The Only One Who Needs to Know

“So I better go start getting ready.” Cali said as she talked to Andy on the phone from where she was trying to decide what to wear on her girls’ night out with Rachel.

“Yeah, I better go as well, I’ve got to take these kids out for something to eat.” Andy replied.

“Oh, now that is something a definitely don’t envy, have a good night and I’ll talk to you in the morning.” Cali replied with a smile as she decided that a completely casual look would suffice for the night ahead.

“Yeah, have a good night babe, speak to you in the morning.” He replied before they both hung up their phones.

Cali threw her cell onto her bed and grabbed her Ed Hardy tank top from her closet and began to look for the denim skirt she wanted to wear with it.

She got dressed and started doing her hair and make up, pulling her auburn hair into low pig-tails. She lined her eyes with a thin layer of black eye liner and dusted her eyelids with purple eye shadow before applying mascara and lip gloss. She finished getting ready by spraying Calvin Klein’s Eternity against her pulse points.

“Rachie, are you ready?” she called as she left her bedroom, walking down the hallway towards Rachel’s bedroom.

“Yep, on my way!” she replied as Cali opened the door to find her placing her lip gloss in her purse.

“Great, come on, I need a drink.” Cali explained with a smile turning back out of the bedroom and heading toward their front door.

“Four shots of Sambuca and two double Jacks and Coke please.” Cali asked the bartender with a smile. They had been out for two hours and Rachel had managed to find a bar that did karaoke. Cali had promised to sing with her as long as they were both good and drunk first.

The bartender placed their drinks down on the bar in front of them and Cali handed him the money. She put two of the shots in front of Rachel before quickly knocking back the two in front of her, wincing as the aniseed flavoured liquid burned her throat. She quickly picked up her Jack and Coke and took a large sip to try and get rid if the taste.

“Are you drunk enough for karaoke yet?” Rachel asked wiping her mouth after taking her shots. Cali shook her head.

“Not quite, I’m definitely getting there though, I think we need stronger shots.” She replied drinking more of her Jack.

“Leave it with me, I know what we need.” Rachel replied, turning to the bar tender.

“Four shots of absinthe.” She said with a slur, causing Cali’s eyes to widen.

“Oh, no, I know I said I needed to get drunk tonight but I would still like to have a functioning liver in the morning.” Cali protested as the bartender placed the shots in front of the both of them.

“Oh come on, it’s just two shots, it’s not going to kill you.” Rachel said picking up one of the shot glasses. “After three.”

Cali rolled her eyes in defeat and picked up one of her shot glasses and nodded at Rachel.

“Three.” Both of them poured the shot down their throat, quickly picking up the second glass and finishing off their Jack and Cokes with a wince.

“Come on, lets go dance while those kick in then we can get the karaoke over and done with.” Cali said taking hold of Rachel’s hand and pulling her through the group of people towards the centre of the dance floor.

A short while later, when the song they were dancing to was interrupted by someone having their turn at karaoke, Rachel and Cali made their way back to the bar. Rachel ordered another round of drinks and shots of vodka before they headed over to a small table. Rachel grabbed the song book and they sat looking through it as a girl did a very good version of Just like a Pill.

“Oh we’ve got to do this.” Rachel said excitedly pointing at the title of a song that had caught her interest.

“Seriously?” Cali questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, just for fun, we’ll do something else as well, I think it’d be good fun to sing that here.” Rachel replied.

“Yeah ok, but I get to choose the other song.” Cali replied taking the book from Rachel as she jotted down the song she’s chosen.

Cali quickly found the song she wanted to sing and passed the information to the girl in charge of the karaoke machine. Her and Rachel then sat down at the table and enjoyed their drinks while they waited for the names to be called.

“Ok, so now can we have Rachie and Cali up here please.” The girl called into her microphone in a cheerful voice.

“Come on then Cal.” Rachel said standing up and quickly finishing her drink. Cali did the same and followed her up onto the stage, taking a microphone off the karaoke woman.

“You take the first line.” Rachel whispered as the intro music started to play. Cali nodded and took a deep breath, watching the screen in front of her through habit more than any other reason. As much as it embarrassed her, she knew this song word for word due to the amount of times Rachel had dragged her up onto a stage to sing it.

“Don’t go breaking my heart.” Cali began with a smile on her face as she took hold of Rachel’s free hand and looked lovingly into her eyes.

“I couldn’t if I tried.” Rachel continued her expression mimicking that of Cali’s. As they continued the song, Rachel swayed their hands back and forth as they sang, looking lovingly into each other’s eyes, coming in close to each other to rest their foreheads against each others.

They finished the song to a round of applause from the crowd. “Don’t worry guys, they’ll be back shortly with their next song.” The karaoke woman announced to the crowd as Rachel and Cali made their way towards the bar for another round of drinks.

They were soon back on the small stage with Rachel singing the opening lines to Under the Bridge. Cali couldn’t help but smile as she watched Rachel belt out the words, not caring that despite her love for singing she never sang one word in tune and never let what people thought about that bother her.

As Cali broke into the chorus she noticed Rachel wave at someone in the crowd and quickly spotted Johnny stood with his back to the bar with a beer in his hand. Her eyes quickly returned to Rachel, raising her eyebrow questioningly. Rachel shrugged with a smirk as she continued with the song.

Once again they were met by a round of applause when the song ended. “Sorry guys but that was our last song of the night.” Rachel called into the microphone before handing it back to the woman.

“So much for a girls night out!” Cali said as her and Rachel made their way through the groups of tables towards the bar.

“What? How was I supposed to know that they were going to turn up?” she replied as they approached the bar.

“Yeah whatever.” Cali replied rolling her eyes. “Hang on. They?” she added, turning to be faced with Brian’s smiling face.

“Hey, that was some amazing singing up there.” He said as she glared up into his dark chocolate eyes.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded as Brian chuckled.

“Johnny asked if I wanted to join him for a few drinks and then got a message of Rachel suggesting we come in here.” He replied.

“Hey guys, I know you’ve only just got here but do you wanna move on to another bar? I’m bored of this place now.” Rachel said from where she was settled into Johnny’s side with their arms around each others waists.

“Sounds good to me.” Brian replied brining his bottle to his lips and quickly draining it of the amber fluid.

The four of them found themselves in Johnny’s bar, each with a glass of Long Island Ice Teas, listening to Johnny tell the story of how he once projectile vomited across the bar as Brian set up the pool table.

“Ew, that is fucking disgusting!” Rachel exclaimed with a look of pure disgust on her face.

“Oh like you’ve never thrown up because of alcohol!” Cali accused as she grabbed one of the pool cues. Rachel fake glared at her and took the cue off her.

“So is it going to be girls against boys or you two against me and Cali?” Brian asked with a smirk as he stepped around the table to stand next to Cali.

“Girls against boys.” Cali replied quickly “Your break.” She added walking away from the table to sit on a stool next to Rachel and Johnny. Brian grabbed hold of the cue and walked back around the table and made his break shot. As two of the balls made their way into the pockets of the table he looked up, Cali catching both his wink and his smirk.

Much to her own annoyance, Cali’s eyes never left him as he continued to clear the table and she mentally cursed herself when she found her self biting her lower lip at the sight of him leaning across the table in front of her.

“You know what? I was told once that I had a very good technique for playing pool.” Rachel announced suddenly, much to Cali’s relief as it pulled her eyes away from Brian.

“Oh yeah, and what technique would that be?” Brian asked as he strutted around the pool table to take his next shot.

“Well, when I first started playing pool, I was told that I could be very good at handling the stick thing as it is very much like giving a boy behind you a hand job.” Cali almost chocked at the sound of these words, the beer she had in her mouth spluttering everywhere as she watched the cue ball fly off the table from where Rachel had managed to freak yet another guy out with the words.

“Ooops, I believe that’s now our shot.” Rachel said with a wide smile as Brian retrieved the small ball.

“What no, that’s not fair!” Brian protested.

“Um, the cue ball came off the table so it’s now my shot.” Cali said, no composed again, stepping forward to take the cue ball out of his hand.

“But-“

“But nothing Haner, just sit back and watch me clear the table.” She replied placing the cue ball and leaning over to take her shot.

“Oh I’m watching alright.” Brian said in a low, suggestive voice that Cali tried hard to ignore as she prepared to take her shot. Before the shot was taken she was stopped as someone came to stand directly behind her. She turned to find Brian stood there, a stern look on his handsome face.

“You’re giving everyone a free show.” He murmured pointing down to her short skirt and then to the tables behind them. Cali blushed and subconsciously pulled her skirt straight as she thanked Brian.

“I think we should give pool a miss, come on Rachie, lets dance.” Cali said with a smile, holding out her hand as Rachel pressed a kiss to Johnny’s lips before following Cali towards the group of people who were dancing.

They hadn’t been on the dance floor long when Cali looked up to see Johnny wrap his arms around Rachel’s tiny waist. She wasn’t shocked when she felt a pair of arms snake around her waist, only when she looked down to see them free of any colourful tattoos. She turned her head to find a dirty-blonde guy with blue eyes smirking at her. Feeling repulsed she placed her hands on top of his arms and tried to push them away but the guy just tightened his hold, making her struggle slightly as she tried harder to push him away from her.

“Get off me.” she growled as she continued to squirm against his grasp.

“Didn’t you hear her? She said get off her.” Cali gasped as she heard Brian’s voice as the guys arms were ripped off her. She stood watching as Brian grabbed the guy by the collar of his shirt and dragged him away from the dance floor and shoving him against the bar with a thud. He then crossed back to her side, gently taking hold of her by her arms and looking into her eyes.

“Are you ok? He didn’t hurt you did he?” Brian asked with pure concern in his voice.

“Yeah I’m fine, thank you.” she replied hoping her voice wasn’t betraying her.

“Are you sure, he seemed to have a tight grasp on you.” Brian replied, gently running his hands up and down her arms.

“I just need the bathroom.” Cali whispered, turning her body as she went to make her way to the rest rooms, not wanting Brian to let go of her.

Brian followed her to the rest rooms, promising to wait outside for her.

“Are you sure you’re ok?” he asked as he watched her walk back out into the corridor, all the colour drained from her cheeks. “Hey, come here.” He added taking hold of her hand and leading her further down the corridor, out of the way from other people, and then pulling her into a comforting embrace.

“Thanks Brian.” she said after a long moment of being held tightly against his warm, safe chest.

“Well, I wasn’t going to stand there and let that leech run his grubby little paws all over you.” he replied as she pulled her head away from his body to look up at him. A smile appeared on her face at the sound of his words. They gazed for a long moment into each other’s eyes, not noticing that they were both moving slowly towards each other. Their lips met in a brief, soft kiss, as their eyes maintained contact before they plunged towards each other, their lips locking, and their tongues entwined in a heated, frantic, desperate kiss. Brian’s hands ran down to her legs, to her ass where he picked her up and pulled her legs around his waist as he walked them over so that her back came to rest against the wall. That’s when Cali realised what she was doing and pushed her hands against his chest, holding back a moan as she slipped down his legs so that she was standing again.

“We can’t do this Brian, no matter how much we want to, we can’t.” she said quietly, not waiting to hear his reply.