Behind Black Shades (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 1: The Bet

The first part of this story may move fast, but only because there's really no necessary build up to this. All you need to know is, you went to the club about two months ago, and he was just there. And for some reason, as someone who's never had a crush, you liked him a lot, and your best friend noticed. Okay? Okay. Now we start.

(NMC stands for New Mill City)

Friday
6:28 PM
Gardener Bridge, Humboldt, NMC

"Ugh..." you groaned, the traffic in front of you still going at a snails pace. You were finally returning to your home after a long day of work, and you just wanted to take a long, warm shower and then find something else to do. Oddly, you weren't tired physically, but you were mentally tired. Who wouldn't be after stressing to find newsworthy stories to publish in the "paper", and then having to see if you can actually give them the green light to be put in.

But, you didn't want to think about that right now, your main focus was getting back to your apartment, and out of the confines of your car. You had seen a few colorful characters in line with you, who seemed to be losing their grip just as much as you were about to. Families with rowdy kids in the backseat, teenage girls jamming out to pop music with the windows down, and some rich dude next to you in a Range Rover cursing the cars in front of him. You could only make out a few words, which were:

"Why!"
"Bridge-"
"Fucking-"
"Crowded!"

And something about it being too late for this shit. You had to agree with the belligerent man, it was too late for this, but most people who lived in NMC couldn't complain, as they signed up for this the moment they decided to live here. You did as well, practically signing away your driving freedoms.

You saw the car in front of you pull up, only to stop a few seconds later. It wasn't much progress, but it was damn sure better than nothing. At this point, you were nearing the end of the bridge, and saw the lights of Monroe just up ahead. You breathed a sigh of relief, before something got your attention.

A ringtone came from the speakers of the car. You had your eyes closed, as you really didn't want to open them to see someone from your job calling you for something they could probably figure out themselves. Unfortunately, if it was from work, it would be in poor taste to not answer, so you open your eyes and look at the infotainment screen.

Hailey
Incoming 📞 Call

Oh, it was just Hailey. You poked at the "answer" button and slumped back into your seat.

"Hello?" you answer groggily.

"God, you sound horrible." Hailey said.

"Yeah, I know, unlike you I had work today. What's up?" you ask.

"Oh, right. Uh, how would you feeeeel, if we went to the club tonight?" Hailey says, a hint of hopefulness in her tone.

"I mean, yeah I'm down, but not Club Stratus." you said.

(If you read the description, you would know that you fell for a bouncer. I would've written that, but not much was planned to happen, so it would've just been a few chapters of you staring at a man, and that's not interesting.)

"Why not? That's been our spot since I moved here!" Hailey said.

"Yeah, I know...it just...." you stopped, trying to think of an excuse instead of just saying that you wanted to avoid someone you had a crush on.

"Got old, y'know?" you tried.

"Mmm-hmm." Hailey said, as if she didn't believe you.

"It's because that bouncer that you like is there, isn't it, (Y/N)?"