Bad Boy by Night

♱ Chapter 08 ♱

𝓟𝓸𝓻𝓽𝓮𝓻
𝟶𝟾: 𝙴𝚡𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙱𝚊𝚛𝚎

Brody warned, "Be careful with Verity tonight."

Those were his final words before we slipped through into Asher's house. Her house was situated near mine, only a few streets down so her layout resembled mine heavily. Ignoring the feeling that her house was so close to me and yet I had been banished almost three weeks ago, I ignored how strikingly similar the décor also was. Residing in uptown Grovesville meant you had to have the best, but then everyone therefore had a much of a muchness. Where was the individuality?

And I knew what Brody was referring to. Verity had the tendency to become quite a messy drunk and her moods fluctuated heftily. When she drinks, you never knew whether she was going to be overwhelmed with emotion and sob for an eternity or she'd be giddy, bordering on irritating... or whether she'd be flirtatious and sexual.

One guess how that situation ceaselessly ended.

Post Malone's "Better Now" was blasting through the house with the speakers that I inevitably knew Charlie had assisted in strategically placing around the ginormous lounge. Heeding that he was our computer-savvy guy, he seemed to have expertise in other associated realms. He was a massive audiophile. He had a desktop computer in his room as well as a laptop, and both were connected to various soundbars and subwoofers. He'd tested out where to place each speaker in his bedroom before opting for the optimum locations. That was at his home and dorm at college.

Asher's house was styled according to her mom's taste which was utterly modern with obscure paintings from artists I had never fucking heard of before. They had all the latest technology and the walls were bare of family photos and a growing Asher as she was an only child. Her parents were still together, but from what I'd heard through Verity, they were hanging by a thread. Her dad was a renown surgeon and her mom was an interior decorator... hence the lavish and immaculate house.

Verity virtually pounced on me immediately before I had time to even grab a drink. "Hey, I was wondering when you'd all turn up," she said. She didn't seem at all drunk yet, but the night was only beginning.

After the past several days from hell with NAMELESS targeting me more and implicating Adelaide in the chaos, I just wanted one night to let loose. Adelaide was beginning to irritate me as well. I knew it was under NAMELESS's instruction to turn up at District Row where I was drag racing, but I needed to be there alone. I didn't want someone else with me, as selfish as that made me. Because at the end of the day, I was a selfish bastard through and through.

Verity was dressed to the nines with a slinky short dress that was blanketed in sparkles. Asher dimmed the lights so the remaining light reflected off her dress. She had ridiculously high heels to match and her eyes were dark, her lips plump and coloured to match the rest of her outfit. She fell into phases where she'd wear dark lipstick. Sometimes it was sexy, like right now, but other times I didn't want that image imprinted in my mind.

"You want a drink?" I asked as Verity's gaze swept my body as I was clad in skinny jeans, a tight graphic t-shirt and my black baseball cap with the small rose embroidered into it.

Brody was already chatting to Asher behind Verity, and Charlie subtly turned down the music as the song blurred into "God's Plan" by Drake. During pre-drinks—which I knew Verity and Asher did regularly—Asher would usually get a little too excited and bump the volume up too much to be able to engage in normal conversations with each other.

Despite attending large house parties, I enjoyed this small get-together with just our group of friends because it was more intimate and we could share more laughs and be ourselves. If we were surrounded by a sea of people, we'd be sectioned to a corner and it would be crowded and chaotic, but there were seven of us. We had the entire house to ourselves and we could relax without worrying if someone was listening into our private conversations. Not to mention the fact that Asher and Verity immensely enjoyed the attention they received from us five guys as they never failed to render us somewhat speechless by their sexiness. Although Asher and Brody gravitated together, and Verity and I were in a similar situation.