Carolina [h.s]

chapter ten

Arm around his girlfriend, Zayn scoffs a laugh as I take the cigarette out from behind my ear, and Louis hands me his lighter. "Go big in this town?" he shakes his head.

"We should get the fuck outta here," Niall comes up from behind me throwing an arm around my shoulder, he takes the lit cigarette from my mouth taking a drag.

I cross my arms, my body numb. "Any ideas?" he then asks.

A thought comes to my head and I know it's crazy, maybe even stupid but I wasn't in my right mind anyways. I take the cigarette back from Niall, flicking ash. "I got a few, but you're gonna have to be a bit open minded." I speak up.

My band of three is nothing if not open minded, and wherever we go, Zayn's girl and her best friend are never too far. So we packed up Zayn's car for a three hour journey, far away from the boring town.

***
Red strobes and the bass of the music hit every corner of the high ceiling club and I forgot how many memories I have here. To drown them out I take the blunt from Louis and down the whiskey bottle until it's empty.

Sat in VIP because I have connections no one asks questions about, my group surrounds me, chaos surrounds me. Anxiety picks up because I remind myself of where we are and what happens here. But it was a weekend and they were never here on weekends. I try to relax.

Niall's laughing, Louis is shouting, the in love couple is making out and her laugh seems to be calming my rapid heartbeat from too much drugs and drinks out of the whiskey bottle. She downs drinks to keep up, but she'll never be able to keep up with these guys who don't have a limit.

"You want in on this?" Niall asks as he cuts a rail for himself on the small table in front of us.

The air is foggy, marijuana mixed with tobacco and booze and sweat and sex. It fills my nostrils and I have to push down the wave of nausea. I'm already messed up, I've been messed up for a while, but it's hard not to be in a place like this.

A place made for sin and fucked up people, it was a fucked up place and I was regretting bringing them here. Why did I bring her here? What the fuck was I thinking? Oh yeah, I wasn't thinking.

"I need a fucking drink," I stand up as Li drags her girl to go dance when her boyfriend refuses.

I leave the group behind when Niall and Louis decide to go with the girls, Zayn stays behind in VIP and my head is empty when I order another round of whiskey.

I downed another shot, another two and when a pat on my shoulder from next to me has me looking up, my heart almost drops.

"Styles!" He's tall in front of me and unfortunately way too familiar.

Liam fucking Payne is the last person on this damn earth I wanted, or expected to see tonight.

I swallow down the sick feeling I get and realization hits me that they're all here and I made a huge mistake. But I play calm and easy, like I always do.

"Payne," I greet with a nod. "Didn't know you'd be here tonight."

Because I didn't. If I did, I would be as far away from here as possible. So. Fucking. Stupid. My brain can only think of the worst possible ways this is gonna end.

His smirk is even, his features are calm and relaxed and he has reason to be. "Of course I'd be here, I do own the damn place after all." he chuckles, grabbing onto my shoulder in some casual way.

"Right," I downed another shot. I needed to get the fuck out of here, this was a mistake.

I play it casually. I play the calm and easing going expression he always falls for. "Well, enjoy your night. I should get the fuck outta here, early day tomorrow." I wink patting him back on the shoulder as I go to step away from him.