“Austin, if you want to fuck her so bad. Call the number I have. You’re a good looking guy, I’m sure she’s done worse.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I sneered. “If I wanted to fuck her, I would have the other day. You don’t know shit about shit, so watch your goddamn mouth when you talk about her.”
“Jesus Christ, relax. You don’t even know this girl and already you’re *-whipped. Look,” he put out his hands in a surrendering gesture, “how about we go to the club tonight? It’s a few streets over on Broadway, a bit of a hike from here, but I feel like getting fucked up tonight anyway.”
He stood.
“Try to find something nice to wear, pretty boy. This club is dress to impress. I know the bouncer. He’s been working there for years. We probably won’t have to pay a cover.”
We pulled up to the club around midnight.
I had brought a pair of black slacks and a few button down, collared shirts with me from Miami. I never wore them, they were only clothes I owned that didn’t look worn out and old.
Just like Mike expected, the bouncer didn’t charge us. He stamped our hands, opened the velvet rope, and let us through. The people waiting in the line wrapped around the building were pissed to say the least. As soon as we walked in, I immediately realized this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. The club was huge and packed with people. It was hard for us to even get by without having to wait a few seconds for the crowds to separate.
I was there on a whim. I knew there was a huge chance Briggs wasn’t even at the club tonight, but that didn’t stop me from getting dressed up and paying the sixty-dollar cab fare from our motel. The music was pounding through the speakers all around us, vibrating through my core as we tried to make our way over to the bar. The place was exceeding capacity, filled to the brim. Everyone dressed to the nines, beautiful people just getting their night started with the beat of the house music blaring above the crowds.
My eyes wandered all around the two-story building. Everything from the flashing lights to the neon strobes strumming around every corner. The plush couches and tables stacked with bottles upon bottles of Moet and other expensive alcohol. The already fucked-up people dancing their asses off with their eyes closed and their heads leaned toward the ceiling, letting the melody of the music take over them.
I instantly knew that drugs flowed in this place as much as the booze did. Which only gave me more hope that Briggs was here. Mike ordered us some drinks from the bar, while I continued to search the crowd, trying to spot the girl with bright purple hair and tattoos.
When he returned, he handed me a whiskey neat along with one of his ecstasy pills that I turned down.
I wasn’t here to party.
He looked at me like I had grown three heads before shaking his, swallowing them both down instead. I never turned down a good time, but I didn’t want to be fucked up while trying to find her. Mike found some old friends that had a table in one of the corners and they asked us to join them.
More drugs…
More booze…
No Briggs.
I was beginning to lose hope. The song changed over to ‘Young and Beautiful’ by Lana Del Rey and out of nowhere, out of pure instinct, emotion, and feeling, I looked up to the second story. She appeared out of thin air, like a goddamn angel, wearing a tight white dress with red heels. She was standing in the dead center of the club, her vibrant purple hair flowing all around her with her fucking tits on full display. Her hands leaned against the railing, looking down at the crowd of people below her, swaying her body in a slow, sexy, seductive way that only Briggs could pull off.
And then… as if it was meant to be.
As if we were meant to be.
She found my gaze in the endless crowd of people, like she felt me too.
<>Briggs<>
I hadn’t seen Austin since that night in his hotel room. Deep down, I hoped I’d hear from him with the weekend approaching, but I hadn’t. I left without giving him my number, but his friend had my card and still no call.
It was Friday night and the weekends were always the best time to get fucked up. My uncle’s clubs were always the place to be.
And I always brought the party.
I was sitting at my usual spot, the best table in the club with random partygoers drinking off the bottles in front of us. Nothing had changed in almost four years.
Same scene.
Different faces.
‘Young and Beautiful’ blew through the speakers and I began to let the music take over. An unexplainable desire came over me, pulling and pushing me to walk toward the balcony. I didn’t know what I was looking for. An unfamiliar feeling settled in my stomach, in my heart, in my fucking soul, until I locked eyes with the man I had been losing sleep over for the last three days. For the last year.
Austin.
My lips parted and my breathing hitched. I don’t know how long we stood there staring deep into each other’s eyes, as if the hundreds and hundreds of people around us disappeared. Everything faded out, the music, the lights, the crowd.