When Stars Bleed

"Hey sweetie, what do you need?" I blinked and looked up into her hazel eyes. She was 23 years old just like Massie and I.

"Um..."

She laughed her sweet laugh as she swept her brown curls with pink and blonde highlights out of her face.

"This has to be a first. I thought I'd never see the day where you forgot someone's order. And look you even have a pen and pad!"

"Shut up! I soo didn't forget...they wanted...uh...five beers. Bring up the finest." She smiled and pulled out the bottles.

"You know what, you better give me five more."

Claire nodded. Soon I was on my way with a tray full of bottles.

"Here you go boys." I smiled as I handed out the bottles, sliding them to their owners. "This is our finest beer, and I thought you'd all like an extra round."

"Thanks doll." One of the guys in the inner circle looked at me, grinning. "So our friend here...well he's looking for a good time. And we think you can help him out." I prayed to God that the color in cheeks wouldn't rise.

"I'm flattered, that's the first offer I had all night. But unfortunately I'm not doing dances tonight." I smiled and started walking away. It took all I had to not look back at his face.

My night continued as any other, and I tried to stay away from their table. But my job required me to go and serve it.

I went back to VIP table 7 taking deep breaths in order to keep my heart beat from going an abnormal rate. Yet when I arrived there was only one person there, the other four had gone.

Just my luck, the only one left was the extremely good-looking one. He was looking down at the table top, but slowly his head started to rise and a smile overtook his troubled features.

"Hey," was all I could manage to say.

His smile caught me off guard, well his whole being alone threw me off. I lost my trail of thought along with remembering how to breathe. His smile deepened as if he was reading my thoughts and again with the slowness he leaned forward.

"Evening beautiful."

That's all it took, were those two simple words that men told me frequently every night, to send me over the edge. I placed my hand on the table to keep my balance, I didn't feel unsteady or anything of the sort, it was just a precaution. There was no telling what lies behind those glasses.

I nodded and smiled, the only thing that I could think of to do. Still my words were stuck in the back of my throat.

"Why don't you sit down." He slight moved his head to his right, and then moved his head back towards me.

"Uh-uuh sure," I couldn't believe this guy was making me this weak.

I sat down on his right side, but left a big gap in between us. I was determined to make my self control apparent. No man has ever had control over me. Who does this man think he is? A God. Well he might look like a God, but he wasn't my Divinity.

He turned slightly in his seat and his hand crept up to his face. My breathing altogether stopped as he pulled off his glasses. I found myself moving closer to him to get a better glimpse of his hazel green eyes.

Before I knew it, his right arm was wrapped around me and his body was turned against mine, his chest pressing against my left side.

"Do you like them?" He asked, titling his head to the side a bit.

"Like what?" This was my chance to recollect myself, I wasn't the kind of girl to become putty in a man's hands, and I wouldn't let myself. Yet why was I starting to feel that way?

"My eyes. You've been staring at them for the last few minutes now."

I blinked and looked across the room, but my eyes somehow couldn't stray far from his. I was again locked in his gaze.

"Yes. They're very pretty." This made him laugh and look away, but he too couldn't stay away.

"They're very pretty," he repeated my response and added a small chuckle on the end.

"They are or haven't you noticed." My courage and regular self was coming back to me, and I couldn't be more pleased.

"Oh I've noticed, they're always changing colors on me."

"Really? What do they change to?" He laughed again.

"All sorts of colors. One day they'll be yellow, then purple."

I couldn't keep myself from letting out a small laugh and a smile come to my face.

"How about my favorite color? Do they turn red?"

His smile fell a little, but it was quickly forgotten when he nodded, and his smile deepen once more.

"Well they normally stay around the hazel brown and hazel green...but yes, on an odd day they'll turn red." I nodded with another laugh and looked around the table where his friends once sat.

"They couldn't contain themselves, so they went off to find their own little pleasures."

"Hmm well that reminds me, I should return so others can receive their little pleasures." I said while pointing to the empty beer bottles that were on the table. This time his smile fell and stayed down, dimly turning into a frown.

"Can't you stay?"

"I have a job that needs to be done, sorry." I unwrapped myself from his body and escaped from the booth.

He wasn't that far behind me, as I stood up he was sitting on the edge of the seat, where his shortest friend once sat.

"If you'd like, I could point you in the direction to fill your 'looking for a good time' need." I said while scanning across the room, looking for one of the club's dancers, even though it pained me to think of him and another dancer together.

No it wasn't pain that filled me, that would just be ridiculous, it was jealously that consumed me, even that thought seem ludicrous.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to his body, so I stood right in between his opened legs, which closed once I was inside them. I was trapped against him and honestly I didn't disapprove of it one bit.

"I highly doubt that any other girl is like you. Or has your eyes." He ran a finger across my cheek and placed a stray lock of hair behind my shoulder. I swallowed and responded with my stubborn side taking over.

"Sorry, like I said before I'm not doing dances tonight." I picked up his glasses and set them back on his face. Making it easier for me to breathe.

I pulled away from him and went back to behind the bar, dipping my hands in a bucket of ice and then placing them on my cheeks.

I was pouring a drink for a customer when and hand came down on the table making me look over to my right causing me to smile.

"What can I do for you sir?" I slid the beer mug to the customer and turned my full attention back to him.

"I can't believe you left without getting my name or giving me yours. How very rude." I let my mouth fall open a little bit for effect.

"Oh my, I can't believe I did that. You're right how rude." I grinned, "And do you know what else is rude?" I set down the towel that was on my shoulder and left the bar.

I was no longer under his control, I was in my element and the power belonged all to me. I made my usual rounds around the club, taking orders, tips, checks, bottles, drinks. Every once in a while I'd return to VIP table 7 to serve the men there. Only that every time I went, he wasn't there.

"Ashley! Break time!" Joe yelled from across the room.

I nodded and grabbed a beer bottle, but not before I took off my apron and headed towards the dressing rooms. I haven't seen Massie this whole time and Claire was stuck behind the busy bar.

"MASSIE!" I yelled throughout the room, causing all the girls look at me.

"She hasn't been in here since her shift started," Tiffany said while applying my eyeliner, making her blue eyes really stick out.

"Thanks, well if you see her, tell her that I'm on my break." She nodded and I went out the back door, into the cool night air. I hopped onto the low wall and pulled my hair back into a sloppy bun, letting the wind nip at my bare neck.

I started humming to myself and opened the beer bottle that I took from the bar. I took a little drink and breathed out, seeing it turn into a little white puff of air.

"Isn't that stealing?" I jumped up and let go of the bottle, letting it smashed into pieces once it met the cold, hard ground, as he came walking out of the shadows.

"Damn it! You scared me." He held up his hands.

"Sorry," he said with a smile and his eyes full of amusement.

He leaned against the wall, propping his elbows on it. His glasses were sitting upon his head and he was staring down at me. I breathed out and crossed my arms over my chest.

"And by the way it's not stealing. Our drinks are on the house." He nodded and stuck out his hand

"Matt." I looked at his face then to his hand, taking it in my own.

"Ashley."

This took him back a little bit, but he quickly covered it up and shook my hand. It made me aware that his hands were tough but they had a kind of softness to them.

It also made me conscious that he was still holding my hand, even after he shook it, and he wasn't planning on to let go.