1
West
“Bro,thisplaceisgoing to be fucking epic!” My brother Bronx said as he fixed his gaze on the mirror in front of him, his light brown hair styled so it looked like he just rolled out of bed.
“Eh, we’ll see,” I said, passing the bathroom where he was primping. I went to my room to find a clean set of clothes.
We heard the hype about a dive bar called Aces for a few weeks. Supposedly, the place was lax about people using fake IDs, so Bronx convinced me to try it out. It was nearing the start of the new school year and he thought we needed to fit in as much “fun” as possible before classes started.
Bronx had been ready to go for an hour already, looking like he was going to some high-class establishment. He wore a black button-up and dark jeans that were probably new, along with stark white sneakers he’d polished earlier that morning.
Bronx sighed loudly enough so I could hear him from my room. “Can’t you ever be excited about anything?”
“What’s there to be excited about?” I asked as I put on a plain black t-shirt. I stripped out of my sweats and threw on a pair of faded jeans. Aces wasn’t a fancy kind of bar, there sure as fuck wasn’t a dress code, so I was going to wear my usual attire.
Bronx moved to the doorway to my room and stared at me like I had three heads. “Booze? Hot chicks? There’s no place like that around here. Anything good is over in Castle Grove. I heard the waitresses wear skimpy outfits and they’re hot as fuck! If we’re lucky, we could get a few to come home with us,” he smiled and winked like a fucking creeper.
I glared at him in return. “We have an endless supply of booze and chicks right here. We don’t need to go overpay for watered-down drinks and loose pussy. I’m opening tomorrow at the gym, so I need to get up early.”
“You don’thaveto work tomorrow, West. You practically own the fucking place. You seriously need to relax, and Aces is the perfect place to do that.”
Going to a place like Aces was a way to relax for him, but I would much rather unwind by punching the shit out of someone in the ring. Or smoking a fat blunt and playing my guitar. Either one.
Before Bronx could give me a lengthy response as to why we do in fact need to overpay for bottom-shelf booze and some questionable snatch, someone began pounding at the front door.
“You bitches ready?” One of my best friends, Cade Vincent, yelled from the living room. He had my other best friend, Axel McKinley, in tow.
Cade and Axel had been my best friends since freshman year–the year the school district combined the rich kids from the north and the poor kids from the south into one high school. Although we all had different personalities and backgrounds, we were more like brothers than friends.
Cade played football and was popular. He loved the attention and made friends easily. He was light in every way–from his looks to his personality. Light blue eyes, sun-bleached blonde hair, and an air about him. He never took life too seriously. He was a good balance for our group.
Axel and I were the moody fucks of our pack. Axel was darker–complexion, eyes, hair, personality. He was a bit of an oddball. The guy kept people at arm’s length, yet he was always down to party and loved to host at his family’s mansion. His family was ridiculously loaded, and they lived in a mansion on the north side of town. Cade’s family was more middle-class, towing that line between north and south, while Bronx and I lived in a modest home on the south side of Gilchrist Point with our dad. We undoubtedly lived in the nicest home on the south side–which didn’t say much.
Axel was the brains of our operation. He was into technology, computers, hacking, whatever. Anything that challenged his brain. He also liked to punch things and people–like I did–down at the gym our dads co-owned together.
I followed Bronx down the hallway to where my friends were not-so-patiently waiting for us. “Hell yeah, we’re ready!” Bronx said as he fist-bumped Cade and Axel. “I’m stoked to check this place out. See what all the hype is about.”
“If it’s lame then we’re leaving early. I’m not going to sit there and wait while you three fucks try to get your dicks wet,” I said as I grabbed my keys. They all laughed knowing damn well I was serious with my threat.
I was a serious type of person. Some called it brooding, but whatever. That came with being the big brother of the family and having a dad who loved his work more than anything else. Our mom had fucked off when we were young, so we were raised by babysitters until I turned ten, and then the household and childcare responsibilities fell on my shoulders. It wasn’t that I minded it much, I liked being in control, but there were times when I had to be the adult while I was still a kid. I was no angel, but I sure as hell had to think about a lot more things than normal teenagers did.
Normal teenagers didn’t have to keep their kid brother on a leash. Normal teenagers didn’t have to contact electricians and plumbers when something went wrong on the house. Normal teenagers probably had parental supervision once in a while.
“Dude, chill. You’re going to love this place. The waitresses arehot,” said Axel. He went to Aces for the first time last week with his older brother and was a driving force in Bronx wanting to go.
I shook my head as I led us all out the door. We all had our fair share of hot women at our disposal, so this bar wasn’t anything to be excited about.
Cade was a football player, attractive, outgoing, funny. He was muscular yet lean, which was why he was so good on the field. Women were putty in his hands with just a look.
Axel had the dark and dangerous thing going for him. He looked more like me with the muscles, tattoos, and a few scars from fighting. He didn’t have a hard time getting girls to chase him–not that he paid them much attention.
It was kind of pathetic watching girls drool over us. At one point I liked it, but after a while it became monotonous. Boring. The fakeness and eagerness to please. I wanted a challenge. I wanted someone who wasn’t a doormat or using me to try and get a leg up at school, or for some other superficial reason.
We were all seniors in high school, other than Bronx who was a junior. For the most part, we stuck to ourselves. Cade was in with the popular crowd due to his football god status, while Axel and I didn’t give a fuck enough to make other friends. Bronx was always my shadow, which I didn’t mind one bit. Especially after the little stunt he pulled last year.
We stepped outside and were hit with a wave of moisture that would suffocate you if you didn’t grow up in it.Got to love summers in the south.Although it was mid-evening at the end of August, we lived in Satan’s Asshole, which meant it was always hot. Even the winters were hot. We had one month of pleasant weather a year and that was about it.
I headed for the driver’s side of my matte black Challenger, Cade and Bronx squeezed their asses in the back, and Axel went shotgun. Since I was the designated driver for the evening, we were taking my car, my friends’ comfort be damned.