Don't Fall Down Now 'Cause You'll Never Get Up

Joe knew next to nothing about her when he met her. He didn't really even have any expectations about who she was or what she looked like beforehand. Just a hazy female-shaped figure in his mind.

All he knew was that his once innocent friend was now texting some girl in class, and actually considering going to the senior formal.

Not that it bothered him.
Good for him, if Matt had a girl then that was fine.
What did bother Joe was that he had nothing going on. Not a single girl since he was fourteen- and they could hardly be counted. He just wondered when he'd meet a girl he actually liked.

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Joe decided early on that Nina lived fast.
The night he met her she drank two thirds of a bottle of Jager. He left town early that night but he heard Matt had to carry her to the taxi.
She didn't dress like any of the other girls in town that night, and he didn't think he'd ever see that spirit-drinking girl in heels. Matt later told him she took a swing at a bouncer.

Joe could have also decided right then that Nina was crazy.
That she was destined to go off the rails and destroy herself. But first impressions often change, and so did this one.

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Joe poured more bourbon into his glass as he leant on the bar in Nina's kitchen. She was trying something less strong that evening, and opted for some drink he'd never seen before that smelled a bit like Gin. He'd only been there an hour or two but already they were beginning to slur their words.

"But you know, the area I've always wanted to get into will never be that open to me," she continued.
"My careers advisor back at high school told me that I could never expect more than a minimum salary because I'm a woman."

Joe laughed, out of shock more than anything. He didn't look at Nina like she was a girl- A woman, maybe, but she could easily be one of the boys.
She was easy enough to talk to, she watched sport with them, she played pool and she could give them all a run for their money fitness-wise. And in the drinking stakes.

"That's pretty shit," he replied.

"Yeah, so I don't feel particularly optimistic about any of my study," she shrugged.

He took another swig of his drink.
"But you like what you study, don't you?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "And I guess that's what matters for now."

They drank and talked about everything and anything until Matt came home. Everytime Joe spoke to Nina, something came up that he never knew or expected. Like her sociopath ex-boyfriend. Joe had offered to punch him for Nina and she'd just laughed and thanked him. Or the fact that she believed in God. She could answer pretty much any historical question he had relating to Jesus. Or that her first album she owned was a pop band that didn't even sing words in their hit single.

Her life seemed all over the place- a little bit like God had thrown together a whole lot of traits, memories and personalities that didn't really make sense together. Her history might have been hard to piece together, but she seemed easier to understand than most women.

Joe easily forgot that Matt was Nina's boyfriend.
She was just one of the boys when they all hung out- then suddenly Matt would grab her and Joe would feel stunned for a second.


Continued in Part 2.