The Desert Standoff

should have been so tonight. Consequences of tomorrow or anything that exists out of the moment that they are presently in doesn’t even register to them. Not tonight. Not when tonight is so special.
Besides, tonight is ladies’ night and they are getting everything so cheaply. Everything has worked out perfectly. Natalie had asked Suzi over and over again if she wanted to have a party for her birthday but she insisted that no, this was exactly what she wanted. Over and over again. Which is why Natalie agreed to let her get all dressed up in the first place. She let Suzi give her a total makeover and when Suzi said that she wanted to dance, Natalie let her. So here they are, intoxicated on cheap bay breezes and existing like they are the only two in the world. Naturally, Suzi attracts a lot of male attention, and Natalie is only too happy to stomp on their feet until they go away. Tonight, Suzi isn’t even fighting her on it. Even more special than just her birthday or the fact that she is finally nineteen years old and about to be finished with freshman year, this is the first of the many birthdays that Suzi has had since knowing Natalie that she has been able to be present for. This is the first time that they are allowed to celebrate this happy day together and on the proper day.
No more attempting to sneak out and getting caught. No more having early or late parties or secretive gift exchanges between the two of them. No more of Natalie’s mother “accidentally” drinking too much and forcing Natalie to take care of her or swallowing too many pills so that Natalie has to spend the whole night in the emergency room with her while she is getting her stomach pumped. No more having to work the late-night shift in an effort to save up for college so that she can get the hell out of that house. That’s over now. It’s over and the two of them are free.
“I need another drink!” Suzi calls to Natalie, screaming over the thunder of the music and pointing to her throat.
“Me too!” Natalie nods, and the pair of them head off the crowded dance floor and over to the bar. Suzi smiles brightly at the man that the two girls squeeze past, batting her eyelashes in apology with a faux sheepish grin as they jostle him in his seat. The bartender rolls his eyes and grins, his elbows resting on the counter as he addresses Suzi as if Natalie doesn’t even exist.
“What can I get the pretty birthday girl?”
“Hmmm, another Bay Breeze, please!” Suzi bounces as she speaks.
Natalie pulls her crossbody bag in front of her torso. The thin golden chain that keeps the thing in place sliding across her dress makes a funny sound as she fumbles with the clasp to locate some more money to hand the man for the drinks. Natalie doesn’t understand how it is that Suzi can own purses so small. She can’t even keep anything in here, and somehow they are always so crowded that it’s even more impossible to find whatever it is that she’s looking for. Natalie’s purses are normally much larger, better to hit people with. However, Suzi gets what she wants so the small bag it is.
“Birthday girl?” the handsome man says to her, looking unfazed by the intrusion of their bodies so close to him. He’s the sort of handsome that would translate into a black-and-white movie. It’s a classic sort of handsome. Dapper, even.
Suzi grins, oozing attractiveness with just a simple gesture, and she nods proudly, as if she actually had any say in her birthday.
“And how old is the birthday girl?” Dapper Man asks, angling his body toward her. Natalie doesn’t like how it looks like he could pull her closer to him with just a simple movement.
“Twenty-one!” Suzi lies easily as her drink is passed back toward her, made perfectly. Natalie’s is shoved across the counter as an afterthought, normally something that she would say something about, but tonight she says nothing. Her fingers push through Suzi’s, asking silently to go back to the dance floor, and her friend returns her grip but makes no motion to move whatsoever. Dapper Man holds up a hand to stop Natalie from paying.
“Let me. Happy birthday to such a beautiful young woman. Put it on my tab would you, Arnie?” Dapper Man says.
Natalie thinks it’s strange how Arnie behind the bar goes from beaming to being straight faced the moment that Dapper Man speaks, it gives her a bad feeling and she can’t even decide why that is. She sips on her drink while Suzi exchanges another couple of innuendo-laced words with the dapper man, almost as if she would like nothing more than to mount him in a bathroom stall; all the while Natalie is attempting to pull her friend away from the man.
Finally, Suzi allows herself to be pulled away. Neither girl sees the look that the dapper man gives the bartender or the look of dread that takes over the bartender's face as the dapper man disappears from the bar into the crowd.
They are holding their drinks above their heads, winding their way back to the spot on the dance floor where they had been before and content just to be together, when there’s a sharp pain across Natalie’s chest. It doesn’t register for a moment as she is yanked backward for only a moment and then finds her footing.
“My bag!” Suzi gasps and Natalie drops her glass, ignoring the way that it shatters and splashes liquor up over her bare legs. She’s in motion before she can even think about it; somebody has yanked the bag clean off of her. Natalie shoves her way through the mass of people with Suzi following closely behind.
Natalie