~Levi~
The club was only a few blocks away from the bar and my apartment. The streets of L.A were something to see. There were many busy people in the day light who paid you absolutely no attention at all, huge buildings with light in every other window. I smiled as some big buff guy bumped into me and made no attempt to excuse himself. I looked down at my watch; it was 8:15 which meant I was about fifteen minutes late for work and I was going to get my ass chewed out by my very strict boss. I hurried my strides till I arrived at the back door of the club where I usually entered, which was the lounge for employees.
“Your late!” I jumped at the sound of Harold’s voice. Turning swiftly I faced him with a nervous smile.
“I’m sorry time got ahead of me” I said shrugging my jacket off and placing it on the hook beside the door.
“Yeah well you better be ahead of it next time or there won’t be a next time for you ‘Mister artieeest’.” He mocked rolling his eyes. “There are hundreds of people lining up for your job and I can have you replace like that” and he snapped him fingers. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.
Harold Jacobson was your average Joe who came into a lot of money a while ago, he was losing his hair and expanding were no man ever want to. He was going through what humans like to call a middle age crisis and thought he’d stay hip by wearing skinny jeans and ECHO t-shirts (even though echo went out of style so, so long ago.) His shoes were cool though, vans are pretty expensive these days. Personally I thought he tried too hard, I mean yeah you own one cool club but you don’t have to over sell yourself. I think it would be better if he just wore a nice business suit, people would take him more seriously and if he wasn’t into that a pair of regular jeans and a dress shirt would work just fine.
But he had it out for me now since I was starting to get my paintings out there and people were starting to demanded my work but I was just like him a regular hard working person trying to pay my next bill you know, so I never let him get to me when he was like this. I just shrugged it off and continued on.
“Yes sir” I said. He stared at me for minute before flicking his hand in the air a sign for me to go to work so I did. Taking a deep breath I walked towards the storage room that connected to the bar. Once in there I noticed the lights were on and Eli was lifting boxes of liquor to restock the bar, he looked up at me and smiled. God this man was one sexy guy and his smile was to die for.
“Hey my brother from another mother.” He exclaimed nodding at me. I smiled back.
“What’s up sexy” I teased and he narrowed his eyes playfully.
“Heeeey” he warned, “My girl wouldn’t like me switching sides on her now.”
“Well I’ll take that as a compliment” I winked which caused him to laugh. I walked over, rolling up my sleeve to my elbows and helped him out by taking the large box from his hands easily. He shook his head,
“Man I still don’t know how you lift these things with such ease. I go to the gym twice a week and every day on the weekends and I still can’t do that, what’s your secret?” he asked leaning down to pick up a much smaller box.
“I’m just naturally talented like that. Hey do we have a crowd tonight?” I could hear the thumping of the heavy bass as the music played.
“Yeah, it’s bigger than last night but it is Friday so there’s always s a large crowd.”
“True”
We walked out and I was instantly bombarded by flashing lights and scents. There was a large group of people waiting for us at the bar so after we stocked the shelves since it looked like we would need to we started serving the drinks. I have no idea why the guys that worked yesterday hadn’t restocked the liquor and drinks for us before they left but I made no comment on it.
I remember when I first arrived in this city I was looking for work and this place was the only one with a help wanted when I searched on the computer so after hundreds of work place I got rejected at, it came down to club RAIN smack dab in the middle of downtown LA. Let me tell you, I was use to the club CRANK Caleb and I went to all the time back in Portland. It was a pretty small club for just us gays. But CRANK was like a hole in the wall in comparison to this place. There were huge flat screens on the walls showing random color patterns or the dance floor. The music here was really good and there were crystal bead droppings hanging on the ceiling everywhere around the place. Neon lights of all colors flashed in strobes from the floor while the bar was light up in blues and white on the side of the huge club. There was always about two to three bartenders at the bar since the space was too large for just one person to handle alone.
I work from eight to two in the morning so I was always dead tired when I went home and Matt had the audacity to complain when I broke his dumb alarm clocks because woke me up at f*cking seven in the morning.
The music was blasting and I reached in my pocket for my trusty ear plugs to lessen the effect on my sensitive hearing but I could still hear people yelling orders. There was one girl who kept flirting with me and Eli and it was kind of in our job description to flirt back to keep the customers happy. So now you see why it’s beyond easy for me to flirt with a complete strangers like for example Mr. security guard but I owed Lola for the little lessons on how to do it right because before her I was too shy to even think of doing something like that. I met her here actually and that’s where I got my first lesson. I wonder if she’ll show up later to come talk with me.
“Hey can I get a Black Velvet” some guy asked over the music leaning on the counter and thumping it with his hands in a quick rhythm. I nodded and grabbed all the ingredients. When I join this job I they had to teach me the whole drink menu and how to prepare them fast, I remember wasting a shit load of my money on alcohol when I went home to perfect them all. Plus I got Jace, Finney, Logan and Gab all trashed when they had to sample them all. I hadn’t met Matt yet but he wasn’t far behind after this.
I grabbed a bottle of Guinness and a bottle of Champagne set it down on the counter and quickly took a tall glass from that particular slot from under the counter and poured the beer in, topping it off with some of the champagne.
“There you go sir” I said sliding the glass towards him and turned to the next customer who was already smashed so she slurred her words to me.
“So are you working this weekend?” Eli asked me his eyes focused on the shots he was sending out at a fast pace. I was giving a show to some pretty sexy girls as I poured a variety of different liquors into four tall glasses full of ice for all of them. I raised my hands high above my head as I poured never letting a drop miss the glass.
“I don’t know, I am a little late on rent so I think I might come in tomorrow depending on whose working.” I answered adding a splash of cranberry juice to the finish the drink off and a cherry, stirred them with the straws I placed in them and pushed them all softly in front of each girl. The girls gave me seductive smiles and winked at me.
“Enjoy your Sex on The Beach ladies” I purred as they giggled before I turning towards Eli. “What about you” he shook his head.
“I’m going to the rents for my dad’s birthday.” I nodded.
“That should be fun.” I voice wiping down my area.
“Yeah, I finally going to introduce Tiff too”
“Things are getting pretty serious between you two then” I asked amazed.
I’ve known Eli since I first started here three years back and from what I’ve seen of the guy was he was not the settling down type. I wouldn’t call him a man whore or anything it was just he wasn’t interested in all that fast girls and relationships but once Tiff came around he was like a whole different person.
“I dare say it, I think my little Eli is falling in love” I teased fluttering my eye lashes at him. He glared at me throwing his towel in my face but couldn’t keep the grin off his.
“Maybe” he muttered turning back to give some one another shot.
“It was the smile” I said crossing my arms and leaning my hip against the counter.
“The what?” he asked confused. I reached out and touched his lips with my pointer finger.
“Your smile, it’s beautiful.” I told him thoughtfully because it was true. I was taken aback by this guy’s smile when I first met him and I bet his girlfriend adores it. It was that kind of smile where you can’t help but smile along with him.
He blinked once, twice before moving back to reach one of the vodka bottles from off the display shelf behind us.
“You say the craziest things sometimes Lee” his voice light and happy like my compliment made his day.
“Well that’s why your friends with me isn’t it?” I joked.
Throughout the night I took a couple shots of my own that us bartenders were entitled to as long as we didn’t get into the expensive stuff. I talked with this lonely chick who never moved from the bar booth the whole night. I don’t get the point of going to a club alone. It wasn’t like the movies on T.V where you think you’ll end up going home with someone, which actually happens less than you would think. No one just goes home with some random person, who knows who they might be. She had about four Cosmo’s and was spilling her guts to me and I listen to every word. I mean damn that girl was sad.
By two I was freaking beat and my feet hurt like a bitch. Eli was practically sleeping on his feet as he swayed a little. I walked over to him and slapped him in the head slightly and his eyes snapped open. He looked up at me surprised. I chuckled and pointed to his chin.
“You got a little drool there.” He quickly wiped it away with his sleeve as I laughed. I could have sworn if his skin wasn’t a mocha color I could have seen him blush. Quickly as possible we cleaned the counters restocked the bar again for tomorrows shift of workers since we were nice and respectful.
On the way out I walked with Eli through the back door and we talked about some of the people from tonight, you could have heard us laughing our ass off all the way down the street.
“Hey you want a ride home?” he asked walking to his car.
“Sure” I was dead tired and I didn’t think I could make the couple of blocks to get home. I opened the door as he started the car when I saw something white rush across the empty street and into the alley behind me. I frowned blinking at the dark alleyway.
“What the hell?” I said aloud.
“What?” Eli asked ducking his head to look at me through the window.
Was I hallucinating? I looked at him.
“Did you see that?” he gazed at me like I had lost my mind.
“See what dude?” he peered out his windshield then back at me.
“It looked like a…” my voice fading. It couldn’t be, not here.
“Dude your seeing things, it’s all those shots you had just get in and I’ll take you home man.” He said. I shook my head,
“You know what I think I’ll just walk ok.” Wanting to see if I was right
“Are you sure, I don’t think I should leave you here alone.” I rolled my eyes and smiled at him.
“I’m far from drunk Eli trust me, I just need to clear my head alright. I’ll see you next week.” And before he could protest I closed the car door and waved him off, he hesitated for a moment before driving off. Once he was out of sight I turned towards the alleyway and peered down the dark eerily silent area. My vision sharpened as I pushed my wolf close to the surface a bit. I hadn’t needed to use my wolf for all these years and it was kind of nostalgic feeling him like this again.
So you know all those movies that you scream at saying “Don’t go in there dumbass!!” yeah well I was going to be that dumbass right now. Slowly I took a step in the alley, there was debris scattered all on the floor. The walls were covered in graffiti and the smell of the place reeked of I don’t know what and I didn’t want to know. As I got closer to the end of the ally I saw the same white form earlier and realized that whatever it was was looking straight at me. Its eyes were like two reflector disks. Then it growled lowering its body in a defensive position ready to strike at any minute. My wolf eyes began to see clearly and I saw a wolf pup standing in front of someone who was sitting on the ground and slouching up against the wall.
I growled back showing him who was the Alpha in this fight and he backed down immediately with a whine and curled up to the figure on the floor never taking his eyes off me.
“Excuse me?” I called as I got closer.
They didn’t move.
“Excuse me?” I called again wondering why the hell I was trying to help some homeless person with a freaking wolf. I don’t usually do this to all the hobos in L.A.
When they still hadn’t moved I finally stood in front of them. It was indeed a guy, he had a ratty jacket on and his hood was over his head. I noticed he was wearing gray bottoms that looked like it was made out of that thin material they make nurses wear at hospitals. He wore worn out slip on shoes that looked like they use to be white. The wolf had laid its small head on his lap staring at me curiously now.
The man shivered just then and his scent wavered up to my nose and I stiffened. That familiar masculine scent made my world tilt. I staggered away from him which caused him to finally look up at me in surprise.
No, no, no not now. Not when everything is finally bearable.
His gray eyes were bright and beautiful as they have always been but they looked far older than last I saw them when they were full of anger and regret. He had dirt smudged on his cheek, his blonde hair was peeking from under his hood and I watched as his lips parted like he was saying something. The sounds around me were fading in and out as I stared at him in horror.
Why did he have to show up?
Then the anger set in and I just wanted to scream at him, hit him till he begged for me to stop. Just the sight of his face boiled my blood and I felt my wolf scratching at the surface responding to my reaction of see his face again. We felt betrayed by him and wanted to exact our revenge.
“Are you alright?” I finally hear him and his deep smooth voice hummed all over my body and in my nerves. It was a sound I craved for so long and a sound I never wanted to hear again. My wolf froze and began whining.
‘Well that didn’t last, did it’ I growled at him. He whined and scratched more.
‘Mate’
Apparently he forgave easily but I wasn’t going to do that. Shaking my head I glared down at the man that had broke me into pieces those three years ago and opened my mouth to tell him off finally now that I could look at him and feel something other than complete love and devotion.
“I’m sorry do you know me?” he asked struggling to his feet. And my anger died before it could reach my lips. His would cause me to stagger in confusion. His eyes were round with expectation as he waited for my answer. I couldn’t get anything out my mouth so I dully nodded.
What the hell does he mean do I know him? He should know better than anyone!
Then he smiled and my heart stopped, that was the first smile I had ever seen on handsome face. He reached out to shake my hand but I didn’t have to guts to touch I him again. I couldn’t. He noticed and dropped his hand.
“Well can I get your name?” he asked hesitantly. He looks so unsure and I’d never seen him insecure about anything all the time I’ve known him.
“L-Levi” I stuttered in a low tone. He nodded relaxing a bit.
“I’m Kyle”