outside

chapter 11

Once the bartender was done pouring the shots, Maddie thanked him by handing him a couple of bills. She split the order in half, sliding three filled shot glasses towards me and kept the others for herself.

"You ready?" She asked excitedly, practically bouncing up and down. I'm not sure why she was so hyped up about this, it was just alcohol. The type of alcohol that I hated too, with no pleasant taste at all. Plus, it physically hurts the back of your throat to drink it so what's the point, really?

"Sure, I guess." I groaned.

"One, two, three!" She counted down, downing the shots one by one as she finished. I did the same, closing my eyes and throwing my head back as I quickly swallowed the drinks which  burned like hell. I coughed a bit at the end, resulting in Maddie laughing at me.

"This is why I like my beer." I grumbled, taking the liberty of ordering myself one.

"Hello, my darling." Bondy said, wrapping an arm around Maddie's waist just as my beer was placed in front of me on the bar. He kissed her cheek and she giggled, causing me to squirm in awkwardness and swivel my barstool a bit so that I wasn't facing them directly. I took a sip of my beer when I felt a pair of large hands sit atop of my shoulders.

"How'd you like the show, love?" A raspy voice that I loved way too much asked me, hot breath hitting my ear. I shivered.

"Amazing!" I swiveled my chair around to face Van, who was grinning like a little kid on Christmas morning. Sweat rolled down his forehead and temples, and he looked extremely attractive in that moment.

"I'm glad you liked it, Kat. What'd you think about Outside, aye?" He asked, winking. A burst of confidence erupted in me (probably from the shots I just took and the beer that was running low in my mug) and I leapt forward, latching my hands around the back of his neck, bringing him in for a huge hug. He began to chuckle, but soon stopped as I whispered into his ear, brushing my lips against it. His sweaty hair rubbed against my face but it didn't bother me much.

"Class." This time it was his turn to shiver and I smirked to myself. Their Welsh lingo was quite fun to use, I especially liked 'class' and 'lads'.

I pulled back from him and grabbed my beer, taking a sip of it and staring up at him innocently. His eyes were wide and I internally praised myself for shocking him.

"I-I need a ciggy." He stuttered, racing out the front doors. I laughed and swiveled my chair around to face the bar again. I felt lonely now, Bondy and Maddie were deep in a conversation and I didn't want to interrupt so I pulled out my camera and flipped through the pictures that I had taken tonight. Most of them were pretty damn good. I had one of Bondy concentrating really hard on playing his guitar and I made a mental note to print that one out for Maddie, she'd adore it. There was one of Benji singing into the mic and one of Bob flipping his hair wildly as he beat on the drums. I smiled, I really liked that one.

"Whatcha lookin' at, aye?" A voice said beside me. I quickly turned to see none other than Bob sporting a small dimpled grin and a dark blue towel hanging around his sweaty neck.

"Hey! Great job on the show tonight!" I jumped up, greeting him with a light hug. He returned it politely and sat down at the open barstool next to me.

"Thanks, you seem to have enjoyed it by the way you were dancing in the crowd." He chuckled, ordering himself a beer. I respected a fellow beer drinker.