Chapter 8

Only one more week until Christmas
break and the semester would come to an end.

Like the rest of her colleagues
Bette was looking forward to some rest and relaxation.

However the one thing she did not
look forward to was spending time alone at night.

It always seemed as if the night
time was the worse that’s when her thoughts took her to places she tried to
keep within the recesses of her heart and mind.

But sometimes the memories won out
and they always left her feeling empty.

Well this year she had vowed to
herself that it was going to be different.

And she realized to make this time
different she had to do something out of the ordinary.

So when a few of her colleagues
invited her out for drinks on Friday much to their surprise and her own she accepted.

Glancing at her self in the mirror
one last time before grabbing her keys and purse she headed out.

As she pulled into the parking lot
she realized she had not been this nervous in a long time.

But what could she expect it had
been over a year since she had been out to a bar, drinking with friends and not
combined it with business.

Looking at her self one last time
in the pull down mirror she gave her self a silent pep talk before stepping out
of the car.

The music was loud and the place
appeared to be very crowded tonight as she scanned the dimly lit club for her
friends.

Waving at them to acknowledge she
saw them she headed for the bar to order a Manhattan.

As the night progressed Bette had
changed her drink of the night to beer due to her lower tolerance these days.

She felt old as she looked around
the club at all the young female bodies on the dance floor. 

Getting ready to call it a night
and make her good byes she noticed a small area on the crowded dance floor
suddenly become clear.

She couldn’t believe her eyes right
in the middle of the disturbance was Angie, a young blond woman, and an angry
girl with spiked black hair.

Bette watched with interest as the
black haired woman grabbed the pretty blond forcefully by the arm trying to
pull her through the crowd.

Suddenly Angie stepped between the
two women and just from her body language and facial expressions Bette could
tell she was very angry.