SEBASTIAN
SEBASTIAN
Within a minute of Craig disappearing after his brother, Ashleigh had coerced me into joining her. I’d put no rational thought into moving Craig's neglected drink along too. It’s the first I've touched a drop since last I was here. I dislike even the slightest feeling of influence, but I have started to genuinely relax into the night. The band has an honest-to-God gift of sneaking under the skin, and Ashleigh's friends are infectiously enthusiastic; it's almost as if this past year has been no time at all.
However, Desperate For Aces are now taking a break, the sudden cessation of sound making my ears ring, and Derek is off the stage and closing in on us. The enchantment is too brittle to withstand his approach.
Truthfully, I'd be up and returning to my original seat with the brothers grim if not for the statement that move would make. A look across at Craig finds him slouched in his chair, fixated on his feet, and I get the distinct impression whatever conversation he and Alex are having is likely best not interrupted in any case.
"Loving the vibe in here tonight," Derek says, glancing about himself. I do my utmost to ignore him as he pulls up alongside, his spicy cologne and exerted sweat flavouring the stagnant air. Ruffling Lyndsay's hair until she swats him off, he commandeers a free seat from the next table and drags it in between us. All the while, I hold my focus on Ashleigh and Steph's impromptu Yes/No bout. "And loving my fanatically adoring fans."
" Your fans?" Lyndsay smirks at him. "Where are they at then?"
Swinging his chair back on two legs and pressing a hand to his chest as if struck, he chuckles. "Ouch!"
"Bas is almost having fun," Ashleigh needlessly draws attention to me. "So that's a thing."
I can feel the heat of his smoky gaze land on the side of my face. I don't react.
The bassist — whose name I can't remember — salutes us as he passes by to the table behind, and I tip my head in return. He settles in beside his missus and presses a firm kiss to her mouth. Across the other side of the stage, the guitarist and vocalist have joined their collective party of friends. Mikey has his phone out, busily typing away on it, and a gigantic smile blossoms on his face as it buzzes in his hand with a reply message.
"Oh-my- stars ! Are you seriously sexting right now?" Steph leans fully over the table to nosy in on him.
The phone is hastily whipped from the table to his lap underneath. "As if, Steph," he remains fixed on the screen, cheeks pinking with a blush. "Shut up!"
"You are! That's so naughty!"
Derek's roguish smirk remains on me as he slides a covert peek down and across at Mikey's secretive messaging. "Where's your sweet lady-love tonight, Davis?"
"Not here," I shrug him off.
But Ashleigh's ears have instantly pricked. "Also, not the boss of him anymore," she reports, seemingly misinterpreting my ‘ stop talking ' facial tics to mean ' explain on my behalf, please '. "As of today, Bas and Brianna are no long—"
"AHA!" Steph's hands are thrown up above her head with an abruptness that whips Ashleigh's head around. "Loser!"
"—What?"
"You just said the 'n' word, bitch," the crazy redhead crows, fierce and triumphant. "Game over, I reign victorious!"
The timely interruption startles a short guffaw from my throat.
Derek, though, has not been derailed. His expression appears equal parts pitying and amused as he angles himself closer to me and strokes an inked hand over his scalp. "Finally got tired of tame, huh? Hope you let the poor girl down gentle."
"Why would it be the automatic assumption that I dumped her?"
"Aww, shit! No way!"
"Yes." I give him a dull look. "Way."
He tilts his head, intimating for me to elaborate. It's of little surprise to him when I don't deliver. "Not sure whether to commiserate or congratulate, man, got to be honest."
"Neither would be appropriate."
"How do you feel about it?"
"Like it's none of your business."
"Interesting, mind, that your first outing as a released man, you come here."
"I'm very persuasive," Ashleigh interjects, for once making a contribution that doesn't have me cursing her. At least, that is, until she adds, "he's here on the promise of a good time, so you better be up for delivering, Derek."
I clamp down hard on my tongue.
It's a throwaway comment meant to annoy me, not hurt me. Because, as freakishly skilled as Ashleigh may be at seeing through people, I'm equally as adept at hiding what I don't want to be seen. And for all that my fling with Derek is most likely known to this entire room, that I'd so painfully misguided myself into believing we had anything more than a fling is known to nobody. Nobody other than fucking Craig.
Craig, who is currently looking as agitated as I am, and my attention is quick to slip away from him to his pilfered pint in front of me as I catch him reaching across his table for Alex's drink.
Derek's stubborn ignorance of his influence over me can always be counted on, and I'm usually glad for it. On this occasion, however, not so much. In a move I'm unprepared for, he clasps the back of my neck, and I stiffen at the touch. "Good times are my speciality, any and all kinds," he grins, ducking his face in ever closer to mine. "Want to forget her name, Davis? I'm readily open to suggestions."
A sharp and grating whine drowns out the persistent drone in my ears. I don't realise until everyone at the table is looking up at me that it's because I stood up.
"Whoa, what's got into you?" Steph asks.
But my reply doesn't matter even if I had one. I've already been forgotten at the sound of Craig's shout. "My private business has been contracted out as a profitable little sideline, for fuck's sake!"
"Oh, here we go!" Immediately bolting to her feet after me, Steph’s grin vanishes. "Totally called it."
Craig is standing next, his chair crashing to the floor in the move. I swear I heard him say my name.
And barely a blink later, Alex is on him, hauling him in close by his shirt. "You truly are a dumb fuck!"
If I was generally pissed before, I'm very singularly pissed now, my full ire channelled into the slam of my open fist against the tabletop; the jolt of it jars up my arm. "Bastard!" I'm the first to move before it's even a conscious decision
"Bas?" I hear Ashleigh scrambling up behind me. "Wait!"
"Alex really needs to start listening to me," Steph sounds stroppy. "I told him this would happen." She's chosen not to follow, it would seem, judging by the thunk of her butt dropping back down. "There's just no taking Craig anywhere anymore."
Lyndsay and Mikey remain seated, too, while Derek closes on my tail. "Sure it's wise to get involved in their squabble, Davis?"
"Please," Craig grits out.
I'm already across the room.
"Please what, bro, huh?" Alex snarls at him. "You want me to let you go? You want me not to sell you out to the God we're blessed to call Dad? You please, please, please want me to turn a blind eye while you screw up your entire life?"
Grabbing hold of Alex, I whirl him around. Craig stumbles two steps backwards on his abrupt release. They both look stunned. My free hand curls tight; my brain has checked out.
"What the hell?" Alex growls.
"Exactly," I fire back, gripping him harder. "What the hell is this about? And what the hell have I got to do with it?"
"Get the fuck off me!"
"Bas," Craig steps in. “It’s okay. It’s nothing.”
Except, it isn't. It isn't ever that with him. I dart a glance and catch his wince. Everything is something where he's concerned, and he knows it just as well as we all do.
“Hey.” I hear Ashleigh. I feel her fingertips graze my arm. “Whoa, calm down.”
Then a hand takes firm hold of my shoulder from behind, tugging me back. I tense against Alex’s efforts to twist himself away as another hand immediately clamps my chest.
"Come on, Davis," Derek’s voice is hot on my ear, sending a chill over my skin. "You’re better than this." But the elbow I slam into his ribs tells a different story, and that moment of his startled ‘Oof’ is all the distraction I need to wrench free of him.
It’s plenty enough for Alex, too, seizing his escape from me just as swiftly. "This is Bas being no one, bro, is it?" He scoffs, half-turning.
And Craig lunges, a blindside attack. Almost before I register the wild swing of my own balled fist, he knocks his brother aside and hooks my wrist mid-flight.
"Sebastian!" Ashleigh screams.
"He's cracked," Derek murmurs.
"Are you fucking for real?" Alex recovers himself fast, backing away from me, his hands thrown high in an exaggerated shrug. Steph appears at his side, circling her arms around his waist. "Holy shit, man," he says, hugging her into himself as she glowers indignantly.
At some point, Mikey and Lyndsay have also closed in, hovering at the fringe of my vision. I get the sickening sense that every eye in the room is now fixed my way.
Craig guides my arm down between us, but he doesn't let go. "Bastian, look at me," he says, a hoarse command. "Look. At. Me."
Breathing hard, I work to focus. My pulse throbs against his palm; his fingernails bite into my flesh. He takes a cautious step closer, and I involuntarily do the same, like a moth drawn. His flame-blue gaze is searing.