The night was at its peak, some synthetic club track reverberating off of the walls and embedding itself in the hollow of her bones; filling her with this urge to dance, and sway, and grab whoever was closest to her and make them move to the erratic beat in tandem with her. The flashing blue strobe lights sweeping across the floor highlighted the exposed flesh beneath tank tops and short, short skirts, coated in a fine sheen of sweat as packed bodies pressed together tightly.

  It was chaos, Yuri not knowing whose body was currently wrapped around her waist, or the name of the girl with her leg between hers and her hand on her hip - and she loved it. She threw her head back, making contact with the shoulder of whoever was behind her and laughed, deep and resonate as the thumping bass of the next track drowned it out. Fingers traced the hem of her shirt, sliding smoothly against the strip of skin barely showing as the heat of the bodies around her disappeared, melting into the crowd and leaving Yuri a little empty, but with some space to breathe and recollect herself.

  A drink. She needed another drink.

  She excused herself though no one could hear, pushing and slipping past girls and boys dancing closely and intimately. She wondered how many of them were strangers. She wondered if they cared.

  She reached the bar, somehow not managing to trip over feet that she had lost control of far further back in the night, and called the bartender. Something hot. Something quick and easy. She ordered a rum and coke, leaning forward heavily on the bar as she did, running a hand through disheveled hair. The bartender left to make her drink and she slumped on a stool, jostling the bodies around her as she did.

  She was decently gone, just drunk enough that everything she did was fun and entertaining. She’d outgrown the days where she’d drink to blackout, to forget everything she did and wake up in some strangers bed or, one time, a sidewalk. She enjoyed getting home and sleeping in the comfort of her own bed after a night out - though sometimes she did still wake up in an unfamiliar bed. The only difference was this time she could remember the events of the previous night, and it usually left her with a satisfied grin and none of the emptiness it used to leave behind.

  Her drink arrived, spilling slightly onto her skin as the bartender tripped behind the busy counter. She smiled and waved off his apology, pressing the exact change tightly into his sweaty palm and turning to face the crowd. She the alcohol off of her thumb, tasting salt and the bitter, tangy taste of rum while her eyes swept the room.

  The throng of bodies on the dance floor had lessened a little as the music took a slower shift, people taking the opportunity to order more drinks at the bar. The song was a little slow and melancholic for Yuri’s taste, reminding her of the sort of tracks she’d put in an angsty playlist when her high school girlfriend ended their three month relationship. She smiled into her glass, the memory of how torn up she was over something so trivial to her now was...amusing, to say the least. She took a sip of her drink, letting the concoction slide down easily when she caught sight of a body moving through the crowd.

  She looked slightly out of place, Yuri thought, as she pushed her way past people with hurried steps and frantic movements. Long, black hair cascaded down her back in waves, and Yuri in a small breath when the strobe lights swept across her face and highlighted the high ridge of her nose and dark, smoky eyes framed with worry. She found suddenly felt a little dry, and she swallowed uncomfortably when dark eyes swept the room, scanning thoroughly as though she was looking for someone.

  Yuri knew when she had found it for she stilled, eyes locked on two bodies pressed together comfortably on a small love chair.

   Ah , so that’s what this was.

  She wasn’t sure how she had trapped herself in this bubble, watching like some sick spectator peering through the glass as this beautiful stranger’s heart shattered on the dance floor. She forced herself to look away, turning her head away from this painfully private moment and returning her gaze to the sticky bar-top. She went to take another sip of her drink when a body suddenly pressed in beside hers, knocking her arm slightly and spilling more alcohol on her thumb.

  “I’ll have a whisky on the rocks.” The smooth, velvet voice beside her shouted over the music, face forward and eyes blazing with determination.

  Wait, those eyes-

  “Thanks.” She shot a mirthless smile, a formality more than anything, and tilted the contents of the glass down her neck in one, smooth motion. Yuri wished she’d have kept looking at the bar top, but instead she found herself tracing the swell and rise of a slender pale throat as it downed a drink.

  The slam of the glass on the counter-top had her jumping in her seat, harsh sound echoing across the bar and drawing the attention of a few other patrons.

  “One more, please.”

  Jesus Christ.

  Yuri absently thought about stopping this, but realised she had no place in telling a stranger how to deal with heartbreak. She likely would have found herself in the same situation, drowning herself at the bottom of a bottle of Jameson and thumbing through her phone shakily to delete old text messages.

  Not like she’s done that before, or anything.

  She nursed the last few sips of her drink, eyeing the beautiful girl as she knocked back her second drink in one shot too and ignoring how sinfully attractive she looked as she did so. She slammed this glass with much less gusto than she did last time, but what was more surprising was the immediate turn she did to face Yuri and make direct eye contact.

  “Rough night?” Yuri found herself saying, never one to find herself at a loss for words.

  “Oh,” the girl in front of her chuckled, attractive grin sliding easily into place on her face as she did so, “like you wouldn’t believe .”

  Yuri shrugged, hunching herself forward on the bar to wrap both hands around her drink.

  “I’ve got time.”

  She felt herself being regarded as she finished the last dredges of her drink, saw the incline of her head as she swept Yuri up and down before exhaling softly.

  “My boyfriend, or I guess now my ex-boyfriend,” she snorts, “was cheating on me.”

  Yuri’s not sure how she relays this information so easily, as if it hadn’t just happened literal moments ago in this same club. Yuri could barely speak after the few break-ups she’d been through, but she realises every person deals with this sort of thing differently. She winces in sympathy as she places her empty glass on the bar-top, drumming her fingers against it absently.

  “You’re right, I