The Nightingale

Ana took some time dolling up for the date. It was a date with her best friend and one she needed the most. She will go to the pub, get drunk like a sailor, dance all night, forget everything for a night and wake up as a new person the next day.

That new Ana will deal with all the crazy stuff, this Ana is going to enjoy the hell out of her life until she's alive.

She chose a sleeveless bright red sexy one piece which barely covered her thigh, a small opening on both side of her hips and also in the front revealing a little bit of navel. She bought this dress for Joshua's birthday and thought of wearing it after they brought the party home but the party ended pretty soon than she expected. Today she had planned to take it out for a spin and count the head turns this bad boy outfit would get her. Though she wasn't trying to seduce anybody or get lucky tonight.

Ana's hair was naturally straight, so she slowly curled it with an iron for almost two hours and another two hours on her makeup and she was finally ready to go out. Although it's be nice to wear a matching jewellery for a change, unfortunately she wouldn't be able to remove the damn pendant anyways. It was a good thing that it was at least matching with her killer outfit. She took a small silver clutch that would go with the outfit well and strapped on her silver cum red high heels.

She decided to slay, so she wasn't holding herself back. Ana took her key from the key bowl and sat down to pat Pepper who was curious to see if Ana was taking her out too.

"Be good…!", she said and patted Pepper's head softly.

She draped herself with her black trench coat and left the house to pick up Kathy first.

**Honk honk**

"Cominggg…..", Kathy screeched and ran towards the car in excitement.

As soon as she removed her coat inside the car, Ana noticed that she was wearing a sleeveless satin one piece black gown flawlessly flowing down her chest to her ankles. Ana initially thought it was impossible for her friend to dress up like that for a pub especially when it was a girl's night out and observed that the entire back of the dress was bare.

"Niceee….", Ana observed raising an eyebrow. Kathy also had her hair curled into waves and sat inside the car carefully holding onto her little black clutch.

"Back at you, babe! You're killin it today….", Kathy remarked glancing at Ana. She was very proud of her friend finally giving some respect to pubs. Ana used to dress conservatively while Kathy always told her to show off a little bit.

'We should own it, babe!' Kathy always said which for the first time Ana had adhered today.

"I'm so proud of you….", she said gesturing to wipe off fake tears, that earned a playful bump on her shoulders from Ana.

"So? Are you ready for a night of fun?", Ana mocked while Kathy was putting on the seat belts.

"I was born ready…", she replied with a smirk which made Ana chuckle.

This was familiar. This was normal. This was her world where everything stayed the same. She smiled to herself feeling grateful for this familiarity and headed to the pub.

They had blared songs through the car speaker and sang along with it very badly all through the way. Because of Joshua's birthday preparations and works, it'd been a long time they had a girls night out.

There was a sign that read "The nightingale" and a huge neon sign on top of it reading "Cheers" with two beer mugs on either side. Ana parked in the designated parking space for the pub and they both entered hand-in-hand through the small opening. After they checked in their coats and entered the dance arena, loud speakers were blaring with DJ music instantly deafening them both. They giggled and crossed over to a booth escorted by a bouncer.

Ana didn't fail to notice many eyes on them both as they crossed the room towards their booth. Once they were seated, Kathy was already swaying her beautiful body with the music and Ana took in the surroundings assessing the danger just like Oliver did in the café. She suddenly felt like coming out of character and didn't understand why she was behaving like him. Nobody was after Ana anyways and those mages or whatever were after Oliver. She already knew that but she didn't debate Lucas on that.

They couldn't speak anything because of the cacophony of sounds so they dived straight into drinking. Both the friends scanned the menu in their mobile and scrolled through it. Kathy placed an order for whisky on the rocks and Ana ordered for tequila shots, her only goal tonight to get completely drunk. They also ordered French fries and chicken wings for munching.

Ana didn't remember how many "Cheers" it had been but the shots and drinks kept coming and they continued Cheers-ing and now they both were on the dance floor completely drunk from head to toe dancing to the beat. Kathy still had a drink in her hand and was bending her hips with the rhythm while Ana had both her hands up in the air jumping to the DJ. All she could think about was the song in her head.

They danced for a while and again went back to their booth when they were surprised to find a few drinks on their table which they didn't order. A waiter came over gracefully and whispered something in Kathy's ears. After he left, Ana raised her eyebrows at her friend and she shouted, "This is from those guys…."

Ana turned to find a group of four guys in a table sitting diagonally behind her who smiled at them and said hi as soon as Ana and Kathy took notice of them.

"Hi", Kathy waved back and took the drink they sent over in her hand as a way of saying thank you.

This wasn't something new happening to them. Whenever they went out, someone always offered a drink to them but Ana was usually with Joshua so Kathy ended up leaving with some guy, but now she couldn't believe that someone from that group was also saying hi to Ana.

She was debating between taking that drink or avoiding it.

"Come on… drink it…", Kathy shouted through the music and Ana still hesitated.

She didn't want to hook up today. She wanted to just get drunk and have fun but Kathy already took up Ana's drink and pushed it in her hands with a look 'You won't die if you drink it!'

Ana decided to stop overthinking as that was the most important reason she decided to come here today and graciously accepted the drink the same way Kathy did. They both clanked their glasses together and drank it together.

Looking at their response, one of the guys from the group tore away from them and came towards Kathy. He was tall, muscular and handsome and wore a casual black denim coat over a white t-shirt. He bent down all the way to meet her ears and asked if they were ready to join their group and dance with them.

Kathy posed the same question to Ana and Ana took her friend aside and whisper shouted, "I don't want to hook up with anyone Kathy…."

"That's fine…. Let's just make out and have fun… We'll leave home together…", Kathy reassured the same way Ana spoke. Ana was unsure about it but they guys didn't look sleezy or weird.

The whole group seemed decent enough, so she decided to trust her friend. Also, Kathy was more sober than the both of them and Ana would anyways have to rely on Kathy to go home safely.

As soon as they saw the two beautiful ladies coming to their booth, the guys urgently adjusted the seats and made sure they had enough space to sit. Ana smiled hesitantly and took a seat near one of the guys in the table while Kathy sat opposite to her. The guy who came to speak with them, dragged a chair from across and sat facing all of them.

They ordered some more drinks and Ana got drunk to the level of forgetting reality. She was slouched on her seat while she noticed Kathy chatting up with a few of those guys, grinning widely pretending to enjoy their jokes. She was tugging her hair behind her ear and acting cute when Ana got the sign that she was definitely into one of them.

The others just seemed to enjoy their company and had their drinks swaying with the music.

"Hey…", the guy who came to their table muttered softly in Ana's ears giving rise to goosebumps on her skin.

"Hey", she said.

"Wanna dance?", he mischievously smiled offering his hand for her to take.