Bed Sheets II

1. Spilt Wine

"And the award for the best selling author of the year goes to...Draven H Malcom!"

His hair was slicked backwards, he placed his fingers inside the front pockets of his dress pants, his icy blue gaze remained cold and unbothered as he stood from his seat and stepped onto the stage.

Draven shook hands with the presenter of his award, Miller Hearts, owner of the publishing company Hearts Ends Co. He then grabbed his golden award, and was motioned towards the microphone.

He cleared his throat, the microphone awkwardly squeaking a bit before he finally raised his eyes and stared at the audience for a few seconds.

"Thank you for awarding me with this," he sounded monotone, "I wouldn't have been able to do this without all of you, including my loyal editors that have been with me for years. Yup, I guess that's about it."

As he descended the stage, the audience remained quiet with a few embarrassing applauds, and when Draven reached his seat, his manager, Hector Hills, leaned towards him and hissed, "And that's why nobody fucking likes you; you couldn't give a heartwarming speech. You should receive the shortest and fakest speech award."

"I only came for the booze anyway, so why should I care?"

"You couldn't even thank me?"

"You got here only a year ago," Draven chuckled condescendingly, "you need to earn your thanks."

When a whiff of Draven's breath struck Hector's nose, his eyes immediately darkened angrily, "You've been drinking already."

"Indeed, excellent observation—"

"This isn't funny Draven. After the awards are over, we are not staying. This is the first time we've made our physical presence at an award show, we are not embarrassing ourselves by your—"

"Ah," Draven groaned, squeezing his ear on the side Hector sat, "you're literally spitting in my ear. You need to move back a bit."

Hector inhaled a sharp breath before aggressively folding his arms and swiftly turning his head the other way. Draven won a few more awards, and he soon simply stood and waved his hand, motioning for Hector to accept them.

All Draven was focused on was the after party.

The ample amount of booze, the vivid atmosphere, the coloured lights flashing across the room, the loud energetic music, and best of all, although already mentioned, the alcohol. All his days were spent sitting at his desk writing and typing, firing whichever editor he started disliking, and he found no amusement in that. He had been suffering of writer's block these last couple days, and he knew a good old night of fun would cure him.

When he arrived to the venue where the after party began, he was immediately approached by a few other authors he knew in the industry. Allen McVale, Augry Hample, Jeremy Fly; they were well-known authors and had won awards tonight as well. However, Draven had not come for them, and after greeting them politely, he spun around and headed straight for the counter where the bartender stood

The music was playing, the lights were dimmed, and all he wanted was to let himself be freed from all the stressors around him. The moment he was about to reach the counter, he was interrupted by someone stepping in front of him.

"I thought you said no booze for tonight?" Miranda scolded, placing her palms on her hips with a disappointed look. Miranda had changed; she had let her hair grow to her lower back, and had gotten thinner over the five years ever since Draven's relationship with Eric.

She had been promoted to Senior Editor, coordinating the other editors on their duties, along with hiring new ones when Draven immaturely fired them. Their relationship had changed drastically; although Draven did not always demonstrate the respect she deserved, his trust in her was always recognizable.

That was why he sighed, unable to withstand her disappointed look, "Not even one?"

"I can smell the alcohol from you," she folded her arms. "You said since this was the first time you actually showed up to awards, that you weren't going to drink—"

"Change of plans, I'm the boss anyways so what does it matter." When Miranda only narrowed her eyes even more, curling her matte red lips, Draven rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, you win. Whatever, you're lucky I don't fire you."

"I heard you won a lot of awards," a voice said from behind Draven, and when he turned around, he groaned under his breath. Jason raised an eyebrow comically, "Not happy to see me?"

"I thought he would be," Rebecca mumbled from behind Jason, both approaching Draven who shook his head, noticeably annoyed by their presence. Both of them had also been promoted to Senior Editors, and Draven, even though he failed to show, needed them more than he made it seem.

"I see you everyday at work," Draven muttered, leaning towards them, "you had to show up at the after party too?"

"You're acting like you were the only one that was invited," Miranda growled.

"Right, always grumpy," Rebecca chuckled. That was their relationships; teasing Draven and making certain he was not out-of-line, and vice versa. They had formed a bond over the last five years, and regardless of the new additions to the team, those four had each other's backs.

"I'm ready to drink!" Jason cheered.

That caused Draven to pout, "How come he can drink and I can't?"

"You're damn near already drunk," Rebecca said.

"And he never said he wouldn't," Miranda added.

"And because we're leaving." Hector's authoritative tone found all their ears, and all of them, except Draven, held back their annoyed expressions, forcing a smile.

Ever since Draven had let his boundaries be breached from his relationship with Eric, as stated from the Chancellor of Waterfalls Publishing Co., Draven was forced to hire a manager from preventing such incident to reoccur again. Stricter rules had been emplaced, such as dating another colleague was forbidden.

Unfortunately, none of them favour Hector. They found him a bit too bossy, never relaxed even for a second and everything needed to be following the rules. If not, he never failed to snitch to the Chancellor, and had once gotten Draven suspended for offering one of the editors a water bottle since she seemed to be hyperventilating.

They hated him.

"You're drunk already, it's not a good idea to stay here."

Draven tightened his lip into a line before turning back to his editors, "Get me away from him?"

"Got it," Miranda agreed, and as Draven slipped through them and turned another way, Rebecca, Jason and Miranda all stood in front of Hector to stop him from following Draven.

However, before Draven could even get away, he was not looking ahead and bumped into a random person from the venue, and a drink was spilt on his navy suit. They was a dark patch on the fabric, and realizing that he would have to walk around the venue like that, made him angry.

"I am so sorry," the man said, instinctively reaching for Draven's suit with a napkin. "I didn't see you come this way, I wasn't looking, I'm so sorry. That suit looks really expensive too, I can buy you a new one? Just give me your size and phone number, I'll get one the exact same kind."

As he wiped the dark patch on the suit, Draven had not moved a single inch, paralyzed as he stared at the man rambling without meeting his gaze. However, once the man finally glanced upwards and their eyes met, he instinctively stepped backwards, his eyes widening.

"Holy shit..." his breath was shaky, "Draven."

Draven could feel his heart beat in his eardrums, and he whispered, "Eric."