We finally made it out of the apartment at around 7:30, and piled into Tyla's car. It was very, very crowded. The only good part about the cramped ride was that it gave me a perfectly good excuse to press up against Niel. He smiled at me a bit when Kira didn't distract him up front with Tyla and Chriss. Vira and Tyla had shoved in a burned CD, and blasted up the sound on the stereo.

"Things are getting desperate, when all the boys can't be men, everybody knows I'm her friend, everybody knows I'm her man!" Vira sang along with the woman. I looked at her. "Your song?"

She made expansive hand gestures at thin air. "Sure. It's good."

We got to a club that was surprisingly quiet inside. By quiet I mean that we could actually hear each other without shouting.

A tallish guy with short blond hair and very gothy clothing appeared by us almost as soon as we entered. A girl was with him, with bluish gray eyes and purple hair. She blew a cloud of smoke from her cigarette at Kira.

"You didn't tell me you were coming tonight. And with my best friend, even? Shame!"

Kira turned to us. "Kids? This is Carmin."

"And this is Gabriel," Carmin introduced the new guy.

He waved, and smiled sweetly. Beside me, I saw Vira's eyes grow a little wider, and a stupid grin covered her face. I had never been inside anything but the pop/dance/upbeat clubs that most of my friends were into. I had always kind of thought of the Goth/punk/artist/geek crowd as freaks, to tell the truth.

"Who's the DD?" Chriss asked.

"Me," Vira said immediately.

"I'll take you two home," Niel told Carmin and Kira. They both sent him identical looks of thanks. I moved a little closer to him. I was trying to be subtle. It wasn't working. I felt more like a little kid inching around because they had to pee. Luckily, no one noticed.

"Who wants to get me a drink?" Tyla asked inosently, licking her lips and fluttering her eyelashes at Chriss.

"Vira does," Chriss said blandly, and smirked.

"Shut up," Vira said.

"Oh c'mon," Chriss coaxed. "You know you wanna be our server girl?"

"No."

"But we want you as our slave," Chriss continued.

"Kinky," Kira snickered. Carmin whacked her across the back of the head.

"I'll help you carry the drinks," Gabriel offered quietly to Vira.

"Ok!" she bounced over to him. "What do you children want to get drunk off of tonight?"

Drink orders were flung at her. I listened nervously as Chris asked for a Xeres Cocktail, and Carmin ordered something called a Venezia. And then it was my turn. I seriously considered changing my order from my normal. Really, really did. I pondered what else I could pick from the list that I knew of.

"Ana! What do you want?!" Vira demanded.

I blurted my usual drink order without thinking. "Sex on the beach-jersey style."

"You have got to be kidding me," Neil said, blinking rapidly

"O…k! I'm leaving now!" Vira dragged Gabriel off to the bar, and I could feel my face growing red.

"Isn't that a little mean, sending her off to get all the drinks like that?" I asked.

"No," Chriss replied promptly. "I've actually worked with her. She's just as demanding when she wants something."

"Like Gabriel," Tyla commented dryly.

"You noticed that too, eh?" Carmin asked.

"You'd have to be an idiot not to," Tyla replied, shrugging.

"Is she always… like that?" I asked.

Tyla blinked. "Like…"

"Um, psychotic?" I shrugged helplessly.

Tyla shrugged. "Pretty much."

Chriss cut in, "Except, you know, when she's not."

"OH. Ok then, I understand so much better now!" I said with false cheer.

"Good," Kira grinned.

"Where did you find her?" Kira asked Tyla.

"Starbucks," Tyla replied.

"Figures," Kira said. "All the weird ones hang out at Starbucks."

Carmin slugged her arm. "Shut up!"

"She's nice and sweet and innocent," Tyla informed them. "No corrupting her."

"You take the fun out of everything," Chriss stated, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend from behind and resting his chin on her shoulder.

I felt like a new pet that mommy had brought home, and was now being evaluated and cuddled and stroked by all of the children. "I, um, don't normally go there," I muttered, looking at the floor. "I don't even like coffee."

"I love you," Kira said immediately.

"Don't tell Vira that," Tyla said dryly. "That makes up 99% of her diet."

"Don't tell me what?" Vira popped up with Gabriel, both of them balancing drinks.

"Ana doesn't like coffee," Chriss stated.

Vira stared at me. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

I held up my hands defensively. "I'm sorry! I…I just think it tastes funny!"

She pushed my drink into my hands and took a long pull on her own. Tyla snickered, and headed for a table near the back. Everyone just kinda followed her like a bunch of well-trained dogs. I trailed along, totally not checking out Neil's butt. Really. I wasn't. Not… not at all. We shoved three tables together, making room for all eight of us to sit.

"So Carmin, how come we've never met Gabriel before?" Kira asked. "You were hiding him away in your closet, weren't you, you selfish, selfish child!"

Carmin rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Kira. He's cool. He's in my programming class."

Vira's head swiveled to look at Carmin. "Ooo, you're in programming?"

Carmin looked a little scared by the other girl's enthusiastic response. "Um, yeah. It's more to waste time, though. I'm an English major."

"Oh," Vira deflated a little, and turned her gaze back to Gabriel. "So, Gabriel, what's your major?"

"Graphic art," he answered.

She continued to smile. "So you must take a lot of computer classes, eh? I'm in computer sciences. Object oriented programming, Java, Pirl that sort of thing. I live in the labs."

Gabriel nodded uncertainly. Personally, I was surprised. Vira had seemed too Goth and hyper to be involved in anything requiring actual brain power, especially something as challenging as computer sciences.

"Ana's an astronomy major," Tyla told the table in general. I again blushed.

"So you study the stars and shit?" Kira asked. "That's cool."

I nodded, feeling totally out of the loop.

"What do you take, Tyla?" Gabriel asked politely.

"Oh, I'm majoring in Art History with a minor in Political Sciences," Tyla shrugged.

And again, the sheer brilliance that was sitting at this table made me feel very small. "What about you?" I asked Neil.

"I'm taking a bachelor of arts in music," he told me.

"Wow, so you must be, like, really good?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I suppose."

"Don't start talking that shit again," Carmin said with a little more emotion than I'd seen on her all night. "He's amazing."

I grinned at him. "I really love music…"

Vira turned to Tyla. "Please, please stab me with that fork?"

"Gimme," Chriss made a grab for the said fork, but Tyla swept it off the table. I blinked at them. Kira patted me on the head.

"All is well. You just keep…doing what your doing there."

I felt totally confused by then, and looked around for some clue. I found none. "I'm hungry," Chriss stated suddenly. Tyla smacked him.

"If you're going, I wouldn't mind something with ridiculous amounts of chocolate," Vira informed him brightly. He rolled his eyes.

"The things I do for you people…" Tyla sighed overdramatically.

"Why must you all force your menial tasks apon my poor abused and tragically overworked and underpaid lover?!" she demanded in a perfect English accent.

"Huh?" Kira blinked.

"She wants you people to get off your lazy asses and get your own food," Carmin explained.

"Oh." Kira nodded sagely. "I understand."