500 Days (43 page)

“
Look, it’s gonna seem
suspicious if we’re all just sitting here watching everyone. We
need to act as if we’re here for enjoyment.”

“
You two seem to be
enjoying it a little
too
much.” It was almost closing time. I could tell
Colton was getting restless so I told him to head home and Greyson
and I would catch a cab. Seeing there were no chances of running
into Reece, he agreed and left.

“
Where’d Colton go?”
Greyson asked, handing me another beer.

“
Home.”

“
So he could cry in
private,” he laughed.

“
Give him a break, would
ya?” I growled.

“
Me? You bust on him more
than I do.”

I punched him in the shoulder. “Because I’m
allowed to.”

“
Dick,” Greyson mumbled
under his breath, making me smile.

We called it a night just
after two. On our way out we ran into Johnny. “Cas, how’s it
hanging?” I greeted him with a handshake and introduced him to
Greyson. “We were just heading to Glamour, you in?” Glamour was the
only after-hours strip joint in town. Greyson’s over eager smile
said he was in. I wasn’t exactly in the mood but after a long night
of nothing, I decided,
fuck
it
, and tagged
along.

After an hour of fake titties and sparkly
crotches being thrust in my face, I was ready for bed. I tried to
sneak out, but Johnny stopped me. He shoved me into a private room.
“Dude, I’m good,” I said trying to leave.

“
This one is on me,” he
said, closing the door behind him. I grunted and had a seat on the
couch. The last thing I wanted was a
‘private’
dance from some stripper.
The door clicked open and in walked a voluptuous brunette, wearing
a tight red leather outfit.

“
My name is Alexia, but
you can call me Alex,” she said, walking over to the
stereo.

Just
-
fucking
-
great
.

I felt like the universe was playing some
cosmic joke on me. The music began and stripper Alex started to
dance. I watched with heavy hooded eyes. She was sexy and any other
time I would be all about it, but my heart belonged to someone
else. I tried to let her distract me. She straddled my lap and
rubbed herself up and down my thighs, grinding. I closed my eyes
and tried to relax. I felt warm hands run down my arms and then my
hands were placed on her plastic breasts. “It’s okay to touch,” she
whispered in my ear. “I know you want to.”

I did, but not her. I let my hands fall by
my side. She took the hint and finished the dance. When it was
over, I threw a hundred at her and mumbled thanks. Then I grabbed
Greyson and the first cab I saw. I needed to get the skank off of
me. I felt used, dirty, and defeated. I hopped in the shower to try
and scrub off all the filth. I had to use the communal bathroom
because in one of my drunken rages I broke my shower and had yet to
get it fixed.

Images of the dancer
popped into my head, but it wasn’t Stripper Alex. It was
my
Alex. We were back in
that private room and she was wearing the same dark red lingerie
the stripper was. Alex straddled me with a seductive smile. This
time when she asked me to touch her I didn’t hesitate. I traced my
finger along the ruffled edge of her bra. I could feel her shiver
beneath me. My other hand guided over her hip and around to her
backside, tugging her closer to me. She moaned into my ear as I ran
my hands up her back and into her hair.

“
Alex, kiss me.” She
pulled back just enough so our lips could meet.

A loud banging bumped me out of the fantasy.
My hand jerked, yanking a little too hard on my fully erect dick.
“Hurry up in there. I got to take a shit!” Greyson yelled.

“
What the hell are you two
girls arguing about?” Colton mumbled.

“
Casper is jerking off in
the shower. The stripper must have gotten him up but not off,”
Greyson chuckled. Erection now gone, I turned off the
shower.

“
You guys went to a strip
club?” Colton said a little hurt to be left out.

“
Yeah, with Cas’s friend
Johnny.”

Fucking Greyson.
I could just see the expression on Colton’s face.
I wrapped the only dry towel left around my waist and stepped out
of the bathroom. “You were hanging out with Johnny
again?”

“
We ran into him on our
way out and he invited us to Glamour. No harm no foul.”

Colton crossed his arms over his chest. “If
you’re not going to take this seriously then why am I even helping
you? You need to get your priorities straight Casper. If you want
to get drunk and fuck strippers then by all means, do it, but don’t
dick me over in the process.”

“
I wasn’t…look tonight was
a slip. Alex is the only one I want.”

“
Then you better get your
head back in the game. No more hanging out with Johnny until this
is over, got it?”

“
Yeah,” I
nodded.

“
Are you girls gonna kiss
and make up now?” Greyson called from the other side of the door.
Tired of his mouth, I walked to the fridge and grabbed a beer,
shaking it all the way back to the bathroom with me. Colton looked
at me confused. I kicked the door open, popping the bottle and
sprayed a surprised Greyson with beer. “What the fuck?” he
squealed. He tried to cover his face with one hand while he covered
his tiny pecker with the other. “You’re such a jackass.”

I threw the half empty bottle at him. He
caught it and took a sip. “Christ, don’t forget to light a match
when you’re done.” I closed the door and headed to my room for the
night.

“
So you just gonna leave
me to clean up your mess?” Greyson complained.

“
Have fun,” Colton
laughed, tapping his palm on the door and retreating to his
room.

Another week had passed and we were no
closer to proving Reece was a cheater than we were before. I was
starting to lose hope, wondering if maybe I was wrong about him.
Something in my gut told me I wasn’t. The fraternity was having a
party this weekend for Halloween, but our band was playing at
Angels and Demons the same night. I had two chances to see Alex and
only one to catch Reece. Something told me he wasn’t stupid enough
to try something at her work or the house, but I was hoping.

Halloween used to be my
favorite time of year with all the girls scantily dressed. I wasn’t
into the occasion this year. My focus was on something
else
,
or should I
say
someone
else.
I had to do a double take when I first saw her. She wasn’t wearing
her normal devil uniform. No. Tonight she was dressed as an angel.
My breath caught in my throat as I watched her work the room. She
was wearing a short strapless dress that hit mid-thigh, tiny shorts
underneath, white knee high boots, and chin length wig with mask.
She was glowing head to toe in all that white. Her makeup was light
pinks instead of her normal black, making her eyes pop. She was the
most beautiful thing in the room. She spotted me across the floor
and narrowed her eyes at me.

Oddly, I took the glare as a good sign. She
wasn’t talking to me, but at least she wasn’t yelling. I so badly
wanted to take her in my arms and whisk her away from all the
prying eyes. Instead I hid in the back with rest of the band. My
heart was racing. I had this feeling that something bad was going
to go down tonight. I started my normal ritual of getting ready
before a performance. We still had an hour before we went on, but I
was getting antsy. My pits were sweating so badly I was half
tempted to hop in the shower again. I took off my shirt and stuffed
two napkins with ice and stuck them under my arm pits.

“
Dude, what the fuck are
you doing?” Greyson asked, giving me a grossed out look.

“
I’m hot and I can’t stop
sweating.”

“
You’re not sick are you?”
He started to back away from me.

“
No…I’m just,
nervous.”

Colton walked in with a bucket of beers and
gave me a weird look. “Why are you delivering the drinks?”

“
I intercepted Declan on
her way back.”

I sat up. “She’s talking to you?”

“
Yes and no. She agreed to
talk to me later.” He smiled, hopeful. I was happy to hear Declan
was willing to talk to him. If I wasn’t the one to put him in this
position in the first place I would have said something to
her.

I grabbed a beer from the bucket and pounded
it back. Colton and Greyson wore worried expressions. “I’m fine,” I
said.

“
This coming from the guy
with ice under his armpits.”

“
I’m fucking hot, okay.” I
snapped.

“
Sounds like it’s
someone’s time of month. If you want I can go ask one the girls if
they have any Midol or some super tampons?” Colton laughed. I threw
one of my make-shift ice packs at him. The ice flew in all
different directions all over the place. “That’s nasty dude,”
Colton laughed. I took the remaining ice pack and put it on the
back of my neck.

Declan came into the room then and inspected
the floor and looked at me. “You’re cleaning that up and I’m not
even going to ask why you’re shirtless.” She turned her attention
to Colton before I could rebuke. “Jaxson and Jacob are here and
they wanted to know if it was cool if they hung out back here with
you guys before you went on.”

Colton shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I don’t
care.”

“
Alright, I’ll let them
know.”

“
We’re still on for later,
right?”

“
Yeah,” Declan said,
giving him a sweet smile. “Are you going to the party later?”
Colton nodded like a love sick dog. “Maybe we could go together and
talk?”

“
Yes, I’d really like
that.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and was out the door.
I didn’t know what happened, but it looked like these two were
going to be okay. I cooled down enough to put my shirt back on but
not before I made sure I applied some fresh deodorant. I fixed my
Mohawk in the mirror and then sat down and helped myself to another
beer just as Jaxson and Jacob walked in.

“
What’s up boys?” They
both walked straight for me and stopped just a foot away, arms
crossed. The serious look on their faces had me worried Alex sent
them back here to say something to me.

“
We want in,” Jacob said.
I creased my brow, confused.

“
We know you’re trying to
prove Reece is cheating and we want to help you,” Jaxson
clarified.

“
Why would you want to
help me?”

“
Because we know
you
like
Alex.
And I rather see her with you than a douchebag like Reece. We all
know you’re a dick, but despite you being an asshole, I know for
fact you would never hurt Alex.”

“
Gee, thanks
Jax.”

“
No problem,” he smiled,
breaking his serious mode.

“
So what makes you believe
Reece is cheating on her?”

Jacob took a step forward.
“He’s been getting sloppy. I had my suspicions about him from the
beginning, but you know how Alex is. I couldn’t just blurt it out
to her without proof.” Colton gave me that
‘I told you so’
look. I ignored him
and sat back.

“
So you’ve actually seen
him cheat?”

Jacob looked at Jaxson. “Not exactly. I was
drunk. So it’s all a little fuzzy.”

“
What my idiot brother is
trying to say is Reece is a lot more flirtatious with girls when
Alex isn’t around.”

“
And a lot more hands on.
Cheating or not I don’t like the guy,” Jacob declared.

“
Why don’t you just tell
Alex you don’t like him and he’s bad news,” I suggested.

“
Alex would never listen
to us. She would tell us to fuck off and then kick us in the
shins,” Jaxson laughed, grabbing a beer.

“
You two have a plan?” I
asked.

“
We were hoping you
did.”

I rubbed the back of my neck feeling a
headache come on. Having two out of Alex’s four brother’s on my
team definitely helped. If we actually did find proof, her
brother’s would be the better choice to deliver the news and soften
the blow. I caught them up on everything so far, which was
basically nothing. Although with Jaxson and Jacob on board we would
know more about Reece’s whereabouts - when he was and wasn’t with
Alex.

“
Alex told us earlier she
would be at the party tonight with Reece.”

“
Is he coming to the
club?” I asked.

“
I don’t know,” Jacob
said.

We all sat around trying
to come up with an inconspicuous way of catching Reece without Alex
finding out. We knew he wouldn’t try anything with Alex
around
,
so
tonight we decided to just do recon. Find out who he hangs with and
get as much info as we could without raising suspicion. Our
planning and scheming was cut short. The guys and I had to be on
stage in five minutes. I told Jacob and Jaxson they were welcome to
hang in the back if they wanted, but Jaxson told me he was going to
take advantage of his lil’ bro being the designated
driver.