Kings and Queens

19

Here,” Jeff handed me a beer.

Thanks. Where’s your lover?”

He made a face, “He took Bridgette out tonight, first real date,” Jeff took a swig of his beer, “Sickening, isn’t it?”

I sat down on the stool next to me and shook my head, “No it really isn’t Carts. He likes her, a lot,” I added, “He’s just lucky that she seems to feel the same.”

Jeff pursed his lips together and settled at the barstool next to me. He swirled his beer bottle and then looked at me, “Is she worth it?”

I looked at him, “Bridgette? I’m sure she is, at least to him. I mean she seems …”

“No,” he cut me off, “Is Langley Washington worth this?” he motioned to me, “The guys said you did this with Jess, but was she worth it?”

I shook my head, “She wasn’t.”

“But Langley is?”
“I was happy, I was feeling again,” I told him, “I was fucking falling in love!” I pounded my fist on the
bar.

He flinched and then put on that cocky fucking smirk of his and nodded behind me. I turned to him, ready to cry for the umpteenth time, but felt a smile tugging at my lips.
-----
LANGLEY

“Danny, I really don’t want to do this tonight,” I pulled my arm from his hand.

“Lang, come on,” he stopped and put his hands on his hips, “You two need to talk about this
because I can only fix shrimp eyes, I can’t fix that frown.”

I shook my head again, feeling the tears well in my eyes.

“Langley!” he threw his hands in the air, “You told Dustin to do his own thing and to have fun
for the past two weeks, he probably did while you sat and cried over what you said. Now you have
to deal with all of that and move on. Or,” Danny walked up to me and put his hands on my arms,
“Maybe he didn’t have any fun; maybe he sat and felt as bad as you have,” he paused, “Maybe, just
maybe, you underestimated him and yourself,” he took my hand, “Come on.”

I sucked back the tears and followed him into the bar. Maybe he was right, maybe Dustin was
just as upset as I was; after all, Bridgette did tell me that he was quieter.

Danny smiled ahead of us as he walked with his arm slung around my shoulder, “Go get him
baby girl,” he kissed my temple.

I went to give him a confused look when I saw Dustin out of the corner of my eye. Jeff was
smiling at me and threw me a wink before getting off of his stool and walking away. dustin was
staring at me with an unreadable look; all I wanted to do was run and hide.

He took a small step forward and I felt my lip quiver. He looked about how I felt; perplexed,
sad, and hurt.

Without really thinking I walked toward him. I almost stopped when he turned to the bar, set
his beer down, and shook his head at it, but I didn’t. by the time I reached him he was tearing the
label off the bottle, “Out of all the bars in LA Jeff and your stylist make us meet at this dump,” he
chuckled but it sounded sad.

I put my hand on his arm and he pulled it back. I froze, “Dustin…”

“I went into the boards in Phoenix,” he looked at me out of the corner of his eye, “Still hurts.”

I moved one step closer to him and gently rolled the sleeve of his t-shirt up. It was black, blue,
purple, and about three other colors that didn’t show well in a dimly lit bar. His eyes were cast
down, watching as I moved the fabric out of the way. I ran my fingers over the mark and watched
him tense up and then relax. “Poor baby,” I rolled his sleeve back down.

I went to take my hands away but he grabbed them, “I…we need to talk, but not here. Do you
want a drink though?” he let out a long breath, “I think I’m going to need one or two.”

“Sure,” I nodded.

He motioned for the stool next to me and pulled it out. I sat down and gave him a half smile,
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

He nodded after ordering my drink, he already knew what I wanted. “For what it’s worth,” he
looked directly at me, “There was no fun had on that trip.”

A part of me jumped for joy but another part of me felt sick to my stomach. I closed my eyes,
“Can we forget the drink?”

He pushed mine toward me and I found myself taking a sip. My sip turned into me chugging
half the beer before Dustin took it away with a laugh, “Calm down Washington.”

I let him set it on the bar before grabbing his hand and tugging him away from the bar. As we
made our way through the slightly crowded room I felt his hands on my neck. They moved to my
shoulders and gave them a squeeze. The second we were outside the doors he turned me around
so fast that I almost fell over. Dustin caught me though, “I want to hear what you have to say, but in
case this is the last time,” he dipped his head down and gave me a sweet kiss, “I have to do
something.”

He walked in front of me with my hands in his and pulled me toward the beach across the
street. Once our feet were in the sand he turned back to me and smiled before pulling me into his
body, giving me a burning kiss.

“Dusty,” I breathed as we pulled apart, “Let me say something.”

He shook his head, “Stop Langley, just fucking stop.”

I did. I took a step back and waited for him to start yelling at me or walk away, but he didn’t.
instead he slumped over, “Do you know what the past two weeks have done to me? My fucking
game is off, I have a constant migraine, and I’ve sat and thought about every single life choice I’ve
ever made to get here. Do you know what that does to a guy?”

His hands wrapped around my arms and squeezed so tight that I wasn’t sure the blood was circulating. He shook me, “Langley?”

“My sister told me that Mike and the boys were worried about you. I didn’t think that I…Dustin, I swear I didn’t think that I would do that to you. I never thought that…”

He didn’t let me finish, he just kissed me hard and with his entire body. he let go of my arms, bent down, and lifted me. He turned me and set me on the back of a park bench before pulling away, “You didn’t think Langley,” his voice lost a little edge, “You were protecting yourself and I get that, but that doesn’t mean I’m not upset about it. I tried to tell you everything that morning, that I did the rebound, that I’ve done the random hook ups and dates; Lang, I’m ready to move on, are you?”

I put my hands on his cheeks and nodded, “My parents always talked down to me, told me I would never do anything with my life, that I would never be happy because I wasn’t following the path they laid out for me. Every time I get close to happy I shut down and think about the two of them sitting at the kitchen table and telling me all those things. I’ve shoved all of that away and pushed it down so far that,” I paused, “I don’t know how to deal with it sometimes. You say you’re a mess,” I sighed, “I’m the real mess. I’m just…I…”

He slammed his hands on either side of me, trapping me in place, “For fuck’s sake Lang you deserve to be happy.”

“When I was telling Bridgette about this she asked me if I thought you deserved to be happy.”

His blue eyes had started to sparkle just a little now as I continued, “She said I made you happy and that even if I don’t deserve it, you do,” I paused, “Do I make you happy?”
♠ ♠ ♠
Ok, so the next chapter is mine again...I'm selfish!! I'll try to post it very soon though! It was just almost 3000 words and broken up like 4 times...so I didn't want to confuse ya'll and then you stop reading lol

S, whatcha thinking???

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