Without a Warning- l.h

Body Shot

After work, I grabbed two bottles of beer and went to Rett's. We've both been busy with school for the past week to hang out. Sometimes, it was nice to have Rett around since he understood the stress of balancing school and extra curriculars. I was pretty serious about MUN and university newspaper like he was about ice hockey. Kelsey also had a busy life but she never got the point of university. University for her was like a made up place outside of real life and extra curriculars were just like going to the gym once a week.

"I see you're not with pretty boy today." said Rett while taking a sip from his beer.

I shrugged in response. I knew exactly who he was talking about. Rett and I had a weird understanding about many things.

"We're not always together." I said

"He's a good guy. A bit emotional, don't you think?" he said with a smile on his face.

I laughed. Rett never talked badly about anyone. If he didn't like someone, he just wouldn't talk about them so I knew he didn't mean anything bad by what he said about Luke.

"Yeah, he's different." I managed to say.

At that moment, I received a text from both Kelsey and Ashton saying I should come to the bar they were at and Take Rett with me. I didn't even know how Ashton found my number.

Rett shrugged and agreed to go so we took a bus together. The bar was crowded, full of important looking people that I didn't recognise. I kept looking around when my eyes landed on Kelsey.

"Where have you been? You almost missed Luke's surprise party." she said.

My eyes widened.

"It's Luke's birthday today?"

"Yeah. For some reason he didn't wanna celebrate it but Ashton pulled together a last minute party here." Kelsey went back to texting.

As I walked to the bar, I saw two other guys with Luke and Ashton and immediately knew they were the rest of the band. I recognised them as Michael and Calum from their Instagram. I would be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated at all. The only one that I knew other than Luke was Ashton and I've only ever talked to him once when I didn't know who he was.

Luke's eyes met mine and a smile spread to his face. He seemed a little more relaxed than usual and by the glasses in front of them, I guessed they had been drinking.

"There you are." said Luke "I was getting tired of waiting."

"I didn't even know it was your birthday" I said as a defense.

He put his hand on his chest and closed his eyes.

"That hurts."

"It's good to see you" Ashton hugged me, seemingly less drunk than Luke.

"We got Luke a bit drunk" he whispered, amusement evident in his voice.

I laughed but raised an eyebrow.

"Don't  worry, he's very sweet when he's drunk." he assured me.

"Stop whispering to Ashton, it's not even his birthday today." Luke said.

"Luke, why don't you try to behave while I introduce myself to your friends."

I turned to Calum and Michael.

"Hi, you must be wondering how ı know Luke and Ashton." I tried to explain.

"Oh we know who you are" Michael smiled in a mysterious way. "I'm Michael by the way."

"Calum." he offered his hand for me to shake.

"Do you prefer Francesca or Franky?"

"Franky's fine. Nice to finally meet you." I said, a bit surprised that they knew my name.

A girl with short red hair came and grabbed Luke away suddenly.

"That happens a lot" said Calum.

"I bet" I laughed and ordered a drink.

While Luke was away, Ashton told Michael and Calum that I was a bartender and Michael thought of a game on the spot. I was supposed to say the ingredients of all the cocktails on the menu which would be confirmed by the bartender. If I got it right, they would drink, if I couldn't, they would. The only problem was that this bar was bigger than the one I worked at, therefore had more cocktails on the menu than I knew how to make. 

I knew some of them which was enough to get them drunk while I stayed sober-ish but as I guessed a couple of them wrong, I started to forget the rest.

After getting it wrong for the fourth time, I looked at the little shot glass, dreading the taste of it in my mouth. Suddenly Luke grabbed the glass and was about to drink it when Calum stopped him.

"You're gonna ruin the game! Franky has been kicking our asses, it's about time she drinks."

"I can drink this one instead of Franky, it's no problem."

He must've understood I didn't want to drink.

"If she's not gonna drink it, she should do something else." Ashton agreed with Calum.

Everyone thought about it for a while.

"How about Luke drinks it but as a body shot off of Franky?" said Calum.

I imagined the scene of Luke licking salt off of my belly button and cringed. I saw a lot of people doing it in college and at the pub and never once thought of doing it myself.

"I don't want Luke licking salt off of my belly button" I said out loud, which made them laugh.

"Not that kind." Michael started to demonstrate the steps professionally. "You put salt on your neck, hold the shot and put the lime in your mouth. He's supposed to lick the salt, drink the shot and then grab the lime from you."

I thought about it, checking if Luke was up for that. He seemed a bit too drunk to say otherwise but the way he stared at me expectingly made me think he was fine with it.

I nodded, doing what Michael said. When Luke started at me, I became more aware of everything. The loud music was playing through the speakers, urging us to play along with whatever the night brought to us. Unfortunately, the night happened to bring Luke closer to me, his eyes not leaving mine when he slowly approached me, closing his eyes only when he was close enough that I could feel his breath on my neck. It felt like everything was in slow motion and time wouldn't go back to his normal pace. My breath hitched in my throat and I felt shivers going down my body when I felt his tongue come in contact with my neck, going further than the line of salt I drew on my neck.

It was as if he was taking his time, being slow on purpose. I tried to be careful not to drop the shot glass when he took in a short breath near my ear. After he was done, he looked at me as if he was trying to figure out something right before he drank the shot. People around us cheered for him. He put his hands on my cheeks, getting ready to grab the lime in my mouth. For some reason, the way he did it felt very intimate like there should've only been us. Our lips didn't come in contact but we were so close that our noses were touching. For some reason, it reminded me of the first time I saw Luke and I started laughing, him doing the same, probably thinking of the same thing.

"Damn Luke," said Calum "I thought for a second you were gonna kiss her."

I started blushing and coughing.

"I need to get laid." said Ashton before taking a shot and leaving.

"We made Franky uncomfortable" laughed Michael and hugged me like he was trying to soothe me "You must be the only girl feeling uncomfortable about kissing Luke."

Luke looked a bit guilty and I wanted to say it wasn't like he thought it was, but I didn't know what I'd mean by that.

"Come on," Luke offered me his hand "I'll take you somewhere else to get air."

I nodded, wanting to get out of the over crowded bar already.