“Everyone raise your shot glass for this toast. Let’s go.” Everybody in our four-person group raises their glasses as we stand in the middle of the VIP section of Club 505, as my bestie, Juliana, addresses the crew. “I have something profound to say on behalf of our girl, Alina Cruz, and what she just went through. Y’all ready? Here we go. To Alina … fuck Vance Whiteman!”

“Fuck Vance Whiteman!” we all shout in unison as each of us down’s our shot of Patron. It stings all the way down, but I love it, because the sting represents purging my body of any remnants of Vance and his bullshit. I would literally set myself ablaze to be rid of my memories of him.

I have the best friends in the world. When I told Juliana that Vance broke up with me over a book and sex, she immediately insisted that we go out and celebrate the end of the relationship. At first, I didn’t feel up for it. Who wants to go out the day after being dumped? My energy was low, and even though I wasn’t curled into a ball and crying in a corner of my apartment, ending a relationship still hits you right in the chest. But, I took a minute to let it all sink in, then told Juliana that going out was exactly what I needed, because I’m obviously better off without Vance. I should be ecstatic about being set free, so we planned for our night out to start right after work today. After avoiding eye contact with Vance the entire day, I was more than excited to run out of that building to speed home and throw on my sexiest outfit. Now that we’re at Club 505, I know I made the right decision to come out, and I wouldn’t trade my group of friends for the entire world. Scientists could clone Vance a million times and it wouldn’t hold a candle to one Juliana Mondragon.

“Oh, my god. Did you guys see the way Vance was moping around the office today?” Juliana barks with a wide smile as we all sit back down on the plush chairs in VIP. Juliana looks gorgeous as always, wearing a tight gray blouse with a black skirt that nearly matches mine. Her jet black hair is flowing down her back like an ink waterfall, and I’m literally jealous of her full lips. I even make a note to myself to make sure I ask where she got this particular shade of lipstick.

“Yes!” shouts DeShaun, with his usual wide grin, showing all of his pearly white teeth that seem to really stand out against his dark skin. His bald head glistens beneath the lights of the club, and his energy matches that of the music, which is completely normal for DeShaun. He’s like the battery of the group, and we all feed off of him.