Dark Attraction

Chapter three - Brand meets Gage

Two hours later I was taking a shot and laughing about it. I was splitting a bottle of tequila with a couple of girls and one of them was half in my lap, warm and soft against me, when movement near the door caught my eye.

"Who is that?" I breathed. The boy who'd just come in looked like some kind of Emo or Goth wet dream. His blue eyes rimmed with way too much black eyeliner. He held himself with poise, a straight back, a long neck and relaxed shoulders. His skin was clear, glowing almost in the low light like he'd never had a zit in his life. He wore those tight black pants with the straps and buckles over the legs, a tight shiny black t shirt which hugged his muscular chest and a beat up black leather jacket with way more buckles and straps than it needed.

Sandy, the girl partially in my lap turned to look. "No idea, must be new." She leaned forward for a handful of popcorn and I sat back, watching the boy move inside. He scanned the room and met my eyes.

I felt like I couldn't move, the way he was staring into me. I couldn't breathe, for a moment. Then he looked away, his lip curling in a sneer and I swallowed.

"You okay, Brand?" Sandy asked. I nodded and reached for the tequila, taking a long drink directly from the bottle.

Along with the tequila I tried to swallow down the excitement and yeah, arousal that had awakened in me from the way the guy had looked at me. His gaze had moved to Sandy, and she arched an eyebrow at him before looking back at me. He sneered at her, then looked at me with a clear 'what're you doing with her?' expression. Then he sniffed and walked towards the table of booze. It was like watching a model on a catwalk, except also with a definite air of danger, like he was a big cat stalking its cage.

Fuck. I had to know.

"Scuse me," I said, and shifted Sandy's legs off mine. She yelped, almost spilling her drink.

"Hey," she protested.

"Sorry," I said. Then I got up and ran a hand through my hair before going over to the drinks table. I didn't want to look too desperate, although I'm sure he could tell.

He was looking through the bottles, unimpressed, and slouching to read labels.

"Hey," I said, which obviously wasn't the best opening line but it was what I had.
He half turned, glanced at me and then looked back at the labels, he didn't seem surprised to see me. "Hey."

"You uh, new around here?" I asked. I reached past him for a beer and he looked at me sideways, raising his eyebrows.

"You could say that." He picked up a bottle of the same beer I'd grabbed, and turned, leaning back against the wall like he owned the place. He looked me up and down and I suddenly felt naked. I cleared my throat, trying to get some of my cool back.

"I'm Brandon, um. You can call me Brand," I said. So much for getting cool back, I just fell over half the words in introducing myself.

"Gage," he said. "Nice to meetcha." He stuck out his hand and gave me what could only be described as a smirk. It was the kind of smirk which made me feel like he knew exactly who I was. It wasn't pleasant exactly, but at least he seemed willing to talk to me and not just leave. Maybe he thought he knew who I was, but he didn't hate it? At least?

I found it hard to look away from his eyes, but I took his hand and shook it. "Yeah. Um, so, what're you studying?" His grip was firm, and his hand was colder than I'd have expected given the warm weather. And he was wearing a leather jacket.
"I'm studying a tall dude, called Brand, I guess," he said.

I felt my cheeks go red and took a deep swig of my beer, hoping to hide that. "Right, I meant at school."

"We're on campus, aren't we?"