Chapter 19 #2
The bouncer visibly thaws toward Todd, a smile on his face. His voice is a low enough register I don’t catch his words, but he motions for Todd’s hand. The bouncer wraps a band around Todd’s wrist, and then he flips his hand up and scrawls what I assume is his number on Todd’s palm.
Todd looks back at us, shell-shocked. Lumi is the first to rush forward, and we follow in her wake. The lot of us are let through with bands around our own wrists, the bouncer having IDed the rest of us.
Once inside, Todd shoves his hand in my face. “What do I do? Am I obligated to call? Was that, like, a formal contract? I’m in over my head, bae. I don’t even know a Larry.”
“Breathe,” I tell him above the thump of the music. I squeeze his shoulders, and Todd draws in a breath. “You don’t have to call. You can go wash it off if you want.”
Todd nods, looking around before heading down the hall toward the bathrooms.
Trevor gives my hand a squeeze. “I’ll go wait for him. Meet you at the bar?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
He nods before following in Todd’s wake, my sweet-as-can-be boyfriend making sure my best friend is okay.
“Damn it,” I mutter. “I really like that man.”
Lumi wraps her arm around mine, leaning close. “Have you told him?”
I nod, my gaze on Trevor as he disappears down the hall. “Yeah.”
She looks surprised by that. “Good,” she says firmly. “And your dad?”
I close my eyes for a second before meeting Lumi’s. “Can we not talk about him tonight?”
She zips her lips, tugging me toward the overly occupied bar.
Camden and…Blaine are already there, and Camden waves us in, collecting drink orders from Lumi as I gaze out over the club.
Music is a percussive beat within the walls, the audible heart of this place, like a pulse for the dancers to follow.
It’s loud and crowded, but there’s a tiny rainbow flag near the register and more than one same-sex couple I notice on the dance floor.
I’m not terribly surprised, considering it’s butted up against a drag club, but it’s nice to see regardless. It calms my nerves. Makes me feel safe in a world where that isn’t always a given.
When the bartender drops off our order, I motion for Lumi to go on ahead with the others, wanting to wait for Trevor and Todd where I said I’d be. “I’ll be right behind you.”
She nods, a large blue concoction in her hand that’s within an actual glass fishbowl. There are floating shark-shaped gummies inside, multiple straws, and a few umbrellas poking out the top.
“My God,” I whisper to myself. Never mind the spread of germs. If Todd gets started on one of those…
“Hey,” comes a voice I recognize. Trevor slips his hand along my lower back, looking happy to see me after our brief minute apart. It’s sweet as fuck, but there are more important matters to attend to.
Like the suspicious absence of a certain friend.
I’ve no sooner formed the words “Where’s Todd?” when I spot him at the table with Lumi. He already has his mouth wrapped around the end of a straw.
I tug a startled Trevor through the crowd toward our friends. Todd has thankfully come up for air by the time we arrive.
I catch my breath and point at the ridiculous communal fishbowl. “You know that doesn’t count as a single drink, right?”
Todd gives me a lazy grin. “Of course. It’s probably, what, eight?”
I stare at him. “Try twenty.”
His grin slowly falters, his eyes pinging back to the drink. “Uh-oh.”
That’s what I was afraid of. “I’ll get you a water. No more blue…whatever the fuck that is, okay?”
“But it’s so good,” he says glumly. I can see the resignation on his face, though. Todd knows he’s a lightweight. And he’s always responsible about drinking.
When he knows what he’s drinking, that is.
He lets out a sad huff. “One gummy at least.”
Lumi swats his hand away from the top of the bowl. “Use a straw, you animal.”
As Todd attempts to fish a gummy shark out of the drink with his straw, I head back toward the bar. It’s slow going until Trevor gives my wrist a light squeeze and slips in front of me. Suddenly, the crowd is parting easily, Trevor leading the way.
I suppose that’s one perk of having a six-and-a-half-foot-tall boyfriend. One of many, many perks.
Trevor orders waters from the bar before tugging me close, his body boxing me in in a way that feels startlingly intimate. I know Trevor has no issue with PDA, but it still surprises me how easily he touches or holds me in public.
I slip my fingers into his belt loops, my heart an uneven staccato amongst the thump of the music.
Trevor bends enough to speak near my ear, voice low and rumbling. “Are you going to dance with me tonight?”
“You dance?”
He shrugs, which I take to mean he’s comfortable enough being on the dance floor, probably mostly standing, maybe moving a little. It’s not as if much skill is actually required in a setting like this.
I pop up on my tiptoes so Trevor can hear my response. “You realize the second you’re out on that dance floor, there will be hands all over you.”
Trevor’s lips twitch, dark, dark eyes taking on a gleam I know well. “Would you like that, brat? Being there to decide who gets to touch what’s yours?”
A shiver runs down my spine that I try to hide, but Trevor’s growing smile tells me he caught it. I don’t even bother denying the claim.
Maybe doomed isn’t the right word to describe my predicament. It implies a lack of choice.
I know full well what I’m choosing. Despite how much it scares me, despite everything that could go wrong along the way, I’ve already grabbed on with two hands and two legs to boot.
I’m attached to Trevor.
And I have no plans of letting go.