it's getting hot in here :: finley

The music was loud and the bodies were sweaty and Briar was having the time of her life. It had been a long week at school, the first week of the year, and tonight was all about letting out stresses. She and her co-workers had started at Briar's place but had recently come out to the bars for the live music and the crazy crowd. Life on Martha's Vineyard could get boring at times over the summer, but once school was back in session the island came to life.

"I'm gonna go get a beer!" Briar screamed to a friend. The friend either didn't hear her or was too busy dancing to respond, but Briar ditched the group anyway and walked to the bar, pressing her way through the crowd. It wasn't hard for her to fight her way to the front, and taking advantage of her good genes, she was able to wrestle the attention of a bartender pretty quickly.

She held up one finger when asking for a beer, but then noticed someone she hadn't seen in months from across the bar and quickly held up a second finger. She tipped heavily (the bartender was a former student) and squeezed her way through the crowd for a second time before sliding next to the familiar face and holding out the second beer. It was Finley, Briar's long time fuck buddy, and one of the coolest clio she knew.

"If it ain't the hottest chick this side of Martha's Vineyard," she said loudly, holding the beer in front of Finley.

Finley had decided to head to the bar solo tonight, which was one of her favorite hobbies. While she appreciated her alone time, she equally (if not moreso) loved getting free drinks from clio that wanted to hook up, which was essentially a win-win situation for her: either she got a free drink and quickly dipped out of the situation, or she got a free drink and a (potentially but not guaranteed) good fuck. Those were fantastic odds for her, and she took advantage of those odds quite often.

She was sipping on her fifth or sixth drink (she had lost track of which ones she'd bought herself) when someone got close and held a beer in front of her. She smirked at the woman's comment, preparing to quickly assess the situation before looking to see...Briar!

"Well, whad'ya know?" she said loudly with a much more genuine smile and sense of excitement, downing the rest of her drink before happily accepting the offered beer.

"How the hell have you been?" she yelled before wrapping her arms around Briar to bring her in close. "I've missed you," she said in her ear.

Briar smiled as Fin spoke into her ear, feeling her breath on her neck.

"Just livin' the life," she said loudly as she pulled away. She took a swig of her drink. "I haven't seen you around in ages!" Briar knew Finley made most of her income on being a dealer to students, so it was pretty typical that Briar didn't run into her over the summer. They never set up meetings, never tried to contact each other, but somehow during the school year they'd meet up several times by chance (which usually led to them spending the night together).

"I've been around," she said with a wink before taking a sip of the beer. "You wanna catch up outside?" she suggested, pointing to the outside area where they could take their drinks and she could have a smoke.

She often didn't care for talking to the clio that approached her in bars -- not only were the conversations usually lost in sound and drunken stupor, but for a variety of reasons Finley preferred to keep her hookups as one-night stands, making the sharing and hearing of personal details a bit dangerous.

But Briar was different. She was actually interesting, engaging, and doing good work. They had formed somewhat of a friendship in addition to their sexual adventures. Some of Finley's own inspiration to be a sort of mentor to younger clio had actually come from Briar. ...but she'd never tell her that.

Briar nodded and led Finley from the crowded bar. She took a deep breath once they were in the open air of the streets. As much as she loved the bar scene, being able to breathe felt nice, too.

"So, are you back in town to rile up my students?" she asked, her eyebrows raised. She was kidding, of course. She'd never tried to stop her students from partaking in light recreational drug usage, as long as it wasn't anything super hard. Briar knew enough of Finley that she wouldn't try to get the Redfern kids addicted to anything.

Finley grabbed her pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her bag, popping a smoke between her lips as she chuckled at Briar's question. She lit her cigarette, tossed everything back in her bag, took a drag, and nodded as she exhaled upwards to avoid blowing it in Briar's face.

"You just bought a drink for Redfern's rockstar bad influence," she said with a smirk. She knew how connected Briar was to her students. If Briar didn't trust Finley, or thought poorly of her line of work, they wouldn't be having this conversation.

"So how's the teaching business treating you? Still enjoying being a good samaritan, or are you ready to finally cross over to the dark side with me?"

Briar shifted her shoulders like she would actually consider leaving her post at Redfern. "Ehhh," she said with a laugh. "Some days the kids make me consider it."

She took a drink from her bottle and rested her back against the brick exterior of the bar they'd just been in. "I'm hopin' there won't be too much trouble this year, but it's too early to tell. Two of my kids already got suspended so maybe I shouldn't hope too much, hah."

"Wow, already? Didn't school just start?" she asked with a laugh, ashing her cigarette. "That's impressive, you should pass along my information."

Finley took a sip of her drink, looking Briar up and down. "How'd you get involved with teaching anyway? Was it like a 'calling' for you or something?" She knew a decent amount about Briar, but hadn't necessarily asked her the why type of questions. She knew what Briar did, where and when sometimes, but most of their interactions were pretty simple and fun. Finley was fine with that, but the more time she spent with Briar (which was never much time, honestly), the more curious she became.

Briar shrugged. "Just seemed like the thing to do," she answered.

In actuality, Briar had made the decision while watching her classmates when she was a student, herself. Briar had always had thick skin and the confidence that came with it, but she saw what could happen to students who didn't. Ruby, the only clio Briar would call a true friend, had been one of these kids, and Briar spent the better part of her school career defending and counseling her.

The choice to move to Redfern to start her career had been an easy one--she wanted to help provide support to kids who might be lost in an environment where they were basically on their own.

Finley had met Ruby once or twice by chance when Briar'd brought Ruby out to party on MV, but she was sure Finley probably didn't remember her so she didn't bother bringing her up.

"What about you, Ms Bad Influence? How'd you get your start out here?"

Finley was disappointed that Briar hadn't really gone into detail, especially since she'd gone out of her way to ask. Nonetheless, she shrugged casually. "That's a pretty big thing to just do," she said with a laugh and wink. "But to each their own."

"What about you, Ms Bad Influence? How'd you get your start out here?"

Finley sipped her drink, looking around. "There's just all these clio, yearning for something..." she said faux-deeply. "...for excitement, courage, lowered inhibitions --" she formed a fist with her hand, closing her eyes, " -- for drugs." She burst out laughing, ending with an entertained sigh.

"It's mostly just a hobby that happens to also pay my bills, and a bit more," she said through a smile.

Briar could tell Finley wanted to know more, but she had no interest in delving deeper into her emotional side. It's not like it mattered, but for some reason coming out and saying, "I wanted to make a difference" was too hard for Briar to even stomach. She was rarely very open with her own emotions, despite helping others work through theirs.

Briar laughed along with Finley after her dramatic pronouncement. "Well I'd say you found a sweet deal." She knew Finley loved what she did, and Fin's personality told Briar that she was perfect for it. "You've definitely built up a clientele." Briar had heard students passing along Finley's name because she was so no-nonsense and even Briar herself had recommended her business when clio asked because she knew she was trustworthy.

Finley nodded in agreement. "It's a good gig, for sure." She finished her beer and put out her cigarette on the bottom of her shoe before eyeing the door leading back into the bar. "You want another drink? Courtesy of your students!" she said with a laugh.

She always enjoyed running into Briar, even if their casual flings stayed as just that. She'd much rather spend the night with someone she respected than just anyone with good looks and enough money to buy her a drink (though she was sure she'd have a night like that soon anyhow).

"How kind of them," Briar laughed.

She downed the last dregs of her current beer and followed Finley back into the overly crowded bar. Later they'd go back to Briar's house to spend whatever hours of the night remained tangled hotly in her sheets, but for now Briar was content spending the rest of her evening drinking and dancing among the sweaty bodies of MV with Finley.