Cool and Smooth

Christopher was scrubbing shampoo out of his hair when Grayson knocked on the door,

"Yo, what's taking you so long in there?"

"There are other showers in the house you know! This is 𝘮𝘺 shower in 𝘮𝘺 room!" Christopher rolled his eyes and continued to rinse the shampoo. Once he finally got it out he rinsed the rest of his body and got out the shower. He walked out the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his hips and looked Grayson up and down, "Why are you getting dressed? Where are you going? And...is that my bow tie?"

Grayson sighed and smoothed out his suit, "I don't even know where I'm going and I'm just borrowing it." Little did Christopher know, Ace called Grayson and told him that he'd have to tag along too. Grayson didn't exactly know what they were doing tonight. Ace was especially vague on that detail.

Christopher shook his head and sighed. "Whatever, just get out of my room." It didn't matter where his brother was going. He disappeared all the time. Grayson shrugged and walked out.

Someone knocked on the door and Grayson walked into the living room. He peered through the peep hole and squinted to see that it was Ace! He furrowed his eyebrows and checked his watch. It was only six-forty.

"Are you going to let me in or just stand at the door like an idiot?" Grayson heard her sarcastic tone through the door and laughed before opening it. Ace smirked as she walked in uninvited. Her hair was brought back in a bun and she was wearing a black swing coat. She took of her sunglasses and observed the apartment as Jack walked in behind her.

"You're a little early, no? I thought that you were coming at eight-thirty." Grayson ran his hand through his curls that barely hung past his eyebrows. He glanced at the stranger before continuing, "You brought another man? I wonder how Chris is going to feel about that." Grayson looked at Ace through the mirror and smirked at her unbothered reaction.

Jack awkwardly stood at the door beside Grayson and tried his best not to stare too hard. 'What is with this city and godly good-looking people!?' He knew that Grayson was Christopher's brother, but he's never seen him up this close. Jack didn't know how to feel walking around the city with a whole bunch of overly hot rich people.

"I wanted to make sure that you two understand exactly what I want you to do. I don't need you two messing this up and getting us killed." Ace shrugged in raised her eyebrows, "Actually you're supposed to be the ones keeping us alive." She mumbled the last part and Grayson creased his eyebrows. What did that mean?

"But speaking of Christopher, where is he?" Ace looked around and didn't see Christopher anywhere around the living room or the kitchen.

Grayson smirked when a devilish idea came into his mind, "He's in his room."

"Oh, is he getting ready?"

"No. He's not doing anything. His room is down the hallway. Last one on the left." Grayson nodded his head and assured her.

"Okay. Grayson this is Jack. Jack this is Grayson. He's going to be helping us tonight. Grayson, play nice. Jack, don't be weird." Ace looked into Jack's eyes for a few more seconds before walking towards the hallway.

Jack reached out his hand to shake Grayson's. Grayson looked down at Jack's hand and raised an eyebrow. Jack laughed nervously and put his hands in his pocket,

"Aha...sooooo, this is a really nice place you got here! I can see why Christopher chose this to be where he stayed. How much does a place like this cost?"

Grayson ignored his attempt at small talk, "So you're the guy Jenna's interested in? I knew I heard the name Jack somewhere before." Jack smiled, but his smile disappeared once he saw the disapproving look on Grayson's face. This was going to be a long night.

Ace stopped at the room on the left and knocked. No one answered, but she listened closely and heard muffled music playing. She knocked again. Still no answer. Ace thought to herself for a few seconds before she decided to turn the doorknob. She walked in and looked around. Everything in Christopher's room was black. The sheets on his king-sized bed were black. The dresser and nightstand were black and so were the thin curtains that covered his floor to ceiling windows. Ace thought about it and realized that she actually might prefer the black color scheme over her white one.

She saw an open door in the back corner of the room. This room was where the music was coming from and the light was on. A famous rock band called The Kingsblues filled the entire bedroom and Ace smirked when she heard Christopher's voice yell the lyrics to one of their songs. She slowly walked over and peeped into the bathroom from behind the door and tried not to laugh when she saw him with a towel around his waist, pretending that his hair brush was a microphone.

"♪𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩���𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦!♪♪" Chris closed his eyes and pretended to do the guitar notes with his fingers before picking up his hair brush and singing again, "♪𝘖𝘰𝘖𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰 GIRL 𝘖𝘰𝘖𝘰𝘰𝘰𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰♪" He took a deep breath to sing the last lyrics, "To 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘦-" Christopher flinched and stopped singing once he opened his eyes and saw a figure standing at his bathroom door through the reflection of his mirror. His eyes grew wide and he turned around to see Ace standing there trying not to smile. She raised an eyebrow and walked into the bathroom.

"Woah woah woahh! What are you doing here!? Where did you come from!?" Christopher scrambled to try and make sure his falling towel was secured around his waist. He leaned past Ace and looked at his room door, "How long have you been there!? How much did you see?" Ace could see that his pale brown skin was starting to have a hint of red.

"Grayson told me that you were back here and I wanted to come and talk to you about something personally, but you seem a little busy." Ace tried her best to hold in a laugh and continued, "All those chorus classes your mom forced you in actually worked." She looked him up and down, "It looks like that gym membership paid off too." Ace finally let out a laugh.

Christopher was embarrassed, but the panic dissipated once he saw the smile on her face. 'Wow, she's beautiful." He thought to himself. It's been a while since he saw her smile like that. He loved the sound of her laugh and the way her cheeks looked so full when she smiled. It was the first time that he saw her generally laugh and not fake it since he's been in Raingate.

"Well usually in the movies and books, when a girl walks in on a guy in the bathroom she panics and gets nervous because he's in a towel."

"Well usually in the movies and books the guy is sexy and seductive, not yelling out the lyrics to one of The Kingsblues songs. Hurry up and get ready. I want to talk to everyone in the living room." Ace's eyes lingered on Christopher for a little more before she turned to leave.

"Actually, I can be sexy too! I am very sexy!" Christopher tried to stop Ace from walking away. He sighed when she closed the room door behind her. He looked at himself in the mirror, displeased with how he looked for the first time in years. 'Is that what she wants? She wants sexy?" Christopher's chest tightened as he thought about the difference between him and his brother. Grayson was good at the whole "sexy" thing. Chris was more of the dorky and charming brother. He'd rather sing love songs in a terrible voice to Ace than to try and seduce her with his looks.

'But maybe that's not what she wants.' Christopher made a mental note to try and act more like his brother. He had to be cool and smooth with his words for the rest of the night.