I was dressed. My make up was on. I looked good. Really good. Girlfriend good.

“Stop looking at yourself in the mirror and go already” Carmen said.

O that’s right. Glen and Carmen are still here. Let’s see…. They need to leave.

“Thanks for your help guys” I said opening the front door.

“Ouch Spence that hurts” Glen said in mock offense.

“Come on Glen, I’ll treat for ice cream” Carmen laughed and dragged him out the door.

“Cool. Hey you want to catch a movie?” he asked her on their way out.

“Yeah but I’m not going to see anything that’s Sci-fi, nerd boy” Carmen said

With that they were gone and I was knocking on Ashley’s door, a fashionable 10 minutes late. She opened the door and my jaw dropped. Not because she looked good, which she did, but because she was wearing a long sleeved black shirt and jeans.

I was overdressed in my dress and heels.

“Hey, you look great!” she said.

“Thanks, you look good too” I looked awkward “I’m going to go and change”

“No, no you don’t have to”

I peeked my head inside and saw that everyone else was dressed in pants and nice tops. I gave Ashley a quick kiss and ran back to my apartment.

15 minutes later I was in jeans, a blouse.

“That was fast” Ashley smirked “Hopefully you won’t be wearing that for too long”

I looked puzzled. Didn’t I look good? And that brilliantly translated to “huh?”

“You look good, but I happen to know you look better without clothes”

I blushed, and Ashley led me inside. The place looked good. There was music playing, people dancing and booze everywhere. People taking group shots, body shots, and beer chugging. Everyone looked like they were having a good time.

“You want something to drink?” she asked

“um, yeah I’ll have a beer”

We walked into the kitchen, and Ashley pulled two beers out of the fridge, opening both of them and handing one to me.

Before I could thank her, two men from behind us called out Ashley’s name.

“Who’s your friend?” one of them asked.

There was a pause. This is it. I don’t realize I’m holding my breath until my lungs start to burn and then she spoke.