Beauty and the Gang Member--ON HOLD :(

Chapter 14-Alex

"Another drink, dude?" Asked Brandon as he poised the bottle over my cup. I nodded and watched the clear liquid stream into the red cup that I was holding. When he was done, I knocked it back, tossing my cup over my shoulder.

"Dude, you seem weird." He said, sitting down on the couch next to me. I shrugged and leaned my head back, looking at the ceiling.

I had been avoiding Brittany completely because I didn't want to tell her of my recent activity, or for her to get suspicious, and after what Jaun said about the loved ones getting hurt, that gave me a bigger excuse to ignore her when I could.

But even that wasn't helping. I still missed her like crazy. He nudged me, making me look over at him.

"Dude? You wanna talk about it?" He asked, making my mood even worse. No, I didn't want to talk about it with him. I knew falling in love was out of the question, and defiantely out of the bet.

"Juan had me do some business the other night." I finally admitted, and his eyes grew wide and he almost choked on his beer.

"By yourself?" He started swear in Spanish, then looked at me. "You know how dangerous that is? Juan is loco for making you go alone. You could have been killed, brother!" He swore some more. Then he gave me a knowing look, as if he knew why I was so distant.

"Brittany doesn't know, does she?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"No. And it's gonna stay like that." I warned, eyeing him up and down. Brandon wasn't one to give away secrets on the fly, but he sure as hell couldn't keep them.

He held his hands up. "I ain't gonna tell her, amigo, but are you?"

I thought for a moment. Whatever relationship I had with her, which was awfully confusing, would be gone as soon as I told her, and she'd hate me for the rest of my life. But if I didn't tell her, then she'd be fine. But I had to tell her to keep her safe. I needed to keep her away.

"No." I said finally, and he looked at me. "I need to keep her as distant as possible."

"Why?"

"Because I dropped my LB bandana when I was running from the warehouse the other night. They know it's the LB, and Juan said they're not gonna stop until they find out who did it." I said.

"Oh, shit, Alex. You really believe that? Juan talks out of his ass most of the time. He's just tryna scare you is all, bro. You can keep your girl and keep your life." He laughed at the last part, making me believe that he was drunker than he let on to be. 

I took the beer bottle out of his hand, and that's when I noticed four other empty ones down by the couch. "Shit, Brandon. You must have beer for blood now." I said, getting up and shrugging my shoulders, grabbing the half-empty bottle of whiskey that sat on the table and guzzling it down.

Might as well get hammered, because I would be in hell the next few days. I could feel the buzz deepen until I knew I was absolutely drunk. The back door banged open and in walked Nina, Brandon's twin sister.

"Brandon! Mama has been lookin' everywhere for your sorry ass!" She yelled, making us wince. Then she spied the bottles. "Dammit, Brandon." She mumbled, slapping him on the head. He just laughed.

"Alex, you look like shit too." She said bluntly, lifting Brandon up and helping him to the chair across the room. When she had him settled, she turned to me, saying something, but I was already drifting off into a much needed sleep.

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I woke up with a pounding headache. I sat up on the dingy couch, rubbing my eyes and shaking my head back and forth. I noticed Brandon still asleep in the chair, angled at the most uncomfortable position possible.