Chapter 3
Rya~
It’d only taken twenty minutes before guys had started surrounding Leandra, and why wouldn’t they?
Leandra was five-foot-five of stunning beauty.
We were the same age at twenty-six, but she came off as more sophisticated, and it worked for her.
She also had platinum blonde hair that flowed to the middle of her back, big cornflower-blue eyes, and an impressive hourglass figure that would make Barbie envious.
In fact, Leandra could be Barbie if she wore enough pink in her life.
She was also funny, charismatic, personable, kind, and easy to talk to, despite what Dalton thought of her.
Yeah, looking at her, a person could judge her for being a dumb blonde, but Leandra wasn’t like that at all.
Like me, she also couldn’t help what she looked like.
It wasn’t her fault that she was beautiful, and it was bothersome that Dalton blamed her for that.
Friendly didn’t mean flighty, and how high maintenance could she be when she worked at Precious Pets with us.
After all, she got pissed and crapped on just as much as the rest of us when she didn’t need to; the girl had a trust fund.
Anyhow, as soon as we’d gotten to Liquid IV, I’d been kind of annoyed that a group of partiers had reserved the open space in the back with the pool tables.
Though Leandra didn’t know how to play, Dalton and I were pretty good.
In fact, if Dalton cared enough to put in the practice time, he could probably go pro.
I wasn’t that good, but I could hold my own, and I enjoyed the game.
However, since Leandra didn’t play pool, we’d gone to the bar to wait for Dalton. Most Friday nights were reserved for partying, so I wasn’t too concerned with anyone taking our table, and if they did, then we’d play for the felt, an unspoken rule that was understood by all pool players.
At any rate, it hadn’t taken long for a couple of the guys from the group to approach Leandra, asking her to join them.
Once upon a time, being excluded would have hurt my feelings, but I’d learn long ago not to take thoughtless words or actions personally.
Not everything was about me, and it’d be stupid to think that they’d purposely only asked Leandra to join them just to hurt my feelings.
That train of thought was absurd, and I did my best not to be absurd these days.
It was also easier to accept when it was a group of beautiful people.
Beautiful people didn’t play by the same rules as non-beautiful people.
Since they didn’t get their feelings hurt often, it never occurred to them that they might be hurting someone else’s with their flippant views of life.
Plus, just like plain people felt more comfortable around other plain people, beautiful people felt more comfortable around their own as well.
In the few minutes that we’d been here, the group had also been loud enough to let us know that a couple was celebrating their anniversary and that a good time was being had by all right now.
I had also noticed that the numbers were uneven.
The group consisted of three girls and five guys, so when a couple of them had approached Leandra, I hadn’t been super surprised.
They had walked over, struck up a conversation with her, and things had been fine until they had invited her back to their corner, putting her in an awkward position.
“You go ahead,” I said, grinning at her. “I actually want to get a few practice shots in before Dalton shows up.” Her face softened, knowing what I was doing. “If he’s going to kick my ass, then he’s going to work for it.”
“See? She said that it was okay,” the blonde guy said, and it was easy to see that he was the dick of the group. “Besides, we’ll be just right there.”
Leandra gave him a hesitant smile. “I appreciate the offer, but I came here to hang out with my friends tonight.”
“Well, she can join us,” the second blonde guy said, and I was ‘she’ to them because they hadn’t been interested in learning my name. He was also just trying to curb the other guy’s rudeness.
“Lea, if you want to go with them, it’s fine,” I said again. “I really do want to make sure that our table is secured, and I know how you hate pool.”
“I don’t hate pool,” she denied. “I just don’t understand it.”
I smiled at her again. “Seriously, go. Dalton will be here any minute,” I semi-lied.
The thing about Leandra was that she didn’t like making people feel uncomfortable. She was what I’d call a peacemaker. No matter what we were doing, she was a huge advocate for a good time being had by all.
So, knowing that she wasn’t going to go unless I made my move first, I hopped off the barstool, then grabbed my beer. “Dalton should be here any second, so let me get my practice games in before he comes in here, accusing me of cheating.”
“See, it’s fine,” the first blonde guy repeated. “Let’s go.”
Saving Leandra from having to refuse them, I turned from her, then headed back to the pool table that we had reserved.
Used to ignoring everything that was going on around me, I grabbed three of the quarters that I had stacked on the edge earlier, then after inserting them into the coin slot, I smiled as the familiar sounds of billiards rolled down the rail, just waiting for me to set them up.
Now, if someone asked me why I liked pool so much, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to answer them.
Maybe it was the focus and concentration that was needed, but almost anything worth doing required those two things, so that wasn’t anything special.
So, maybe it was just that I was good at it, and that small achievement made me feel good about myself.
I wasn’t too ashamed to admit that people complimenting me on my game had a way of making me smile
Pool was also something that you could play by yourself.
If someone watched you play pool alone, it could automatically be assumed that you were just practicing or brushing up on your skills.
They might even assume that you were teaching yourself the basics.
Pool just had a way of making you feel just a little less like a loser when the popular kids were off doing something else.
At any rate, I was in my element as I racked the billiards, solids being my favorite. For whatever reason, I preferred them over stripes, but that was probably because they just appeared more dominant on the table, and I liked that.
Once I was finished, I reached for my beer, and one swallow later, it was empty, and I knew that I was going to need to slow down if I wanted to last until a respectable hour.
Though I wasn’t feeling any of the alcoholic effects just yet, it was still early by Friday night standards, and Dalton was used to staying up late, surely to hold me here hostage until he was ready to go home.
Satisfied with the rack, I headed back towards the bar, and not being able to help myself, I looked over to check on Leandra, making sure that she was having a good time, and more importantly, was safe.
When you were a peacemaker or a people-pleaser, it was easy to find yourself in over your head, and that wasn’t anything that I ever wanted Leandra to have to experience.
While she wasn’t weak, she’d just rather avoid confrontation if she could.
So, glancing over at the crowd, I saw that she was smiling and having a good time, but that’s also when I noticed one of the guys looking my way, and my first instinct was to immediately turn my head.
Pity was the worst, and what else would someone feel for me when comparing me to Leandra?
Again, it wasn’t that I cared what other people thought of me, but I also wasn’t interested in experiencing other people, if that made sense.
It was also no surprise that he was just as gorgeous as the rest of the group.
He looked to be about the same height as Dalton, around six-foot-one, and he had black hair, light eyes, and looked to be in his mid-twenties.
He was also dressed in a green Quicksilver that showed off his fit build, black jeans, and matching black sneakers.
At first glance, he looked casual, but it didn’t take long to notice the whiff of money radiating off him in waves.
In fact, the entire group looked like they came from money.
Satisfied that Leandra was doing just fine on her own, I turned from my friend, then kept making my way towards the bar.
As a regular here, the exchange was going to be quick and sweet since Carlo already knew my choice of poison.
Dalton, Leandra, and I had been coming here for quite some time already, so most of the bartenders knew our preferences.
“Just one?” Carlo asked as soon as he noticed me at the bar.
“For now,” I grinned.
“And when’s Dalton showing up?”
“He was supposed to already be here,” I answered. “But the guy does have a life.”
Carlo just grinned at that before going to get me a fresh beer.
A couple of regulars nodded at me from the other side of the bar, and I nodded back, comfortable with the familiarity.
If you asked me, bars often got a bad rap, which was entirely unfair.
Most of the time, the people here just wanted to unwind after a long day, or else it was just too lonely at home.
Not everyone was looking to get laid or roofie a girl, but I also hadn’t ever been roofied, so maybe I didn’t know as much as I thought that I did.
Once Carlo slid me my beer, I grabbed it, then headed back towards the pool table. This time, I didn’t bother looking over to check on Leandra again, satisfied that she was fine, and if she wasn’t, she knew where to find me.
Setting my beer on the small table against the west wall, I grabbed my pool cue, chalked it up, then forgot about everything else as I bent over to eye that number one yellow billiard, begging me to sink it on the first try.