SWNOVELS Chapter 2
Ch. 2Khloe
M y good friend Cassie’s boyfriend just walked into the club, a tall dark mysterious guy following him like a shadow. I smile as Rim walks up to buy entry into the Star-Sky venue. I make a face, but he doesn’t see me do it so instead I ignore the twenty-dollar bill he holds in his hand. I wrap a twenty-one and over wrist band on his left arm and then turn my attention to his dark-haired friend. The guy sticks his left arm out to me, and I place a purple band on him as well. My fingertips accidentally brush against his skin when I had clasped the paper around his wrist, and I feel what I can only explain as a jolt run up the exterior of my fingers causing a tingling sensation to spread over both of my hands. Gasping in shock at the odd occurrence I drop my hands quickly to the counter and stare at him for a second. The stranger looks at me quizzically for a moment as well but then Rim nudges him in the arm to get him to follow him into the club. Sighing dreamily, I tilt my head to the side as I watch him walk away, admiring how nicely his black cargo pants form to his backside.
The next three hours seem to drag by before I get the heads up via walkie-talkie from Jason (the club owner) that I can shut the ticket booth down for the night. There will be a bodyguard out front until the end of the show, so we don’t have to worry about nonpaying customers wandering in since it’s against fire code to lock the doors while people are inside the building. Closing the ‘window’ where I sell tickets and band or stamp patrons accordingly, I radio Jay to come to the front so he can collect the money in the till as I am way too nervous to weave through a large crowd of people with a large bag of money in hand. After he arrives, I leave him to finish up in the small area and make my way over to the bar. Being 19, I’m not really allowed to be behind the bar, but Jason said as long as I don’t serve anyone, I can be behind it and hand off water to those in need.
Before I walk behind the bar though I spot Cassie in the storage room and make my way over to her to see if she’d like some help. “Hey Cass, you want me to help you?” I ask as I see her arms are full and she’s still trying to grab other things.
“Thank the stars Khloe. I would most definitely love some help if you wouldn’t mind. If you can grab those two cases of beer, then I won’t have to do a second trip back here,” Cass says as she points her right black and white Converse sneaker towards a shelf with the beer, she was referring to sitting on it. As she steps out of my way I smile and nod before bending down to grab the two boxes of Bud Light. Once I have both boxes in my hands, I follow her out of the storage closet and back behind the bar. Cassie points her index finger towards a cooler where she wants the beer stored and I sit the boxes on top of it so that someone would put them inside. With my focus no longer on helping Cass, I turn away from the coolers and spot Rim and his friend chilling at the farther end of the long bar.
My heart begins to beat rapidly against my ribs as a weird feeling takes hold of me. It’s something I’ve never felt before when attracted to another person and I have to place my hand against the black countertop as I become slightly dizzy for a second. Typically, I have never been drawn to the dark and brooding type but for some unknown reason, I can’t seem to keep my eyes from drifting to Rim’s friend.
Since both Cassie and Ginny are on the clock, I’ve got time to kill, and I find myself wandering over to the odd pair of friends trying desperately and failing miserably to keep the stupid grin from consuming my face as I make my way up to them. Internally I scream at myself for being such a dork but externally I say; “hi-ya Rim. How’s your night going? Is your friend enjoying himself?” I ask Rim my question, but my eyes never shy away from the pale skinned, beastly god next to him. I allow my eyes to bounce between the two briefly noting that Rim’s friend is probably a good five or six inches taller than him. How tall did Cassie say Rim was? 6’1? Shit, that means his friend is like, 6’7! Damn! I think to myself as I admire his height.
Rim draws me out of my thoughts as he says, “hey Khloe, have you met my friend Samael?” I shake my head no and start to raise my hand so that I can shake his and be ‘properly’ introduced to him, but it ends up not happening because Ginny comes bounding over to us interrupting the exchange. Secretly I bristle at the intrusion but being the nice person that I am, I step aside to let her stand next to me. “Just perfect,” I grumble under my breath as she offers her million dollar, dazzling smile that has guys constantly falling at her feet.
Can’t a girl ever catch a break I think as I hear her begin to speak. “Hey now you beautiful people! We’re getting ready to close up for the night. I was chatting with some of the other staff members, and they said something about wanting to go hang down at the beach and have a midnight swim. You guys want to tag along?” My heart flutters at the thought of getting to hang out with Samael and I turn my eyes to him and Rim’s to see what their thoughts are about it. I have no chance in hell at keeping that same stupid ass grin from taking hold of my lips as the guys say they’d be down for hanging out afterwards and I do a happy dance inside my head. I willingly admit I am a dork so that you don’t have to wonder about my questionable behavior as this story progresses!
“Sweet! I’ll let Cassie know of our plans for hanging out. Oh, by the way, Jay has asked that you guys go wait outside while we finish closing up. I hope you don’t mind,” Ginny adds with a smile still on her face for the prospective shenanigans they would be up to later.
“I’ll walk out with you guys if that’s okay?” I offer as I look to Rim and Samael. They both give a nod of their heads, and we begin walking towards the exit doors. Somehow as we began to walk out, Rim fell into step behind us instead of next to us and my pulse quickens at being so close to Samael. As we walked through the doorway, one of the security guards locked the door behind us and we walked across the way to an unoccupied bench. I’m the first of the three of us to sit down on the metal bars encased in black rubber tubing and I see Rim give me an odd look. Trying not to put too much thought into the way he looks at me, I turn my attention to Samael who slightly buzzed begins to tell me how much fun he is having.
Smiling I can’t help but giggle as I hear some of his words slur together and I can’t help but wonder about his age. He looks to be about twenty-two, a little younger than that when his raven locks fall into his unique iced-blue colored eyes. And yet... some of his mannerisms and word choices would indicate someone much older, wiser in years. Unfortunately, I don’t get much time to ponder this as I hear Ginny and turn my head in the direction of her voice. We watch as they all pour out of the club with Jason locking one final door before they all make their way over to where the three of us are sitting.
Making our way down to the beach, we all find places to sit as someone hooks up a blue tooth speaker and some popular dance music begins to flow from it shortly after. Another person decides to build a bonfire and a few others go in search of some driftwood to use. The flames of the fire lick the sky once the wood begins to burn properly; I stare into the blue, white, orange, and yellow colors as the flames flicker and dance in the night wind, allowing the vibrant hues to suck me in and admire the beautiful glowing light.
Laughing I nudge Ginny in the side as I see Cassie and Rim sneak off into the night. She snickers too but then almost at once turns her attention back to Samael. I sigh as I watch her flirt with him. Knowing I can’t compete with her strawberry-blonde, 5’4, pixie cuteness, I stand from where I was sitting. As much as I like Samael and know deep within my soul that we have some type of connection, I concede to Ginny’s antics of flirtation and leave them where they sit, opting instead to go over to where some of our co-workers and friends are milling about, chilling.