Always There

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve:

Lexi's POV

As Bryce hauls an intoxicated Scarlett down the hallway, I continue to bat Anders' hands away he reaches out to try and touch me.

I had assumed that it would take more drinks than I had seen them consume to actually get them this drunk, since I had seen adults consume around the same amount of glasses of alcohol in the past at my parents' Christmas parties. When I brought my concerns up with Bryce, he seemed to be trying extremely hard to not laugh as he explained to me that the percentage of alcohol in white wine is much lower than what Scarlett and Anders had been drinking.

We didn't end up staying out too late. I had a nice time when Bryce and I began dancing together, but I'm still not a big fan of that sort of club environment and so Bryce was more than willing to head home pretty early on in the night.

"You're so pretty, Lexi. What would it take for you to leave Bradshaw for me?" Anders asks, slumping against me as we walk.

I sigh, grabbing his arm as I drag him along to where Scarlett is now leaning against the wall, right beside the door to Bryce's apartment.

"I'm not going to leave Bryce, Anders. Nice try, though," I tell him, which elicits a whine in response.

Bryce rolls his eyes at Anders' behaviour, and I watch as he digs around in his pocket to presumably retrieve his keys.

I release Anders' arm and he immediately stumbles towards Scarlett. She reaches up for his face, and they smile at each other for a minute before he bends down, pressing his lips to hers.

Bryce groans, shoving open the door of his apartment. I take a few steps towards him until I'm close enough to take his hand, but just before we step inside, Bryce has to turn back to Scarlett and Anders to hiss, "Get inside. I don't want to get complaints from my rich ass neighbours about you sex addicts."

We then watch as Anders picks Scarlett up, not removing his lips from hers. He carries her into the apartment, stalking right past Bryce and I.

"Horny motherfuckers," Bryce mumbles, and I smile up at him as I give his hand a tug, gesturing for him to follow me inside as well.

We step into the apartment, locking the door behind us. Bryce has had my phone in his pocket all night and so he hands it to me, tossing his keys into the dish on top of the cabinet in the foyer.

Scarlett and Anders have already made their way into the bedroom, and since they seemed to make the bold decision to leave the bedroom door wide open, Bryce has to call out, "Jesus Christ! Shut the fucking door, Anders!"

Anders had been standing over Scarlett, who is seated at the edge of the bed, but he moves away from her, heading across the room to raise his middle finger to Bryce from the doorway.

Bryce innocently waves at him, and Anders narrows his eyes as he slams the door shut.

"How did they get so drunk so fast? I know that it took even less time for me to get drunk when I drank that one time, but shouldn't they have built up a tolerance?" I ask Bryce, who makes his way across the apartment and towards the kitchen.

He shrugs at me, and I watch as he grabs the kettle from the stove, filling it up with water from the tap before turning on a burner and setting the kettle down on top.

"Tea? I figure that they're going to get loud pretty soon, and so I think that we should probably try and get our asses as far away from them as possible as soon as we can," Bryce asks me, and I give him a small nod as I take a seat down on one of the stools at the island.