to the floor.

"What the fuck?" I snapped, and I ducked for the phone, grabbed it off the floor and, in the process of standing up, I smacked my head on a table. "Shit," I groaned, holding my head. "Ugh." I stood up, tucking my phone into my bra with Nick's wallet. I grabbed my drink off the bar counter and wandered back through the crowd toward the VIP room. I didn't realize until I got there that the creepy guy had followed me. He caught me by the elbow just as I was about to go into the room and he followed me in. "Leave me alone," I snapped. I put the drink on the table.

He grabbed my arm and spun me around. "Hey don't you ignore me," he said roughly.

"Let me go," I snapped. But pretty much everything - from the lights to the walls to his stubbly face looked like a kaladescope in my vision and I couldn't fully focus on anything. I felt so lightheaded, like I was about to pass out or something...

"I just wanna get to know ya," he said, and he leaned closer, his breath smelled. I turned my head away. "Pretty thing like you... What you got access to a VIP room for if it ain't to use it, huh, sweets?"

"Hey back the fuck off her."

I looked up, turning my head back toward the door. It was Nick.

The guy let go of me and I felt my knees give way as I dropped onto the couch and closed my eyes. Everything around me was sort of dreamy... hazy... far off. But I'm pretty sure Nick was just about to beat the shit out of the guy when I passed out.