“Why?” The only time I got to clearly see his face was when we passed a light and it flashed across his profile, and I didn’t like it. I preferred to see people’s expressions so I could try to work out what they were thinking.
“Eh. Parents.”
The way he said that word reminded meIwas a father and Alex was the same age as Yukio. I held in a groan and focused on the road in front of us. We passed a DUI checkpoint that wasn’t set up and running yet, so it was smart that Yukio’s friend had asked for a ride—beyond safety reasons.
After another mile or so, we finally came to the club. I’d never heard of it, but that wasn’t shocking because I hated anything social. By the appearance of the outside, it wasn’t my type of scene anyway. Bright lights were everywhere, with an abundance of colors. The exterior alone was an overstimulation that made my head hurt.
Two stories high, Void was a square building painted completely black. The sign at the top of the door was lit up in red, but it flashed silver and back again multiple times. The windows were blocked with something metallic, and a man was painted on the glass holding two swirling celestial clouds, like some sort of wizard. The music was loud enough that I could hear it pumping from out here in the car. The entire club was in poor taste, if you asked me. Who would name this kind of establishmentVoid? Wouldn’t that be the absence of all this irritation?
Yukio eased the car into an empty spot, which took us about five minutes to find. The lot was packed. He put the Kia into Park and grinned at me. “You want to stay here?”
“No.” I already had my door open and was hopping out. “I’ll come with you. I don’t mind.” I paused and glanced at him with a frown. Maybe he would be embarrassed by me? “Unless you don’t want me to go in.”
He shook his head immediately and stepped out of his side. He made his way around to me and held out his hand. “Of course I want you to come with me. I get to show you off to everyone then.”
I stared suspiciously, then reminded myself I was an instructor. If anyone should be ashamed, it was me. But he wasn’t in any of my classes, which meant this... whatever this was... wasn’t out of bounds. The only one who would care was Alex, and he didn’t know I was gay. This club wasn’t his or his friends’ scene, though, so I didn’t worry about running into them. Last I knew, Alex was into country music.
I slipped my hand into Yukio’s, and we walked toward the club. Even though it was one in the morning, there was still a long line out the front door, and the bouncers were letting one person in at a time, but only when someone came out. Two men were leaning against the wall near the bouncers, staring at the bright screen of a phone and laughing at something.
“Hey! Milo! Brisco!” Yukio threw an arm in the air as he got closer, and the two guys glanced up.
One of the men—tall with short brown hair and an array of tattoos across his muscular biceps—straightened, but he would’ve toppled over again if the other guy didn’t catch him. They bothgiggledlike children. The shorter boy with shoulder-length blond hair and a nose piercing hooked his arm around the brunet’s upper back and helped him as they walked toward us.
“What the hell did you two do?” Yukio shook his head and waved his hand at the tattooed guy. “Milo, come on, man. You never get drunk, and we’ve got practice tomorrow. Coach will be pissed. You’re gonna have a serious hangover.”
Coach? I wanted to ask him what he played, but Milo spoke first.
“Hey, I’m sober.” Milo giggled some more, and his gaze slid to me. He hummed. “Is this your boyfriend?” He singsonged the last word as he nearly toppled over, but the blond kept him upright. “He’s cute. Older than I expected. What do you study?”
“I don’t—”
Yukio shushed me with a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t mind him. He’s drunk.” Then he turned his attention back to Milo and gestured for them to follow us. “Come on, man. Let’s get you to the car.”
“But why?” Milo whined, pouting at the blond—who I assumed was Brisco. “He wants to ruin our fun.”
Brisco rolled his eyes and gave us a grin. “He was trying to out drink the new hockey player.”
“What new hockey player?” Yukio held my hand, and his grip was tight and really nice. If I kept my eyes away from the blinding light of the flashing sign, I was fine from burning eyes, too. We walked back toward the car.
“NG State got a new guy on the school team. I heard they paid him to come.” Brisco shrugged.
“Fuck off,” Milo slurred. “They can’tpaya student to come play for them.”
“They don’t need to pay with money. Or they could’ve done it under the table.”
I held in a snort. I wouldn’t put it past some members of the faculty to do that. According to them, in more than one staff meeting, sports brought in funds for the school. Though we were an academic education facility, our sports teams came first. If a player wasn’t maintaining their grades? We had to do what we could to make them pass. Find them a tutor. Or even give them private lessons. I never understood the idolizing of these types of students, and as much as possible, I refused to participate in the shenanigans.
Milo leaned forward and nearly tipped over, but Brisco grabbed him again. He tilted his head. “Do I know you?”
I opened my mouth, but the sound of something loud and abrupt in the air had me closing it again. The screech of tires and morecrack, crack, crack,like someone setting off fireworks close by, made me freeze and glance around. Was that music?
A red car came tearing through the parking lot with a woman in a black leather jacket hanging halfway out the front window. Something silver gleamed in her hand. She pointed it at the bouncers.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The sharpness of the noise made me flinch. “Is that—”
“Micah, move!” Yukio grabbed me and dragged me behind a vehicle. I shouted in surprise as we crashed to the asphalt and my elbows scratched across the hard surface. He held me close, and I threw my hands over my ears as screaming echoed through the air, louder than the music inside the club.
