𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐀

𝐎𝐍𝐄

"𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮?"

I carefully transferred the drinks from the tray onto the table in front of me, being careful not to spill them onto the three men sitting down.

"Can I actually get a water with a few lemon slices?" said one of the men, raising his voice so that it could be heard over the loud music.

Considering that this was a club where almost no one was sober, I was a little surprised that he didn't ask for more alcohol like his two friends did.

"Would you just like a lemonade then?" I said, starting to write it down on my notepad.

"Now if I wanted a lemonade, I would've asked for a lemonade, right darling?" he said.

I stopped writing and looked up to see him looking right back at me with a smirk plastered across his face.

Great. Another man who thought he was on top of the world when he was ordering a woman, who's working, to bring him and his friends drinks.

He and two friends all wore black button ups and black pants. They all looked intimidating, but something about the one who was speaking to me made me feel like he was the one in charge.

He had black hair, styled, but still giving off a messy look. His sleeves were rolled up just below his elbows, showing off his many tattoos. I'm assuming they trailed up his arms because when I looked at his neck, he had a snake going up one side, stopping right behind his ears. The snake had its own devil horns on it.

"Right." I fake-smiled, before turning on my heels and walking away. I ripped off the piece of paper from my notepad and handed it to bartender, Liv, across the bar.

"Add this to their tab, please." I said, taking a seat at one of the stools and resting my head on my arms.

"Long night?" she asked.

"Always. You know how it is, Liv." I shrugged.

Liv has been in my life for a while now. Other than my mom, she was the only other person who really knew me.

She may not be my best friend since childhood, but for the past few years, she's helped me get back up on my feet after I've hit rock bottom.

It had always been my mom and I. My dad left us when we were younger and I had no other siblings. I never took a single thing for granted as I watched how hard my mom worked for the both of us. However, I soon had to learn how to do all of the hard work myself after she became sick and grew older.

Many woman my age would be going out at their friends and coming to clubs and bars like the one I worked at. But instead, I've became the friend who can't go out because she has to work at the same club.

"Are the tips good from tonight at least?" she asked.

"Duh." I playfully smiled. "Something about having my hair in space buns or bubble braids always seems to do the trick with men."

She handed me the drink and I started to make my way back over to the table.

"Here you go. Do you-" Suddenly, I was cut off by the glass completely shattering in my hands.

Within seconds, all hell broke loose in the club. There were people screaming, dancers tripping over their heels as they ran off the stage, and glass could be heard shattering everything. I ducked to the ground, along with the three men at the table.

"Are those gun shots?" I yelled through everyone's screams, things crashing and breaking, and people pushing and tripping past us to get out.

"Fuck, Hayes! How did they know we'd be here!" said one of the guys. I turned to him and realized he was speaking to the one in the middle.

So his name is Hayes.

"What's the fastest way out of here without going to the front?" said Hayes, looking at me. For a second, I felt like time had frozen. As we were ducked to the ground, I'm now realizing how close our faces were. I was looking at his big brown eyes and could get a closer look at his tattoos.

Something about his dark accessories and the tattoos just did something to me.

However, I snapped back into reality when I heard more glass shattering around me.

"Through the back, come on." I said, quickly getting up. We kept our heads low as they followed me towards the back of the club.

"Call one of the drivers. Now!" said Hayes to one of his friends, as we pushed through the many people trying to either hide or find a way out as well.

Drivers? They have their own drivers?

Once we reached the very back where no one else was, I opened up the door that lead to the back parking lot.

A black car with heavily tinted windows pulled up and just as the three men were about to get in, one of them stopped Hayes.

"Only one of the cars came, Hayes. You're not supposed to come back with us to the house. They could follow us if they know you're with us."

They frantically argued for a few seconds amongst themselves until Hayes turned around and looked at me.

"Take me back to your place."

"What?!" I said. "Hell no. If I'm getting this correctly, you're the reason why my job is getting shot up right now, and you're asking me to come back to my place for you to play hide and seek or something?"

"Actually, I wasn't asking sweetheart." he said, coming closer to me.

I looked up at him and swallowed back my words. I'd be lying if I wasn't a little scared right now. But nonetheless, I stood my ground.

"Did you not hear me when I said no-"

Once again, I was cut off.

He grabbed the bottom of my apron and snatched my keys out of one of the pockets.

"What the hell! You're not going to get me involved in whatever you've got yourself into!" I yelled, trying to grab my keys from him.

"Either you take me back to your place, or I'm taking your car and leaving you here." He said, his tone sounding serious as ever without him even having to raise his voice at me.

I looked at the two men still sitting in the van, watching us argue. I was about to walk over to them to get them to take this guy home with them, but before I could even take another step, they started speeding away.

I turned around to look back at Hayes.

"So am I leaving you here?" he said. I rolled my eyes, giving up trying to win this.

I could tell he wasn't joking about leaving me here.

"Give me my keys." I walked up to him and snatched my keys back.

This will be one hell of a story to tell.