by Sand, A. J.
“What happened that last night?” Dylan asked, perplexed. “Did something happen between her and Jeremy?”
“Same shit that happens every last night. We get shitfaced and party and then barely make our flight the next day. Erica doesn’t drink as much as the rest of us, but she would party her ass off.” Wes sighed. “Nothing was different as far as I could tell. She was goofing around with Kai and Jeremy most of the time in Phuket. Goofing around with all of us, like usual. When we were in the Philippines, she got us up early every morning to go do tourist stuff and for volunteering.”
Wes shook his head, as if he was still struggling with what had gone wrong. “Kai’s album was coming out. Jeremy’s album was doing really well. Everyone was happy. That last night, we all partied together at one of the nightclubs on Bangla Road in Patong Beach, and eventually, the group split up. I left with some chick from Texas who was on vacation with her friends. We hit another club before we went back to her hotel. I didn’t hear anything weird from the boys the next day, except that she wasn’t coming with us.”
He smiled sadly. “Anyway, the group just wasn’t the same after that, and I think Kai just took it hard when Erica...disappeared. He was on edge and really broken up about it for a long time. Still is, I think.” Wes shuffled through the liquor bottles on top of the bureau in the room and selected the bottle of Ciroc vodka. “Kai’s sensitive, especially with girls he cares about. Erica’s disappearing act and quitting her job were devastating for him. He wasn’t himself after that. Something like discussing music in an alley, especially with how weird his relationship with Jeremy was, could’ve set him off and made him smash Jer’s face in.”
“I’ve seen Kai not hit two guys—well, one not at all and one not right away—and they were really being jerks,” Dylan said. “I don’t think he just lost his temper in the middle of a conversation about music royalties.” She watched as Wes poured an anemic stream of alcohol into a red plastic cup, and then he splashed in a few juices before handing it to her.
“Come on! It’ll make Scrabble more fun,” he said, goading her with a playful tone as he poured more alcohol into another cup. “I’ll make mine stronger. Think of it like a golf handicap, for you.” This time, the liquor rushed out as if from a geyser. “I’ve seen Kai hit plenty of guys, by the way. But maybe you’re right and his beef with Jeremy is personal. Things could be intense between them,” Wes said in a grim voice. It made her shiver a little. “Evernight didn’t break up the way everyone thinks it did. They made it out in the media like it was ‘strained,’ but it got bad toward the end. Really bad. It took a couple years for Jer and Kai to speak to each other again.”
“Intense how?” Dylan twisted her face and pressed her lips together after she swallowed just a sip of Wes’ concoction. The juice had only been added for a color change, apparently. It really could’ve been battery acid. She shook her head and handed it back to Wes.
“No more, Dylan,” Wes said adamantly as he shook his head, referring to their conversation. “I already don’t feel good about telling you all that.” He drank the contents of her cup in a single swoop, and then some of his, like his digestive system had been shaped from lead. She hadn’t even seen him add any juice to his. He pressed a sly smile out as he rubbed his palms together. “Let’s finish our game so we can head out. We’re partying all night. I need to have as much fun as I can because your boyfriend is going to kill me later.” After he shifted the Scrabble board back to the center of the bed, he gripped her shoulder. “Promise me you’ll tell him the whole truth. Kai’s had a lot of fucked up shit happen around him. Don’t be one of them.”
Not My Boyfriend – Chapter 17
“Wes!” Dylan screamed as she walked parallel to the winding line outside Coasters nightclub. She rolled her eyes at the suggestive whistles floating her way before hugging Wes, who was waiting for her near the entrance.
“Hey…sexy, you look amazing,” Wes purred into her hair, lifting her as they hugged. “Like really, really amazing.”
“Uh, thanks.” She was wearing her tightest pair of black skinny jeans and ankle booties with a cropped leather jacket over a semi-sheer top. It was her favorite “feel good” outfit. She needed the pick-me-up. “And you changed. I thought you were wearing a red shirt earlier?”
“Well, that’s because, he’s Abel,” the real Wes Elliott said when he approached them. He rolled up one of his sleeves to reveal the puzzle of tattoos swathing his skin to prove his identity. Abel’s tattoos were on the other arm, and he had far less. Dylan scowled at Abel as he chuckled. He had cut his hair.
“Is that why you didn’t know my name a few seconds ago?” She shoved him playfully. “Is that why you called me sexy? You’re gross.”
“I was going to see how long it would take you to figure it out,” Abel said, dodging the last of her soft slaps. “It’s good to see you, Dylan!” Abel held her in an apologetic hug. “So what’s the deal, Wesley, why are we standing out here?”
“Because we’re only quasi-famous outside surfing, Abel. Your name means nothing here.” He threw a smirk at his brother. “I’m kidding. I was just waiting for Dylan. And why are we here, anyway?”
“Jer’s here. Top floor,” Abel said to his brother when they all stepped inside after a security guard slapped neon bracelets on their wrists. “He said we should come through for a little bit.”
“Jer?” Dylan asked. Abel led them up a flight of stairs, and a nod from another security guard got them past more velvet ropes. Beyond those were a dance floor and private seating areas overlooking the downstairs dance floor.
“‘Cause of Kai, you think?” Abel said to Wes, laughing, as he pointed to several of the bodyguards standing around watching the crowd.
Wes lifted his arm to her shoulders and leaned to her ear. “We won’t be here long. Probably best not to tell your boyfriend. He’s in a shitty mood already.” Dylan gasped when Jeremy Bunyan, the Jeremy Bunyan, that Jeremy Bunyan, stood to greet Abel and then Wes. Seeing him unsettled her, like she was betraying some allegiance to Kai by just being here. She recognized Rayna Rodriguez, looking incredibly bored as she clicked away on her cell phone from her seat across from them.
“You want something to drink?” Wes asked as he reached for a bottle of something cushioned in a bowl of ice.
“Of course she does,” Jeremy said as he extended his hand. “Jeremy.”
“Dylan,” she said meekly as she took it. He was handsome in the way guys who spent their teen years baby-faced often ended up being. He was tall, blond and muscular with dark brown eyes. The hair at the sides and back of his head was cut down very low, barely an inch sprouting up, but the top and front were long, like he was trying to add some edginess to the cuteness of his looks. Dylan felt compelled to study him closely because of the altercation with Kai, needing to know more about him, needing to know why. She got a whiff of his spicy cologne and caught sight of the two large diamond studs in his ears when he leaned because she had to repeat her name louder.
A bodyguard came up to Jeremy and whispered something, and Jeremy nodded with enthusiasm. Dylan’s gaze followed the departing bodyguard as he pulled back a velvet rope and more girls poured into the space. They came over immediately to greet and thank him. He hugged all of them and took pictures. “No problem. Enjoy yourselves. Sit anywhere. I rented the whole floor for the night,” he said before they strutted off to the dance floor.
Jeremy turned to Dylan. “You have on more clothes than the girls Wes usually ‘dates’ so you’re probably his…cousin?” he asked, smiling.
“No, asshole, she’s a friend,” Wes responded, sounding aggravated. He handed Dylan her drink as Abel sauntered over with a girl already clinging to his arm.
“Your brother is ‘friends’ with chicks?” Jeremy asked Abel.
“Yeah, but she actually works with Kai. She’s filming his web series,” Abel explained, and Wes elbowed his brother in the chest violently. “What? I’m allowed to say his name; he
’s not fucking Voldemort,” Abel added with a shove to Wes before he poured a drink for the woman he was with, and the two of them walked away.
“He literally just read all of Harry Potter. He wanted to wait until the ‘hype’ died down,” Wes explained and Dylan laughed. “He’s still really sour about Sirius Black though, so don’t bring it up.”
“It’s okay to talk about Kai, Wes. What’s not cool is how you’ve been ignoring me. You’re letting this Kai thing affect our friendship?” Jeremy’s voice was light, and he smiled but it seemed strained. Dylan thought it looked more like annoyance than genuinely hurt feelings.
“What are we, dating?” Wes shook his head and held up his hands. The normally casual and cool Wes was irritated. “I told you, I’m not getting in the middle of it. And I’ve been busy, dude. Nothing to do with you.” Wes tapped Dylan’s lower back. “Wanna dance?”
“Can I steal her for a sec? I’ve been wanting to do that whole documentary thing,” Jeremy said, clasping Dylan’s wrist. Then he addressed her. “Is that cool?”
“Sure…” Her answer was more from curiosity about who this guy was that Kai had beaten up than an authentic desire to speak with him. Admittedly, Kai had gotten into her deep, and on the outs or not, she had subconsciously sworn some kind of loyalty to him. Her guard was up right now. She was suspicious, even though he had been the one attacked in the alley. It felt crazy in a way. “A few minutes, and then I’m all yours,” she said to Wes, poking him along his torso. Wes nodded and weaved through the crowd.
Jeremy gestured for them to sit on the couches right where they were standing. She took a peek at Rayna, expecting some jealous look in her direction, but even when their eyes met, she was uninterested in why Dylan was talking to her boyfriend. Dylan didn’t know much about her, but Taylor was a fan of the TV series that had made Rayna famous, a show about adopted identical twins on opposite coasts trying to solve the mystery behind the boating accident deaths of their biological parents.
“The videos are really good. Awesome, actually,” Jeremy said. “A lot of musicians do them, but they’re usually so amateurish or overly produced. Yours are artistic and cool, but not too stylized, and still with a home videos feel.” She found it interesting that he was following Kai’s life, but then again, Kai had Jeremy’s tour schedule, and maybe this was what competitors in the music industry did.
Dylan smiled. “Thank you. It’s been really fun. Everyone’s great.” She tried to relax, tried not to let Kai’s issues with Jeremy play on her reaction to him, but she couldn’t help it. She was sitting in a stiff position: straight up and away from the back of the couch, hugging her glass in her hands, legs locked together at the ankles.
“Are you exclusive with Kai, or a freelancer? Are you looking for other people to work with?” he asked eagerly as he poured himself a drink. Wes waved to her from the dance floor with a huge smile on his face. The girl he was dancing with was gripping his hamstrings as she wriggled her butt against his groin.
Dylan waved back, but Jeremy was quick to swing his hand in front of her face to recapture her attention. She caught the fade away of his impatient look before his lips slipped into a smile. “I’m actually still in college. This is my Christmas break job,” she said, smiling apologetically before she stared down at the ice floating in her glass.
Jeremy set his own glass down. “Excuse me.” Rayna Rodriguez walked over, whispered something in his ear, smashed a kiss to his lips as a camera flashed and disappeared down the flight of stairs. It wasn’t a cold kiss, but it was nothing near as passionate as the way she and Kai had kissed.
“You only plan on working with Kai?” he asked. “‘Cause you’re really good.”
“Thanks. I haven’t really thought about it.” Dylan scraped away some condensation from her glass with her thumb. “When I get back to school, I’ll start applying for summer jobs and internships. I’m more interested in full-length documentaries.”
“Well, I like your work. You should come work for my team. I bet you the pay’s better, we play bigger venues…” Jeremy put his hand on top of hers. “It’ll be way better than what you’re doing with him.”
Was he really expecting her to say yes right then and there? She couldn’t. She would never do that to Kai. What am I saying? We’re not even together. We’re barely friends at this point. “I’m really just taking everything one day at a time. Not really looking too far ahead yet. Thank you, but I have to decline.”
Jeremy offered a bitter smile after a perfunctory pause of silence. “You have to decline?” He smirked and drew his eyebrows together.
Dylan put her glass down. “Yeah… like I said—”
“Do you understand what I’m offering you?” he said. “Tons of people would kill for this opportunity to be presented to them like that. Why are you really saying no? It’s about Kai, isn’t it? What, the fight? He’s saying shit about me? ‘Cause you know that psycho attacked me, right?” His voice was low and not quite panicky, but definitely filling with anger. His facial muscles tensed along his jaw and brow bone.
A wave of irritation flowed over her in response to his sudden paranoid aggression. She leaned away from him and slid her wrist out of his grasp as her heart rate went up. “He hasn’t said anything about you. It’s nothing like—”
“You’re really just saying no?” he asked, laughing in disbelief. “You can’t really be turning this down.”
Sternly, she said, “I’m saying no to your offer.” Dylan was getting annoyed that she was having to repeat it.
“So, what is it?” Jeremy moved in closer and kept his incredulous look. “What’s the problem? Why are you so hesitant? You’re a college student; you should be into this. You think you’re too good for the job?” He laughed coldly. “‘Cause you’re not. You’re slumming with Kai, honestly.”
She wasn’t hesitant, and she was wholly against it at this point. He was rude, condescending, pushy and completely dismissive of what she was saying. He was an asshole just like his brother. And the comment had offended her but, for the moment, she suppressed her discomfort and went with civility instead. She was already in a bad mood and figured ending the conversation as diplomatically as possible would actually lead to it ending faster. She hoped.
“I’m sure it would be a great opportunity, but I’m going to have to say no at this point. I’m sure you’ll find someone great to do a web series for you.” When Dylan stood, Jeremy stood with her, almost like he was planning to block her path. She gulped down as she watched resentment at her build in his expression. It had come so quickly, and out of nowhere.
“Take my assistant’s number. I’m serious about what I said. I bet you’ll change your mind,” Jeremy said calmer than before, grabbing her wrist. He smiled a little when her eyes widened in concern, like he enjoyed scaring her.
“I don’t want your assistant’s number,” she said austerely.
“What’s with the fucking attitude all of a sudden?” he asked, frowning. “You’re kind of stuck up. I’m doing something nice for you.”
“Okay, that’s enough.” Dylan shook her head in anger. “Jeremy—”
“Don’t really care. I just wasted this time talking to you for nothing. That’s bullshit. Complete bullshit. You shouldn’t want to say no to this.” It was as though once she had decided against what he wanted, he was determined to never let her speak again.
To this or to you? she thought as she yanked her wrist away and scooted past him, but Jeremy was in front of her again, glaring at her with disgust.
“What is it about him?” Jeremy asked angrily. “What is about Kai?”
Dylan didn’t answer when she pushed past him, marching straight toward Wes. He excused himself from his dance partner when Dylan approached. Her heart was pounding from the heated exchange. She looked back but Jeremy had returned to his seat. He was already chatting up one of the girls who had been whisked past the ropes with her friends. “So Jeremy is not who I expected him to be,” she said
vaguely to Wes.
“What do you mean?” Wes asked, frowning. His eyes lifted from her face to over her head at Jeremy. “Did he say something to you?”
It’s not just what he said necessarily, it’s the way he said it. Dylan looked back at Jeremy, and he looked pleasant and calm, and the woman was laughing when he leaned in to say something. Dylan sighed when she turned back around to Wes. “He just came across like a complete prick, no offense.”
“Oh, geez.” Wes’ eyes widened in concern and regret. “Sorry about that, Dyl. I feel like tonight’s been shitty all around. Abel can stay if he wants, but we’re going to Velvet. It should be fun.” After she nodded, she trailed him to find his brother then Wes clued him in to their plans, and the three of them left for Velvet.
Once inside the new club, it didn’t take long for Dylan to get into her element with the music so loud and the club so packed, the incident with Jeremy already forgotten. She immediately dragged Wes out to the middle of the crowd for several songs.
“You gonna make up with your boyfriend tonight or just drive him crazy, looking all gorgeous and stuff?” he whispered as they rocked to the heavy beat exploding all around them.
Dylan separated herself from him but kept a hold of his hands and tried not to smile. She couldn’t deny that the outfit was meant to poke at Kai a little when he got here. “Stop calling him my boyfriend, Wes,” she screamed across the space between them. She almost wanted to ask if he was coming for sure, but she refused to let Wes claim victory over his theories.
“He’s your boyfriend, Dyl,” Wes said, shrugging. “I walked into a couple fighting earlier.”
“How would you know what couples do?” she asked teasingly before she backed up against him. She loved it on the dance floor, but at least Wes and Abel’s VIP table in the roped-off section allowed her an escape to rest her feet. Dylan felt faint disappointment that Kai wasn’t in the club as the night wore on, but it was mixed in with some relief. If Kai were here, even if his heart twisted up upon the sight of her, he was still Kai White—a guy with a guitar and a sweet voice and a sexy everything—and she would have to deal with seeing him with other girls, and she had definitely reached the quota for that sighting. Not that the thought helped her not yearn for him any less. Her mind wasn’t even lost in the music. It was nowhere close to the nightclub. It was wherever Kai was and nothing felt right.