Insatiable (UNDERGOING REWRITES)

Chapter 23 : Ezra Sato

I'm gone for no more than a minute and Julian's just disappeared. But when I noticed Nolan had gone as well, I knew I definitely didn't want to go after them. Now I was left alone, relatively speaking, on the edge of the dance floor surrounding by strangers all pretending to be other strangers.

I tugged uselessly at the blazer I wore, or rather the blazer Julian forced me into. It was a school night, and I was at a club dressed like a gothic vampire and not even enjoying myself.

I pushed my way through the crowd and to the bar, spotting Drake laughing at something one of his fellow bartenders said. When he spotted me leaning against the bar, a huge smile spread across his face. He scurried around the bar and immediately gave me a hug. He squeezed me to him. He was only a few inches shorter than me, but a little pudgier, yet he still seemed so small. Could be that people loved to compare me to the trunk of a tree with how tall and muscular I was. It just annoyed me.

"Ez! I didn't know you were coming tonight," Drake exclaimed, pulling away from me.

"It was kind of last minute. Julian dragged me out after forcing me into this silly costume." I gestured down at myself, trying to close the blazer more than the one button allowed for.

Drake pulled my hands away from my chest and gave me a slow once over. I tried shifting away from him, but Drake just clasped tighter to my wrists. "Stop that. You look hot and sexy as hell. I can see about half a dozen people already eyeing you like some Thanksgiving feast. Why not go fetch one of those oglers. Or two or three. Like the old days?"

I rolled my eyes at Drake, but pulled away from him, folding my arms across my chest. "That time of my life is long gone."

Drake made a face and a sound that definitely said he didn't believe anything I said. But I waved the conversation off before he could continue to try to persuade me otherwise.

"Is Josh here tonight?" I asked, but before Drake could reply his whole face lit up, eyes trained on something behind me. When I turned, I found Joshua coming towards us, their son Blaine in his arms. They were both even dressed up: Joshua wore a tattered and red soaked white t-shirt with swim trunks while Blaine wore a little shark onesie.

Drake took two large bounding jumps towards his boyfriend and son, wrapping them both up in his arms and planting kisses on both of their cheeks. And now the costumes made sense. Drake wore a bright red lifeguard sweatshirt and white shorts. His hair was even slicked back with a wet look to it. They looked like the perfect little family everyone would dream to have.

Josh passed Blaine along to Drake who cooed and smooched at Blaine who kept wrinkling his little nose and letting out a few gurgles. Josh turned to me, wrapping me up in a big bear hug.

"It's nice to see you brother," Josh said, pulling back with a grin.

"You too, brother. How was Chicago? Didn't you say you were going there recently?"

Josh nodded, squeezing my bicep once before pulling away and crossing his arms. "Yeah Blaine and I went a few weeks ago. You remember my best friend from college, Hunter Morgan."

"Isn't he that big shot CEO? Like total cocky, snotty stuck-up CEO?"

Josh snorted and gave a short a nod. "Yeah, sounds like him."

"I see him all over the news."

"Well, he just bought out his third company in the last seven months. You'll probably be seeing a lot more of him."

"Oh, lovely. He's not some tyrant planning to take over the world, is he?"

Joshua quickly shook his head with a chuckle. "No, no, Hunter's not like that. That's just a front he puts up for the rest of the world."