"It's extremely loud in here!" Evelyn yelled at Lilian over the music.

"What?" Lilian yelled back as she led them through the busy crowd of the club.

"I said it's-" She began to yell back but stopped herself. "Nevermind." Evelyn shook her head as Lilian continued to drag her towards the bar.

When they finally reached the bar, Evelyn let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't as loud in this area of the club so she could actually hear herself think again.

"Two tequila shots please!" Lilian said to the bartender.

"Damn. Do you actually want to remember any of tonight?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow.

"Well the goal of tonight is to get you to stop worrying about your career so the less you remember the better." Lilian winked as the bartender slid over the shots she ordered.

As Lilian reached for her drink a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Oh! Actually one of us probably shouldn't drink that much tonight if we still want to drive home-" She had barely finished her sentence when she turned to find Evelyn already downing her shot.

"... What?"

"So I guess that person will be me." Lilian chuckled and then ordered a lemonade for herself.

While she was distracted, Evelyn slowly reached over to drink the second shot that was originally supposed to be Lilian's.

I mean, she did say specifically, 'the less you remember the better' so... bottoms up.

Lilian turned at the sound of the empty shot glass being placed on the counter and looked at her friend in amusement. "Okay I know I said I didn't want you to remember anything but I don't really want you to pass out before the night finishes either."

"It was only two." Evelyn shrugged with a lopsided grin.

"Yeah well from experience, two shots is more than enough to get you going so you might wanna slow down for now." Lilian told her before taking a sip from her own non-alcoholic drink.

"You were the one who said to let loose tonight." Evelyn protested.

Lilian sighed. "I forgot how stubborn you are when you're buzzed."

"I'm still stubborn without alcohol."

Lilian turned to her friend and laughed at her tipsy state. "Oh trust me I've noticed."

Evelyn let out a smug laugh and hopped off of her barstool.

"Where are you off to?" Lilian asked and smiled when Evelyn pointed over to the dance floor. "Oh hell yes."

Drunk Evelyn was already hilarious to watch but drunk Evelyn dancing? Comedy gold.

The two girls made their way over to the crowd of enthusiastic club goers who were dancing as if no one was watching.

Evelyn joined in immediately and grabbed onto Lilian's hand, spinning her around to the upbeat music.

"Stop I'm gonna fall over!" She laughed and Evelyn let go of her hand, still shimmying to the beat.

Evelyn had managed to catch the attention of some of the people around her as she continued to dance which made her feel a bit awkward but she carried on nonetheless.

She slowed down after a bit and jerked her head over to the bar, signaling to Lilian that she wanted another drink.
Lilian rolled her eyes good naturedly before following her over there.

The rest of the night went by in a bit of a blur after that.

It was a cycle of letting loose on the dance floor,

"Since when could you dance like this?"

"I think around the 2nd glass of vodka!"

Taking a break in one of the booths,

"... Do you think cats ever get sad because they can't give us a thumbs up?"

"I'm sorry... What?"

"Do you think they ever get sad about it?"

"Okay Ev I think that's enough alcohol for you."

And then contemplating life choices at the bar.

"Why did I ever pursue engineering?" Evelyn sighed over dramatically.

"Ev, engineering has literally been your dream since you were 14 years old-"

"No no no, 'cause like what if I became a... a professional dog cuddler!"

"I'm sorry what?" Lilian burst out laughing.

Eventually, their night out came to an end when Evelyn finally passed out on the seat of the booth.

This turned out to be a bit of an awkward situation for Lilian because now she had to carry her all the way back to the car... Or at least try to.

"Great... How am I gonna manage this then?"

She slung Evelyn's arm around her shoulders and dragged her out of the club. It took more effort than expected but somehow Lilian managed to get her out of the club and into the car park.

I guess being a best friend gives you super powers.

It was quite a struggle for Lilian to actually get Evelyn inside the car, especially when random strangers kept walking past and giving them funny looks at the awkward situation they were in.

After what felt like half an hour, Evelyn was finally settled in the passenger seat and Lilian let out a sigh of relief.

"Finally..." She said as she hopped in the driver's seat.

She slid in carefully so as not to wake up Evelyn but her efforts proved pointless when the wind suddenly picked up and ended up slamming the door behind her.

"Huh hum- wha..." Evelyn woke up with a start.

Lilian grimaced, "Sorry about that... I was trying to be quiet but clearly the weather had other ideas."

"The weather is meeaann."

Lilian chuckled before starting the engine and finally driving out of the club.

The first 10 minutes of the drive were actually quite peaceful which was surprising to Lilian considering Evelyn is usually very chatty when she's drunk.

But it seems she spoke too soon.

"These trees look prettyyy."

Lilian raised an eyebrow at her friend.

"Yeah you know there used to be similar trees at the park in my hometown." Evelyn continued.
"I was a frickin boss at tree climbing when I was a kid."

"I'm sure you were."

"I bet I could still climb one just as well."

"Yeah well don't even think about jumping out of a moving car right now." Lilian eyed Evelyn sternly.

"I may be drunk but I'm not THAT stupid." Evelyn paused. "... most of the time anyway."

"Dude-"

"I'm jokiinngg hahaha wow you're gullable." Evelyn snickered to yourself.

"Yep, that's me." Lilian chuckled and handed Evelyn a bottle of water, hoping it would sober her up a tiny bit.

Evelyn accepted the water and continued to gaze out the window at the... very fascinating trees.

"I used to climb trees with my friends all the time." She rambled on.

"In all honesty, I can't actually picture you doing that."

"Really?" Evelyn looked very offended by this.

"Well yeah. I mean, the Evelyn I know cares about her work and career more than anything. She's practical, hardworking and not to mention stubborn as hell. She just wouldn't find any point in things like climbing trees." Lilian stated.

"Hm. I guess you're right."

"Oh don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with being all those things whatsoever-"

"Did you know I applied for a job at Williams?" Evelyn interrupted Lilian midsentence.

"Wait- I'm sorry what?" Lilian glanced at her in surprise at the sudden change of subject.

"Yeah to be George Russell's race engineer."

"Hang on a minute, George Russell as in your childhood best friend George Russell? The guy you never shut up about?"

"Yeah that's him!" Evelyn exclaimed enthusiastically.

Lilian chuckled and then motioned for Ev to continue.

"Hm? Oh right yeah, so I applied for the job about a week ago and I still haven't heard back so I pretty much just assumed that they already went with someone else."

"Wouldn't they at least inform you about that?"

Evelyn shrugged. "Dunno."

Lilian nodded, remembering she was still talking to drunk Evelyn.

"I miss George." Evelyn turned back to the window and sighed thoughtfully.

"Yeah... You told me you guys were really close back then." Lilian glanced at her sympathetically.

"No but like-" Ev threw her hands up in the air. "-I really MISS him miss him. I miss his smile, I miss talking to him, I miss-" She started to ramble on, causing Lilian to laugh.

"I miss his hugs, I- what?" Evelyn had noticed Lilian laughing at her.
"What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry I just-" She composed herself before continuing. "-You really really care about this guy don't you?"

"Well duuuhhh."

Lilian shook her head in amusement.

"We were practically inseparable as teenagers you know."

"How long has it been since you last spoke to him?"

A cloud of sadness flashed across Evelyn's features for a split second before she cleared her throat to cover it up. "Must be about... Eight years now?"

"Oh wow." Lilian's eyes widened slightly. "That's a really long time."

"Yeah, yeah it is..."

Lilian could tell this was a sore subject for Evelyn so she didn't push it any further after that.

The rest of their journey was spent in complete silence, but it wasn't exactly an awkward silence. It was more... sorrowful.

Evelyn was still tipsy by the time they arrived at her apartment which caused a bit of a challenge for Lilian to actually get her inside, hydrate her, get her to brush her teeth and then force Ev's favourite bear onesie on her.

"But what if don't wanna go to sleep?" Evelyn crossed her arms like a child as Lilian sat her down on the bed.

"Well that's too damn bad I'm afraid." She bonked Evelyn lightly on the head. "You need to sleep and I-" A yawn caused her to stop mid-sentence. "-and I clearly need it too, so goodnight." She went to turn off the lights when Evelyn suddenly piped up again.

"Wait, wait don't go! No no you have to stay with meeee." She pleaded.

"I'm not going anywhere! I was just turning off your lights jeez woman. I was gonna crash here on your sofa anyway so no need to panic."

"Oh." Ev smiled in relief. "Okay that's good, that's very good thank you..." She trailed off sleepily and laid down on the bed. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out cold and already dribbling.

Lilian chuckled and finally turned off the lights. "Night loser."

RING RING, RING RING

Evelyn woke up with a very sudden start as her phone ringing jolted her out of her deep sleep.

"What the- ah!" As she rolled over in panic, she managed to fall out of bed and right onto the hard wooden floor.

"Oww..." She rubbed her sore back in pain.

RING RING, RING RING

"Oh god yes um-" She scrambled to answer the phone.

"Hello...?" She rubbed her head that was now pounding from her hangover.

"Hi, is this Evelyn Wilson?" A young bright voice sounded over the speaker.

Evelyn flinched at how loud they were. It was just a bit too much for her hungover self to handle.

"Um yeah, yeah that's me..." She rubbed her tired eyes. "Uh who is this exactly?"

"Oh my apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Emily Bradwell, a supervisor here at Williams racing." The young woman answered cheerily.

"You- I'm sorry, Williams racing? As in the formula 1 team?" Evelyn asked in complete shock.

"That's the one!"

"Okay um-" Ev laughed awkwardly "Why exactly are you calling me?"

"Well Ms Wilson, it's my pleasure to inform you that we have chosen you to be the new race engineer for Mr George Russell in 2021."

"I- you what?!"

"Welcome to the team." Emily said sweetly.

"I- um, thank you?" Evelyn rubbed her head, desperately trying to process what had just happened.

Emily chuckled at Evelyn's shocked sounding voice, completely unaware that she was still trying to deal with a hangover at the same time. "You start on Monday! I'll meet you at the reception and we'll get you logged into the system, get your ID card sorted and then I can show you around the building and stuff like that."

"O-okay great."

"I look forward to having you on the team with us. Welcome again."

Emily hung up before Evelyn could say anything else.

She leant her head against her bed to take a breather.

"Did I just... Did I just get the job as George's engineer?" She asked herself in disbelief.

As Evelyn tried to process everything that had just happened, Lilian suddenly barged through the door.

"What is all the commotion about? It's 10am on a Saturday I want to sleeep." She whined tiredly.

As Evelyn turned to face her, Lilian then noticed her shocked expression.

"What happened?"

Evelyn finally closed her mouth that was still agape.

"I um-" She stuttered.

"Spit it out mate."

Ev chuckled at her friend's morning attitude and then stood up out of the tangle of bedsheets to tell her the news.

"I... got the job at Williams."

-

So, Evelyn gets the job as her long lost friend's race engineer.
This'll be interesting... 👀