A couple of minutes went by and there was still no sign of Chance but Darleena didn't really care. Why was he so different? Why why why.... Even though she was in deep thought about Lincoln, she was super aware of her surroundings. Not just aware of where the people were sitting, but also able to hear all of the conversation that was going on around her.

  "I'm telling you I can get any girl."

  "Bull fucking shit." Two guys say in uni sync in a tipsy tone. One of them had short puffy brown hair and blue eyes. The other one was slightly taller than his other friends but was bald, had dark green eyes, and had a piercing on his left eyebrow. From overhearing their conversations before she found out that the bald one was called Braidy, the guy with the puffy hair was called Garth, and the st guy was called Rowley.

  "When have you ever come home with a girl? Oh, that's right. You never have." Braidy says with a drunken smile on his face.

  "Let's be fair to him, Braidy. He is good at those dating sims." He looks over at Rowley. "Are you talking about how you are good at those games?" Garth says as he tries to hold his ughter in.

  "Fuck both of you," Rowley says making both Braidy and Garth burst out ughing, Braidy being the loudest and sounding like a broken squeaky toy. "Look I can get more pussy than both of you with my eyes closed." They both snicker at his comment. "What it's true. Any girl. Any time." He Takes a sip from his drink. "And anywhere," he says as he holds his index finger out towards them before he takes three big sips from his drink.

  "Prove it," Braidy says.

  "H-H-Huh," Rowley stutters.

  "You heard me. If you are that confident then go and prove it to us. Go to that girl over there that's sitting at the bar and pick her up." Rowley turns around to look at Darleena. A bead of sweat slides down the side of his face as he isn't confident that he can do it. "What's the matter, Rowley? Scared?" Braidy asks with a smug look on his face.

  "O-O-Oh course not. Like I said I can get any girl," Rowley says trying to sound convincing. He then finishes the rest of his drink, stands up, and stumbles his tipsy self over to Darleena. Halfway through walking over to her, he wanted to walk past her and head into the bathroom. Stay in there for a good ten minutes and then come out and head back to Garth and Braidy. But he knew he couldn't, as he could feel their eyes watching him like a hawk. Fuck fuck fuck. Those were the only words that ran through his head as he finally reached the bar counter. His body temperature rose by the second and his face now looked like he grabbed a big scoop of Vaseline and spread it across his face. "H-H-H." He clears his throat. "I was wondering if I could buy you a drink." He stutters. Shit, I messed up. He thought to himself as Darleena didn't respond straight away.

  "I'm sorry. Were you talking to me?" Darleena asks as she turns to face him, for him to see that she is blind.

  "No, no it's okay you don't have to say sorry," Rowley says while he uses his right sweaty hand to scratch the back of his head nervously.

  "But sure I would love another drink.

  "Yo." A different bartender comes over to them. "Can I get a pineapple java and another one of what she was having?"

  "No problem." The bartender says before he starts making the drinks while Rowley takes another look at Darleena and notices how attractive she is to him. Even though he wasn't really interested in dies who had muscle to them, for her he felt like it suited her. Not only that her light purple hair made her stand out compared to everyone else in the room. Just from looking at her, he could tell she was a foreigner. Probably from a country like Lomden Republic which was known for people who were paler in completion. After a couple of seconds of waiting the bartender came back with their drinks and pced them in front of them.

  Damn, she's hot. He thought to himself as he watched her soft lips part open just slightly for her to take a sip from her now new cold drink. Shit. It's been quiet for too long. I need to say something. Come on, come on. Think. Oh, I know. "Sooooo, do you normally go out partying by yourself then?" He asks in a drunken tone.

  "Not really. I'm kinda new to town and I kinda had a nice talk with some guy as I was going for a walk through Petatonas forest. It was such a nice time I decided to get a drink before I turned in for the night," Darleena says.

  "Ah, I see. Wait and he didn't offer to take your hand in marriage after seeing you? He must be really dumb." Rowley says, ending his sentence with a small chuckle that made him feel lightheaded the longer he chuckled.

  "Marriage? I don't get it." Darleena says in a curious tone, truly wondering what he meant.

  "I-I-It was a joke. C-C-Cause you're so attractive. I-I-I thought he would have proposed to you right there and then," he responds now feeling slightly embarrassed by what he said.

  "Oh, I see." She lets out a small chuckle. "Nah he didn't do anything of the sort," she says before she takes a small sip from her drink. As the minutes went by they continued to talk but it wasn't a flowing conversation. Every now and then there would be a pause for a couple of minutes before another conversation would be brought up but none of them stuck. This is a waste of time, this guy has nothing that I really care about. He wasn't a bad-looking guy Darleena just didn't like him like that. He had short light brown hair and hazel eyes which made him look innocent like a little girl's favorite teddy bear. There was nothing about him that made him really catch her eye. Not even his bck-framed gsses impressed her. I guess he isn't struggling for cash if he is able to wear gsses like that. She thought before she took another sip from her drink before she continued to ponder her thoughts. Actually, there is something that has got my attention. His heart. It's been somewhat fascinating to me compared to everyone else in this bar. It sounds like a beginner drummer repeatedly hitting a drum. It's not coordinated or too impressive but it is different. I guess I'll cim it for my own but how do I speed this up? Maybe I should be less defensive and pretend this drink is getting to me. Yeah, that might be the way to go. While she was thinking of how to get him into a secluded area, Rowley was in his own thoughts.

  Shit, shit, shit. This isn't going well. I bet they are enjoying me making a fool out of myself. Still. I can't let them win, but there's nothing to talk about now. He looks over to see Darleena finishing her drink. Crap, and now she's close to finishing her drink. And once she does it's gonna be game over. Come on, come on. Think. While he was thinking about what he could do to stop her from leaving, he heard the sound of his phone pying the sound of a red panda, notifying him that he had got a message. It was barely audible cause of the music that was pying in the bar but he also felt the vibration that would happen whenever he got a message. I bet it's them.

  "Did you hear that too?" Darleena asks out of the blue, catching him off guard.

  "Hear what?"

  "Okay, this is gonna sound crazy." She leans into Rowley. "But I'm sure I heard the sound of a red panda. Rowley was shocked slightly as the music in the bar was still pretty loud so he was amazed that she heard his notification sound go off.

  "Oh yeah." He giggles "That was me. Well, not me. I wouldn't make random animal noises but uh." He pauses for a second. "I-It was my phone notifying me about something," Rowley says, slightly embarrassed as he scratches his dry scalp.

  A red panda huh? He most definitely likes them. Which is a surprise, I didn't think that he would be the type of person to love animals. Still, I should monopolize on this before it goes quiet again. Darleena thought before she said. "That's cute, I love red pandas as well. They look so cute, innocent, and menacing all at the same time."

  "Really? You're not just messing with me are you?" Rowley asks as he knows that a red panda isn't a common animal that people would choose first to say that they love. A dog, a cat, a fish, or maybe even a gerbil yes but a red panda no. Maybe she's trying to be nice and once she gets the chance she's going to find a way to leave. but she did seem happy when she heard the notification. Rowley thinks to himself.

  "Of course not." She giggles. "I really do find them cute. Are you pnning on working with animals in the future?" Darleena asks in a curious tone.

  "Yeah, I am. Well if it's possible." Rowley says before he takes a long sip from his drink. If I work with them maybe I don't have to continue to pretend to be someone who can get anyone and just be myself. He thinks. "I would like to work as a veterinarian or work at an animal shelter in the future."

  "Not a zoologist?" Darleena asks, curious to know why he didn't choose that to be his future occupation.

  "I mean I would love to do that but I love to help animals more and keep them healthy. If possible I want to help more animals than hurt, eat, or kill them. That's why I became vegan. I honestly don't like animals in cages and how people eat things like cows, chickens, and fish so freely. But what I really hate are those who abandon and mistreat their" -he does air quotes with both hands- "pets. It just makes me sick." Realizing his answer is going off into a tangent he pauses. Wait a second. Was that answer too weird? He thinks. "Shit, sorry about that I was going on a bit of a tangent there," he says before he looks at Darleena to see that she's drunkenly smiling at him.

  "No, no it's fine I can see that you're really passionate about caring for animals. It's nice to see that." Darleena says making Rowley turn red slightly and scratch his cheek. Noticing Chance had come back from dealing with the delivery driver, Darleena says to him. "Hey, Chance, can you make me another sunrise sage?" Chance nods his head in acknowledgment of her order and starts making her drink. "Other than red pandas, what animals do you like?"

  While Rowley was answering that question, Braidy was still watching them from afar as Garth went to the bathroom, as he thought nothing would happen between them. After five minutes he returns by walking through the tables and jumps onto his seat. "Urgh" -he nearly falls off his seat so readjusts himself- "has anything new happen since I was gone?" Garth asks.

  "Not really but I feel like something is up," Braidy responds.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I don't know. I've been watching them the entire time while you were in the bathroom. AAAAnd I might be wrong but it seems like a switch has been flicked and now it's going well for him."

  "Pssssssht." Garth looks over towards Darleena and Rowley. "It doesn't look like that to me. Watch in a couple of seconds" -he pours himself another shot- "their conversation is gonna die again and they'll go back into silence." Garth says with confidence as he takes his shot.

  "Yeah. Maybe you're right," Braidy mumbles, but Garth was wrong as their conversation didn't stop at all. The only time it stopped was when they took a sip from their drinks, ordered a new one, or if either one of them had to go to the bathroom.

  "Here, try my tazz and coke." Rowley slides his gss towards Darleena. "I don't know if you would like it but it's pretty good in my opinion." Darleena picks up his gss and takes a sip from it. Compared to her sunrise sage, She could taste a hint of cinnamon and a strong taste of freshly grated nutmeg. To her, it wasn't a good combination. There were too many fvors going on as she could also taste the zest of a lime which she believed was squeezed in at the end to finish the drink.

  "It's pretty good, maybe I'll get this next." She hands him back his drink. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom again," Darleena says before she raises her hand to get Chance to notice her and lead her to the bathroom. I can't believe that this is going so well. Rowley thinks to himself before he takes two big sips from his drink, and then spins in his chair with ease to face his friends with a smug look on his face.

  "He is such a smug dick," Braidy says, annoyed.

  "He really is," Garth says in a slurred tone. Ten minutes ter Darleena had finally finished in the bathroom, walked her way back over to Rowley and they continued to talk, while Braidy and Garth continued to watch them. Not before long it was one in the morning. By this point, there were hardly too many people in the bar as it had only thirty minutes before it closed. After watching Rowley doing well with Darleena for such a long time, Garth's jealousy couldn't be contained anymore so he sms his gss onto the table and says. "It's got to be luck, right? Ain't no way he is this good with women."

  "Yeah, it has to be." He pauses. "Let's go. I'm tired of watching this," Braidy says before he picks up his gss and finishes the rest of his drink.

  "Okay, but I don't wanna head back to the room yet. We should go to an actual club and try to pull. If Rowley can hit it off with a girl then we should be able to as well. I mean we are way, way way, way, waaaaaaaay more interesting than him." Garth then pours himself another shot after his sentence and shoots down his throat. *Bleugh* Was the noise he made before he drunkenly smmed his fist on the table.

  "Damn, straight we are. Fuck it." Braidy pauses to finish the rest of his drink. "Let's say bye to him first" -he stumbles to his feet- "and then we can go," Braidy says before he walks over to Rowley with Garth following behind him. As they were getting closer they could hear the sound of Darleena and Rowley ughing their heads off like they were two cssmates and one of them had told a funny joke which only they got. "Hey, Rowley."

  "AAAAAAYE" -he slides off his seat- "let me introuse. Introbouse," as he wasn't able to say introduce properly Darleena starts ughing some more.

  "Introbouse huh?" Darleena questions mid-ughter.

  "Shut up" -Rowley turns his head to look at Braidy and Garth- "this is my new amazing friend Darleena. And Darleena. This is Braidy who I've known for four years," he says after he tries to sp him on the arm but misses.

  "Nice to meet you," Braidy says whilst he slurs over his words.

  "And this is Garth."

  "I hope he hasn't caused you too much trouble," Garth says as he takes a second and reaches out his hand to shake Darleena's hand.

  "No, no" -she reaches out her hand to shake his- "he hasn't been any trouble at all," Darleena says with a smile. She's really cute. They both thought to themselves at the same time as they took a good look at her.

  "Wait, what do you mean cause her trouble? I don't cause any trouble..." While they were rattling off to each other, Darleena just continued to smile and chuckle every now and then to seem like she was paying attention but she wasn't at all. This isn't good. I should have known that they were his friends by the way they kept on looking at us but I didn't think they would come over. If they all come up to his room then it may cause a scene if I don't kill them instantaneously. Maybe I should cast La trick and kill them here and now. She changes stances without being noticed by them and gets ready to kill them all. Nah I can't do that. Not now. If I go on a massive killing spree then Zen Craft will know I was here and I still don't know if I can take on the rest of Zen Craft. Especially with HIM still being around. Or maybe I should just take that risk. It's not like I'm going to be staying in this hotel for much longer. Darleena thinks to herself before she tunes back in to hear Braidy and Rowley rambling about utter nonsense.

  "Are you guys gonna come up with us back to Rowley's room once the bar closes?" Darleena asks, hoping they weren't.

  "Don't be silly," Braidy responds before he taps the end of Darleena's noise softly with his pointer finger. At that moment in time, she wanted to slice his finger off and end her facade but at the same time, she knew she couldn't. "Nah, nah we're about to head to a different club to give you guys some space," he says as he winks at Rowley trying to be discreet.

  "Braidy our Uber here. Let's go," Garth shouts while standing at the entrance to the bar.

  "Okay, I'm coming," Braidy shouts back. "It was nice meeting you."

  "Likewise," Darleena says in a friendly tone.

  "And" -Braidy and Rowley start to do their handshake- "I'll see you in the morning." Once they had finished doing their handshake he rushed out of the hotel bar, out of the lobby, and got into the Uber with Garth sitting beside him.