“Um, yeah,” I said uneasily, extending a hand out. The way he stared back at me was identical to the first time I saw him.
Instead of shaking my hand, he pulled me into his thin chest and gave me a surprisingly strong hug. The overly powerful scent of cinnamon filled the air and I pushed away from him almost instantly, gasping for breath. He wasn’t very big or muscular, but just from the hug, I could tell he was as strong as an ox. His extremely thin face was pulled into a huge smile, revealing sparkling white teeth that matched Liam’s.
“We’re going to have a hell of a time tonight,” Damien bellowed, extending his malicious smile even further.
“We can’t wait!” Annie cheered, wrapping her arms around Liam’s waist.
“Zoe, have you been to Atlantis yet?” Liam asked, as we all headed out the front door.
“No.”
“We’ve only been to the Strip once,” Annie chimed in, “but we were so far south, we didn’t really get to see anything. And the hotel wasn’t even open yet.”
“Oh, that’s right. Well, you guys are going to love it. And everything is on me tonight, so enjoy yourselves.”
“Wow, sounds great,” I scoffed with a slight eye roll which thankfully went undetected by Annie.
As Damien closed the door behind us, the perfect orange-red glaze across the sky from the setting sun calmed my building anxiety. My eyes slowly traveled away from the majestic sunset towards the largest truck I’d ever seen in my life parked in front of the house.
“Bet you’ve never seen one that big before, have you?” Damien whispered in my ear while he threw an arm over my shoulder.
“Um, no, I haven’t,” I shot back with a fake smile, throwing his arm off my shoulder.
“Nice, I like a girl who plays hard to get. Much more fun that way,” he smiled sleazily.
Damien and Annie walked around to the other side of the hulking black truck, where I watched hopefully for Annie to take a seat in the back. Sadly, she leaped up into the front seat while Damien slid into the back.
“Need a boost?” Liam joked, opening the massive back door on the drivers’ side.
I stood in stunned silence, caught off guard by Liam’s sudden display of class. After a moment, I shook it off and leaped up into the massive cab, heaving the door closed behind me. While I settled in, Annie, who had been watching us from the front, turned her gaze forward instantly the moment our eyes met.
The cab was so long; I could have lied flat out and slept comfortably without having to bend my knees. Six of his massive fraternity brothers could have easily fit inside, with three up front and three in the back. It had all black leather upholstery, and, according to Liam, was fitted with a brand new, surround sound stereo. The bed of the truck extended out almost double the length of the cab. His rear window had their fraternity decal, with the Greek letters hovering over skull and crossbones, which had to have been their logo.
Timidly, I pulled the seatbelt over my shoulder and held on for dear life. Annie instantly slid over into Liam’s extended arm, while Damien sat a safe distance away from me, gawking from the corner of his eye. I took a few deep breaths before Liam’s lead foot slammed on the gas and we sped away from the fraternity house.
While we flew down an unfamiliar back road towards town, I started to notice the bright lights of the Strip creep up over the rapidly darkening horizon. Even without having visited it, I knew that it was going to be a sight to see. Each and every night, the sky illuminated high above the city from the millions of lights that made Vegas world-famous. I couldn’t help but feel a little excited when the thought of finally going to the Strip began to sink in. The new dress, shoes, makeover and my best friend helped outweigh the moronic company.
I recognized some of the smaller hotels that lined the southern part of the Strip as we approached. Instead of turning left like Annie and I did to go to the water park, Liam made a right turn that placed us on the wildest street I’d ever seen. The nighttime Las Vegas was everything I’d imagined, and more. It was even more awesome than the TV and magazines ever showed. The bright neon lights, the glitz, the glamour, it was all there, connected to the most luxurious looking hotels. I’d seen massive hotels before, but never so many in one place and with so many bright lights.
“So, this is the real Vegas?” Annie asked in awe, staring out of Liam’s window. “Unbelievable, isn’t it Zoe?”
“Yeah,” I said faintly, not able to pull my gaze from the mesmerizing lights.
“Look at these freaks,” Damien chuckled, referring to the thousands of people walking the streets.
It was probably the most diverse group of people I’d ever seen in my life. Men, women, young, old, prostitutes and even cross dressers were lining the sidewalks. Some people were even walking along with huge alcoholic beverages, sipping them without a care in the world.
We continued to drive and I easily made out a high number of bachelorette parties walking the Strip. The soon-to-be brides all had veils pinned to their heads, escorted by their loud and drunk entourages. When we drove by, Damien poked his head out of the window and gave a loud whistle towards a smaller group of girls. Instead of being insulted, everyone in the group held up their drinks and screamed their approval.
“Man I love this town,” he said, pulling his head back in.
After driving on the Strip for no more than five minutes, we made a right turn into Atlantis, which was perfectly stunning from the outside. The hotel was one huge tower that must have extended upwards of fifty stories, with nothing but ocean blue glass windows covering the exterior. An enormous statue of the Greek god Poseidon holding his renowned trident stood at the entrance to the hotel, and also acted as the trademark sign to the rest of the Strip. There were thousands of exotic plants scattered along the driveway path up to the casino, and many more waterfalls, lagoons and small ponds were scattered about. Everything appeared to sparkle from under the moon and the bright lights that emanated from the hotel. As we approached the casino entrance, a young parking valet opened my door. The four of us climbed out as Liam gave the valet his keys.
“Welcome ladies to your first Vegas hotel, pretty cool huh?” Liam said, interlocking his hand with Annie’s.
“This place is unreal!” she exclaimed, looking around in wonder, her mouth slightly agape.
A stale air scent invaded my nostrils the moment we entered and the sound of coins colliding together from the thousands of slot machines rang in my ears. Everything inside the hotel was associated with this world of Atlantis. The walls had murals of numerous Greek gods, with Poseidon being the most prominent. The carpet was a sky blue, with golden wave designs flowing all around the floor. Mermaids were painted onto the smooth felt casino gaming tables, which were hosted by men and women in exquisite tuxedos. Even the reception desk in the lobby had a built-in fish tank with every type of exotic fish you could imagine. The hotel truly was spectacular.
After 10 minutes of wandering through the casino, we finally arrived at the restaurant.
“Talbott, reservation for four,” Liam said in a domineering tone to the penguin suited host.
“Ah yes, Mr. Talbott, nice to see you again. Right this way please.”
My cheeks blushed in embarrassment while the four of us walked through the restaurant towards our reserved table. Everyone in the restaurant was dressed formally, except for my date. Suddenly, a massive hand grabbed hold of mine and Damien appeared directly at my side.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snapped, pulling my hand away from his sweaty palm.
A couple of people dropped their utensils around us at my sudden eruption.
“Just trying to find my limits,” he grinned, completely unfazed by my outburst.
“Don’t touch me again. That’s your limit.”
My eyes then focused on Annie’s beautiful curls that waved a few feet in front of my face until we were seated at a standard table, with two chairs on each side. Annie sat across from me with Liam next to her, wh
ile Damien quickly collapsed into the seat next to mine. I looked out and noticed that the people who had been staring slowly returned their focus to their own tables.
“Have you been here before sweetie?” Annie asked in wonder, staring around at the beautiful scenery. “That host seemed to know you.”
“Yeah, one of the guys in the house won some radio contest and got us a free dinner the night this place opened,” Liam said with an air of arrogance. “We’ve been here a few times since then. The food practically melts in your mouth it’s so good.”
“Seriously dude,” Damien added from somewhere behind his leather bound menu. “I could eat here every day if it weren’t so damn expensive.”
“Remember, you guys get whatever you want tonight, the bill is on me,” Liam smirked.
“Isn’t he the best?” Annie gleefully cried, leaned over and gave him another, more passionate kiss.
“Some of us would like to keep our appetites,” I muttered under my breath.
“What’s that?” Liam said, pulling away from Annie instantly.
“Oh, nothing, just reading the menu,” I replied with a smirk of my own.
I looked over at Annie whose smile had been replaced with a full frown. She didn’t seem very pleased with my remark. Her penetrating gaze lingered on me for an extra few seconds before she disappeared behind the menu.
My stomach let out a massive growl when an older bus boy put two baskets of bread on our table, accompanied by four glasses of water.
“Would you care for something to drink?” he said politely.
“Sure, the two of us,” he said, putting his arm back over Annie’s shoulder, “will take a bottle of your house red.”
The bus boy nodded and proceeded to me.
“I’m fine with water,” I said with a smile.
He finally turned to Damien. “For you sir?”
“I’ll take whatever lager you’ve got on tap,” he said from behind the menu.
The bus boy finished jotting down a few notes then turned and walked away. Strangely, he didn’t bother checking any ID’s before leaving when it was clear we were all underage. After another few minutes, he brought back our drinks and uncorked the bottle of wine and poured a small amount in Liam’s glass. Liam picked it up, sniffed it, shook it around for a second then took a sip. He looked up and nodded at the bus boy, who then proceeded to fill Liam’s and Annie’s glasses. Once he was done, a thickset woman approached our table wearing well fit black slacks and a black long sleeve, button up shirt.
“Welcome to Christos,” she said in a high pitched voice. “My name is Ileana and I’ll be your server tonight. Have any of you been here before?”
Liam and Damien nodded once without looking up from their menus. Before Annie or I could say no, she continued on with the specials for the night, which she ran through rather quickly. When she finished, Liam stopped her before she could walk away and give us a few minutes.
“I think we’re ready to order now,” he said, putting down his menu.
Ileana looked flustered for a second. Her eyes briefly traveled to another table next to us before she pulled out a flip book and pen.
“I’ll have the lobster-stuffed raviolis with garlic mashed potatoes. (Restaurants generally don’t serve a starch like potatoes with pasta. I would suggest changing what they eat.) How about you baby?”
“I’ll have what he’s having,” Annie said absentmindedly. The redness in her cheeks had nothing to do with blush.
She turned to Damien who ordered the lasagna and then finally turned to me.
“And for you miss?”
My hands were shaking while the entire table watched. I could feel Liam’s smirk burning through the top of my head. I hesitated for a moment but then remembered that Liam was paying for the night. I quickly flipped the menu to the main entrees section and found the most expensive item on the menu.
“I’ll have the seafood platter please,” I said smugly, closing the menu and handing it to her.
“Excellent choice,” she smiled.
I picked up my water glass and took a sip then looked over at Liam and gave him a victorious smile.
“She’s right, it’s excellent,” Liam said coolly, giving me a surprisingly pleasant smile back.
Maybe it was the fact he didn’t care it was expensive, or maybe it was because the night had been so awkward already, but for some reason, I let out a soft giggle. Annie looked at me suspiciously, then back at Liam whose gaze lingered on me for an extra second. She sat there for another few moments looking between the two of us before she relaxed a bit.
While we waited for the food, the guys proceeded to talk about everything fraternity. Most of the conversation was focused on the last party they had, or about Chase and Tyler who they said were perfect candidates for their house. They never spoke or even referenced us, which made it even more difficult to listen to. Our food finally came when I looked desperately over at Annie in a silent plea to change the topic to anything else.
“I’m sorry, are we boring you?” Liam asked suddenly with his familiar smirk.
“What? No… I love hearing all about your fraternity,” I jeered.
“Damn man, I can see what you mean about her!” Damien added out of the blue, again throwing his snake-like arm over my shoulders.
“Excuse me?” I retorted, freezing my burning gaze in Liam’s direction. Annie just shrank back in her seat and picked at her raviolis.
“Oh, come on Zoe, I was just kidding with him. All I told him was that you aren’t really the biggest fans of our, uh, style of life, and felt that we were overly pompous,” he chuckled. “You can’t possibly deny that that’s how you feel, can you?”
“Well, no, not really. But still, I don’t appreciate being talked about behind my back, especially with strangers,” I said, glancing at Damien.
“Lighten up Zoe,” Annie mumbled, as everyone stared at her. “They’re just playing with you, don’t be so defensive.”
Annie’s intolerance was not only infuriating, but somewhat hurtful. She always stuck up for me before, and in a situation like that, she’d usually be the one to get our stuff together and leave the jerks at the table. But, the new Annie was different and I knew why.
“Fine, fine, whatever,” I pouted, crossing my arms.
Annie gave me a quick look and then turned it towards Damien. I knew she wanted me to talk to him, which immediately destroyed any appetite I had.
“So Damien, did you and Liam know each other before coming to ULV?” I asked in a bored voice.
“Yeah, we have been tight for years,” he said, shoveling a massive piece of lasagna into his mouth. Sauce splattered all over his lips and shirt and it was the most disgusting display I’d ever seen. “We grew up together in a small town in Oregon.”
“Wait, you guys are from the Northwest too? Where in Oregon?” I asked, mildly surprised.
“Yeah, we are, but I wouldn’t even call Sisters a town, it’s so small,” Damien replied, chuckling behind the ridiculous amount of food still in his mouth.
“What brought you to Vegas then?” I asked, trying to maintain calmness.
“Well, that is kind of a long story, but I’ll give you the quick version,” he said, as Liam had tuned us out and sat there playing with Annie’s hair. “Back in the day, we were next door neighbors. We hung out all the time, day and night. His parents traveled a lot to Seattle for business, so he stayed with me most of the time. He was the little brother I always wanted, without the annoying factor.”
At the mention of his parents, Liam became very rigid. He shot an extremely cold look at Damien, wordlessly telling him not to continue. Damien didn’t even notice. He was in his own little world, eating and laughing, carrying on the conversation without a care in the world.
“Anyway, it was sometime during seventh grade when my parents decided to move to Las Vegas because my dad had gotten a new job. So, when we were getting ready to move, Liam had the choice to come with us or stay b
ehind,” he said, flinging his fork around, which luckily was empty. Liam just glared without blinking.
“I was glad that he didn’t really like Sisters either. His parents let him come with us because they were never around much in the first place. We went to high school here, got into ULV and the rest is history. Except for senior year when your parents came down and surprised you, remember that? It was crazy!” he laughed.
“That’s enough.” Liam finally said in a stone-cold voice. His eyes were blacker than I’d ever seen them and he looked absolutely furious. It was all clearly stuff he didn’t want anyone to know, including Annie, who looked outright scared.
“Dude, relax, I’m not telling them anything…” Damien tried to say, not remotely fazed by Liam’s shift in attitude.
“That’s enough,” he said again as he stood up. Even though seeing him on his heels made me feel a little better, watching him angry was quite frightening. It reminded me eerily of the toga party.
I just looked back and forth between the two guys, like watching a tennis match, not knowing what to do.
“Come on man,” Damien laughed uncomfortably. “Sit back down, let’s get some dessert.”
“No, I think I’m done for the night,” he said sharply, throwing a roll of twenties on the table. He grabbed Annie’s hand, and gestured to the two of us that it was time to go.
The car ride back to campus was a scary ordeal. Liam was driving at least 70 miles an hour down the same back roads he took earlier. Nobody said a word and even Damien looked edgy as he hid in the opposite corner of the backseat. Every time I looked at Annie, her gaze was fixated on Liam.
He dropped Annie and me off at our condo, gave her a quick kiss goodnight and tore off around the corner towards the Beta house. Annie stood on the spot watching worriedly as the enormous roar of Liam’s engine faded into the night. There was an awkward silence that filled the void between us. I walked over to Annie, grabbed her softly on the elbow and pulled her towards the apartment.
“I don’t know if you should be around Liam much anymore,” Annie mumbled as I opened the door to my room.
Common Ground (The Common Ground Trilogy Book 1) Page 13