As Strange as Fiction: The Black - Haired Girl

I could have sworn that I’d seen her before. I blinked a couple of times to check my blurry vision. Yes, it was her. I couldn’t forget the girl with the curly black hair. She was memorable not because of her good looks. In fact, she looked quite average, bordering on seemingly too corky. She was memorable because of the way she dressed. It just seemed so out of place in the high society bar where we were in. I wasn’t even sure why Ralph, the bouncer at Poppy’s let this girl in. Yes, with her plaid skirt and half a dozen beaded necklaces strewn over her black t-shirt, she was really a sight to behold.

What was even more disturbing right now, was that very same girl I was thinking about, was staring at me too. I noticed the change in her expression from a seemingly lost child, to one that has suddenly found something quite interesting. So, being my usually snobby self, I simply looked in another direction. I started drinking another glass of these weird cocktails Flip ordered.

"Nice! Hey Zach, you know who that girl is?" I turned around to look at the girl Flip was talking about. Sure enough, this girl looked like she had just stepped out of some men’s magazine. She was about 5’10" with a body to die for. She was wearing one of those flimsy satin mini-dresses and knee-high boots. One word-HOT!

"No, can’t have seen her before. I don’t think she’s from around here. Or else she’s been hanging around in the wrong bars." I said with a laugh. "Well, maybe I should give her a tour around?" Flip said as he slid out of our booth and went directly to the blonde girl. "There goes Flip again…" Jeanine said while sipping another red-colored concoction. Flip, Jeanine and I have been friends since Kindergarten. We got to be friends with some people from the school football team, courtesy of Flip and the cheerleaders, courtesy of Flip again… Jeanine is more of a band girl and maybe we’ve been treating her as one of the boys for too long. I know of course that she’s been in love with Flip for over 3 years now, since College began. She’s just waiting for him to stop hovering all over the place and finally notice her. And as for me, you could call me the loner. And how may you ask did we 3 get together? Well, courtesy of having the 3 richest dads in the city. We’ve been friends since we could count the number of zeroes in our parent’s bank account.

But the money wasn’t what kept us together. Even at a young age, we were often kept from having any friends outside of our parent’s circle. So it was a blessing in disguise when we met each other at the Country Club. And finally, my parents couldn’t say anything about my choice of friends. So because of Flip, the most popular of us, we now also hang out with the whole popular crowd at Realton U. And that’s how we started hanging out at Poppy’s.

"Zach…" Jeannine’s voice got me out of my trance. "I gotta get out of here. This place is suffocating me." She said seeming pissed. I secretly knew of course that she was irritated because of seeing Flip with the blonde girl. "Where are you going?" I asked, worried she might do something. "The guys just texted me to meet them at Moon (referring to the bar where their band played at). So I’m gonna hitch a ride to get there." She said. "I’m gonna drive you Jeannine." Drake, the quarterback immediately said. "Uh, whatever, ok. I’ll see you tomorrow, ok Zach?" Jeannine finally said. I know she was only using Drake to make Flip jealous but if Drake could keep her sane for one night, then it was alright with me. "Yeah, sure. I’ll be okay here. I’ll just wait for Flip. See you guys at school tomorrow. " I said. I watched her put on her jacket and disappear out of the room with Drake by her side. Because of this, I didn’t notice the presence of a black-haired girl behind me.