We were like a couple of kids, stealing glances back and forth as we put our clothes back on. We were on opposite sides of the bed. I fixed my hair as he tossed his shirt onto the bed, not bothering to put it back on.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Mmhmm," I nodded. "You?"

"Yeah," he grinned.

I was halfway between uncomfortable and more than satisfied.

"Let's not make this awkward, okay? We're...adults."

"I know," he bit his bottom lip as he eyed me down. "So what now?"

"I keep my job hopefully," I chuckled.

"You will," he assured. "I won't say a word if you won't."

"I definitely won't. But, uh...I should go." I fidgeted with my keys. "So, tomorrow, yeah?"

"Again?" A smile grew on his face.

I put my hands on my hips with all the sass. "I'm talking about your performance at DJ Khaled's pool party tomorrow."

"Oh," he cleared his throat. "Yeah. I'll see you there. I know it doesn't start until 3 but Dillon wanted to get there early to set up and I'ma just ride with him."

"Cool," I awkwardly nodded. "Okay...well, bye."

What just happened was madness but felt so necessary.

+

"This is DJ-frickin-Khaled's pool party and you wore...sweat-shorts," Elijah cringed.

I was able to invite him to tag along; mainly because he loved to mix and mingle with the rich and famous as much as he could.

"I'm sorry," I kept my voice down as we waited to get in. "I didn't have the time nor energy to go spend another hundred bucks on a pool outfit I'll only wear once. At least my kimono is nice, isn't it?"

"Sure," he forced a smile. "If it matched. What is this, we have navy blue, black, army green, gold on the sandals..."

Elijah's hands didn't know what to do with themselves as he tried to figure out my ensemble.

"It's like I want to help," he continued. "But I can't."

"Don't worry, after a couple drinks, you'll no longer care."

After giving the Bouncer my name and Elijah's, we entered a totally different atmosphere. There were already a plethora of L.A.'s finest, mingling with their expensive-looking beverages with made-up names. I played it safe when we stepped to one of the bars and got a Red Stripe beer. Elijah got his favorite, a piña colada, extra pineapple slice. Fancy white tents lined the large pool with private seating areas.

I looked around for Nate and even Rupp, but I saw no sign of them.

"On second thought," Elijah mumbled as a couple of girls walked past. "You may be mismatching but I see some trash up in here. I've never seen so many horrible ass implants in such a short span of time."

"Play nice," I laughed.

"Oh, there he is," Elijah pointed.

Elijah pointed at one of the white tents, closest to the DJ booth. My eyebrows rose once I saw Nate, flirting with a couple of girls. One of them couldn't keep their hands off him, tracing his tattoos. I had a quick flashback of when I did the same...with him on top of me. My arms folded and I put all my weight on one leg.

"Yep, there he is."

I had to maintain professionalism even if it bothered me to see him be this way. I knew I shouldn't have slept with him. Casual sex was never my specialty. 

Rupp and Swazz were at the DJ booth, watching Taco from Odd Future spin his set.

"Are we gonna...go join Nate? Or..." Elijah asked.

"Yeah," I cleared my throat. "Sorry, I was...thinking about stuff."

"What kinda stuff?" We started walking along the elongated pool toward them.

"Just...if I fed Loki this morning. I did, by the way."

"Um, cool. I'm happy for you," Elijah bit back a laugh.

"Whaddup Lux!" Rupp shouted once he spotted me.

I pretended to ignore Nate's facial expression change once he looked up and witnessed my forced smile. I wonder if he knew it was forced.

"Everything good, guys?" I asked.

"It's all good," Nate answered, still with his arm around the girl in the blue swimsuit. Her's was also a one piece but 80% more revealing than my boring black one. 

"Do you need anything?" I tried not to grind my teeth. 

Nate shook his head. "Unless you wanna bring me another girl," he laughed in a stupid, goofy way; clearly high. His entire demeanor was completely different than yesterday. Rupp was encouraging him, of course, joining in on the laughter.

"You ain't workin' today, girl!" Rupp stepped down and joined us, putting his arm around me. However, my eyes never left Nate's. "Just relax, drinks are on me, help yourself."

"Dillon," I took his arm off me. "The drinks are all complimentary."

Nate's phone rang and he reached in his pocket for it. The girl only moved a few inches away but he grabbed her waist and playfully pulled her back into him as he checked his message.

"Yo Lux," Nate said. "When do I have a free day this week?"

I took a deep breath and pulled out my work phone, checking the calendar. "Looks like Thursday, for now."

"Good. Can you set up a moving truck? Me and Swazz are gonna move in with Hayes."

"Who? Hayes? Moving?" This was all news to me.

"Hayes Grier," he spoke, implying that I live under a rock. "Nash Grier's little brother? He was on Dancing With the Stars?"

"Oh, that Hayes," I nodded when I still didn't know who the hell he was. "Uh, yeah, sure."

"Not til tomorrow bro," Rupp smiled. "Remember, no work all play today! I say we get in the pool. Bro, you don't perform for another hour."

"Nah, I'm good," Nate chuckled.

"I'll get in," I quickly replied. As long as I didn't have to stand by and witness groupie love.

I took off my kimono & shorts and gave them to Elijah who decided to stay dry with his drink. One of the groupies silently snickered at me but I didn't give her any undeserved attention. Rupp and I joined  the tons of other drunken elite in the pool, dunking our heads in at least once. He was like a kid in a candy store with every model-type that walked past.

"I swear I'm in heaven," he rubbed his face.

I quickly glanced over at Nate who glanced over at me the same time.

"So where are you gonna live since Nate and Swazz are moving out?" I asked him.

"I got a house already," he shrugged. "I was just over there all the time to be with the boys, to smoke, all that. But I'm set. Oh my..."

A girl with blue hair swims past us and he can't keep his eyes off her.

"Uh," he cleared his throat. "I'll be right back."

And so...he left me in the pool alone to go chase Rainbow Brite. I was having another one of those moments where I ask myself what I'm doing here. One of those moments where you think back to when you weren't doing shit with your life and you wonder how you even made it to this point.

I submerged myself, being silent underwater and keeping my eyes closed. I felt peace for that moment. The music and loud voices were muffled. When I floated back to the surface and opened my eyes, I saw Jaxon had joined the party, greeting Nate and everyone. Then he spotted me and I guess it was out of habit because he licked his lips before walking over and kneeling down next to the pool.

"What's up beautiful?" Jaxon smiled.

"Oh you know, just living the life," I lied.

"Yeah?" He chuckled in the sexiest way possible. "Mind if I join you?"

"By all means."

I watched as he stood back up and took off his shirt, showing off his ripped torso. It was in that moment that I realized I had never seen him shirtless and this was putting me between a rock & a hard place. When he finally joined me in the pool, he playfully splashed at me and I splashed back.

"Ugh, excuse me!" A privileged woman said behind us.

I turned to look at her and rose my brow. "This is a swimming pool. Swimming pools have water. Water is wet."

Jaxon chuckled and gently pulled me back to him by the wrist, just in case things escalated.

"You're cute when you get sassy," he bit his lip & I got chills.

"Stop," I looked away, trying not to smile.

"Stop what?" His hands slipped around my waist.

"Being that guy."

"Being what guy?" He knew what I meant, I saw it all over his face. I was tempted to wrap my legs around him in that moment. Nate who?

"...Shut up," I laughed, splashing a little water at him.

It was difficult to keep looking at him, I didn't want my bashfulness to be too obvious but there I was, failing epicly. Random girls kept looking our way giving that look that screamed 'what is he doing with her'?

"You need to let me take you out," he spoke. "Just us this time, not with Nate and Cris."

"And where shall we go?" I draped my arms over his shoulders.

"Don't worry, I'll think of something. Besides, we need to celebrate."

"Celebrate what?"

"I signed," he smiled big.

"Oh my goodness! With who?!"

"With BHMC."

"Congratulations!" I went in for a hug but his lips met mine instead. There was a pause, an uncertainty, but it quickly left my mind as I went in for another kiss, a deeper one. It felt like it was only us here, everything else faded away. And I paid attention to every detail like the temperature rising between us and how perfectly his arms fit around me. This man was full of dark magic that I didn't mind falling victim to.

I had to take a few deep breaths after the kiss, slowly coming back to Earth. We ended up parting ways temporarily. He went to go find other friends of his and working in some networking in the process. I rejoined Elijah at the tent. Nate completely ignored me, as in, he never looked my way.

"Uh," Elijah's jaw was dropped. "Who was that you just molested with your mouth?"

"Jaxon," I blushed.

"Why don't I know about a Jaxon? Friendship much?"

"He's...a friend. A musician. We went on a double date with Nate and another girl."

"That's double-date guy? I must say...good job, Miss Finley. I applaud you, he is a total snack."

"Tell me about it," I chuckled.

I felt bad for numerous reasons, but the main one was that I still haven't told Elijah about sleeping with Nate. The other reason, on my account, being that I'm entirely too comfortable with Jaxon when yesterday happened. I felt dirty, in a way.

+

After Nate performed his set, more groupies found their way to our tent. Jaxon had to leave earlier than he originally planned and Elijah found someone to flirt with. So it was just me sitting on the pool chair, scrolling through Instagram as if it was of importance. I was ready to leave.

"Shit," Swazz exclaimed. "The papers got wet, bro."

"So go buy some more," Nate shrugged.

"I would but...I got this chick coming through and I wanna be here when she shows up."

Nate shook his head. "Whatever, I'll get some more."

"You sure? You don't wanna just send Lux?" His voice lowered a little but I heard him loud and clear.

"Yo Lux," Nate called out & I shut my eyes. "Let's pop out real quick, gotta get some papers. You're drivin'."

"My driver pullin' up!" Rupp drunkenly shouted as a girl danced on him.

I had no choice, so I let Elijah know I'd be back and I left the party with Nate. It was an awkward trip, one that just tugged on the strings of the stomach, twisting them.

I cleared my throat. "Where are we going exactly?"

"Back to the crib," Nate answered. "We got more than enough papers, I ain't buyin' anymore for a while."

"Okay."

His occasional glance was killing me.

"Is there something on my face or do you prefer to awkwardly stare?" I adjusted in my seat.

"Nah," he took a deep breath. "So you and Jaxon, huh?"

"Me and Jaxon, what?"

"Ya'll a thing now?" He rubbed his scruffy chin.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

He nodded, looking out of his window. I felt his gaze soon return.

"About yesterday-"

"It's in the past, Maloley. Leave it there, you certainly did already, at least until now. Don't...worry about it."

We got to a stoplight and I looked over at him to make sure he understood. I couldn't make his expression, I couldn't read his eyes. It was as if he was fighting his own words trying surface themselves. I only know this because I felt the same way. My guess is that he surrendered because he agreed.

"Okay," he spoke quietly.

"And yes," I said. "Jaxon and I are a thing. We're going on a real date soon, at least that's what he said."

"Good," he nodded. "You deserve to be happy. I mean, I'm happy for you."

"It's for the better, if you think about it. What happened between you and I...it wasn't professional of me to allow that to happen."

"You're sayin' you didn't want it to happen?"

"I'm not saying that," I gulped. "Anyway...here we are."

I put the car in park in the driveway but Nate didn't immediately get out.

"While I'm gone though," he began. "I just want you to think about if you wanna be with Jaxon because he's good to you...or because he's good for you, as a distraction from me. You wouldn't wanna hurt him, would you?"

Nate got out the car and I watched him walk inside the house. I sat there thinking about how much he had the audacity to assume I was using Jaxon. Jaxon is the sweetest guy I've met on the west coast excluding Elijah. I would never use him as a distraction.

Would I?

___________

Author's Note:

*sips tea* is all I have to say.

Vote & comment pretty please ^.^