Chapter 9: Unknown Troubles

Kai’s P.O.V

“So? The freshmen really managed to drag us into their group party?” Devon sighed, swirling the whiskey inside the glass. “But I gotta admit…the bar’s pretty lit.”

“Who cares about the bar? The drinks are free and the chicks are hot!” Cole smirked as he waved at a pretty girl at the bar, who waved back at Cole shyly. “I think I’m gonna go buy her a drink.”

“Sure.” I shook my head. “And I’m pretty sure that’s her girlfriend right next to her…the one giving you the evil eye.”

That had Cole’s eyes widening until they looked like saucers. He shook his head, rubbed his eyes…and then looked at the woman once again…only to find the dark haired biker woman next to her pull her in for one hot, steamy make out session.

“Holy shit!” Cole’s jaw dropped to the floor as he observed the couple before his eyes roamed around the entire room once more. “We’re at a freaking gay bar!”

“That’s why I said it’s pretty lit,” Devon smirked at our poor friend. “They’re better than regular ones.”

“No kidding.” I agreed, already liking the music and the atmosphere. “Maybe we should frequent this more often?”

“Hell no!” Cole almost spat out his beer. “I want to pick up a couple chicks when I’m at the bar…how am I supposed to do that here?”

“Gay bar’s aren’t always exclusive and I know for sure this one isn’t.” I pointed him to the heterosexual couple who were making out towards the back. “See? It’s all inclusive, but mostly for the community to feel more at ease being themselves.”

“And to find random hookups!” Night commented as he placed some colorful shot glasses in front of us, followed by his friend Landon. “You don’t have to ask people about their sexual preferences that often. Those who are interested will find you on their own.”

Devon laughed, clinking his glass to Night’s as we started to drink once again. And I don’t know why, but my eyes kept on going to Night more than once.

We had all dressed up for the outing. Me in a red shirt with its sleeves folded and black jeans. I had paired it with a black leather jacket but the temperature inside the club was warm enough that almost all of us had discarded our jackets and folded up our sleeves to our elbows almost immediately.

Devon had gone all black with a black silk shirt and dress pants, while Cole had chosen a blue shirt to match his eyes and black pants. Even Landon and Night had kept up with the black theme and dresses up in black pants. However, when Landon had chosen a pale yellow shirt, Night was wearing a black shirt with some golden embroidery work that just screamed ‘rich boy’. He was also wearing a gold chain bracelet and a black choker, paired with the ring on his index finger that he never took off.

Out of all of us, Night was the one who drew the most attention and I found myself not liking it at all and the reason had nothing to do with him stealing my spotlight. I was getting my fair share of interesting glances, but I didn’t find myself interested in them at all.

All of us clinked our shot glasses together before tipping our head back and drowning the colorful liquid in one go; letting the alcohol burn its way down our throat. It was actually fun hanging out with the juniors and it was a bummer that Joshua had to miss it. He said he had to visit his parent’s because there was some family problem to deal with. We didn’t ask any further questions after that.

But the atmosphere suddenly changed when another bunch of college boys entered the bar, their voices ringing louder than the stereo as they made their way inside the club. I think I might have seen it wrong…but I swear I saw the color drain from Night’s face as he saw the people who entered.

There were about five people in total, three older students, probably second or third years and then two freshmen who looked like they had never been to a bar before in their life. I don’t know what exactly the problem was, but something about that group just seemed wrong in the first place.

“Seriously? Everyone’s here to have fun.” Devon shook his head in irritation. “Why the hell do they have to be so noisy about it? It’s giving me a headache.”

“It’s not like we can complain about noise at a club.” Cole sighed, looking just as irritated at the newcomers. That meant that I wasn’t the only person who was feeling weird about the group.

I turned towards Night and Landon, to see if they voiced the same opinion, but my frown only deepened when I saw them both looking almost…afraid.

“Should we go somewhere else?” I asked everyone in general, but my eyes never left Night.

His eyes seemed fixated on one of the boys from the group, but since he was in the opposite direction, I couldn’t exactly tell which one of them he was looking at.

“I think we should go have dinner somewhere else.” Devon suggested, probably understanding the underlying tension in the room.

Suddenly, I saw one guy from the other group get up and place his hand around one of the freshman before walking with him towards the washroom. On the outside, it appeared almost normal, just two guys heading to the loo…if you ignored the fact about how the younger boy always had his head down and how he was clenching his hands by his side…

“I’ll be right back.” Night was immediately out of his seat and on his way to the washroom as well.

I felt myself narrowing my eyes as I remembered my first meeting with Night…with him fucking some random guy in a bathroom stall. But something seemed off today…this wasn’t about sex. I had a bad feeling that shit was about to go down.

“Guys, I’ll just head to the washroom.” I told my friends. “And then we can go to that restaurant Joshua suggested the last time to have dinner.”

“Sure, go ahead.” Devon scoffed. “What is this? Everyone needs to suddenly fix their hair and makeup at the same time? Gossip about the boys?”

“Fuck off!” I flipped him the bird before heading to the washroom myself, trying not to take long strides so it doesn’t look like I followed Night here.

But when I reached the washroom, the scene in front of me made me wish that I had appeared sooner.

Night was on the floor with blood running down the side of his mouth while the older guy that had come in a few minutes earlier was straddling his hips, throwing punches at him wherever he could. The freshman that had come with the older guy was standing towards the end of the bathroom, his hands covering his chest in a protective manner as he too seemed to have bruises at the corner of his lips.

“Night!” I don’t know what came over me, but from what I saw, it was obvious what was going on in here and who the real culprit was.

My shout seemed to have distracted the man for a second, giving me the time to grab onto his collar and haul him up and away from Night’s form on the floor as I shoved him back with all my strength, causing him to fall back onto the sink.

I was on top of him a second later, punching him left and right, just like he had been punching Night a few seconds ago.

The man didn’t stay still though, he fought back, but he was nowhere close to my form so any punches he threw or any mean he tried to use to throw me off were all in vain…that was until I found myself being hurled back by two strong arms, that prevented me from punching him back.

“Stop it! Stop!”

Devon’s voice cut through the white noise in my ears that had prevented me from hearing anything else. It took me a second to come back to my senses and when I did, my eyes immediately snapped towards Night, who was being lifted off the floor by Landon, who moved him out of harm’s way.

“Who the fuck are you?” The other man shouted, clutching onto his bloody jaw and nose. “Don’t go butting into other people’s business out of nowhere!”

“Really? You think you can assault anyone and others will stay quiet about it?” I snapped, causing Devon to squeeze my shoulders.

“What assault? You don’t know anything!” The guy shouted. “Who the fuck are you guys anyway?”

“You don’t need to know that yet.” This time, it was Devon who stepped forward in front of me, causing the other guy to go silent due his large form. “But if I see you causing trouble again…you’ll be in deep shit. Now get lost!”

This time, the guy didn’t need to be told twice as he all but ran out of the washroom with his tail between his legs.