AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“One beer.” The bartender placed the bottle down in front of me.
“Thanks.”
“You were here Tuesday with Malachi, right?”
I nodded, taking a sip of my beer.
“He’s good people. You two dating?”
I almost choked, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand as I shook my head. “Just friends.”
He smiled, throwing a towel over his shoulder, and extended his hand. “I’m Jace.”
“Becca.” I shook his hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Becca. Are you expecting Malachi?”
“I’m not sure.”
He regarded me with a curious expression on his face. “Well, enjoy the show. The Deep are the main event tonight, and they always pull in a good crowd. Any problems, you just let me know, okay? Things can get a little wild when they’re in town.”
I grinned. It was easy to see why Malachi liked it here. People didn’t ask questions, and they didn’t judge. They just accepted you. It was about the music, although I wasunsure whether to be excited or wary after Jace’s warning. But it was only a band, right? How wild could things get?
Forty-five minutes later, I was coated in a sheen of sweat and understood exactly what Jace had meant. The room moved as one, bouncing and thrumming to the heavy beat of the four-piece band on the stage. I’d started on the edge of the crowd, but soon ended up crammed between two burly guys with gauges in their ears who were wearing more eyeliner than I was. But by that point, I was too busy cheering and jumping as hard as everyone else to be intimidated.
“We’re The Deep, and you’ve been amazing. We’re going to take five but don’t go anywhere.”
The crowd began to disperse for the bar and the restrooms, and I spun around, catching my breath. A familiar face stood out from across the room, and I bounded over to Malachi. “You came.”
“So did you.”
I smiled, the two beers still in my system. I wasn’t drunk by any stretch of the imagination, but the atmosphere combined with the heat and the pulse of the music… Well, it had my adrenaline pumping.
“Having fun?” Folding his arms over his chest, he quirked his eyebrow at me.
“I am. It isn’t my usual taste in music, but I like it.” I jammed my hands into my back pockets and swayed from side to side as the band’s last song stuck in my head.
I’d discovered quickly that the bass invaded your thoughts to the point of forcing everything else out. Some people might have found it overwhelming, but I found it therapeutic, and oddly, I felt more at peace among the noise and chaos than I had in a while.
“Listen, Becca, about school—”
My hand shot out. “Don’t. I get it, and it’s fine.” He was loyal to Scarlett, to the others. Just as Lilly had been in the end. People had picked their side, and it wasn’t mine. Even Vin had started to pay me less and less attention.Not that I’d made it easy for them to try to remain my friend.
Malachi ran a brisk hand over his head and nodded. “The band is back on. You should go enjoy it.” He motioned over my shoulder.
“Cool. I’ll see you around.”
As I walked back to the center of the room,I felt his heavy gaze on me, but I didn’t look back. He’d shared this place with me because he got it. He understood I needed an escape—away from the people at school, away from Evan, away from who I was.
And in a strange way, it was enough.
* * *
The crowd roared as the opening beats of the last song played out, and anticipation hung heavy in the air.
“Teller’s, it’s time to get fucked up.” The lead vocalist’s raspy voice filled the room, sending everyone into a frenzy, jostling and smashing into one another. An elbow caught me in the side as I tried to keep steady among the crush, shooting pain through my ribs. That would bruise. Clutching my side, I widened my eyes at the scene unfolding around me, and part of me wondered if I should edge my way back to where it was less busy, but then someone’s body crowded mine.
Malachi’s chest hit my back just as it had on Tuesday. I glanced at him and saw a grim expression painted on his face, the one that told me it was time to hightail it out of there. But I just grinned and carried on bouncing to the beat, ignoring the ache in my side and the grown men and women around me who were generally banging the crap out of one another. When the tempo finally started to slow, so did the adrenaline pumping through me, and Malachi gripped my elbow, leading me out of the crowd and toward the bar.
