and Trink start arguing the second I walk away and I cringe. I really don't want to be here, I don't want to start shit, I just want to go pass out for the night.
Hell, I was planning on getting a hotel room for the night and getting a good night's sleep in for the first time in weeks and instead I'm wasting my time here, drinking terrible beer and trying to avoid stray hands.
I find Speck talking to Rue over by the door to the clubhouse, another biker I don't recognize standing there with them. I don't want to interrupt them but they all fall silent the second I walk over.
I feel like a fucking pariah.
"Is there an amount of time I need to be here for? I'm pretty tired, I want to head out," I mumble and Speck pushes off of the wall towards me.
"Come with me, I'll get you something to eat first."
There's a laugh and joking around me, some guy talking about exactly what it is I'll be eating, but I nod and follow him into the clubhouse. I don't know why, but I do trust him. I trust him enough to follow him into the country’s most notorious MC clubhouse to find food.
"You've had too much to drive home without eating first," Speck mumbles and I smile.
“I’ve had two beers, settle down. I'm just... not one for parties."
He nods and starts piling up a burger. "Are you one of those fucking weird chicks who don't eat anything but lettuce?"
I'll eat fucking anything. Right here and now for free, I'd eat anchovies on pizza if that's what is on offer. "Gimme the lot. I like my burgers stacked."
He throws his head back with a laugh and opens up the fridge. "Well, let's fucking find the lot then. I like a woman with an appetite."
I laugh at him when he wiggles his eyebrows at me because it’s clear he’s not actually flirting, he just wants me laughing and enjoying this shit-show a little more.
I perch on the countertop and talk shit with him, just random bits of information that mean nothing but also are the foundations of a friendship. He hates tomatoes. Enough that when I ask for extra he pretends to gag which only makes me laugh harder. I tell him I hate beer that much too and he refuses to believe me.
"You drink it too smooth to hate it."
I scoff. "It's free alcohol, you learn to just swallow."
He cracks up and flips the hamburger patty onto the pile of salad and bread he's constructed, smothering the whole thing with sauce and then slides the plate over to me.
“Aw man, the dirty shit I could say to that… you’re lucky you’re off limits, Angel. You can sleep here if you want, you know. There's plenty of beds here and I'm the only one in the bunk room. You could even have the top bunk, I'll go to the bottom."
It doesn't sound like an invitation to fuck him but I can't risk sleeping on a bed around him anyway. My demons might come out to play and then he'll find out just how fucked up I really am. "It's fine, I didn't exactly pack spare clothes. Besides, aren't you trying to fuck Mel? Can't do that if I'm around cramping your style."
He smirks at me as I take a bite."I'll just fuck her behind the bar, you wouldn't even know it was going down."
I pull a face and chew, swallowing before saying, "Remind me not to drink here again. I do not want your fucking sweaty-balls-beer."
He roars with laughter again, his head thrown back as he chews on his own burger. The crash of the kitchen door slamming on the wall scares the ever-loving shit out of me.
Tomi looks fucking enraged in the doorway, huffing and fucking puffing like he just ran here or something and Speck's face isn't great.
"What the fuck are the two of you doing in here?" he snarls, and I shrink back onto the kitchen counter like I can scoot away from his anger, far enough that he can't reach me.
He glances over to me and then down at the burger. I push it away from myself, like I've been caught stealing it or whatever. "I'll leave. I should go now anyway."
I move to jump down but he steps towards me as if to stop me and I shrink back again.
"Speck, get the fuck out," he says, his voice low and dangerous.