2
Bobby
Beauty In The Dark
Gravel crunches beneath my shoes as I walk along the path outside my mom’s house. Closing the gate and heading back to the car, my phone vibrates in my pocket and draws a smile to my face at my brother’s text.
Aiden:Where are you? We’re heading to 188. Wanna come?
I don’t remember a single Friday or Saturday night in years that I wasn’t out partying with the guys. With two younger brothers and a best friend, none of us mind that we’re always together. Aiden, Jimmy, Jon, and I party together, we work together, we eat together. Best friends to the end, we wouldn’t trade it for a thing.
I climb into my Rav and reopen the text box to reply:Yeah, I’ll come out. I’m leaving Mom’s now, she needed help with something. Where are you?
Aiden:Is she okay? Why didn’t she call me?
I laugh and press the keys into the ignition:Calm down, Nancy. She needed help hanging a shelf. She’s fine.
I mock his overprotective ways, but know for a fact we all worry about her. We just want to make sure she’s happy and comfortable. A widower since my dad died when I was barely a teenager, Nelly Kincaid has three – four, if you include Jon – overprotective sons who check in daily to make sure she’s okay.
Me:Where are you? What time you wanna go out?
Aiden:We’ll come over to yours at 9. Jim’s desi tonight, and he’s bitchin’.
Me:Alright, see you in a few. Grab a pizza on the way, we can eat before we go.
It’s a bit after seven now, so I switch on the Rav and pull out into the street. I need a shower, and I want thirty minutes on my ass to relax before I’m up and moving again.
Club 188 is new in town; clean, shiny, and far less dangerous than Rhinos. The music is top notch, the drinks top shelf, and the other clubbers are there for fun, as opposed to the troublemakers that frequent Rhinos.
An hour after I step out of the shower and fall face first onto my bed, the guys noisily walk through my front door and make themselves at home. Pulling on jeans and a shirt and stepping into the kitchen, I find them passing around drinks they took from my fridge. Aiden pushes past a thirsty Jim, slaps me on the shoulder, and offers me a beer. “How was Mom?”
I walk toward the counter and flip open the pizza box. The delicious scent of pepperoni and melted cheese waft in the air. “She’s good. Wanted some shelves installed.” I take a deep breath and taste the pizza in my lungs. “They turned out pretty good. She cooked some chicken thing, so I ate with her before I came home.”
“You ate already?”
I look up with a raised brow. “Uh-huh.”
“Then why’d you ask for pizza?”
I scoff and pick up a slice. “It’s pizza. Who doesn’t want pizza?”
“You’re a fucking pig, B. Watch it, or you’ll get fat.”
“He’s right.” Jon laughs. “Can’t maintain this many calories and stay cut.” He leans in and steals the slice straight off my plate.
Jim thinks these assholes are funny, but I’m not worried. I’ll get the last laugh when his punk ass is sober as a nun and chauffeuring us around tonight.
I take a bottle of water from my fridge and shove it against his chest as a reminder he got the short straw tonight, then I grab another slice and take a seat. I plan to enjoy this, then I plan to enjoy a night out with my boys. And hopefully, maybe I’ll get to enjoy some girls, too.
* * *
Next door to the club is an old furniture store, and behind that is a parking area that no one really uses outside of business hours. As expected, there are only a couple cars in the lot as we pull in.
Climbing out of Jim’s Jeep, we head to the front entrance of the club and stop at a familiar face. “Oh shit.” Mike laughs. He steps in for a rough hug. “It’s the fearsome foursome.”
“How’ve you been? It’s been a long time.”
“Good, Bobby. I’ve been good.” He looks us up and down with a wide smile. “It’s been more than a long time. High school was a billion years ago. I missed you assholes.”