Enigma

Chapter Four

this chapter is longer than i thought it was going to be oopsies

"Why don't you come home with me?"

Bailey finished off his manhattan before turning to Monte. They had been talking all night, except for when Bailey's song came on and the boy demanded they dance in the center of the crowd. And then, magically, the next four—five? eight? eleven?—songs were Bailey's song, so they stayed jumping and swaying to different beats until sweat soaked through all of their clothes.

Thank God for mesh.

"You want my number and sex in the same night?" Bailey leaned forward, as if to whisper. He didn't though, because the music was louder than his outfit. "Getting a bit greedy, are we, Mr. Monte?"

Monte smirked a bit, and got close enough to Bailey's ear that he could whisper. "I didn't say anything about sex. That was all you."

Bailey's sober mind was very glad that he wasn't sober at that moment. He leaned back in the chair and pursed his lips, letting his eyes roam the other man. "Well, I was quite disappointed last night."

"Last night?" He frowned.

"Yes, college boys are too horny for their own good." His sober brain was very, very glad. "You'd think they'd want it to last long since they like it so much, huh?" Bailey turned toward the bar and let his arms slide against it until they were pointed straight toward the liquor against the back wall and his chin was against the smooth marble.

"Oh, I see. Is that why you've been here talking with me all night? Do I not look like some hot college guy?"

Bailey hummed and rocked his head before rolling it to smoosh his cheek against the bar and stare up at Monte. "I wouldn't say it's the reason. And you may not be in college, but you could totally pass for a hot professor." He left out a reminder of why he gave Monte his number, hoping the man would replace memories of his puke with dancing or talking or literally anything else.

"Could I now?" Monte noticed the slur in Bailey's speech was worse than before and waved Nick over.

"Yeah... You'd probably teach, like, maths, oh-or physics, or bio. One of those starter classes everyone dreads, but they'd all take your lessons just to whisper and sneak pictures." Bailey heard as Monte told the bartender he was cut off, and he thought he demanded him to stop so he could have another drink but maybe that was in his head.

Monte turned back to the boy. "Do you know where your friend is?"

"No. With some hot guy. He had a red bracelet on 'cause, 'cause they matched." Bailey was pretty much dead weight as Monte tugged him up to his feet.

"Let's check over in the lounge area." Bailey was being such a clutz, Monte considered picking him up. But last time he was this drunk he got puked on, so maybe it was better not to shake the can. He hadn't forgotten.

"Isn't that him?" Monte pointed when he noticed Bailey wasn't really looking anywhere.

"Oh, hey, I know him! It's Foster!" Maybe his sober brain wasn't actually aware of what was going on. Because there was no help from it at this point. "Foster is here! Can you believe it?"

Monte started to wonder if Bailey was a lightweight or if he had spent more than he thought he did that night. How often did he drink this much? Maybe he should limit the amount of manhattans he could have in an hour. "Yeah, I believe it. Let's go see what he's up to."

And then, because all of Monte's experiences with these boys seemed to be less than subpar, they discovered one of the worst possible scenarios.

"Bailey! Oh my God, I haven't seen you in forever!"