Jessica gets to the concert

“Thank you,” Jessica smiled at the driver as she opened the door and stepped out on the street in front of the club. She straightened her shirt and took a look around. The ‘Melkweg’ was a big building between the canals, accessible over a little bridge. A loud beat boomed from inside the club and a row of young people waited in line in front of the club, eager to get inside.

“Hey!” Jessica turned around. The driver had rolled the window down and handed her a small business card. “If you want me to pick you up afterwards just call this number… Your management organized for me to be available all night!”

“That’s great! I will do that, thanks,” she grinned, slipping the card into her purse before waving a final goodbye and heading towards the club. Security checks seemed to be tight and even though the line wasn’t especially long it moved torturously slow as the bouncers checked patron after patron. Jessica’s fingers slid over the VIP-pass in her pocket and for a moment she contemplated to walk past the waiting people to get inside, sure there wouldn’t be a problem to let a Hollywood-star inside. But then she decided against that, instead waiting like everybody else and enjoying the fresh air outside, not being bothered by any paparazzi she took a deep breath and smiled. Her holidays had started.

She joined the line, her mood getting better and better as she looked forward to the concert. She started moving to the vibrations of the beat, bobbing up and down on her toes as she waited in line when suddenly the man in front of her turned around to face her.

“Hey, alles goed, schoonheid?” he asked with a wide smile.

Jessica looked at him confused. “Uhm, excuse me…” she stuttered, caught off guard.

The man laughed. “Oh, je bent ‘n toeriste,” he grinned and put his hand out, “Sorry, my name is Martin!”

She took his hand. “Jessica, nice to meet you!” For a second she considered giving her full name, but decided against it. If he recognized her that was fine with her too, but for the moment she enjoyed her anonymity too much.

“Great to meet you, too, Jessica. You’re from the US?”

“California, yes, I’m just here for a few days.”

“That’s cool, Jessica. Where are your friends? Or did you come alone?”

“I came alone, just landed a few hours ago…”

“Do you want to join us?”

Jessica looked at the man. He seemed to be about her age, tall and blonde, like a Dutch cliche. Quite handsome, too, and the vibe she got from him was exclusively friendly and positive. “Sure, I’d love to!”

“Great,” Martin beamed, then turned towards his friends, “Guys, this is Jessica, she’s from California!” The group consisted of three more guys and two girls, all of the smiled and greeted her with a ‘Hi’ and ‘How are you?’ and Jessica smiled back. “Hi, guys!”

Then Martin took a big bottle of coke from his friend’s hand and offered it to her. “We need to finish this bottle before we get inside. Care to help us? It’s cut with vodka…”

“Sure!” Jess accepted the bottle and took a big gulp before passing it on, pulling a face at the strong tang of . That drink was definitely mixed to get buzzed

“So, Jessica, you’ve only been here for a few hours?! I guess that means you haven’t really experienced the hospitality of our country, yes?” Martin grinned and winked at her as he pulled out a joint and lit it up, “Want some?”

Jessica bit her lip. She didn’t worry about , she knew that she was able to hold her own there, but with weed she was inexperienced. She had smoked it only once in her life and she had felt the effects quite strong. On the other hand, that had been years ago, back in her ‘Dark Angel’-days, plus she was in the Netherlands here, wouldn’t it be a waste if she didn’t at least try?

She took the offered joint with a smile and took a deep drag, immediately coughing violently as the smoke scratched her wind-pipe, making her other’s chuckle. “Easy, Jessica,” Martin smirked and offered her the bottle again. “Here, take a good sip, then try again!”

Jessica complied, bravely chugged down an amount of vodka-coke to fight the cough, then tried another hit, this time more careful. “That’s better,” Martin commended as she slowly blew out the light-blue smoke. She grinned. “I’m a fast learner…”

She spent the next twenty minutes chatting, drinking and smoking with her new friends as they slowly but surely made their way towards the entrance and finally got inside. As Jessica was patted down by one of the security women she realized that she now needed to decide whether she wanted to stay with the others or maybe check if she could sneak backstage to meet with the rapper and his entourage.