When Sam met Lucy (Part 2)

Part 1 can be found here.

In my usual manner, after having a quick look around the place - I made a beeline for the bar. As was usual for Mark, he made a beeline for the nearest single looking girl. If I remember correctly the offer at the time (there always has to be an offer in a student nightclub) was some kind of 3 for 2 on vodka red-bull as advertised on a scrawled chalk board on the bar. Being a Yorkshireman at heart, I could hardly pass up the offer, despite the fact that I didn't particularly like vodka... or redbull, and there weren't three of us.

I pushed my way to the bar, trying without success to use my 'older guy' stare to intimidate the sweaty students 3 deep at the bar into moving aside. Abandoning this I opted for the elbows in tactic of trying to get one elbow on the beer sodden bar surface and wriggle my way to the front. I remember it taking quite a few minutes to get my three plastic cups of delicious vodka and chemicals, designed to make you hyper and drunk at the same time (not a good idea). I grasped my reward for my patience in two hands, and turned back into the dance floor trying to locate my absent friend. There he was, over by the DJ booth, already deep in 'conversation' with a particularly young looking (they all look young to me) student girl.

'Oh well', I thought to myself, finding somewhere to lean, and chugging back the first of my three drinks. 'All the more for me.'

That when it happened. This extremely cute girl with beautiful blond hair came up to me, low cut top full of attitude and with a bright smiling face which drew me in from the very first moment. 

'Don't you know you aren't allowed to have two drinks in your hands at the same time? Its the rules.' she said.

'You going to buy me a drink if I can neck them both?' I replied. (at this deluded point in my life, I still thought that I might be able to impress girls with my ability to consume vast amounts of alcohol).

I smiled without waiting for an answer, shrugged my shoulders and putting on my best 'this is easy' face, I quickly drank both of the remaining disgusting drinks one by one .  She seemed like my kind of girl already.

'What's you name?' I asked. 

'Lucy,' she replied. 

'Hi Lisa, I'm Sam' I said. At this point the base was reverberating right through me, and I couldn't actually hear anything I was saying - let alone what she was saying.

After getting the names right some time later, I intimated that she was now indebted to me and that she owed me a drink, but being the gentleman that I am, I would go to the bar and get her some shots of tequila (presumably to get her drunk in a gentlemanly manner). Which I did.

We talked and she danced (I attempted to dance), and quickly became embroiled in each other. She was witty and flirty and had incredible big brown eyes. When she smiled or laughed her face seemed to shine in a way that moved me. Some time passed, I have no idea how much and we never ran out of things to talk about, though I struggle to remember what. 

She was worried about where her friends were but they eventually found us, as did Mark who had lost his student girl and was now trying to engage us in some kind of dance-off which we found so amusing (still do). 

I think it was when Mark was involved in one of his crazy dance moves when one of the overly aggressive bouncers barged past him on his way to some other incident. The club seemed a little emptier and quieter at this point, perhaps it was getting late. 'Watch it mate' shouted Mark at a clearly audible level to the bouncer (though mark didn't realise he worked there). The bouncer moved on, and Mark went back to his dancing, and I went back to talking to Lucy.

That was until a few minutes later, when Lucy said to me 'Is that your friend', pointing to some guy who was literally being bundled head first out of the fire escape, down some particularly nasty looking concrete stairs about 20 feet from where we were standing.

'Yeah', I replied. 'I think he is being thrown out'.

Lucy was surprised my my matter-of-fact attitude, but I tried to explain to her that it happened all of the time.

'I had better go, I suppose', I said, saying goodbye and heading to the exit.

That when I made one of my better decisions in life and turned round and went back to her. At the time, I thought I was the smoothest thing on the planet, but Lucy will probably give you a different story. I said something incredibly cheesy along the lines of 'you're beautiful, can I have your number?'. For some reason, against all reasonable odds it worked!

So the next day, I made the call and we were going out by the next week. It was pretty instant attraction (at least on my part).

When I left the club I never did find Mark outside, but he later informed me that after he left the club, he spent his time wisely piling wheelie bins against the fire exit doors in order to stop the bouncers, until the police chased him off. It amazing what things you think are a good idea after vodka-redbull.

Unfortunately every story has a tragedy. The sad part of this story is that Mark passed away in 2006 after having an accident whilst diving off the coast of Sharm-al-Sheikh in Egypt. I never professed to have known the guy particularly well, he was best friends with a housemate and good friend of mine. But I will always owe him for that one night out we had together that brought Lucy to me.