Truth of Dark Pasts by Serena Wood (free children's online books .TXT) 📖

This wasn’t my idea.” I cross my arms and try to match her posture. She snickers, “I just thought I’d let you pick. I’m sure you have a good taste in clubs.” She mocks and I almost move to hit her arm.

But someone’s familiar voice stops me, “Ellie!” I turn to find Kathy and Shay walking towards us, hand in hand. I’d stop to envy how carelessly they show their affection, but Kathy startles me with a hug that sucks the air right out of my lungs. “H-hi… Kath…” I struggle to get a greeting out and thankfully Shay comes to my rescue. “Babe, you’re killing our friend.” with that Kathy releases the death grip and Shay replaces it with her own, more gentle hug. The way she hugs is so soft and feather light it’s like hugging a cloud compared to Kathy’s Boa constrictor hug.

Kathy moves to give River a quick fist bump before asking, “So what are you guys doing here? I didn’t really take Ellie for the party type.” she looks me over for a minute and the small glance I get from Shay tells me she’s not much of a partier either. “She’s not, but we’re working on her social skills. Right, miss hermit?” River pokes my side jokingly and I swat at her hand, a small huff of annoyance leaving me.

“Understandable, her and Shay must be in the same ball field. You two are just in luck, we’re heading to this awesome place right now, come on, you should join us.” Kathy starts walking backwards, giving us this hopeful look that we’ll follow along. I look to River as if I need her permission or something. “Come on, it’s the perfect place to learn how to use your social skills.” Kathy coaxes and River nudges me in her direction. Reluctantly, I follow along with their party plans.

Kathy and Shay lead us to this neon lit club with the words ‘Neon Love’ hanging over the entrance in bright red and pink. When we walk in, the front half of the building seems to be a cafe by day. But Kathy leads us to the back, where this huge bald man stands guard at the back door.

“Is your name on the list?” he grumbles like he’s tired of having to say the same words all night. “Nah, dude. You must be the new guy. I know the owner, I’m her little sister.” Kathy gives him this over confident look, like she should already be inside. “If I had a dime for every time someone said they were with the owner…” The guard starts. “Seriously, bro. I do know her. Wait, that’s her. Here, I’ll get her to back me up.” She strains to look over the tall man’s shoulder to see past the doorway. “Lee!” she shouts at someone and even the guard jumps at her sudden high volume. “Miss, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“No, wait a minute, I can get her over” She tries again to yell past the guard at whoever’s inside “Lianna!”

“Miss, I’m not gonna ask you again. You and your friends need to leave.”

“Relax, new boy. She’s cool.” this dainty, european voice emits from the other side of the door and a brunette in her mid 20s pushes the guard out of the way. Grumbling something, the guard lets us through the red rope and not paying us much mind, the woman leads us over to a table where the noise of the music isn’t as loud. “What’s up, kiddo?” the woman moves to ruffle Kathy’s hair before turning to nudge Shay. “I see you brought the ball n chain. How’s it going, Mousy?” Shay makes a quiet reply that I don’t really catch before the woman notices River and I. “You brought friends?” River was in the middle of trying to walk over to the bar when Lee directs her attention to her and River gives a small, disappointed nod in her direction.

“Yeah, this is River. At least say hi to the owner before you vanish on me, dude.” Kathy pulls River back to us and River sticks her hand out. She shakes River's hand with just as much enthusiasm as her sister did the first day we met her. “Lianna Stern, but you can call me Lee. Pleasure to meet you.” River tries to seem as equally enthusiastic before Kathy pushes her sister in my direction. “And this is her absolutely adorable girlfriend, Ellie.” the whole sentence stuns my response system. For one, I’m not use to being called adorable unless it’s by my mother; and two, I’m still getting use to being called River’s girlfriend. Which I’m glad to find out that I’m not the only one when I glance over at River and find her shifting her weight and scratching the back of her head nervously.

“Nice to meet you, Ellie. I have to say, you two look more like straight best friends… Jesus, my gaydar is getting worse. Anyways, who’s up for a drink?” For once River and I get to avoid that situation when Lee calls over a guy with spiky hair before any of us can even react to her statement. She orders us drinks and he scurrys off as quickly as he appeared.

“I’m assuming none of you are the prissy no drinks type?” Lee asks as we all settle into these leather couches, hiding us in the corner of the club. Knowing River and I are still one year below the legal drinking age, my natural habit to be the good one kicks in and I start to speak up. “Um, we’re not actually old enough…” my sentence cuts short when River nudges me as she takes the seat beside me. “She’s giving us free drinks, hush.” She whispers but Lee’s already heard enough of my sentence to catch her attention. “Well, how old are you?”

“17, it’s not that big a deal, right?” River interjects before I can ruin her chances at a free drink. “Oh, come on. It’s only one year younger than us. We’re still in the same grade even. Don’t worry about it.” Kathy smiles, handing River this pink drink with a little umbrella. River takes the drink with enthusiasm and tries to pass one to me. I look down at the drink in her hand worriedly. “Relax, El. It doesn’t even have that much alcohol in it. Your good girl reputation will stay in place, trust me.” Reluctantly, I take the drink and stare down at it for a few minutes as everyone else talks.

River notices soon enough and stops talking to everyone else, fading into the background so she can lean in closer to talk to me. “Honey, you don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to. I just didn’t want you to feel left out. If it’s really that big of a deal to you, I’ll drink it for you.” she reaches for the drink but I pull it away, suddenly not wanting to look like a pussy infront of everyone. “I can drink it.” I grumble.

“Are you sure? I remember the last time you had alcohol.” much to my dismay, I too remember the time she snuck one of her dad’s six packs over and I was plastered before I finished one beer. “It’s fine, I was 14 when that happened. I can handle it.” I try to sound determined. She chuckles softly, moving to kiss me on the cheek. “Goof.” is the only thing she says.

Despite my tough act, I know I have a low tolerance for alcohol. But I’d never admit that, especially when it puts me at risk of looking like a total loser around River. I take a timid sip of the drink, looking around at the rest of the group to make sure no one notices how pathetic I look right now. After a minute I realize I’ve gone unnoticed and I move to stare down at the drink in my hand, fiddling with the umbrella. “How’s that drink going?” River nudges me playfully, looking clearly convinced that I won’t take another sip. “I can finish it.” I grumble back, taking a bigger sip than before just to prove my point.

I glance around at the group again, already everyone else has settled into this comfortable ease, like they’re right at home. Which I imagine they are by now, being as Lee is the owner of the place.

Kathy gets up to get another drink before quickly settling back into her spot on the couch by the wall. She squeezes into the seat between Lee and Shay. Lee goes right back to talking and Shay automatically moves back under Kathy’s arm like a trained dog. I chuckle a bit at it as Kathy starts up this hushed conversation with her sister.

Suddenly I feel my drink float out of my grasp and I look over to find River pulling the drink out of my hand. “Hey!” I try to act like I’m upset that she took the dreaded glass away from me. “I’m thirsty and you’re just going to let it go to waste anyways.” She smirks that damned smirk at me and a bolt of irritation surges through me. I’m not letting her think I’m a baby that easily, I at least have to put up some sort of a fight.

“I will not, give it back.”

“Why should I, Princess?” The mocking tone in her voice is too much to bear; even if I usually am a pushover any other time, she’s not getting the best of me now. “Because it’s my drink, now give it back.” my attempt at intimidating her only serves to make her laugh. “If you say so, Princess.” she hands the glass back over but somehow her mockery makes me feel less accomplished about the act.

Lee jumps to her feet and breaks the tensions of the little argument between us “Let’s go, what’s the point of clubbing if we’re just sitting here?” after a minute everyone follows her out to the mass of people dancing like their lives depend on it.

For the most part I stand off to the side of the fun, only really joining in on the crowded close contact when River or someone else pulls me back in. It’s like being that one small fish that wants to get out of the giant, sweaty school of fish but her friends just keep pulling her back in.

At some point, the party music stops and little by little it’s replaced with more and more slow songs. Meaning the sweaty school of fish gradually breaks up into smaller, less annoying groups of fish and the groups of twos in the center of the dance floor. A certain song in particular comes on and Kathy and Shay join the twos groups to dance to ‘their song’.

River joins me in the awkward corner away from the dance floor. “You’re not having fun are you?” she asks after a minute. “No, I am. I like hanging out with you and those two dweebs over there.” I nod in the direction of the dance floor, where Kathy and Shay are trying to waltz when they’re not giggling up a storm or tripping over the other dancers. Every other couple on the dance floor is glaring at them and yet they don't seem to care.

“They’re a perfect couple.” River laughs and I find myself laughing too because it couldn’t be a more true statement. Another minute of silence passes before she decides to speak up again. “I know you don’t like crowds and honestly I don’t blame you. We can go back to your place if you want.” she looks me over quickly, looking like she’s almost praying to go home at this point. And it wouldn’t take me many guesses to figure out why.

As tempting as the idea is, we should at least try to enjoy this club, for the sake of our friends. “Nah, we can stay a bit