Xiao's Alluring Spell

It was a cold winter evening, snow covering the streets. It was the kind of night where people were inside with their families, where you could hear the wind howling outside and the snow gently falling down.

The last thing I wanted to do was go out, but my best friend had convinced me otherwise. He'd just gotten an apartment and he wanted to celebrate it with some people. I was not one of those people. Nevertheless, I left my house and headed over to his place. It became clear to me when I got there that everyone else had been convinced as well. The apartment was filled with people and the music played loud enough to shake the walls of the building.

I didn't know any of these people and they certainly didn't know me. I felt like an outsider at a party I wasn't even invited to. Considering that my friend had basically dragged me here, it wouldn't have surprised me if he would have left me as soon as he met someone who interested him in one way or another. However, he did not do that. He came over to me after about half an hour and we decided to leave this party for some place quieter where we could actually have a conversation without screaming our lungs out like pigs being slaughtered in a slaughterhouse.

We left his apartment together and walked towards the subway station nearby. The cold air hit us like a brick when we left the building and he began rubbing his hands together trying to warm them up again before putting on his gloves again. It was all fun while we were inside because of all the heat generated by everyone's body heat but now that we were outside it felt like it was -20 degree Celsius outside instead of just -20 degree Fahrenheit outside which doesn't sound too bad until you actually realize that Fahrenheit is based on water melting while Celsius is based on water freezing which means that we were frozen solid out here rather than being hot previously. My hands shook from all the coldness around me and I could feel chills running down my spine from just standing still in such a brutal environment without any protection from it at all other than a thin jacket which didn't do much good against this weather at all.

We took a train into the city center and found ourselves in front of a bar called "L'Amour". We entered through its doors and were greeted by warmth inside right away as if nothing had happened out in the streets just minutes ago before entering this establishment where everything seemed so peaceful and cozy if it weren't for the fact that it was packed full with people most of whom were drunk already on several different kinds of drinks while they talked loudly at each other trying to be heard over all the others who tried to do exactly what they did not unlike some kind of giant beehive where no one knew what anyone else was doing except for themselves because they would only pay attention to what was happening around them if something interesting happened in their immediate vicinity at any given point in time which made for quite an intimidating atmosphere for someone like myself who did not really like crowded places very much first place because I usually ended up feeling very alone in them whenever I visited such locations with friends or family members so far without fail without getting myself into any real trouble but now I thought about it maybe it would have been better if there had been some trouble involved considering that nothing really seemed too dangerous about this place so far except for the fact that everyone wanted to talk louder than everyone else making it impossible for anyone else to hold a conversation due to how loud everything sounded when you were actually present in their presence but maybe that was changed once you started talking yourself because then you'd start hearing everything else more clearly so maybe this place wasn't going to be as terrible as I thought after all but then again being sober might make it worse instead so maybe I should get myself something stronger than beer before anything else happens tonight so that things don't turn out worse than they already are right now especially since my friend is looking more relaxed than ever right now which means he's probably already had quite few drinks tonight meaning he isn't thinking or acting normally anymore but rather acting weirdly strange instead which is never really a good sign for someone like myself who's usually stuck with such people until someone else decides to show up who usually ends up being either me or my friend meaning this person will be someone interesting considering how interesting my friend usually acts when drunk but usually ends up being someone boring which means I end up bored sooner or later because nothing interesting ever happens when drunk most of the time or does it?