Afterlife - Stephanie Hudson Page 0,143

took her out to eat at a Mexican restaurant to say thanks. It felt good to do this again, making me feel less like a teenager and more of the adult I was. We all went to the movies one night and they all laughed at me when I had called it the flicks. However, Jack's flirting never went unnoticed as he made every effort to be near me.

I felt as though I belonged, a feeling I hadn't felt for a very long time. But at the back of my mind were my own demons inching their way to the front, never letting me forget the sense of security that I felt when I was near Draven. It would only stop when I was at the club making me feel as though I had come home. A piece of me was empty and that hole would only be filled when I was there. It was like the building itself was one giant entity that fed from my emotions. It wanted me there, it wanted to keep me and it was using Draven as the key.

Then one day everything changed and I was once again thrown into a world I didn't understand. It had started just like any other day, the only difference being that Jack had asked me on a date and this time I couldn't find any more excuses to give, so I agreed. I was caught in the middle of a war with my mind and heart. Both wanted different things. My brain convinced me that after two weeks of silence and being ignored finally convinced me that Draven didn't want anything to do with me and no amount of wishing it, would make it happen. My heart, of course, didn't want to give up, so it hadn't been an easy decision. I just kept telling myself it's only a date, what's the worst that can happen?

We had arranged for Friday night as I had the night off due the day shift I was going to do on Saturday. I had never worked the club in the day before so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I wondered if Draven would still be at his table as surely they couldn't just sit there every day and night, could they?

I had two separate friendships with Sophia; there was the usual everyday one in class and the other very different one at the club. She had tried to explain it once to me but I told her that she didn't need to explain anything and that I fully understood why this was. She had a position to uphold and couldn't spend the time talking to me when I was working. After all she was one of my bosses.

It wasn't as if she just wouldn't acknowledge me, she would always wave and occasionally she’d come up and say hi but you could tell it was frowned upon by her brother. In class though we acted like normal friends, laughing and joking about Reed, and she would do her usual trick of asking a million and one questions about me but never revealing anything about herself. She remained a mystery just like her brother. She never once mentioned him and I never asked.

She did however ask about Jack, the day that he asked me out.

“I noticed you were talking to Jack before class, any development there?” She said as she twisted a black barrel curl around her finger.

“Yeah kind of, he asked me out this Friday night and I finally said yes.” She didn't look shocked, as if she had been waiting for it, knowing all along what he felt for me.

“Umm that's nice, you’re not working then?” There was something off about her tone but I couldn't put a finger on it.

“No, I have the night off but I'm in on Saturday,” I said trying to figure out her expression.

She quickly dropped the conversation as Reed entered the room. My relationship with Reed had smoothed out after the misunderstanding was rectified and the evidence that my work was always handed in early and above all always received a good grade. This wasn't only down to the fact that I wanted to prove a point, in truth it was more down to whenever I spent any time alone with myself, my thoughts would be consumed by Draven and the only way to stop this was to set my mind on a different course. As a result I was ahead in all