The sun paved way for the moon to rule as dusk approached, the weather was cold and cozy, perfect for a late-night romance, lovers' date, friends' night out, clubbing, colleague bar hangout, and of course, a perfect time for high school get-togethers and don't skip the dangerous happenings of the night.
The Knight pub, one of the most expensive pubs in Sacramento was always a night hot spot, but this night, it was reserved specially for the get-together night hangout.
“Okay, attention everyone,” Lucas Melton said, gradually hitting a water glass with a spoon.
All attention turned to him as the little murmuring and laughter stopped and the pub became quiet.
“I don't need to introduce myself but I still feel the urge to do so” Lucas joked and everyone burst into laughter.
He grabbed his wine glass positioning a bold smile on his face “Okay, it has been a long and stressful twenty-five years since we left high school and I must say I'm happy to see you all here, looking good, but old and successful, Cheers to long life and I hope we all get together and share our highschool beautiful moments with one another” Lucas said and a thunderous round of applause followed.
“Hey, Easy with those eyes, He's married,” Maya said looking at Morgan.
“Easy with that?” Morgan asked blinking her eyes.
“I saw, you were staring at Lucas Melton, so I wanted to inform you as a good old friend which I am, that he's married and literally off the market, you sl*t” Maya said and Tiffany scoffed.
“He's married fine, but who said he's off the market,” Tiffany said now looking at Lucas.
“Do you know who his wife is?” Maya dropped her wine glass, now facing Tiffany.
“Someone I know,” Tiffany asked.
“Eleanor”
“Eleanor Swinton” Maya didn't stop staring at Tiffany who was more than surprised at what she said.
“What!?”
“Yeah, I was surprised when I found out last year, they had a super closed private wedding in Paris and had their first child there before moving to Dubai,” Maya said.
“Oh my goodness, but why isn't Eleanor sitting close to him, I mean they are married” Eva chipped in and both Tiffany and Maya gave her a sharp glance.
“I'm guessing you haven't changed yourself, you are still the listener Eva, always hearing things that are not meant for your ears” Maya snapped.
“Old habits don't die off quickly and besides we are seated at the same table, what do you expect? duh,” Eva said, just then Whitney Vince stood up drawing everyone's attention to herself.
She was the high school belle then and even though she had some big-time competitors, she won the prom queen two times in a role
She walked elegantly towards the podium as her long dinner-red gown swept the floor behind her as she walked.
“Cinderella is here again” Lacey was the first to speak.
Each table had five people seated at the round table, Maya, Tiffany, Eva, Lacey, and Bethany.
“More like her evil stepsisters,” Maya said.
“She's overdressed, it's just a casual hangout, not even the actual reunion,” Lacey said pointing out Whitney’s attire.
“She wants to be at the top, you know every attention must be on me as the princess that I am,” Bethany said.
“And hope she has gotten herself a prince charming,” Tiffany asked
“I heard her husband caught her cheating twice with her work colleague,” Bethany said.
“She works?” Tiffany asked surprised if she could remember clearly, Whitney always brags about her family wealth and was saying stuff about spending the rest of her life as a lifestyle and travel influencer trying to mimic Ursula.
“Yeah, her dad made her the MD of one of the companies,” Eva said.
“And she's a top vvip club stripper, she wanted to be an actress too made she couldn't make it because she sucks at it and her family got pretty tired of buying her movie roles, she's now a model and she's doing pretty well for herself,” Maya said.
“And what happened to lifestyle and travel influencing,” Tiffany asked making Maya snicker.
“Jesse got that, her husband is rich and her family wealth too, after her dad died she took over the company, her step mum and sister have no say, Jesse is trouble,” Bethany said.
“Oh that's true, she didn't give them any single thing, she got married into a family of lawyers so they helped her with her court cases and all” Maya added.
Tiffany couldn't say anything but gaze at Jesse Brook, she was friends with Whitney, Paige, Missy, and Amber and together they were like one group click of friends back then in high school.
“This is just like an intro, as most of you noticed, not everyone was able to come tonight due to the very short notice and it wasn't planned, I created a WhatsApp group for our class, The excellence class of 1997, a journal would be passed round so just pen down your WhatsApp number” Whitney paused looking at Missy giving her a go-ahead order to start passing the journal.
“Further information would be communicated there for the actual reunion day which is going to be bigger than this,” She said smiling.
“I know lots of us are struggling even after twenty-five whole years, they still have nothing to show for it but it's going to be a general contribution so start working hard to make lots of money,” Whitney said as some few persons turned to stare at each other.
Whitney was good at riddling others and it was pretty obvious she was still the same old Whitney.
“That would be all,” Whitney said and walked back to her seat.
“This is going to be one big trouble reunion,” Tiffany said looking at Whitney and her friends.
“I bet it's gonna be,” Lacey said.
“And I don't want to miss any part of it” she added.
“Speaking of the reunion, have any idea if Morris Fox is gonna be there?” Eva asked.
“Have a crush on him?” Bethany asked.
“Don't worry girl, it's normal, the guy is handsome, I guess every girl in our class had a crush on him?” Lacey said.
“Aside from me, I hated him,” Tiffany said.
“I remember how you got chocolate for him and his friends, it's already in the past so no need to lie,” Lacey said.
“That was for Melvin, I started talking to Morris because he was friends with Melvin and not anymore because I don't want to have anything to do with him again,” Tiffany said.
“Why, you seem to be taking it personally” Eva observed.
“I'm not, just setting boundaries, we are adults and maybe after this reunion, I'm going back to Asia, or I might settle here, haven't decided yet” Tiffany said.
“I'm not sure if he's going to come, his social media account has no recent posts from him just the ones he's being tagged in and no one seems to say anything about him?” Bethany said answering Eva's question.
“Yeah, that's true, including Ursula Day, the last I checked her IG account, she didn't make any single post,” Lacey said.
“Ursula Day?, didn't she die in a fire outbreak, I heard she got pregnant after her parent's death and was staying at the welfare home that caught fire,” Maya asked.
“I heard that too, she was even registered dead and her funeral service was held,” Eva said.
“Too bad for her, she was such an intelligent girl, pretty, from a rich home and she had lots of boys falling in love with her,” Tiffany said.
“The very reason she and her clicks and Whitney and her clicks were never friends, they were like two groups and it was fun watching them collide,” Bethany said.
“But who would have imagined that Eleanor Swinton and Lucas Melton would end up as a couple, it's so unbelievable,” Tiffany said.
“Even Loretta Towry and Oscar Hart didn't get married after all their lovey-dovey” Eva said.
“Exactly if there was a couple I expected, it was theirs because they loved each other and it was cool” Maya supported.
“High school love doesn't really work out for everyone, I never had one so I can't relate,” Lacey said.
“Because you were so busy fangirling over K-pop artists, so tell me did you date any of them,” Tiffany asked and the rest began to laugh.
“I might not have but I still got myself a big shark,” Lacey said showing off her wedding ring.
“Yeah right, but your big shark is still not a K-pop artist,” Tiffany said jokily.
It was already midnight but neither of them felt like going home as they continued as they kept gisting each other and laughing, drinking and ordering for more, taking pictures and uploading them on their Instagram account as well as their high school class account and tagging each other, exchanging contact and catching up for the years apart from each other.