Reina Angelus had just woken up in the middle of the day on a Saturday with a raging headache that signaled to her that she was hungover from the night before. She had gone out on the town with her new friend from her new job the night before. She rolled out of bed and looked at her cell phone. The pain coursing through her head made her thankful that she didn't start her new job until Monday. There was a text there from her new friend Asmodia Septum, "You killed it last night, you should have gone home with that guy you were dancing with. What was his name?" She texted back, "It was Gary and he was a goober. Not really my style, he did buy me a few rum and cokes." The ding of her cell phone came in again shortly, "You didn't give him a little head at least? You should have given him a happy ending in the bathroom. You know, show your appreciation? He was hot." She rolled her eyes, "I don't give random dudes head just for a couple of drinks. He has to earn the right to have my mouth wrapped around his cock." In reality, Reina was still a virgin but she gave off the vibes that she was experienced. Asmodia's next text read, "Ah, so she's a picky one. I need to take you out tonight. I have a friend who's having a private party at his place tonight. Nothing fancy, just casual wear but it's a masked party. I bet you can find yourself a good partner there. You in?" Her heart leaped into her throat as she caught the meaning of why she would want to bring her to some random guy's party. It felt like Az was leading her like a lamb to her own slaughter. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard on her screen, she simply texted back, "Let me think about it." The ding came back immediately, "You won't regret going. Trust me, these are the hottest men in Thrace." She threw the phone on the bed and got up to pace around the room. She was chewing on the inside of her mouth; it was a nervous habit she had picked up when she was little. She was weighing the pros and cons of going to a likely, raunchy party. She could really only think of cons at that moment. The big one was being vastly inexperienced in comparison to the men who would attend. She picked up the phone and texted back, "I'm in." Asmodia texted back, "Excellent. Meet me at my house. I'll text you the address. It's in the Port Inferni area. We can crash at my place after so you won't have to drive that far." Reina lived in the Lux neighborhood so she would have to drive quite a way to get to Asmodia's place but she didn't mind that at all.
She liked Asmodia because she allowed her to be wild without judgment. She couldn't say that about her best friend, Celestia who would tell her she needed to ease up on the drinks. She would lecture her to stop partying so much, but Reina felt that a single woman in her mid-twenties should go out and live it up a bit. She dearly loved Celestia because she was the first to be there for her when her parents were brutally murdered in front of her. She never grasped why the men who murdered her parents spared her life but she vaguely remembered one of them saying, "He told us that she needed to live as a tool for us in the future." She didn't know what that meant and still came back to that memory often to try and analyze what it meant. It always came up as being confusing and blank to her. She heard a knock at the door, she called, "Come in." Celestia entered and sighed at her, "You came in pretty late last night. Were you out again?" She repressed the eye roll that she felt was coming on, "I was invited out by the head administrative assistant of the new job I'm starting on Monday. I didn't want to be rude." Celestia plopped down on her bed, "It's not that I think you shouldn't live a little Rei but I think you need to ease up on the booze. I think it's really bad for you. I can tell you're hungover and you just woke up, right?" Celestia glanced over at the phone that had just pinged and the screen lit up with a text from "A.S." with an address. Celestia looked back to Reina, "You're going out again tonight?" Reina was hesitant to admit that she was, but Celestia knew this was the case, considering an address was sent to her. She didn't want to argue with Reina but she was concerned for her. She had been on a very self-destructive path from the time she lost her parents at thirteen up until now. She knew that it couldn't have been easy to witness the brutal death of her parents but she was trying to help her best friend to find less destructive outlets to channel her grief and horror into. She didn't like this new influence on her life and she had thought about advising Reina to possibly find another job. Reina had always wanted to work in the music industry so she was looking to take any job that would afford her the ability to do so. Who was Celestia to tell Reina not to chase her dreams? She wanted to encourage that because she could see the value in chasing her dream. This could have possibly changed her self-destructive behavior but it seemed she had a potentially bad influence on her in this new job.
Celestia shook off the thought and sighed, "Look, just promise me that you'll be safe and try not to drink so much tonight." Reina nodded because she had planned on lessening her drink count. She wanted to be cognizant when she went to this new place that she had assumed was a wild party. She told Celestia, "Az told me that we could crash at her place too. I imagine we'd take a cab or something back to her place and I really don't want to drink too much tonight." Hearing Reina's plans, Celestia breathed a sigh of relief and she felt like, perhaps Reina was taking baby steps toward less destructive behaviors. Sadly, she didn't know the real reason for Reina's reluctance to drink tonight was. Reina made a mental note to keep that to herself since she didn't want a lecture about going to men's houses that she didn't know. She also wanted to be respectful of Celestia's family since she had been living with them since she was thirteen. It had been eleven years since her parents were killed and the Garder family had welcomed her with open arms as their foster daughter. They had asked her if she would like to be adopted by them but she didn't want to lose the Angelus last name. She got this job so that she could set off to eventually live on her own. She could live the life she wanted without judgment this way. Meyra and Peter Garder were sweet people but Reina perceived them as just as judgmental as Celestia. Celestia tried to buffer that out by covering for me, it was easy for her up until now since Reina was a waitress at a bar before she got her new job.
Celestia got up from the bed and walked over to the door and smiled back at Reina, "I'm going downstairs to have lunch. You want to come?" Reina rubbed her temples, the last thing she wanted was food but she knew it would be best to fill her stomach for later on in the night when she went out. She nodded at Celestia and they made their way downstairs to the dining room where Celestia's older brother Frankie was setting three place settings on the table. He smiled up at Reina and Celestia as they entered the room, "Excellent timing ladies. I just got done making some Spaghetti Bolognese." He walked over to Celestia and Reina and then hugged each woman. He walked back to a seat and pulled it out for Reina. Reina smiled at Frankie, who had always been thoughtful towards Reina. Frankie was two years older than Celestia and Reina and he no longer lived with his parents since he got the Head Chef job over at Rustica Piatto. He was a talented chef in Italian cuisine so Reina had always looked forward to when Frankie came over and cooked for them. He served the three of them plates of spaghetti and they settled into a conversation about their plans for the day. Frankie said, "I have the day off so I thought I would come over and treat my two favorite young ladies to some of my cooking. I know Rei loves it so much considering how much she said she does. Cel, you never tell me what you think." Celestia shook her head, "You'll never hear it either. Pride is a sin Frankie and we mustn't give in to sin." Frankie shrugged, "I don't think hearing praise from one's sister will invoke pride in me, dear sister. It would only validate my feelings, that's all." Celestia, who had swallowed the mouthful of pasta, replied, "Do you really need validation from me?" He gave her a pointed look, "It'd be nice every once in a while, you know." He looked over at Reina who was savoring the bite of food she had just taken. Frankie had to look away because he could feel the heat rising to his face. He cleared his throat, "Never mind, I will get you to crack one day." Reina smiled over at Celestia, "Don't let her fool you, Frankie, she doesn't say it to your face but she loves your food. She just wants to keep your head from swelling up with praise." Celestia grunted, "Rei, you really suck. You know that?" Reina stuck her tongue out at Celestia, "You know you love my honesty. You used to tell me it was refreshing."
Reina had finished her plate of food and was cleaning it up so she could hurry out of the house. Celestia looked up at her, "What's the hurry?" Reina shrugged, "I wanted to go buy a new outfit to wear out tonight. I figured I'd go shopping now so I would have time to get ready." Frankie spoke, "I didn't see your ride out front. Did you need a lift to your car?" Reina had forgotten about leaving her car at the club in order to take a cab. She smiled at Frankie, "I would love that, Frankie. Thanks." Frankie was not nearly as judgmental as the rest of his family and had stuck up for her on countless occasions in the past. He tried to explain to his family that people dealt with trauma in different ways. He would also ease into trying to shake her of this need to lean on drinking to deal with her trauma. He was more effective than the others. Frankie had asked Reina to wait while he cleaned up but she offered to help him with that since he had made the food. Celestia had to go open her shop so she didn't have time to help out. Celestia owned an antique store, she loved to be around the old things and antiques were her hobby so she was always happy to disappear to work. Finally, Reina had made it back to her car. Before she made it out of the car, Frankie called out to her, "Reina, please be careful tonight. I get the feeling that you should be extra safe tonight." As Frankie drove off, Reina couldn't help but think to herself about how right he was.