Bette stumbled through the throng of people lingering outside the club, they clung like wet autumnal leaves to bark, to the residual heat that exited the club. The December night air was chilled, and their cigarettes did not offer them the sufficient warmth they apparently sought.

It was late, later than she intended, but another dance had called, and then as the music changed, and it had called again, caught up in the frivolity of motion she had struggled to disentangle herself from the party spirit.  Tina has insisted she enjoy the night, but the thought of her family at home curled up and warm, was in conclusion an intoxicating, irresistible pull.

Hunkering down into her scarf and pulling her jacket tight about her, she looked up as she heard a glass smash, instinctively reaching in to her bag for her car key, she let her eyes smoothly chart the location of the commotion. A group of young men stood crookedly indignant, laughing and kicking the glass, her footfalls raised their glances. Ducking her head to a degree of disinterest, hoping it was not too low to indicate the sense of trepidation that flashed in her, she kept her stride as regular as possible. 

Their voices raised as they began to move down the ally towards her, there seemed to be some confusion as to where she come from, their drunken haze obscuring logic from their repertoire, should it perhaps have existed in the first instance. She tried to half listen, not too much to incite paranoia, but sufficiently to keep appraised of whether this may escalate.

She tired not to lift her shoulders as the words “club” and “gay” began to pepper like accusations, the icy air. Their laughter and tone changed and Bette aimed a little faster towards the main street where Christmas crowds congregated and her car sat, like a white horse stamping, fully tacked to whisk her away. As the lighting changed with the widening of the road and her footfalls became intermixed with the gayety of others, she sensed their reseeding, preferring perhaps the darkness of the back streets to cover their aggression or shame, she did not pause to question.   

She unlocked her car in the swiftest fashion, locking it with zeal as she sat down inside. The seatbelt and ignition occurred simultaneously, pulling away she made the tires whine.