Between Us

Chapter 29

I was wrong. Why did I always have to be wrong?

This club was as horrendous as the first. It was just as crowded and despite it only being around seven, the place had a long queue and it was very packed. A few ways away, I could see a few people crowded around, I assumed, a drunk friend who was bent over, vomiting. On the opposite road, there were two cops talking to a guy.

I shuddered to think what had gone down with him.

"Hey, beautiful, want company?" A guy wearing a beanie—a very good looking guy but apparently also very sleazy—said to Paris with a smirk.

"Are you blind?" she retorted, gesturing to us behind her. "I've already got company."

I snickered to myself. Meanwhile, there were two girls behind us in line that struck up a casual conversation with Caden who looked bored out of his mind.

"So, have I seen you somewhere?" one girl asked.

"I hope not," came his response as he turned his back on her. I nearly covered my mouth in shock at the way the girl's expression fell flat.

"Excuse me?"

"You asked me a question. I answered." Caden didn't bother entertaining them any longer. I rolled my lips in to stop from laughing but also felt sort of bad for the girls who were now glaring at the back of his head.

Turning back to face the front, the beanie guy was still trying to hit on Paris. "For fucks sake," Caden growled under his breath before whistling to get his attention. "Take a hint. She's not interested," causing Paris to snicker. As we passed by him, the guy snarled at us.

"Bitches," he muttered.

"Sleaze," one of Paris' friends, whose name I didn't know, said. They giggled and headed inside. My head was throbbing even before I followed them. We headed down a set of red-carpeted stairs with small yellow lights hung from the top to the bottom, guiding our way.

The club was less in my face than Cupid's Kisses. This place had no glow-in-the-dark lights and pink glow sticks; there were moving yellow and red patterned lighting that shone through everyone and the overhead lights nearby the long, moon-shaped, black leather couches were a warm red. They each had their own booths, with small, round tables and geometric, black and red carpets.

The only thing separating each booth was vertical bars that extended down from the roof to the back of each couch. The actual dance floor itself was lit up with the disco ball reflecting light off the red wallpaper, warm yellow strip lighting used to line the dance floor. The other sources of light were from the red wall sconces and pendant lights suspended from the ceiling, creating a grid effect.

I felt a light touch on my back. Thinking it was someone trying to grope me, I whipped around.

It was only Caden. "You're holding people up."

"Oh. Sorry."

He raised a brow. "I thought you put apologizing too much behind you."

"I don't remember agreeing to that."

"Maybe not but I think that was a pretty obvious part of being confident."

True. I could use that in my day-to-day life. Will I ever? Probably not. Unnecessary apologies or not, at least I got a friendship out of it, though. Accidentally I caught Caden staring at me. He had a twinkle in his eyes that told me he knew exactly what I was thinking.

A blush stained my cheeks and my ears and I whipped around to follow Paris toward the dance floor. My palms dampened as I got deeper into the crowd. How were we supposed to dance like this?