king and queen

thirty-four

Alexa's POV

I hung out with the bar with Dallas and helped him with some drinks as we got a little rush.

"I better go check on some tables." I said to Dallas as I handed out a beer to a guy.

"Alright." Dallas said plainly.

I went to the back where the pool table was and went up to a few tables.

I got to the last one in the room. "Hi, how's everything- what the fuck are you two doing here." I could hear my voice shift as soon as I recognized them.

My dad and his stupid fiancé.

"Alexa! What are you doing at a nightclub?" Dad asked.

"That's none of your business. Are you guys following me?" I asked angrily.

"Alexa, we were just here for a few drinks. We didn't know you'd be here." Margaret said.

"So put off all the nightclubs in town, you picked the one on the outskirts. Yeah. Makes perfect sense."

"I used to come here all the time." Margaret said.

"I didn't ask for a life story."

"I didn't know you could sing." Margaret said. "You sounded great."

"That was Sylvia. Don't fucking talk to me like I'm your daughter, 'cause I'm not."

"Alexa, what is going on?" Dad asked.

"What's going on?" I repeated. "What's going on?" I said louder. "I left for a fucking reason. To get out. And I'm not coming back. As the manager of this establishment, I'm gonna have to ask you two to leave."

"We haven't paid yet." Margaret said.

"Consider it on the house. Get. Out."

They looked at each other and stood up. Dad left a couple bucks on the table and they walked out the door.

I couldn't believe them!

I went up to the bar as they walked out and went up to Dallas. "They're following me!" I yelled.

"What?" He asked.

"My dad and his girlfriend were here!" I continued. "I told them to get the hell out and that the beers they had were on me. I just wanted them gone! My dad gave us a couple bucks so can them out and do not give them a drink here again. Ever."

"I didn't even realize they came in. I guess I didn't recognize them."

I sighed. "I know. I just can't believe they were here."

The rest of the night went pretty smoothly. I was still kinda stressed from Sylvia's talk and my dad being here.

We finally closed and the place emptied out. I sat at the bar as Dallas and I were the only two in there after Buck left.

"You okay?" He asked. I just groaned. It was silent for a minute. "Your dad stress ya out?" He asked.

It took me a minute to process what he said. He was right, but it wasn't just that... "Uh... Yeah."

"You hesitated."

"What?" I asked with a fake laugh. "No, he really did stress me out."

"Did somethin' else happen tonight?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No, no, it's okay."

"C'mon. We're friends. Friends talk."

FRIENDS!

I groaned again. "It's Sylvia."

His eyes hardened. "What the hell did that dumb whore say to you?"

"Be nice." I said with a slight grin.

He rolled his eyes. "What the heck did that stupid girl who sleeps around say to you."

"Not much better." I laughed.

"Y'all seemed like you were enjoying yourselves."

"We were. It's just somethin' she said about you."

"Tell her to keep my name outta her mouth. I ain't gettin' back together with her."

"Dallas, that's not what it was." I caved. "We were up there and she was telling me I don't have to be nice to her, I gave my whole spiel on how I need to be nice to everyone. She said that it must be hard to that especially to my boyfriends ex and I said you weren't my boyfriend and she said I should consider giving you a chance if I was up for it, because of how you treat me verses how you treated her basically saying that you seemed interested, which I know you are, but the way she said it just threw me off, because we are just friends right now and I know you said earlier that I said there might still be a chance which I did and that you loved me and I can't get it out of my mind and... yeah."

He stared at me blankly as he was processing what I said so quickly.

"Wow. For the first time in my life I agree with her." He laughed.

God, his laugh.

So unique.

I'm glad he was still able to find this amusing.

"Well, Lex. I might not be much help to this one. Let's just say I'm biased."

"I know ya are." I sighed. "My excuse to her was that it's hard to date someone you've known your whole life, even though I barely knew you up until a month ago." I paused. "Truth is, it's hard to date someone you loved after they kinda broke your heart."

His grin faded. "What did you just say?" He asked.

I shrugged my shoulders and tried to give him a grin. "You heard it."

"Alexa..." He muttered. "I said I was sorry." He said like a child.

I laughed slightly. "I know ya did. But bandaids don't fix bullet holes."

He groaned dramatically. "Alexa..." He drawled. "You're always speaking in code, I swear to God."

I laughed. "I'm saying, saying "sorry" doesn't do much to fix someone who's hurting."

"Lex, give me another chance. There's nothing you don't know now. Ponyboy fucked that up for me."

"Which, I should say thank you to him. I'd rather know than not."

"Yeah, yeah. Point is, truth's out. I'm an open book now."

"Dallas-"

He cut me off. "Sylvia's right! There is a way I treat you. She was right the first time. The way I look at you is just different. You're something special."

"The first time?" I asked with a laugh.

He paused. "Uhh... so a few weeks ago when she came in for 'karaoke,' it was actually to try and get back and have something casual. And then she noticed the way I was lookin' at ya and kinda gave up. Said something was different with you and that she wasn't gonna waste her time when I was clearly in love with someone else." He paused. "Okay, now you know everything. I'm an open book again!"

I laughed. "Oh, goodness, Dal." I rubbed my eyes. "What is going on?" I continued to laugh and he laughed along too.

"Okay, Lex. Here's the deal..."