Alice spotted
Heather and another girl at a booth by the wall at the far end of the club near
the stage and nodded with her head for Dana and Shane to follow. Shane smiled,
nodded her head at the dance-floor behind them and turned around, walking
directly towards a group of girls who had hollered at her when they walked in. Alice shrugged
indifferently, expecting nothing less from Shane. Then, knowing the other girl
wouldn’t be rushing off to the dance floor anytime soon, she led Dana towards
the booth.

“Hey, guys! Nice of you to finally show up. Melanie and
I were afraid we’d be stuck with each other all night.” Heather said playfully,
asking Melanie to scoot over to make space for the newcomers.

“Hi… I’m Dana.” she whispered, smiling shyly
at the girl beside her.

“I’m Mel.” She smiled back confidently.

“Damn, Mel C, you clean up good!” Heather tried to speak
over the music when she could finally see what Dana was wearing. She and Alice
totally missed the exchange between Dana and Melanie.

“Um, thanks.” Dana replied, a little used to the ogling
by now …just a little.

Alice
half-heartedly tried to stop from rolling her eyes. “Heather, when you’re
done ogling, order us a couple of beers, will you?”

Heather humorlessly grinned at her and got up to go to
the bar. As Melanie started a conversation with Dana, it seemed to Alice as if Dana
was trying not to catch her eye or say anything to her. Now that she thought
about it, she realized that the car ride from Bette’s house to here was pretty
much the same thing – Dana trying to avoid eye contact or conversation with
her. It was strange to Alice since Dana
had proven herself to be quite the cooperative, though at first shy,
conversationalist when they met just that afternoon. And she continued to prove
it now as her conversation with Melanie seemed to rise in volume and
excitement.

“And I said, ‘damn the person whoever invented the
flu!’ …and I was like shaking my fists in the air.” Dana descibed,
demonstrating the fist-shaking with her well-toned arm, much to Mel’s
amusement, it seems.

Melanie Caplan was by all means, in Alice‘s opinion,
the type of person who was not that great when it comes to sweet talking girls.
Well, yeah, it’s probably because she’s the type of person who is attractive
enough to not need to be great at talking to sweeten the girls up. Nevertheless, Dana
managed to get her talking within 30 seconds of meeting her. Alice turned to
the brunette who was ignoring her and was giving all her attention to this
almost-stranger. Still, Dana’s talking-ability astonished Alice.