Hey guys, sorry for the delay but just been busy
so, if u didn't receive the message, my editor and I managed to find actors who fit Matt and Dan's character really well (well, we think so anyway)
Matt = Matt Lanter
Dan = Travis Caldwell
so, the next part of the competition
If you would like to submit a banner, for either team Dan or team Matt, using the above actors, then fill free to send them to me and if your banner gets selected, I'll post it up as the chapters keep coming along and will dedicate the chapter to you...sound cool???
btw, this has been edited by Kate Dimka :) AND she has created this banner for TEAM DAN!! >>>>>
***
Walking along the edge of the crowded dance floor, the bright fluorescent lights flickered, blinding me as they crossed my sight. Smoke sidled through bodies from the corner of the room and clouded everyone’s feet. The fast motion and smokey atmosphere was a great contrast to the dimly lit, carefree lounge and bar area, the area that we were headed.
Dan’s hand slowly made its way to my lower back. It was a light touch, a feathery one to show other males, and perhaps females too, that I was his for the night.
“Could we get a table for two, please?” Dan asked the lady before us. She had long brunette hair and a pair of sparkling dark eyes to match. She seemed to be in her mid twenties, perhaps. Chewing on her gum slowly, she looked us up and down.
“You got I.D?” she asked. The question may have been directed at the both of us, but her eyes stayed plastered to Dan’s body, which was fairly defined through his t-shirt.
“Yeah, sure.” We both pulled out our I.D’s and handed them over to the woman, who, by the way, held a sadistic smirk on her face. There could only be one thing running through her mind, and that was that she thought she could probably steal Dan away by the end of the night. She probably could, too.
“Follow me.” She handed back our cards and motioned for us to follow her.
I glanced at Dan who seemed to be looking everywhere but at me. I don’t know what he was doing, if he was nervous or worried, but to me, it looked as though he was scoping. For what, I don’t know, but it would be incredibly rude if he was scoping for other women.
“I could only get you this one. Sorry that’s it’s in the back.” She looked genuinely sorry as she ogled over Dan, holding his gaze for the entire exchange. God, didn’t she realise that she looked desperate. What a loser.
“Thanks…” Dan trailed, looking at the woman expectantly.
“Lisa,” she offered, looking a little dazed. Oh man, Dan was good. Really good!
“Thanks, Lisa. Can we get two glasses of water, please?” he asked huskily. A tiny smirk turned up at the corner of his lips and Lisa nodded enthusiastically as she tried to hide the blush that had risen to her cheeks.
“Not a problem.” Her widening grin escalated for a second too long and then she turned away to go and get our drinks.
“Wow. I’ve got to say, you’re quite the charmer,” I acknowledged as Dan came around to pull out my seat. “And you know how to play the part of a gentleman, too.” He chuckled lightly at the small compliment causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up.
“It’s how I maintain my impeccable reputation,” he teased. “Take it or leave it.”
“If I take it, what do you guarantee?” I asked, tone dropping slightly to sound a little more flirtatious.
He looked taken aback at my question, or maybe it was just the way I had delivered it. Nonetheless, I kept my eyes trained on his as he corrected his posture in his seat to look almost nonchalant as he thought about his answer. “Surprises.” He watched for my reaction but I kept my face neutral, not giving anything away as I thought about what he was telling me.
That was when Lisa returned with our drinks. “Here are your waters.” She placed our glasses on the small table, but I wasn’t paying attention. She could have said there was a gunman in the bar and I wouldn’t have noticed. No, I was watching Dan, who hadn’t removed his gaze from me. And for some unknown reason, I was the one to break our little staring match, looking away from him only to notice a familiar face moving swiftly on the crowded dance floor.
“What is she doing here?” I asked myself quietly as I continued to watch Holly. She seemed to be dancing with a group of guys and girls, laughing and singing to the loud, upbeat music. It was then that I noticed how loud the music really was. I must have been good at tuning out noise when I wanted too. Either that or I was going deaf.
“Rain, what’re you staring at?” Dan asked, following my gaze to the dance floor.
“Uh… n-nothing. I-I wasn’t staring at anything,” I stuttered, turning back to face him. His eyes seemed to darken, but that could have been a trick of the dimming lights.
“You’re lying,” he said. There was no accusation in his voice; he was simply stating what he had observed.
“So what? Everyone lies,” I fired back, sitting up straighter in my seat.
“Touché,” he commended and took a sip from his glass.
“So what’s going on with you and Lia?” The question had been itching on the tip of my tongue since we had arrived and I simply had to know. “And why did you ask me to take you on a date?”
He smirked as he put his glass down. “Do I hear a hint of jealousy, or is that just me?” he asked, amusement running thick in his throat.
“It’s just you. And you know, for someone who claims to be observant of me, you’re doing a real good job of confusing jealousy with suspicion.” I waited for a witty comeback but it never came.
“Nothing’s going on between Lia and me. I like you, Rain, and I thought it would be easier to get to you through her. It’s as simple as that,” he told me seriously. I was taken aback. He had used her. I honestly didn’t know what to say. I knew that he liked me, but I thought he liked the mere concept of annoying me, rather than me specifically. “You don’t have to say anything. I know you don’t like me like that.” He sounded a little angry at the revelation.
“No, it’s not that I don—”
“Please, no cliché moments here,” he interrupted, looking beyond me and nodding. A second later, Lisa was back, a note pad and pencil in her hands. “Can you get me a beer? Oh and mix it with vodka?” She looked a little uneasy at his request but nodded and scribbled it down on her pad.
“Anything for the Misses?” she asked, tone sour.
“No, she doesn’t want anything,” he replied for me. I looked at him with a pissed expression but he shrugged it off with a smirk.
“Okay then, I’ll be back in a moment.” She winked seductively and I had to look away at their exchange. If only I hadn’t, my eyes may not have been burnt by the image of Holly dancing provocatively against some poor guy. I’d rather take the humiliation of a bus girl flirting with my date than be disgusted by Holly.
“Rain, I’m being an idiot. I’m sorry, I’m just… I’m just not good with this sort of thing,” Dan admitted once Lisa had left. I looked away from Holly and back to him. He seemed uncomfortable.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, genuinely confused.
He scoped the room, finding something worth looking at as his eyes darkened. I followed his gaze but he interrupted my movement before I could catch what he was staring at. “I’m not used to going on dates,” he told me, voice deepening.
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. He looked at me with confusion plastered on his face, but then he grinned. “I-I’m… I’m sorry,” I spluttered, still giggling. “I didn’t realise that you were telling the truth.” No way could this guy – the looker, the charmer, the gentlemen – not be accustomed to going on dates.
“Laugh all you want, but I usually just pick up a girl, take her somewhere to have a little fun, and then bail,” he said, grin widening into a smirk.
“Are you serious?” I asked, not knowing if I should feel flattered or disgusted that that’s the way he usually rolled.
“I’m completely serious. I don’t ever do this.” As if to tell me what ‘this’ was, he gestured between the two of us with a single finger.
I smiled a little at that, but it disappeared when Lisa returned with his drink. “Here you go,” she told him, plopping a napkin onto his lap and placing the beer on the table.
“Thanks again, Lisa.” Dan used his charming composure to get her to smile. Idiot!
“So, did she leave you her number on that napkin?” I asked. Amusement was clearly evident on his face as he threw me the napkin. I chuckled when I saw her red stain lip stick embedded on the paper and a number scribbled next to it.
“I can’t help it. I’m a chick magnet.” I shook my head at that but the laughs and giggles continued throughout the next hour or so as we got to know each other. He wasn’t as bad as I originally thought. True, he treated girls like crap a lot of the time, but maybe he was changing. Maybe I didn’t know him at all.
**
“What’re you staring at?” He asked again, voice dripping with annoyance.
“No one,” I lied once again, returning my gaze to his. “I mean nothing.”
“Bullshit.” He looked to where I had been staring just moments ago and then swore loudly. “So you’re brothers’ mate, huh?” he asked, glaring a little.
“W-what are you talking about?” I stuttered.
“Him!” He pointed to someone near Holly but I still couldn’t make out his features. “You’re brother sounds like a bloody hypocrite not letting you and him get together,” Dan mused, sounding indifferent.
“What do you me—” I stopped speaking as I noticed Holly and Matt grinding roughly against each other. I didn’t know what happened then. Time seemed to stop. I didn’t hear Dan calling for me to sit down, nor did I notice Dan dragging me to his seat and pulling me down into his lap, whispering thoughts and profanities about Matt in my ear. My eyes remained glued on my supposed boyfriend and Holly who were dancing and laughing and looking like they were having the best time in the world.
I could feel a lump in my throat but I ignored it as I watched, waited, for something more to happen. Everything I ever knew about Matt came back to me. I knew he was a player. I knew he liked to play different girls simultaneously. I knew that about him. I knew his likes and dislikes. I knew he liked the typical bimbo type. I knew it. I knew him. Well, maybe I didn’t. Why did I think he would change, even just a little bit, to be with me?
God, I was such a screw up.
I was so stupid.
So fricken naive.
“…have a drink if you want now?” I vaguely heard Dan say as he brought his hands to my face, forcing me to look at him and not the heart wrenching scene on the dance floor.
“I-I… How c-could he have done that to me?” I realised now that Dan must have put all the pieces together because he gave me a knowing look.
“He’s a guy. That’s what we do,” he told me gravely. “He’s a bloody idiot if he’s doing that to you, though.” Dan placed his hands on my lower back, eyes still pouring into mine as he rubbed small circles to comfort me. Except it didn’t help; I couldn’t handle it. I just couldn’t.
“B-but how could he cheat on me with her? He must know how I feel about her.” I was angry and hurt. I had no idea if Matt knew how much I disliked Holly. But he should. He must have seen how furious I was when he told me he might have gotten her pregnant.
“Welcome to real life, sweetheart. Here, you have to take the good with the bad. It’s inevitable.” He sounded wise, but what I needed right now wasn’t a life lesson, it was for him to tell me this was all a dream, a really horrible nightmare, because then maybe I wouldn’t feel so crappy. “He obviously doesn’t know how to treat a girl like you with respect because when it comes down to it, respect goes a long way.” He summed up as he continued to comfort me.
“I, err… need to use the bathroom.” I stood up and went to grab my clutch bag from my seat.
“Well I’m going with you. You can’t really trust people in bars.” I heard him trailing behind me as I made my way out of the bar area and onto the edge of the dance floor.
I looked desperately for restroom signs but I couldn’t find any. Eventually, I turned around to ask for some guidance. Dan stumbled right into me, obviously not noticing that I had stopped.
“Where’s the bathroom?” I asked. He gave me a funny look, a questionable one. He probably couldn’t hear me over the loud music. I repeated the question again, louder this time, but he still couldn’t comprehend what I had said. Finally, I got my phone out and wrote it in a text message.
“It’s just over there,” he yelled, pointing towards the other side of the room. His voice was a lot louder than mine so I had very little trouble hearing him. I nodded quickly and followed his direction, but there were far too many people in my way. There was no way on earth I would get there unscathed. Not with this crowd of hormonal dancers at least.
I looked over to see Dan frowning at something. As I went to ask him what was wrong, he snaked his arm around my waist, guiding me towards the bathroom. Maybe asking him what was bothering him wasn’t such a great idea. I had enough problems to deal with tonight.
Crossing the edge of the dance floor proved quite difficult. I lost count of the amount of times I stumbled over people, but Dan was there to steady me the whole way. I felt a little grateful for his presence, too. Not once did a guy try to touch me inappropriately.
When we neared the bathroom however, I stumbled over a few girls. One of those girls happened to be Holly and it was in that moment that my eyes locked with Matt’s. The darkness of them hit home. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t even move. He held me in a trance and I hated it. I hated how he had that effect on me.
It was bloody ridiculous.
When I finally broke away, it was to notice that his arms were wrapped around Holly’s bare waist. That’s when I lost it. I couldn’t be here, so I pushed passed the girls who were in my way and into the empty hallway, knowing full well that Dan was behind me the whole time. I ignored his voice as I stumbled into the small, grubby bathroom, eyes welling with pain.
I was a mess. One look in the mirror showed me that. I washed my face with the cold water from the sink. I was so screwed. Why did this have to happen? God, I didn’t want to think about it.
After a few moments, I took some deep breaths and ventured back into the bar. It took some time for my eyes to adjust to the strobing lights, but once my vision had cleared, I started calling for Dan. But he wasn’t there. He wasn’t waiting for me. Great, this is all I need right now!
“Come on Dan, this isn’t funny,” I yelled over the music as I stumbled further down the hallway. I knew I was walking away from the dance floor but I couldn’t hear myself think. Not that I wanted to think very much.
Everything seemed quieter down this way. Maybe Dan had come down here to wait.
“Hey Chris, look at what we have here?” I turned my head in the direction of the amused voice and instantly wished I hadn’t.
Could this night get any worse?
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