Smoke & Mirrors • Zarry

31. Revolver

The thing about Cara was that she was like a walking travel guide. She had spent so much free time just aimlessly wandering around, traveling to all sorts of places, different countries and cities all over the globe throughout her late teens and 20's, that she knew some of the best places to visit, some of the hot spots, the dive bars and the coolest clubs, so prior to Zayn's Los Angeles move he had asked her advice on some of the first-rate places to go for a night out. So that Friday he ended up at a gay club in Beverly Hills called Revolver.

Zayn certainly wasn't planning on staying put in his Hollywood hills cabin on the weekend nights, alone and bored smoking joints and playing video games. He had done enough of that for years in London, frequenting the same spaces every night, the ones where he conducted business, and he decided that he wanted to indulge in the notorious nightlife scene that LA had to offer. Somewhere completely unrelated to where he sold drugs; a place just for him to hang out and meet people. So he strolled into Revolver around 11 pm, the time when most places started to pop off, wearing these pair of grey slacks, a white button down shirt and a matching grey blazer jacket with a pair of black leather, flat heel lace up boots and this long chain necklace with an evil eye pendant that he had acquired from this eclectic little jewelry shop, as well as various silver rings, one with a black stone around his middle finger.

And Zayn felt charged up as he looked at what was more like a lounge setting, like a strange combination of atmospheres that lived within The Box and The Eagle. There was a small stage before him with a dance floor in front, and various leather couches and comfortable lounge chairs strewn about with round wooden oak tables, plush booths along the walls that were dripping in crimson and gold velvet, the lights dim and giving off red and yellow hues, pop art on the walls and these cool, anomalous sculptures hanging from the ceiling.

It was pretty crowded, filled with what Zayn thought to be the more elite queer men of the city, most of them good looking, and they were just hanging around with their glasses of hard alcohol, chatting closely in each other's ears while several others were animatedly dancing to Faith by George Michael.

He went straight to the right of the club once he took a look around, moving towards the bar area and observed the bartender working tirelessly for a pretty packed row of seated men in suits with colorful tops on, while others donned leather pants and tight shirts and he just stood there, waiting behind some guy as he tried to wave a tattooed hand out to get the bartender's attention.

Zayn must have accidentally bumped into the back of the guy sitting at the stool in front of him because he turned around just then and looked up at Zayn with his piercing blue eyes, dancing around Zayn admirably in the dim light.

"Not to be super forward or anything but you're insanely hot," the guy said to him, catching Zayn off guard a little as he looked down, realizing that he was being spoken to.

"Thanks," Zayn replied simply, chuckling a bit as the guy turned back around and snapped his fingers in the air.

"Hey! Victor! Bring your fine ass over here and get this man a drink!" the guy shouted as he moved his bar stool over and motioned for Zayn to stand beside him at the bar top.

"What are you having? Let me buy it for you," he said while smiling lightly.

Zayn was usually the one who bought the drinks and hit on the people he found to be appealing enough for him, not the other way around, so he was a little taken aback by this guy's boldness. But he was pretty attractive, Zayn decided as he studied him a bit.

He had this incredible jaw and this cute, button like nose and a wide, white smile. He was pretty tan, as were a lot of people in Los Angeles, with short brown hair that was buzzed on the sides, but slicked back with mousse on top and he had this navy blue t-shirt on with a tan leather jacket and black pants, looking a bit more casual than the others surrounding him. And then in the spur of the moment Zayn decided he'd allow him to buy that drink because he had nothing to lose by saying no.