Even on her off nights, Vi liked to hang around the club. Not just for the discounted drinks, but also the music and the electricity that almost seemed to crackle in the air. New York was magical to her in that aspect. The city that never sleeps. Even in the wee hours, the club patrons would still be popping and grinding like they had energy to burn.
The bar was sticky from some drunkard spilling their cocktail everywhere, so Vi was making a beeline for the bathroom to rinse the gunk off her hands. Typically, there was a line stretching as far as the corner of the club for the girl’s room, but at the moment there were only three slightly-irritated, slightly-tipsy girls leaning against the wall. Vi held her sticky hands up in a surrender position as she passed them.
“Just using the sink, babes! Don’t kill me!”
Even with the announcement, she could feel them rolling their droopy-drunk eyes at her.
Vi could see there was at least one girl on the floor of her stall, so she gave the door a light tap with a knuckle.
“Oi, honey. You can throw up at home. Got people waiting.”
What came in reply was a dejected whimper, not even a full word. Typical individuals would have moseyed on, but Vi spent way too much time in this place not to know the difference between a drunk voice and a not-drunk voice. And that was definitely a not-drunk voice. Folding nearly in half, she peered under the door tor try and get a glimpse of the girl in the stall. It was the shoes she recognized. Jimmy Choo knockoffs, cherry red.
“Kelsey?” One of her regulars.
“Yahuh…”
“Kels, open the door. What’s with you, hon?”
Slowly, the Jimmy Choos rose to upright positions and Kelsey unlocked the stall door. Vi liked Kelsey - a pretty grad student with long caramel hair, always ripe with conversation and Michael Jackson requests. But that night her mascara was running down her cheeks and her face was blanched with worry. She may have been sick, but she wasn’t drunk.
“You got a bun in your oven, don’tcha?”
Biting her lip, Kelsey nodded, crossing over to hang onto the sink ledge for dear life.
“Did you drink anything?”
“I-I had a shot of tequila, but that’s all, I swear,” she sputtered.
Vi nodded, believing her.
“I don’t want it, Vi…I want kids, but not like this. It’s all too soon, a-and I need my degree, and…I can’t do all of this by myself.”
“Well, what the fuck happened to Wes?”
“H-he hasn’t talked to me since I told him, and…” Kelsey shook her head, unable to finish the thought, but Vi could tell that Wes didn’t want any part of this. Shmendrik. She took Kelsey gently by the shoulders, making her face her.
“Listen, hon. You, of all people, are not gonna plotz from this, okay? I won’t allow it. I’m gonna take you to the clinic tomorrow and get you checked out, and if you really wanna get rid of it, you get rid of it. Got it?”
Kelsey nodded, looking like someone had lifted the world from her shoulders, and collapsed against Vi in a hug.
