I wake up to an arm around me and my head on a chest. I look up to see and it's Chase.
I remember everything from last night. I remember telling Chase I'm a Lawson. I shouldn't have told him that. But we both had drinks last night so let's hope his sober mind doesn't remember that part today.
"Sorry for last night. I realized this morning that me and Gabe ended up in our room and not his." Nicole apologizes taken the seat next to me on the couch.
I look up at Chase and he's still asleep.
"It's fine. Though I might have outed my last name, last night." I tell Nicole and before she can respond Chase does "You did." I look up at him and he's been fake sleeping. "Don't worry my lips are sealed." He tells me before I start talking.
"Well now since that has been established, come on we need to get ready for the day." Nicole says as she grabs my arms and pulls me out of Chase's hold.
"Where are we going?" I ask while looking through my suitcase. I didn't get to unpack last night because the room was occupied. Neither did Nicole because she is throwing all of her stuff in drawers right now.
"To a beach bar. It's one Hayden likes. Apparently his family vacationed here when he was a child. The bar as been here as long as his parents. His parents came here when they'd vacation." She tells me. "It's a couple of towns over though. I think he said thirty minutes."
I've never been in a bar in daylight. So I really have no clue what to wear. I've been in a bar at night with a fake I.D. So since I have no clue what to where I just put on a yellow sun dress.
I walk downstairs to the guys watching T.V.
"So how do we get in this bar? We're underage." I ask the obvious question no one has seemed to ask yet.
"It's a kid-friendly bar until five. After five everyone over eighteen can stay. But you can't buy drinks because we're underage. I know the owner. He's expecting us. So we will be aloud to buy drinks." I didn't notice Loren and Nicole standing behind me. He directs his next sentence straight at them two "Stay sober. Please. Mr. Brown hasn't seen me since my last visit. Which was in high school. He's letting us get drinks illegally at his bar. Don't embarrass him."
They just nod and we all head to the car. This time me and Nicole are stuck in the very back. I think Gabe just wanted to look at Nicole ass, as she got in the car because we only needed one person to sit back there. I said I would. Then he suggested Nicole sit back there too. I watched him look up her dress as she climbed in the back.
*
I think Nicole and Loren thought we were going to a club because they wore very high heels. While I'm over here in my tennis shoes.
"This place looks poor." Loren states.
"No it's just located on the beach and has survived twenty different hurricanes. Mr. Brown wasn't going to keep paying money for it to look like a million dollars every year to just get destroyed by yet another hurricane."
"Does it look better inside?" Chase questions
"Yeah. There's a beach bar area on the beach and then two bar rooms inside. One without a band, that's the restaurant part and one with a band the bar. Let's go find Mr. Brown." He says as we all walk inside.
This place is pretty empty. I guess because it's daylights and it's a beautiful beach day.
"Mr. Brown!" Hayden greets an old man with a biker beard.
"Hayden! How's the family?"
"Good they are working in North Carolina. Dad just got a promotion."
"That's great. Are they still coming in June?"
"Yes. If I'm not busy I will be coming too."
"Great I have you're jersey and news article framed on the wall. I took them down before the hurricane hit, earlier this year but they are back. Everyone will ask me how I know you and I say that's my godson. Now who do we have here?"
"That's Gabe and Chase they're on the basketball team with me and these are my friends Loren and Nicole. Then that's Taylor she's Loren and Nicole's roommate."
I'm so happy he didn't call me a friend because that would have been so weird. I don't know how I'd explain that to my brother, oh by the way Hayden Caperall called me his friend. My brother would freak and drive down here to start a fight.
"Nice to meet y'all." He hands us arcade tickets. "If you want a drink you show my bartenders this. They know I have some college kids coming who forgot their license in North Carolina. I have a meeting I have to get to enjoy." He tells us before walking away.
"So what area is first?" Nicole ask
"We can go to the restaurant part when we get hungry." Loren states. "I want a drink but I got too much sun yesterday." She also tells us
"So the inside bar it is." We all follow Hayden through a door. That leads to a bar with barstools and booths all around the wall. There's an open dance floor in the middle. This is no club. This is a beach bar.
There are old men, probably in their seventies sitting around a table. There are also a few guys sitting around a table. They look to be a little bit older than us.
"We're going next door to the beach bar restaurant to order and we will bring the food over here. Y'all want anything?" I guess the guys decided they were hungry.
"I'll go too. I'm hungry so I'll look at a menu." Nicole says getting off a barstool.
"I'm not hungry." I tell them.
"Yeah I'm not either." Loren tells them to. So they all walk out of the way they came in. It's just me and a Loren now.
"So you and Hayden?" I ask her.
"Are apparently just friends even though last night he said he really liked me. Like a lot. Not joking those were his exact words. So since we are just friends I can flirt with those guys at that table back there." She says before grabbing my hand and dragging me over there with her.
"Hi, I'm Loren and this is Taylor. We were wondering what the best drink here is?" She ask three guys at a table.
"I'm more of a beer drinker." A blonde tatted man with an country accent admits.
"Great. Take Taylor over to order one." Loren demands nicely. She practically pulls him out of his chair.
"Sorry about her. She's in a complicated relationship and wants to make someone jealous."
"No worries. Any chance to get away from the guys and with a pretty girl is a win. What about you?" He's a smooth talker and the accent. OMG the accent I can fall in love with any accent. Just not Australians. They have ugly accent.
"What about me?" I question
"Are you trying to make someone jealous?"
"No. I'm just on vacation with friends."
"Well then, I'm Zach."
"Where are you from?"
"Alabama. You see the guy over there that's so not interested in your friend." I look back at Loren. The guy next to her, the one she is trying to flirt with wants nothing to do with her. "He's my friend. He's also getting married soon. He asked me and the other guy to take a guys trip with him."
"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry about her."
"No, it's no problem. He's marrying my sister. So I like that he's not flirting back. Your friend was a great test on my future brother in law."
"How old is he?" I question.
"Twenty-six." I can't wait to tell Loren she was flirting with an engaged twenty-six year old man.
"How old are you?" He questions
"Twenty-one." I respond without hesitation. Over the years of sneaking into bars underage, I've learned to lie about my age without hesitation. I've also always played along. By playing along I mean I've flirted with older men in bars and made them want me by the end of the night before ghosting them. That was the old Taylor. I haven't done that in forever. Except for right now. I feed guys lies and tell them what they want to hear before disappearing like Cinderella.
"What do you do?"
"I'm in my senior year of college. Studying to be a physical therapist. What about you?"
"I'm twenty-one and I'm going through the Police Academy. I want to be cop."
Shit. Holy cow. I'm talking to a cop. I'm lying to a cop. I'm freaking out right now.
"Well I should get back to my friends and probably save Loren from embarrassing herself any further."
"You should. I would like to see you again." That catches me off guard. I didn't even give him the Taylor Charm. I didn't seduce him. What do I do? What do I say?
"I'm not really into dating, if you know what I mean." That's the only thing that came to my mind.
"Well I'm not either. I'm about to busy in the Police Academy. So I need a fun night before I have to be all serious." This man is not taking a hint.
He takes out a card from his pocket and writes something. "This is the hotel I'm staying at. This is my room number. Show up at eleven. Make sure you're wearing something sexier too. See you then." He says before getting up and walking back to his table. What a douche. Talking to me like I'm some hooker. How can a guy seem so nice but be an awful person.
Loren walks back over. "You seemed pissed. I guess my match making didn't work."
"Not pissed just planning something. Also your match making is trash. You were flirting with an twenty-six year old engaged man. I lied to a cop and was flirting with one. He thinks I'm twenty-one and wants to hook up."
Loren doesn't say anything just drags me to where the rest of the guys and Nicole are.
"Have fun flirting?" Hayden questions aggressively at Loren. "Chase saw you and Taylor flirting with guys in there." Nicole whispers. "He's pretty jealous. Says a lot doesn't it." Gabe tells me.
"It doesn't say anything. Maybe he's just mad at the fact that Loren is supposed to be with Hayden but instead was flirting with some guy." I tell Gabe.
"No his exact words when he came in here were Taylor is at the bar flirting with some dude. He didn't mention Loren at all. It's you Taylor. He wants you but he's Chase and Chase doesn't always express his feelings."
I look over to where Chase is standing. He's in line waiting for food. "I'll be back." I tell Gabe.
I walk over to wear Chase is standing. "I heard you're jealous?"
"Nope."
"Really so you wouldn't mind if I told you that I have a paper in my pocket with a room number and a time."
He doesn't say anything but his face says it all. Out of nowhere he puts both hands in my back pocket, which catches me off guard and I step closer to him. Chase pulls the paper out.
"See you are jealous." I point out
"He's not the perfect guy for you."
"I know. He's an ass. That's why I was planning on sending a hooker to his room tonight. He was clearly wanting me to be his hooker so I'm going to be nice and send him one." I admit. Chase laughs and hands me the paper back. "Thank you. Also I can't believe you thought he was my type."
"What is your type?" He ask
"An athlete. Who is horrible at expressing his feelings. Someone who I'm still trying to figure out and I can tell he's still trying to figure me out. Also he's a basketball player. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Can I be anymore obvious?" With that I leave him speechless in line waiting for food as I head back to the table.
______
Sorry for being MIA. I spent most of July at the lake. I was on Lake mode. So I wasn't on Wattpad. I'm currently trying to adopt a dog. Life has been super busy and I haven't updated my books. I'm back. So I'll be updating again.
7/27/21
9:31pm