Friends With Benefits (Mark Tuan Fanfic)

20

You try to wipe off the tears coming out of your eyes, but they won't stop. You're brain is telling you to just turn off the TV, stand up from the couch and go out. But, your body won't move. You're eyes stay on the screen as Mark and his supposed-wife enjoys a fine dinner together, laughing and feeding each other. 

"Bel, snap out of it," you tell yourself. Commercials on the TV come and you finally move. You go to your room, take a shower, get dressed and go out. 

The night breeze welcomes you as you step out on the street. You feel like partying tonight. You've heard about a really neat club just a few minutes away from your place and you go there. 

Strobe lights and loud beats flood the floor as you make your way through the crowd and to the bar. 

"Tequila," you tell the bartender, "make it double." 

After drinking your shot, you stride to the dance floor and make your way to the middle where two really good looking young men were dancing. You go in between them and start going with the beat from the DJ's mix. 

One of the guys face you and start dancing flirtatiously, you go with the flow.

Only twenty minutes on the floor and you're already beat. Another shot or two would keep you going again. You head to the bar and the guy follows. 

The bartender hands you another double shot of tequila as you sit on one of the stools. 

"Hey, I'm Tom," the guy says, smiling and winking. 

"Claire," you tell him. Back in Australia, when you go to clubs alone, you don't usually give your real name. Just for one night anyway. The guys don't need to know you.

"Nice name. You're not Korean, are you?" He says in English. 

"You?"

"Half," he says. "Want another shot?" 

"Sure."

He continues talking after ordering the shots. "He's not so bad," you think. 

"You wanna go to a quieter place?" He asks. 

You know where this is going, but you say 'yes' anyway. 

"I just need to go to the bathroom for a while," you excuse yourself and go up to where the powder rooms are. You look in the mirror and you smile at yourself. "This is nothing, Bel. Forget about Mark and go back to your old ways," you tell yourself. "It's much safer this way." You inhale and exhale deeply and exit the room. 

"Bel?" A familiar voice calls your name and you turn to your right. 

"Jackson," he is coming out of the men's room. "What are you doing here?" 

Shit!

"Just relaxing from our long week." He smiles. "You?"

"Same." You have to get out of here fast before the others see you. 

You walk out the hallway to the stairs. But, before you get to go down one step, Jackson grabs your hand and pulls you to their table. 

"Hey, guys. Look who I found." There are six other guys at the table and you already know who they are even without looking at them. 

"Sis? What the heck? I thought you were busy tonight?" JB is shocked to see you and so are the others. Mark looks up, is about to smile but then he takes it back and just looks away. 

"Yeah. I kinda finished what I was doing. Got bored," you reason. JB actually asked you earlier today if you could go out with them tonight, but you refused, telling him you had tons of work to do.