Give and Take - Joe Burrow AU

Chapter 1

It had been a while since you went out after a show. Your brother and your best friends had nagged you constantly for being too invested in your work to have fun. So, you reluctantly agreed after a couple shots of tequila that rounded out your pre-performance ritual to calm the nerves.

By the time you had finished the encore, sweat poured down your face and soaked the vintage Tupac shirt you had been wearing. The last thing you wanted to do was get dolled up for the club. But, you made a promise.

Your makeup artist touches up a second application of powder while your hair stylist finishes blowing out your hair into bouncy waves.

Only 1 hour to get ready. Nice. You think to yourself as you adjust your breasts in the tight top that your best friend, Tana, had bought for you. You knew that even though your turnaround time from concert to "club-ready" was short, everyone would already be super drunk by the time you got to the club.

"This girl really thinks this is what is going to help me meet guys." You scoff, pushing out more cleavage.

"You gotta put yourself out there some day girl!" Your makeup artist, Mario, says matter-of-factly, standing behind you in the mirror.

With a roll of your eyes, you say your thank you's to the production crew and venue staff on your way out, and jump into the black Escalade waiting for you outside the backdoor.

The drive to the club was fairly long. With your status, you couldn't just pull up to any run-of-the-mill dive bar. So, that meant driving out to West Hollywood, stuck in traffic, just to have a nice cocktail in a VIP section of a boujee place.

Your friends surely loved the fame more than you did. The perks of even being associated with you got them into every club, store, and event known to man. You didn't mind though. You loved them like family, but sometimes you wished they realized how tired you were working to provide this life for them.

The driver pulls up to the front of the club where dozens of people are lined up to get in. You recognize the bouncer at the front entrance since you frequented this place a lot. With a smile, he opens the red rope for you to enter. Slipping a hundred dollar bill into his breast pocket, you wink and take a deep sigh of anticipation as the pounding bass from inside rattles your chest.

Heckling from the line of people, who had probably been waiting for hours on this particular Saturday night, was hard to ignore. With an apologetic look towards the crowd, and a mouthed 'I'm sorry', many people began shouting your name after realizing who actually had cut them.

Multi-colored lights flashed so much so, that it was hard to see where you were going. A man wearing a similar black suit to the bouncer out front appears and guides you in the darkness with a hand on your lower back.

"Right up there, Miss Carter." He says, pointing up ahead.

In the distance you could see your best friend Tana dancing on the small table in front of the velvet red couch where the rest of the group sat.

"Annie!" Tana screams when she spots you ascending the stairs.

"Hi babe. You OK?" You ask, hugging her tightly as if you didn't just see her 3 hours prior.

"Of course! I've been waiting to dance with you. All our favorite songs have been playing." She shimmies her breasts in a little dance move and cackles loudly at your wide-eyed expression.

She turns and grabs a full cup to shove into your hands. With a small sip, you quickly figure out that this concoction Tana has made is 90% vodka. She doesn't notice your sour expression as you choke this drink down, thankfully. Although, the liquor goes straight to your head in the next few minutes, and as Tana hands you a shot glass, you realize it was going to be one of those nights.

For a while, you were able to mingle with many of your friends and acquaintances who had shown up. They clowned you for only showing up to party once a year, and like usual, you countered with how busy your schedule is. With roaring drunken laughter at this response each time you said it, you knew none of these people actually believed you.

From behind you, you hear a high-pitched whistle causing you to whip your head around. You spot your twin brother, AJ, sitting on the velvet red couch with a couple of guys you don't recognize.

"Hey, what's up?" You smile and sit on the edge of the small table in front of them.

"Nothing much ... just wanted to introduce you to my friends Joe and Ja'Marr. They came out to the show tonight!"

After a quick look between the two of them waiting for you to reply, a lightbulb went off in your head.

"Oh my God! Wait ... I know you. You guys were just at the Super Bowl!" You exclaim feeling proud that you remembered something sports related.

The two men laugh shyly.

"Ann. Ixnay on the otten ray ..." Your brother jokes. "Sore subject."

"We didn't win." Ja'Marr laughs.

You felt incredibly stupid bringing it up and immediately were apologetic.

Who you presumed to be Joe, flashes his bright white teeth in a smile.

"Don't worry, there's always next year. Gotta be thankful we got this far."

Mashing your lips together and taking in a moment of awkward silence, you decide to change the subject.

"Thank you guys for coming out to see the show! Are you staying in LA long?"

"Season's over ... we figured we would hang around a bit." Ja'Marr states, glancing over at Joe for silent approval.

Joe nods and makes brief eye contact with you. His stunning grey eyes seemed to pierce through you.

As the guys continued to talk more about their stay in LA, you absentmindedly looked Joe up and down. His immaculate sneakers looked freshly polished, and his grey jeans were tight on his fit legs. You followed the veins in his hands up to the bracelets that adorned his wrists, to his forearms, up to his diamond chain that sat nicely on his chest in a black graphic tee. Snapping you out of your inspection, your brother's voice came back into earshot.

"I invited them to come hang at our house after this, if that's cool?"

Darting your eyes away from Joe, you nod profusely.

"Oh yeah - for sure. I don't care."

Joe purses his lips and nods, looking to Ja'marr who checks his pockets for his stuff.

"I'm down."

"Aight, let's bounce then." AJ says.

Standing up, your brother makes a signal to your other close friends that it's time to go.

Smoothing out your shirt as you all head out to the town car to bring you back to your house, you're happy this shirt showed off your cleavage.