Status: Fresh out of the oven

One of the Boys

Chapter Twenty One

I made my way back to our table, shimming past numerous drunks and trying to avoid their wild uncontrolled movements. Leo was sitting there, his eyes already on me before I could even notice him, sat back against a corner of the couch, merging into to the shadows of the wall. It seems he had been waiting for me, and his darkened expression cleared slightly on my approach. On the low table in front of him there were empty pints and shot glasses that boys had drained before hitting the dance floor a couple of hours ago, and forced, though without much struggle, to make me drink as well. There was also a bottle spilled of wine and a damp clump of napkins that were a sorry effort to clean up the spill. However there was a new addition to the table; a large cone shaped cocktail glass with the remains of a hot fuchsia liquid at the bottom. The heart at the end of the toothpick, the pink sugar coated rim of the glass and the remains of eatable glitter that stuck to the sides indicated that this was the female beverage that I had seen a lot of the ladies drinking. While we've been out dancing, I concluded, Leo had had some female company.

I noticed more than just that. He must have also been off to dance, because something, some physical activity, had disheveled his hair and taken it out of its usual coif. The vigour of his activity was presented by the moisture that clung his thin white shirt to his abdomen. The bottom buttons of the shirt were ripped off and dangling on a string, in such a way that any movement of his torso, not only revealed his tattoo (though the tattoo was already visible due to the thinness of the shirt and the perspiration), but also a blood red kiss mark to the left of his naval. I also notice a number on the back of his hand, written in that same red lipstick, partly smeared of as a result of shameless wiping. His red finger tips proved him the culprit.

Leo saw me looking at his hand and smiled knowingly and beckoned me forward. I sat down on the couch, my mind felt hazed and everything about Leo suddenly became unexplainably attractive. But then, hadn't it always been the case, my intoxicated mind wondered. I had not secretly been admiring Leo from a distance, his presence even over powered my dreams where his gemmed eyes danced in a darkness before me. And here he was now, in flesh and blood, his minty eyes mocking my glazed ones. Yet I couldn’t help but want, and crave. This could only be described as attraction. Physical attraction, or better yet, liquor induced lust.

I felt myself leeringly smiling in his direction. He responded with a single raised eyebrow, and in my current state I couldn't work out what it meant. Something was telling me that I must have had too much alcohol. Something else told me that I needed to take more. I grabbed a half empty bottle of white wine and brought it to my lips and swung my head back. The cool liquor dribbled down my chin and I barely cared, and chose to let it sit there while I fell back into the couch out of exhaustion instead.

"God Johns. Can't you hold your drink. You're more of a light weight than Teds."

"Shut up," I grumbled pushing the bottle away from me and slamming it into the table. "I am fine," I hiccuped.

"How are you going to do your job when you look so bad that not even a blind person would be attracted to you? I told you he likes neatness, and well dressed men."

"Well he can go off by himself than." I retorted, pulling an even bigger unattractive face to defy him.

He sighed and grabbed one of the snow white napkins that glowed florescent in the UV light of the club, and leaned across the short table and wiped the smirk of my face. That and the dribble.

"What are you doing?" I hollered, my voice breaking from the strain of the whole night. I violently pushed him away again he stumbled back into the couch looking more than lightly pissed off. "Did the punch I gave you earlier not fix anything in that brain of yours?" I asked. "You should take care of your own problems. If you want someone to seduce him, do it yourself. Plus he won't like me if he is gay. I am as far from his type as it could get if he likes men," I giggled madly into my hand realizing I let something slipped and took another glass to drown my laughter.

Leo bent his head down low over his knee and supported his strained expression by pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand and fidgeting with a silver lighter in the other. His tense fingers were wrapped around it tightly, whiting the skin stretched over his knuckle, while his thumb flip the lid open and closed. "Do you not understand?" At first I could not hear him; it was as though he was having an internal argument.

"Pardon?" In the mist of my intoxication I had regained my manners.

"Do you not get how much shit is riding on this?" And on the cuss he stood up and stared me down. His glare was cut throat yet the tightness in his expression showed that he was controlling himself.

His sudden movement caught the attention of a group of people passing by. I could read the words forming on their lips, “Castello”, “Leo Castello”, “Fucking top rate bastard”, and the girls within the group ogled at Leo's prowlness obviously slowing their strides towards their destination but he paid them no heed and continued to menace me with his eyes. I immediately sobered up, or at least grew more conscious of the current situation. I fingered the instruction sheet that I had tucked inside my pocked before leaving my room, feeling the multiple creases I had made out of worry.

I had forgotten all about it. The significance of it.

"Ah, you look like you remember now. Good. I had seriously started to reconsider what type of person you are."

"Yeah, yeah. Go cry about it if you want. I ready now, where is he anyway this George Tirller?"

"He is sitting at the bar, seventh stool away from the entrance nursing his tenth shot. If you asked me I'd say he is feeling lonely and not getting the attention he feels he should be getting on his birthday night. Why don't you ask him if he'd like some company. I think he'll like that."

"You do realize that I am not gay, don't you." He didn't respond. "And that therefore I don't know how to hit on a guy." He didn't respond. "And you do realise he might not be interested in me in the slightest?" No reply. "And what if things get out of hands and I can't handle the situation?"

"Just do your blushing thing, your licking your lips thing, and your talking too much too fast thing. He'll think it's cute. But don't punch him," his mannerism bemused me as he placed a new pack of Caburry Chocolate Buttons in my hands. "He'll love those coming from you."

You sure did, I said internally, causing my face to flush terribly, though in the coloured lights of the nightclub it must have made me look sick because Leo grimaced slightly and step back mumbling about upchucking and barfing being unacceptable.

He was now flickering his lighter on and off even though the bouncers were eyed him suspiciously. I had never seen Leo smoke except for that one time in the storage room, were the grey clouds had encircled his thrown back head. "Just stick to the instructions Lucas. Even you can't go wrong with those. I’ll be at the bar watching you, so nothing will ‘get out of hand’," Leonard walked off towards the bar himself sitting right at the end a couple of seats down from my assignment and ordered a glass of coke.

I moved to the music towards George, the guy I was suppose to seduce. I caught Leo holding back a chucked at my painful dance skills and decided to just cut to the chase and I plotted myself down in the seat next to him.

"Vodka and tonic please," I asked one of the busy barmen behind the illuminated counter, flashing my fake ID. I didn't spend time watching him juggle the glasses and bottles, but instead turned my attention to a boy next to me. He looked utterly miserable.

"Hey," I shouted over the bass and beats the amazing DJ was mixing. "You are too good looking to look this miserable," I said trying to make my voice huskier and more masculine. I coughed in surprised,at how horse my voice was from all the shouting I had done with Cam on the dance floor and tried not to look away as he surveyed me up and down. Was that disappointment I saw in his eyes?

"Really now,"

"Really." I prevented myself from gulping and smiled.

"This is a private event, and as I don't know you I don't think you're on the list."

"I was invited by your brother, when he met me he thought the two of us would get along."

"I wasn't aware that my brother knew what my type was," he said syruping his drink, "He was slightly off the mark facially though." I for one was getting tired of all the boys criticising my appearances, I was not a goddess but I knew I could look into a mirror without it breaking. I’ve had numerous drunken guys kiss my face on several occasions before, and until Holderns I was pretty sure they would have wanted to kiss my face even if they hadn’t been intoxicated. Now I wasn’t so sure. I growled internally and damned this asshole. Then I went back to the agreed lie.

"I am only in town for a week or two and it would be good to have a port of call while I am here. You know, someone to show me what London lifestyle is all about."

"The good and the bad?" He asked, swirling his drink in his hand watching the whirlpool form in his electric blue cocktail.

"Mostly the bad," I squeaked out after taking a swing of my drink focusing on the burning heat going down my throat instead of the stupidness going out.

He leaned in closer to me, close enough to have to only whisper in such a loud place. "You are rather effeminate, aren't you? You look only about fourteen. Still virtuous," Major chills creeped up my spine and I closed my eyes in fright. This guy was obviously a creep. He looked about twenty four and was getting turned on because I looked like someone ten years younger. I peer down the bar to Leo but he was out of sight surrounded by a large group of people.

George glanced down at my fake ID and smiled. "At least you’re eighteen, or else my conscience might have had something to say about what I think we should do during your time in London."

Panicking and wanting this mission to be over as soon as possible I brought out the packet of chocolate. "How about for the privilege of exchanging numbers with the birthday boy, I give you some chocolate? A little bird told me these were your favourite."

He was still for a moment or two before exploding into hysteric fits of laughter. "Well, your face might be plainer than I would like, but you've got a cute nose. Come to one of the private lounges with me for a moment. I'll be able to hear you better and exchanging something as personal as numbers, well. That requires a little bit more intimacy, don't you think?"

I stared wistfully at the outline of his phone in the front pocket of his jeans, wishing I could just take it out now and run off on out of here. For the millionth time tonight I wondered what exactly was on the phone Leo wanted me to give him so badly. When I had read on the instruction, seduce George T. and exchange numbers and swap his phone with yours, I had no intention of making it go to completion until I read the last part of Leo's scripted writing. "Cameron's virtue and future happiness depends on you helping me get back at this guy. You're the only one that can do this. Please." And then I couldn't say no, and though the whole situation was still obscure, the way Leo's eyes got all intense and actually worried when I almost backed out, told me there was serious shit going on.

George caught me staring at his pocket and must have thought I must have actually been starring at a more inappropriate place because he grabbed my arm and started to drag me away from the bar. "Hold your horses, lil' one, hold your horses," smiling leach-like at me. "Whether I am going to see you later on or not, I'll make sure that this is a much more memorable evening, and it has been so far."

"Wow, Wow!" I tried to halt his fast strides up the lime green stairs to the private lounges, "Don't think too far ahead. I only offered to exchange numbers!" I squealed nervous and scared beyond words.

I looked back over my shoulders trying to find Leonard. From halfway up the stairs I had a phenomenal view of the club. Bodies pulsing and swaying to the rapid quick-fire beat that the DJ was delivering, released the smell of sweat, alcohol, pheromones, adrenaline, and youth. DJ was hidden behind a paper thin screen on a platform, and all that was distinguishable was his shadow, which made him appeared godlike due to the orientations of the floor lights. His shadow stood three meters tall over all the dwarfed dancers bellow.

I caught a glimpse of Nathaniel chatting to a a stallion of a woman backed up against a wall, and Ludovic was smashing his fists up through the air repeatedly, as he grinded against a promiscuous blond. Cameron was stood still on the dance floor looking up at me, confusion creeping past his glassy eyes. I saw him shake his head once or twice and sheer terror surged past the alcohol screen in his brain. He tried to say something to me, but before he could, he was pushed out of view by a sudden surge in the crowd.

I almost reached my free hand out to him in despair, as George continued to pull me up, before my sight landed on what I was really looking for. The blond was still at the bar watching me with a slight hint of amusement. Two new girls were dropping over him, one straddling his leg and the other leaning over his shoulders trying to gain control of his attention, caressing his cut lip. He ignored them fully, like two pesky flies and smiled at me instead. He rose his glass to me in with a nod of the head as a cheer, before mouthing what I could only imagine being. “Don’t fuck up.”
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New chapter!!!!
I'd love more comments, from new people, thought I adore my faithful commenter. I'd like to know how you guys like my plot development.
P.S. Cameron name is Cameron, not Cameroon, which I've been writing. Embarrising, I am mixing up his name with the country Cameroon which we are studying in school at the moment.