“I’m not sure, but from what I could hear, Jules isn’t happy about something. I’m just not sure what.”
I looked back at Jules and Brent who were walking into the living room. She saw me and put a smile on her face, hiding what I knew was an unhappy expression. I’d definitely be asking her about that once the night was over. I didn’t want to bring it up while we were out and ruin the night.
“You ready to get your party on?” Jules asked, grabbing her stuff off the counter.
“Where exactly are we going to be getting our party on?” I replied as we made our way out of the apartment to Brent’s car.
I heard Dave start to say something and looked over to see Jules slap him on the shoulder. “Nope, you’ll just have to wait,” she grinned at me as we all piled into the car.
I knew where we were starting; I just didn’t know what we were doing after that. Only time would tell.
The night went like I thought it would. Jules’ goal tonight was to get me drunk and to make my feet fall off. I should have worn a shorter heel. I knew I’d be dancing all night, but I knew the pain I’d be feeling in the morning would be worth it.
They had taken me to a little bar named Stan’s where we met up with Sam and his friends, Jim, Zac, and Alex. We stayed for a half hour while we had a drink and got to know Sam’s friends.
Out of the three friends, Alex was the one that caught my eye. I talked to him for the majority of the night, ignoring Dave in the process. I only felt a little bad about it, but I haven’t done anything to make him think I was interested in being anything other than friends.
After another bar stop, Jules took us to a place called Shooters. This was a country bar that had country line dancing night. By that time, two hours had already passed and I was feeling a little bit tipsy; which is perfect when you want to country line dance. And being from Alabama, it was right up my alley. I couldn’t believe she was able to find a place like this in the middle of Los Angeles. She really never ceased to amaze me.
Around forty-five minutes of line dancing later, the guys were ready to go. I knew it wasn’t their thing so I didn’t prolong our stay. I was ready to go do a little booty shaking anyway.
We left Shooters around eleven and headed toward Club X. At this point, I was really glad that Brent offered to be DD for the night because there was no way that Jules or I would have been able to drive.
Brent pulled into the club’s parking lot and parked in one of the very first parking spaces that were reserved for him and his partner. Since Dave was with us that night, he told Sam to go ahead and park in his spot, so we wouldn’t get separated.
We got out of the car and I smiled at Jules as she walked over to me, hooking her arm around mine.
“We’re getting a drink, then we’re going out on the dance floor. Tonight it’s nothing but VIP treatment for you sweet cheeks,” she giggled as we made our way past the long line and into the club.
I took a minute to take in my surroundings. The place was dimly lit like most clubs, but the décor was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The textured walls looked like waves and almost had a 3D look to them. The black leather circular booths all along the walls were tall, with a little opening so you could get in and out. They looked very convenient for privacy. The layout of the club itself looked a lot like what I had seen at Sinners’ Club in Atlanta, except here, there were cages set in different places around the club with either a girl or a guy, half dressed, dancing very seductively. And the VIP section was on the second level.
When we made our way to the bar, I couldn’t help but stare at the guy in one of the cages we passed. He was tall, extremely built, and had blond spiked hair. He wasn’t looking at anyone in particular, but the way he moved his body was hypnotizing. I could have literally stood there and watched him dance all night. It could have been because of all the alcohol I had to drink so far that night, but this guy was gorgeous.
“Come on, birthday girl,” Jules shouted in my ear over the music. “Let’s get a drink, then you can stare at Mr. Sexy all you want.”
I smiled up at Jules and followed her the rest of the way through the crowd to the bar. It was time for another tequila shot.
Max called to tell me that the guys wanted to have a night out. It had been so long since we all went out together, so they wanted to catch up at Club X and have a few drinks. This was a place we had frequented before because of the atmosphere and the separate space where we could be left alone, so I agreed to meet them there.
I was happy to be able to take some time off from all the shit I’d been dealing with lately. I spent all of Friday night trying to figure out what I was going to do with the information I got from Frank’s when I finally got my hands on it. But I had a feeling this process was going to take longer than I had planned. I knew that Frank had a lot of connections; I didn’t want to go to the wrong person and then deal with the consequences.
With all that stress, I needed a fucking drink, so I was on a mission to put all that shit on hold and try to have a good time with the guys.
When I finally showed up to the club around ten, the boys already had a couple girls hanging around in VIP.
“Well, look who the fuck just joined the party.”
I looked over and smiled at Jaxon who was sitting with a sexy blonde on his lap.
“Yeah, yeah,” I laughed and took a seat on the couch that was up against the wall.
“This guy needs a fucking drink,” Max shouted down the aisle to the waitress that was taking drink orders. I shook my head and laughed at him.
“What the hell is up?” I looked at all of them sitting there. I had missed the hell out of them. I especially missed making music. It was all I’d done for years; without it, I had nothing.
“What’s up? What’s up with you, man? What the hell’s been going on?” I looked over to see Lucas with a pissed off look on his face; my smile slowly faltered. I could hear the edginess in his voice. Lucas wasn’t one to confront anyone. He was more of the laid back type, so for him to speak up and say something to me meant something.
I can’t say I blamed him, either. I knew putting the guys off would only last so long. It had been eight months, and I still hadn’t explained to them what the fuck was going on. I really didn’t know what to tell them. Max knew a little bit, but I didn’t want to risk telling them too much. Too much would get them into trouble.
I looked from Lucas to Jaxon, to Max. They were all looking at me waiting for me to reply.
Taking a deep breath, I let out an exasperated sigh and sat back on the couch to get comfortable. “Look … I’ll give you a short run down of what is going on, but the chicks need to go … they can come back when we’re done talking.”
The guys nodded in agreement. One by one, the chicks left and the guys settled into their seats and waited for me to start talking.
At this point, the waitress had brought me a beer. Picking it up, I chugged about half of it before I was ready to speak.
“I’m not going to go into full detail as to what the fuck has been going on,” I looked at each of them to make sure they understood what I was saying. “I have an … Uncle, who has decided to come back into my life.” I put my hand up to stop any of them from talking because I knew one of them was bound to ask some questions. Questions that I couldn’t answer right at that moment. “I know you have questions, but please don’t ask. There isn’t much I can tell you. The only thing that you need to know is that I don’t have a drug problem. Yes, I was using again awhile back, but that’s because of this shit that piled up in my lap. But I’m not using anymore. I’m clean. But until I can get this family shit taken care of, I can’t do anything with the band. This is where my focus needs to be.”
I leaned forward, looking down at the beer bottle I was holding and waited for what I had said to sink in. I hated that I had lied to them. Jaxon and Lucas had thought I was in rehab for the first three months I had been away. I knew that they would be pissed. We were like
brothers and we told each other everything, so the feeling of betrayal was bound to take over.
“You lied to us the whole fucking time.” I knew Jaxon would be pissed, more than Lucas.
I looked up at him and let out another sigh. I had a feeling this conversation was going to happen, but I was supposed to be getting my mind off this shit. Not making it worse.
Lifting my beer bottle to my lips, I chugged the rest and set it on the table that was in front of the couch I was sitting on. “I wasn’t trying to lie to you, but there are some things I can’t talk about right now. You guys are my brothers, and you know I would never intentionally keep anything from you unless I had to.” I looked each one of them in the eyes as I spoke to drive the point home.
“Are you in trouble or something?” Lucas asked.
I shook my head. “No. It’s just … it’s just a lot of personal shit I can’t get into right now. When I am able to talk about it, I will, but until then, just know that just because I’m not with you guys writing music, doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about it.” I sat back on the couch again and lifted my hand to get the waitress’s attention for another beer. “I miss the music and I’m trying to get this fucking mess out of my life so I can get back to it.”
The waitress came over with a new beer. “Here you go, sweetie.” She smiled and winked at me as she set down my beer and took the empty one.
Jaxon leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and looked over at me with a sincere expression. “If you need something, man, you just have to ask. Okay? No questions asked, we’re here for you.”
He didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about, but I appreciated the offer anyway, so I gave him a light smile. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
I was glad I was able to get this off my chest. I hated lying to them … still. But at least I gave them a little bit of information so I wouldn’t have to keep coming up with stories as to why I wasn’t hanging around them anymore. I could only use the drug card so many times.
“Well … now that the fucking bromance show is over, who wants a fucking shot?” We all laughed at Max as he tried to ease the tension that had built in our group. As soon as the conversation was over, I was definitely ready to pound some drinks. We called the girls back over and shot the shit for a while.
Some chick named Layla decided to join the girls and she took the only seat available. I smiled at her as she took residence on my lap and my dick twitched in appreciation. It had been a long week and looking at her—brown hair, blue eyes, and hourglass figure—she was definitely something that could help me get all the shit I had going on, off my mind.
My left hand on her upper thigh, I rubbed my thumb back and forth on her smooth skin. My thoughts focused on how ready I was to get the hell out of there to see what she was hiding under her little black dress, when I heard Max to my left: “Fuck.”
I looked over at him to see him with a peeved look on his face. He looked at me slightly shaking his head and let out a heavy sigh. Then he directed his gaze back in the other direction.
I turned my head looking past Layla … that’s when I saw her taking the last step into the VIP section. My body froze and I tensed up. I could hear Layla asking me what was wrong, but my focus was only on her. It had been so long since I had seen her; I couldn’t help giving her a once over. She looked so good in those short shorts she was wearing, making her legs look fucking edible. I could feel my cock getting stiff as I remembered what is was like to be in between them. My eyes traveled up to her face as she walked closer. She was smiling and looked like a fucking angel.
She hadn’t noticed us yet, but I knew she would be walking right by us. The only available tables were all the way at the end of this section. My breaths got heavier as I watched her walk my way. Max had told me she moved here, but I didn’t think I would see her … so soon.
Brent was the first one to make eye contact. I could see the look of concern on his face when he saw me look past him toward Scarlett.
“Holy shit, is that Scarlett?”
I could hear Jaxon talking in the background while Layla was trying to get my attention, but my focus was still on Scarlett. She was walking next to Jules in a group of guys. I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she was dating one of them. I got the sudden urge to punch all of them in the face. I willed my gaze to look away from her, but it was no use. She was captivating and so beautiful.
They walked closer and it felt like everything was in slow motion. What seemed like minutes only lasted a couple of seconds. Then she lifted her eyes from the floor and they locked onto mine.
After we took our shot at the bar, I ordered a beer. I told Jules I wanted to go dance, but Brent wanted to show us where our seats were in VIP first. He led the way while the rest of the guys followed. Jules and I walked slowly behind and I took the opportunity to ask her what was going on with her and Brent.
I grabbed onto her arm, yanking her body closer to mine as we walked through the crowd, and leaned my face up to her ear. “So what’s going on with you and Brent?” I wasn’t going to ask, but my curiosity got the best of me.
She looked at me with a furrowed brow, like she had no idea what I was talking about. I rolled my eyes at her as we continued to walk. “You know what I’m talking about, Jules. There’s something going on. I can see it; I’m not blind. You can talk to me you know.”
I could see her shoulders sag in defeat as we walked up the stairs to the VIP section side-by-side, but when she looked at me she had a determined look on her face. “Not tonight, Letti. This is your night. I don’t want to ruin your birthday. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay? I promise. Plus, we owe Sam and his mates some dances. We have to teach them how to dance because I don’t know what the hell they were doing earlier at the bar.”
We both started laughing. Sam and his friends were hilarious when they got out on the dance floor. They told us from the start that they didn’t know how to dance, but they loved going out there acting like they did. I think it was mainly to get people to laugh, which worked really well.
We continued walking down the VIP lounge to our table. The couches and tables were all lined up against the wall on my left and there was a railing overlooking the ground level to my right. It wasn’t very big, but it had its perks, except for when we wanted to go down to the dance floor.
I still had a smile on my face from Jules’ comment, when I looked up from the floor and my eyes locked on to dark brown ones. Eyes I never thought I’d see again and they were staring right at me.
The smile fell from my face as my mouth fell open in shock. I stopped walking and stared at him. I could feel my body flush as my heart rate picked up. I knew Jules had seen him too because she stopped walking when I did. She grabbed ahold of my arm and started to pull me forward. It only lasted a moment, but it felt like I was dreaming.
I broke eye contact with Kade and looked over at Jules who had a sympathetic look on her face. I had no idea why she’d be looking at me with sympathy, so I looked back over at Kade. That’s when I noticed the brunette sitting in his lap with his hand on her upper thigh. It looked like his fingers were half way up her skirt touching her unmentionables. My shocked expression turned into a disgusted one as I looked away from the scene.
I knew I had no reason to feel the way I did seeing him there with another woman in his lap. I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I walked faster to get away from him and Jules stayed beside me.
We made it to our little area that had two couches and a big table in front of them. I immediately sat down next to Sam and tried to calm my breathing. I needed to calm down. I had imagined this moment for so long. What it would be like to see him again. This was not how I expected to react. I felt a longing to be near him, but then again, I wanted to punch him in the face. I laid my head on the back of the couch and closed my eyes. What is wrong with me? I’m acting like such a child.
I opened my eyes and looked up at Jules who was still standing there lo
oking at me. “Did that really just happen?”
She walked over and sat beside me. “Yeah, that really just happened.”
“What just happened?”
I looked to my left to see Sam listening to us.
“Letti’s ex is here and he’s got some cunt-gutter slut sitting in his lap with his hand halfway up her skirt.” Jules looked over at me and I threw my head back and laughed. I swear to God, some of the things that came out of her mouth were priceless.
“Did you really just say that? Oh my God, I’m going to die. Where do you come up with this shit?”
Sam just looked at us like we were crazy. But that was okay because I felt like I needed to be committed. I looked back over at Jules. “Did that really just happen?” I asked her again. I had to make sure. I didn’t want to stand up and look over there again to find out for myself.
“Yeah, babe, that really just happened. I didn’t want to ruin your birthday, and now look what the hell just happened.”
I looked over at Jules and then over to the rest of our group. Sam’s friends were leaning up against the railing looking down at the dance floor; I was sure checking out the chicks dancing provocatively. Brent and Dave were on the other couch and they were looking my way. They were both looking at me with concern, so I gave them a small smile. My way of telling them I was fine. Which was a lie, but I’d have to get over it. This was my damn birthday and I wasn’t going to let him ruin my night.
As I was looking over at Brent and Dave, Sam had gotten up and joined his friends at the railing. Except he wasn’t checking out the chicks on the dance floor. He was turned toward us, but he was looking down by Kade. “Yep, that’s him alright.”
He was stretching his neck out trying to get a better look. He looked like a complete moron.
“What the hell are you doing, Sam? Get your ass back over here,” I whispered loudly.
He looked at me and laughed, then walked back over to the couch and took a seat. “If it makes you feel any better, the chick is no longer in his lap. He’s got his head in his hands and some guy keeps looking over here as he’s talking to him.”
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