Vanessa Eden || Witch

Some nights were impossible, and this was one of them. Remy was tired, and annoyed at nearly everyone that entered the club. It seemed like every little girl was up here trying to get the boys at the bar to give her a free drink and the men were no better. They swaggered up to the bar like they were the toughest boys on the block and started calling her ‘baby’ and ‘honey’, like they had a chance at getting it in with her. Not all of them were ugly, or entirely unattractive, but she preferred her men to be a little more composed. Remy was working a double shift because some asshole couldn’t be bothered to show up to his shift, and that just added to her anger. Who did that? A person that ditched work deserved to be fired, and Remy seriously hoped he did. She hated wishing bad things on other people, but wouldn’t be terribly upset if the guy got fired. This wasn’t some child’s play job, and despite the looks she received when she told people that she was a bartender, you had to know your shit. There were hundreds of varieties of drinks to have to memorize, and the more drinks you made the better you became at it. The more you knew the drink, the faster you could mix it up, and that led to a larger tip. No one wants to wait for their drinks.

All those little flips you could do with the bottle, those came with due time. Remy could do about half as many tricks as everyone else, and that caused her to feel nothing short of utter humiliation. She had a need to be better, a need to be the best. And a realization that her bottle flipping skills couldn’t compare to those of the more experienced, older bartenders. The basic flips and easy little spins on her heels she had down, but ask her to do anything else and there’d be shattered glass all over the floor. Remy hated it, and the envy she felt when people clapped and cheered for the other bartenders was at an all time high tonight. Stupid Davis was showing off for some brunette with legs ten miles long and a tan so dark that you could practically smell the tanning lotion coming off.

Rolling her eyes, Remy poured a couple shots of tequila for a lady and then went back to wiping down the counter and making sure all the bottles were clean and full. This was the boring part of her job, wiping down bottle after bottle. Couldn’t have a single sticky one, or a half empty one, or anything that looked messy and in disarray. So she wiped and straightened and poured drinks and kept looking at the clock every five seconds, wanting her shift to be over already. Remy yawned and looked over at Jeremy, he was still flipping bottles. She furrowed her eyebrows and scrubbed the counter a little harder. Just as she was about to yawn again, like they’d sensed that she was bored and on cue started up, two obviously drunk guys started yelling at each other. That really wasn’t anything new, yelled and fought around here all the time. You called over the bouncer, or security, and that was that. But this time was different, much to her entertainment. These guys were big, drunk, loud, and they’d started to throw punches. So a couple random people tried to step in and be heroes, and they ended up getting sucked into the fight too.

Oh man, was this good. But she had to step in, now it was getting serious. There were multiple security guards rushing around, trying to pry the fighting people apart. She could hear their panicked voices on their walkie-talkies, and that was enough for her to understand that this was big. There usually weren’t massive fights like this, at least not that she’d seen. But she’d only been there a couple of months, so maybe this was a common thing. Either way, Remy stepped in. Not that it was really her place, but she didn’t want anyone to actually get kill tonight. Moving quickly around the counter, she pushed her way through the thick crowd and grabbed the back of some guy’s shirt. Yanking him back roughly, the man whirled around, slapping her arms away. He looked like he was about to hit her, and she braced herself for it. But he didn’t, and instead just stormed off, shoving his way through the mass of people.

Adrenaline pumping through her veins, heart thudding loudly in her chest, Remy moved in on another guy. This guy was actually bleeding, all over. Blood ran down out of his nose, over his lips, onto his shirt, and onto the ground. Remy grabbed him by the arm, and at first he pulled away. But she tugged him on until he followed her over to the bar and sat on one of the stools. Remy leaned over and grabbed a few paper towels, then handed them to the guy. He didn’t need to be bleeding all over everyone over there, it was gross and messy and not okay. The guy tried saying something, but he was way too drunk for it to actually make any sense. Remy just pushed more paper towels towards him and tried to keep an eye on the fight still happening. While security had managed to clear up a huge chunk of the fighting people, some die-hard fighters were still going at it.

Behind her a man started yelling, but she didn’t think anything of it until she was sandwiched between two screaming men. What were they yelling about? Remy didn’t have the slightest clue. All she knew was that the bleeding guy was standing up, tossing the paper towels to the side and grabbing for the other man. That was it. Remy put both her arms out, shoving them both apart as much as she could. But she wasn’t anything special, and the men easily pushed right back. If there was something she hated above all other things, it was getting pushed around. In a furious moment, Remy turned and shoved the bloody-nose guy down onto the stool. “Just sit down!” She yelled, her voice holding enough of a demanding tone that he listened. Spinning around to the other man she pushed him back with both hands this time, so it sent him reeling backwards. Remy almost ordered him to leave, but she couldn’t think of any clever way to put it. People in movies always had the coolest catch phrases, yet she couldn’t think of a single one. Security stepped in before she really had a chance to say anything, and led both men out.

Remy bit her lip, watching the crowd slowly disperse. So she’d wanted exciting, but maybe next time she’d try for a little less exciting.