"Okay, fine! The usual, baby." Colin chuckled. Elle always ordered the same drink when we went to out.
We gossiped for a few minutes as we waited for Colin to come back. I noticed Jade walk in and search around so I stood up and waved my arms until she noticed me. She said something to Luke who was plastered to her side and he nodded, making his way over to the packed bar. I contained my frown when I noticed that Wes wasn't with them.
Colin got back to the table with Elle's Sex On The Beach and my iced water at the same time that Jade maneuvered her way over to us.
"I swear, you'd think this was the only bar in town." Jade sat down at an empty seat and brushed her hair over a shoulder, fanning herself with her hand.
"Did Wes come with you?" I kicked Elle under the table but unfortunately ended up getting Jade's shin. She winced before turning to me with a grin, her eyes narrowed. I looked away, pretending to survey the crown as I sipped my water.
I heard her snicker, "He drove tonight. He's just parking the car."
I looked up when I heard Elle clapping, a goofy grin on her face. Colin sat beside her looking amused but shaking his head at his girlfriend's matchmaking.
"Hey, Brooke, what did that fortune cookie say last night? I forget." I glared at Elle, knowing she did not forget what it said considering she's been repeating it to me all day. Jade and Colin looked confused but neither of us enlightened them. The fortune had said, ‘you will soon let your future overcome your past.' Elle had been convinced that it was the universe's way of telling me I needed to open up my heart but I wasn't so sure.
Luke got back to the table with a couple of drinks and took a seat next to Jade. I had my attention on Luke as he told us a funny story about one of his professors and so I didn't notice when Wes got to the table and took the last empty chair beside me. I looked at Elle, confused by her excited expression before getting a whiff of an amazing scent of cologne. I looked to my right and found Wes wearing a similar outfit to when I had first spotted him outside of Dusty's a few weeks back. He finished typing out a message on his phone and let out a frustrating sigh before looking up at me and flashing me his signature grin.
"Water, tonight? Does that mean I'll have to find a new partner for body shots?" Elle, who was listening closely to our conversation, choked on her beverage. I shot her a look telling her to cut it out so she reluctantly turned back to Luke's story, with Colin pitching in his own stories of the same professor.
"Dance with me."
"No way! I'm too sober to act like I like you," I smiled, letting him know that I wasn't serious. "Besides, I've been threatened to stay away from you."
Jade, hearing the last part of our conversation turned to Wes and gave him a murderous glare but didn't say anything.
"What? Are you talking about Emmy?" Neither of us said anything, which was all of the confirmation that Wes needed. He tensed, and I saw the muscles working under his jaw. "I'm not with her." He looked to Jade and gave her a pointed look, "and I never will be."
Jade seemed satisfied with his answer and gave him a single nod, turning back to Luke and nuzzling into his side.
A warm, slightly calloused hand took hold of mine and I felt myself being pulled up from the table.
"What are you doing?! Let me go, Wes."
"C'mon, Brookelyn, just one dance." He pleaded, excitement in the depths of his blue eyes. I wanted to pull away from him and tell him to find somebody else to dance with but I knew that I didn't want to watch him dance with another girl, which was ridiculous thinking on my part. I stopped fighting myself and let him pull me to the dance floor. I couldn't deny that I was looking forward to feeling his body against mine. There was something about being near Wes that made my heart do crazy things. I had never felt electrified when I was with Gabe, even when he kissed me, like I did when I was near Wes. It was something I couldn't explain.
I shot a glance back at the table to find Elle giving me that excited grin. I rolled my eyes and flipped her off which only made her giggle in response.
The song was mild paced and Wes grabbed my hips pulling me into him so that our bodies were close. I wrapped my arms around his neck and looked up at him as we moved together. He smiled down at me and I found a sense of peacefulness in his eyes that I hadn't seen before. I was captivated by the way that the blueness of his eyes lightened in color as he stared down at me. Our bodies fit together like they belonged and I shuddered at the feeling of his chest against mine. I bent my head and rested my forehead on his chest and he lowered his own head, so that it rested gently on mine.
We danced like this through the rest of the song until the music melted into a faster tempo. He pulled away from me and turned me around, his hands never leaving his firm grasp on my hips. Our rhythm picked up, my back to his chest, our hips moving together to the beat of the music. I laced my fingers through his and closed my eyes. It'd been so long since I had danced with anyone like this that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed feeling the closeness of another body as we moved together as one.
By the fourth song I could feel my skin start to glisten as sweat beaded on my skin. I could feel Wes's reaction to our dancing as our hips grinded together and I found myself smiling that I could elicit that kind of reaction from him.
We continued to dance through another song when Wes bent his head down to my ear; his breathe created goose bumps on my skin as he whispered to me.
"I need a smoke. Come outside with me."
I nodded and allowed him to interlace his fingers with mine as he leaded us to the front entrance of the bar. There were about a dozen other smokers lingering in conversation and a few of them acknowledged Wes. I was surprised that he stayed by me instead of joining his friends. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his pack, lighting a cigarette. He held the pack to me, offering me one but I shook my head. I had tried one freshman year upon Jesse's insistence but I didn't like the way the smoke in my lungs made me cough.
Watching him exhale the smoke through his mouth I decided to ask him the question that had been bothering me this past week.
"At the party you said something about Gabe putting bugs in my ears." Wes visibly tensed at the mention of Gabe, but nodded, taking another drag.
"So, if what Gabe told me wasn't what had really happened, what did?"
Wes was silent for a minute, clearly gathering his thoughts. He opened his mouth to speak but the moment was interrupted by an angry snarl to our left.
I froze, and we both turned to face Gabe.
"Get the fuck away from her, Walker."
Wes's body was like a statue. I could feel the tension radiating off of him and I hated seeing that his eyes darkened.
Gabe was heading towards us, and stopped in front of me, angling his body so that he was half shielding me from Wes. I instantly grew irritated at Gabe's possessive behavior. I hadn't spoken to him since the party, and even before that, we had never had a serious relationship. I pushed Gabe lightly so that he was no longer blocking me, and he looked down at me with his eyes narrowed. Before Wes or I cold speak he opened his mouth again, interrupting us both.
"Really, Brookelyn? After everything you now know, you're out here with him?"
"What exactly does she know Gabe? What lies did you tell her, too?" Wes stepped forward and leaned into Gabe's face but Gabe didn't flinch.
"I told her the truth. That you're a worthless piece of shit that does whatever the fuck you want not caring who you hurt in the process." I had never heard Gabe speak with so much malice, not even when he had told me the story of what happened between Wes and Emmy at the fraternity party. I took a step back, distancing myself from the malevolence emanating from the two men.
Wes's jaw clenched even tighter and he spoke evenly, his words clear yet haunting. "Walk away now, Harris, before I put my fist through that big mouth of yours."
Gabe snickered in disgust and turned to look at me before refocusing on Wes. The look that he shot my way kept me frozen in place and a cold sweat broke out on my skin. His eyes reflected that same hatred that I saw every single night for the last eight months, every time that I closed my eyes.
He looked down at where I lied, crouched in the corner in a fetal position. He leveled me with a glare full of so much hatred that I whimpered, afraid of what might come next.
"You stupid bitch." He inched closer to me and I tried to make myself as small as possible wishing that I could just disappear. "Get up."