We said our goodbyes to everyone and congratulated Raleigh on the award. He wanted to go out with us, as did Lex, so we shared an Uber to a small bar a few blocks from the hotel we all were staying at. Within ten minutes of being in the hole in the wall bar, Lex was spotted, and somehow a small area was roped off with her security guys creating a wall from the ambiance that was now noted as the VIP.
It irritates me, this life. I hated it. Being Cal’s little sister and it’s tenfold, now with Lex. I sit back and sip on my IPA, and look out at the bar as it fills to max capacity with the presence of Lexington Cherry.
“What’s up, Pet? You look miserable?” Sully asks me, scooting his barstool right next to mine so I can hear him over the crowd and music.
“Can I be honest?”
He nods and looks around as if I need privacy, we both know we won’t get.
“I get sick of going out with the rich and famous. It’s like that with Cal my whole life. I love them and I am so happy they are all living their dream, but I miss being a local and a nobody.”
“How old are you? You’re young, enjoy the crazy while you can.” I get why he says it. He’s seen and lived his twenty-one, and probably wilder than me, so it seems odd I hate it.
“I am twenty-one, almost twenty-two and I did love it, when I was sixteen and popularity was life. Now, I want to focus on the real world. I want to open a studio and choreograph, to become someone other than Cal Dorian’s sister and BFF to Lex.”
He looks at me strangely. “What? Is that so hard to believe?”
“No, not at all. I was a punk in my teens. Tattooing changed me. All I wanted was success, to make my name, and I started that path early on too.”
“You see, it’s smart to want to build a life. I mean, you are BFF’s with Noah and Carrie. Like you own a studio withtheNoah Beckett. You hang with my brother and the band, they are family to you. Don’t you get sick of the kiss-ass chicks and the attention?”
He nods indifferently. “I see what you are saying and there are moments I don’t vibe well in that atmosphere, but I don’t really give a fuck either. People wanna get nosey and see how the other half live, like it’s so much better. The other half live like us, that’s what everyone fails to see. So, fuck em’, Pet. Be you and do you, even if it’s in the limelight.”
I want to melt at his words because I agree with it. The other half are as normal as the everyday Joe crowd. “Okay then, shots!” I shout. I hop off my barstool and cut through the crowd to the bar. I feel a hand at the small of my back and turn to see Sully standing behind me protectively. “I could have brought you one!” I yell.
“I just got through listening to you tell me you hate this crowded bullshit, I won’t make you go it alone. All for one and shit.”
I laugh. “Do you likeTequila?”
When he nods, I order six shots ofPatronand open a tab on my card letting the bartender know we are in the new VIP.
We each shoot one as we are at the bar, then grab the remaining four, and head back to the velvet roped paradise.
Once we are sitting, we reach for another shot. “No limes or salt?” He asks, and I lift my beer.
“I can chase with this!” I yell, as we cheer to being the silent ones in the mass and throw them back.
By the time we are both heavily buzzed, neither of us care about the crowd. A boldness I call Tequila takes root and I stand in front of Sully, my chest flush with his face from his position on the barstool. “I think we should bail and go back to your room.”
His hand sneaks around my hip, barely on my ass, as he pulls me in closer so he can speak into my ear. “Why not your room, Pet?”
I laugh and roll my eyes. “My roomy is Lex and I don’t need America’s hottest thing watching me suck your dick.”
He throws his head back and laughs in disbelief. “The mouth on you.”
“I speak the truth, Sully. You are mine tonight.” I slip my fingers under the collar of the button upArmanitux he loosened after we left the award ceremony.
“Yeah? Well, I guess we need to close the tab out than,” he says, as he reaches for his wallet and the AmEx inside.
“Tabs in my name,” I say. I go to pull away from him and look for the waitress so I can close it out, but he stops me as he waves her over.
“Not gonna happen, Pet. I put it on me when you were in the bathroom.” I wanted to protest as he handed his credit card to the server, but he pulled me in against his mouth and all thought escaped me immediately.
All I knew was his mouth on mine. He had been my crush for years. That untouchable perfection, like aMonet,only his canvas was skin, and he wore the glory of its beauty. Now, he was kissing me, taking me home, and paying my tab.
Hell yes, I was going home with Sully.
The kiss ended too soon for my liking, but he pulled me close and held me, kind of grinding on me to‘Crow and the Butterfly’ by Shinedown. I committed the song to memory as he sang horribly mind you, in my ear.
