“Without the headlines, people wouldn’t know who we are.”
“I’d rather be unknown and happy than famous and pissed off!”
“We should at least ask.”
“No. It’s not fair.”
Whatever “it” was and who they needed to ask, I didn’t like the sound of it. I rapped my knuckles against the door, shoving the argument out of my head, and Jason answered.
“Hi,” he said with a smile. If I hadn’t overheard them, I’d never have suspected they’d been yelling at each other.
Drew appeared behind his brother, and I said, “Are you ready?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
Two hours later, I sat at a table on the club’s second floor, watching as Jason wound himself around some random blonde on the dance floor – his argument with Drew obviously long forgotten. The girl couldn’t have been much older than eighteen but Jason didn’t seem too worried about that. He gave her a flash of his smile and leaned down to kiss her.
Funny. When I was her age, I was the one wrapped in his arms, kissing him. For a while, every time he visited me at uni, we finished the nights drunk and locked together at the lips. Because we’d grown up side by side, I thought we’d live the rest of our lives that way. Growing up, growing old together. Through my teen years, Jason was the guy of my dreams and those visits from him ending with a clumsy fumble on my bed meant everything to me. But he had other girls. Girls willing to sleep with him without any kind of commitment and I wasn’t prepared to be one of them. I certainly had no intention of sharing him.
Then I met my first real love. Bang. Suddenly, everything I felt for Jason became clear. He was nothing more than a childish infatuation.
“Here you go.” Drew disrupted my thoughts and handed me a white wine spritzer. As his fingers brushed mine, a spark shot through me.
“Thanks.”
I hoped he didn’t notice me awkwardly shuffle my stool away from his so I wouldn’t spend all night jolting like I was being tasered every time he got too close.
Drew nodded his head towards the dance floor. “My brother has no self-control.”
“Not true. He’s still in the club. He hasn’t whisked her away to his hotel room yet. I think he’s showing amazing restraint.”
“He hasn’t had a girlfriend in a while. He must be getting desperate.”
“Desperate? Look at her, she’s gorgeous! Are you telling me you wouldn’t have been interested if she threw herself at you?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I realised I didn’t need to ask.
“She’s too young, too blonde, and I never hook up with random girls.”
J
ust as well, really. I had to get over the bizarre glitch in my feelings that caused me to look at Drew in a whole new light before I could deal with him having a woman in his life. The sharp twinge hit me again. A painful clue this wasn’t a glitch, and another harsh reminder I’d already been friend-zoned with no hope of release.
“Anyway,” he went on, unaware of my discomfort, “I hardly think I’ll meet the love of my life at a nightclub. Most of the girls here are only after one thing.”
“You are the only man I’ve ever met who makes casual sex sound bad.”
Drew slowly rotated his beer bottle in his hands, and I understood the reason for his silence. Just because he was happy to put on an incredible show with the band, didn’t mean he would take advantage of the groupies. Drew didn’t believe he had groupies; didn’t think he could attract anyone, let alone have the confidence to indulge in meaningless sex with a stranger. His self-belief had been knocked out of him by his ex-girlfriend, Lisa. Lisa was a two-faced, self-involved wench, and for unknown reasons, she hated me on first sight. I figured she resented that I’d been in Drew’s life for so much longer than she had. My theory went out the window the first time she showed her true colours. She used Drew’s size as a way to cut him down, making digs about his weight then laughing it off but her malice was clear to me. Drew was over six feet tall with broad shoulders, of course, he wasn’t skinny, but certainly not fat. Even if he was, her snide remarks still wouldn’t have been okay. The mere memory of the way she treated him made me want to seek her out and smack her in the teeth.
“Well, what about you? I don’t see you down there getting groped by some random bloke.”
My attention returned to Drew. “I’m not that kind of girl and you know it.”
His eyes darkened. “You didn’t have a problem with Jason groping you earlier.”
Groping? When did...? Oh, do hugs count as groping now?
The way Drew looked at me over the top of his bottle, you’d think I spent my whole life whoring myself out to the nearest available male. In reality, Drew, Jason and the rest of the band were the only men I ever hung out with.