Part One

The old saying goes, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and I defied that.

How We Met

Foxy, J-Bae, Twin and I were due for another trip and turn up. This time it was a $45 stay Las Vegas, Nevada. They planned to be there for an entire week, but I had a full- overtime career and could only stay for the weekend.

I knew that every time we cliqued up, shit got wild and hectic, so I decided to create an itinerary. Activities included everything except food.

We missed all of them.

For those of you that know me and my issues with timeliness, the clique is me x4. Having made the mistake of ignoring this fact, I lied about the check-in time for the last club adventure at Drai’s.

In line, drunk AF, we rehearsed our fake names and decided on a designated phony number to give out. It took us three rounds to settle on and remember them. For the record, my fake name was Essence.

“So, should I call you Alexis now and Essence when we get upstairs?” a tall, thick lipped, I-talian smiled our way. My girls shushed him.

“You can’t give away our secrets.” as I replied as the line moved forward. I looked around him. “Where are your friends?”

“They’re all asleep. Lames. It’s our last night in Vegas and everyone is dead.”

“Well I’ll be your wingman for the night.” Foxy locked arms with him as we all inched forward.

“Yay! Cheers to new friends.” he gave each of us a high-five. “What are the names again?”

We introduced our night time, drunken, selves to him and reminded him not to slip up.

“I’m not going to remember names at all then, I’ll just say HEY!” he laughed.

~

It was dark inside the nightclub, so we did a walkthrough to get a glimpse of the space.

Drai’s vibe was below my expectations. I assumed Vegas would be big lit 25/8. Confused, I treated Drai’s like any other club and walked towards the front near the dance floor. A rope blocked my path.

“Why can’t we be on the dancefloor, what kind of nonsense?” I asked aloud.

“Nelly is set to perform soon.” A club worker responded.

I didn’t see him at first, but gahdamn he scared me.

“Oh word? Nelly who? Furtado? If she’s performing we’ve got to go. This is not the vibe I was looking for.”

“No. HA! No. Nelly. Nelly like, if ya wanna take a ride with me Nelly.” he said doing a lil jig. I juged with him for a moment.

Then I turned to my girls, smirking.

“NELLY IS PERFORMING!!” I yelled belligerently. “We need to find a spot to see ‘em.” J-Bae was the only person who matched my enthusiasm.

The lights went down, and we followed Foxy away from the dance floor. Some music was going and a man grabbed her by the waist into a section. We followed suit.

The beat dropped.

Men in the section reached for each of us, J-Bae slid away from the handsome stranger that attempted to dance with her. I felt a hand on my thigh and looked back.

“Are you single?” I asked pointing to the other women in the section.

He shook his head up and down and proceeded to grab me by my waistline. We swayed back in forth in his attempt at dancing.

At the beginning of the next song, a girl approached me and whispered, “It’s my best friend’s birthday, this is her section, and you’re dancing with her boyfriend.”

Flabbergasted.

I donkey kicked his leg and watched him fall back into his seat. I let the clique know what happened and we climbed the seats to exit her section. We passed by the girlfriend, I apologized and wished her a happy birthday.

Out of sight, Foxy, Twin, and J-Bae laughed. “We could’ve turned up with them girls instead. Should’ve kicked them niggas out!”

“Right, like I wish my nigga would be dancing in MY section with another bitch.”

“Niggas ain’t shit.”

“Oh well, free drinks!” Still lit we walked and danced our way doing another walk through. I led them to the top of Drai’s because I wanted to see Nelly. We were in a clear area, away from the crowd that was growing within the sections. That’s when this rolling beat came in and I couldn’t control my inner ratchet self…

I was mobbin’ through the beach, yeah the city by the sea Mama tried to keep me home, but I love the fuckin’ streets

My girls danced near me and hyped up whatever phony dance I did, although they hated the song and were probably embarrassed. (Real Friends)

Mid jig, I was stopped by a bouncer.

“Excuse me ladies, can y’all come this way?” The bouncer pointed to some man sitting behind a velvet rope.

“My mama said don’t talk to strangers sir.” I slurred. So, he introduced himself to me as he escorted us toward the rope.

There sat the man that invited us, another man and a woman with more than a bottle per person. I turned to Foxy,

“What do they want with us?” as I looked around to check for signs of a threat.

“I’m not going.” She said.

“It’s Vegas, let’s live a little,” I responded nodding towards the bottles, “I’ll be able to see Nelly from that spot.”

I heard Nelly’s voice on the mic and couldn’t see, so my happy ass walked right past the rope with the clique in toe. We introduced ourselves and the man poured up. He spoke with Twin and Foxy while Justice and I drank, twerked and turned up to Nelly’s performance.

At some point the man told us it was his birthday and Twin turned into Te’kaila real quick. If you don’t know what that means, you won’t ever know. Although he had me record some of the turn up on his phone.

Nelly’s performance ended, the bottles were empty and the three of them were making moves to leave. We thanked him and bid the others well wishes on their engagement and a safe trip. One foot out of the velvet rope and Twin disappeared.

Regular music was being played and I figured she was on her way to the dance floor. To my surprise, she was flying above me. Some rando had lifted her up into his section. Other members of his group helped each of us up too.

Shots were in our hands before names were exchanged.

Names were never exchanged.

After all the time we spent rehearsing our names, we didn’t need them.

I took another shot.

“Hey you!”

I looked around.

“I’m talking to you!” Some rando was down below yelling up at me at the top of his lungs.

“Haaahn?” I asked. For your information, my hearing is the first to go when I am under the influence. If you’re not the bass of a song, you might as well beat it.

“Come down here.” I imagined him say.

“I CAN’T HEAR,” I yelled as I sat down on the ledge, “I’M LEGALLY DEAF WHEN I’M DRUNK. P.O.P. HOL IT DOWN!”

“I’m not playing with you.” I imagined him say as he lifted me down to the floor. I locked eyes with the bouncer. He gave me a nod. I hoped he was looking out for me.

The rando conversed at me as I smiled and mmhmm‘d. Then he lifted me back up into the section and stepped back for a muscle flex.

The clique and I kicked it with them, drank and left their section for the dance floor. We found the rhythm in every song, no matter how corny it may have sounded. It was packed and hot.

“HEYY!” someone was right in my ear. I turned to my side confused. It was the I-talian from the line. We danced.

I blinked and it was 4:00am.

The clique and I left Drai’s and walked two blocks to a designated pick up area for our Lyft. The wind was so strong I thought I heard someone call out, “Essence.” I smiled to myself.

“Someone is calling you, Essence.” J-Bae said. We all turned around to see who it was.

The man that invited us into his section, was running across the street towards us. “I’ve been calling your name for a block.”

“I can’t really hear when I’m drunk. Thought it was the whistling of the wind.”

A conversation at that moment would’ve been useless. So we exchanged numbers instead.

Back at the resort I goofed around with the baes until we were too tired to look at each other any longer. At the crack of dawn I woke up to messages from the man…