Strategically Careless

Chapter 3

Blake's POV

    "BLAKE!" Katie yells slamming the front door to the apartment. "What the hell?" she yells and I can picture her stomping her foot. I get out of bed and walk down the hall into the living room while yawning. Katie is standing by the front door with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. 

    "Hey, no need to yell I just woke up." I yawn

    "It's 6 pm." Katie points out walking up to me.

    "Yeah, and I was up for over 48 straight hours." I shrug.

    Katie crosses her arms and starts to yell. "No, you don't get to be mad right now. You chose to go out last night. And you don't come home until dawn! With bruises! And when I saw you this morning all you said is I'm going to bed. I was worried about you all day while I was at work. You could have at least texted to say your okay." 

    "It wasn't a big deal." I shrug.

    "We talked about this." Katie huffs. "You need to let me know when stuff like this happens. Not 'eventually' like you usually do. You need to tell me immediately." Katie says stomping her foot at the word immediately.

    "Ok, I'll do better. Sorry for not letting you know. I'm still getting used to the whole living with someone who cares thing." I apologize. 

    "At least you got yourself cleaned up before coming here. Otherwise, you would have scared me half to death." Katie sighs shaking her head. 

    "Yeah, Colby helped me." I nod.

    "Colby? Like Collin's roommate Colby?" Katie says looking confused.

    "Yes. I think I kind of freaked him out. I ran into him in the elevator when I got back here." I say squinting at her some trying to gauge her reaction.

    "What did you tell him?" she gasps

    "Nothing. Just that it was some stupid fuckboy." I shrug.

    "And is that true?" Katie asks worriedly.

    "Yeah. Don't worry he got it way worse than I did." I smirk

    "I always worry about you. You make dumb choices." Katie says putting her hand to her forehead and shaking her head. "I'll go up there and do damage control after I get changed," she says.

    "Thanks. I don't really want anyone knowing. I just want to move past this." I smile. There's a reason she's my best friend. She gets me.

    "Yeah, that's understandable. We good now?" She asks.

    "Yeah. Do you mind doing damage control? I don't want something I did to ruin your chances with Collin." I explain honestly. 

    "Yeah, I'm on it." Katie nods then walk past me down the hall into her bedroom. 

    "Thank you. I'm sorry again." I call out after her. I check my phone and a couple of minutes later Katie walks out of her room again in a cute, tight, backless pink bodysuit and high-waisted jeans. She dressing up for Collin.

    "Wish me luck," she says grabbing her keys and walking out of the apartment. 

    "Mmmm... I'm hungry." I say to myself looking around. 

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katie's POV

    Oh, Blake. What I am going to do with her? She was in the city all of two days before she falls into old habits. I get in the elevator and press the button to go up to Collin's apartment and knock on the door. It takes a second for Collin to open the door. Gosh, he is so cute. 

    "Hey, Katie! What's up? How was your first day at the new job?" Collin greets me shyly. 

    "Great! I really like it so far." I tell him.

    "That's great!" Collin smiles

    "Hey want to order a pizza? I starving." Colby yells from down the hall. 

    "Want to stay for pizza?" Collin asks me. 

    "Sounds great." I nod. Colling turns back down the hall.

    "Colby order 3," Collin yells.

    "You must be starving too," Colby says walking into the room.

    Colby stops walking when he sees me and his eyes go big for a second but he quickly recovers. "Oh hey Katie," he says trying to act casual.

    "Hey, Colby." I wave. He's who I'm really here to talk to. 

    "Well then, I am going to go order the pizza," Collin says digging his phone out of his pocket and walking away a few feet. 

    "You two seem to be getting serious." Colby winks with a smile. 

    "I really like him." I blush. I didn't think it was that obvious. I'm not at good at hiding my emotions as Blake is though.

    "That's good. He likes you too." Colby nods.

    "Yeah?" I ask hopefully. Colby nods. 

    "Hey, I know about what happened with Blake," I mention getting serious. 

    "Oh? I don't know what you're talking about." Colby says rubbing the back of his neck. 

    "I saw her when she got back this morning," I say crossing my arms. "She told me you helped her out. Thank you. She likes to pretend that she doesn't need help but she does." I explain. 

    "She seemed fine the entire time I was with her," Colby says looking concerned. "If it wasn't for the blood I wouldn't have known anything was wrong. She didn't tell me exactly what happened just a guy did it," he says now looking at me still looking concerned but also sad. 

    "Yeah, she doesn't really show emotion," I explain while rolling my eyes. "She bottles everything up and deals with it in her own time. And she didn't tell me exactly what happened either. She seems fine though."

    "She was cracking jokes and laughing. Is that normal?" he asks crossing his arms.

    "She is worried about you." I shrug. I know I probably sound like I don't care about her because my best friend came home with a black eye and bruises on her cheeks but it's Blake. I know her. She has her own way of dealing with things and as bad as it sounds I know this isn't the first time something like this has happened. And I also know that whoever did that got waayyy worse than she got. 

    "Worried about me?" Colby asks surprised. "She was the one bleeding." he points out.

    "Yes, she is worried she scared you. It's not every day you get in the elevator with someone bleeding." I shrug.

    "I'm fine. I can handle a little blood," he says.

    "She told me to apologize and to say thank you again," I say rubbing the back of my neck in nervousness. 

    "Honestly it's fine. She just needs to be more careful." Colby shrugs. 

    "Oh trust me, I know," I said pinching the bridge of my nose

    "I have to admit that I want to know more about her," Colby says shyly. 

    "Believe me, she is not the easiest person to know. She is a complete enigma." I say while rolling my eyes again. 

    Colby tilts his head and I see I've piqued his interest. "What do you mean?" he asks startled

    "I have known her since we were very young. Nothing about her makes sense. Her brain is just different about things. I don't know exactly how to explain it but I'll try." I say putting my hands on my hips as I talk. I don't know the best way to explain her without saying too much. "For example, she hates apples but loves applesauce. She hates when it rains but she loves to dance in it. She kind of finds a part of anything that she loves. But she can also find something to hate in everything she loves. She just has a different way of thinking about things." I say trying to figure out how to put her into words without saying too much.

    "That only makes me want to know her more," Colby says and I see him blush.

    "Ok. But don't say I didn't warn you." I sigh. "Her mind is a confusing, scary, backward place. I barely understand it sometimes and I've been trying for years. But if you ever have something personal you want to talk about she is a good person to talk to. She gives good advice and she is a vault of secrets." I say honestly. I'm just telling him all the things that I would and have said to her face. That's something I love about our friendship. We are both brutally honest with each other and neither of us gets offended by it. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blake's POV

    I walked down the street to a nearby cafe I saw online. It was nearby and has food. We don't have food in the apartment yet, not that I even cook much. Everything I know about cooking I know from Mama and Katie. My parents never taught me to cook and I still haven't figured it out much. Plus Katie and I just moved in and haven't gone to the store yet. I walk in the door and look around. It's pretty busy. But it's a cute little cafe! I get in line and start looking at their menu. What do I want to eat?

    I feel someone walk up to my right. I turn and look to see none other than the guy from the other night. Liam. He waves, "Hey your the girl I met the other night! Blake right?" 

    "Yeah. Liam right?" 

    "Yep. That's me!" he smiles then starts tapping his chin with his finger, "You impressed me the other night."

    "What? Never seen someone so bad with directions." I shrug

    "I've never seen anyone not know where they live and somehow take 6 hours to walk home. Which is 3 blocks from where we were." he laughs.

    "Hey, it was my first day in the city," I say crossing my arms. 

    Liam nods, "I figured you were new here."

    "Did the accent give it away?" I ask sarcastically.

    "No I figured it out on hour 3 of our walk." he laughs.

    "Oh hahaha." I laugh too.

    "But no that's not what impressed me," he says suddenly being serious. "I've never seen anyone who could keep up with me drinking. Even my guys can't." Liam shrugs.

    "Well, I had a lot of practice." I shrug

    "So someone went a little wild in college," Liam asks wiggling his eyebrows flirting with me.

    "And a little before college." I nod.

    "Oh, a bad girl. I like that!" Liam winks

    "Not a bad girl. Just adventurous." I deny.

    "I like the sound of that." Liam flirts while winking. His phone rings from his pocket causing him to be serious. He picks up his phone listening for a second.     

    After a few seconds, he hangs up the phone and looks serious. "I have to go. It's a work thing," he explains. He thinks for a second then looks at me. "Actually would you like to come with me? It won't take long, I promise." 

    "Sure." I shrug.

    "Great! I should have told you this the other night..." he says sounding nervous now. 

    "What's up?" 

    "I own the club we were at," he says looking at me to gauge my reaction.

    "I know." I nod. "I didn't know then but Colby told me after."

    "Oh. I don't know why but I just felt like telling you was the wrong thing to do. Like it would scare you off." Liam explains. 

    "Why would that scare me off?" I ask.

    "Well, I haven't always been on my best behavior while I am there," Liam explains

    "Who says I want to be on my best behavior?" I smirk. 

    "Oh you're going to get me in trouble aren't you?" he flirts.

    "Trouble is my middle name." I flirt back. Liam and I walk out of the cafe and down the street. Liam leading the way because I don't know where we are going.

    Liam leads me down the street to the club where we met. There is nobody in here. Liam walks me to the bar and turns to face me. "Technically we are closed right now but you can go make a drink from behind the bar right now if you want." he offers. 

    "Sounds good." I nod. Liam walks away down the hall I guess where the office and backstage are. I take a seat at the bar and figure out what I want. I never did get food. Wait, is this something that Katie says is a bad idea? Is it a bad idea? Wow, I'm really sitting here in an empty bar reconsidering all my current life choices. Did I do something stupid again? Following a guy, I don't really know into an empty nightclub? Well, at least I know how I'm going to die.

    "AHHH!! STOP!!" Someone screams from the back room. Yep. I'm definitely going to die.

    I follow the sound of screams down the hall. I walk down the hall, up to the closed door when I hear people talking. It's Liam and two other guys. I look around the hall. Yeah, there is nobody else here, this should be fine. I open the door to reveal a cluttered office. There is a desk piled high with paperwork and a couch with some newspapers on it and a guy with light blue dreadlocks sitting on the couch with Liam and another guy with dark brown hair standing on the other side of the room near the desk talking quietly. 

    "What's with all the screaming?" I ask and everyone looks at me. Wait. "Is he bleeding?" I ask pointing to the guy on the couch. He is. His left leg is bleeding. I look at Liam and the other guy. "One of you go get me a first aid kit," I order. They both just stand there looking at me dumbfounded. "Now!" I say and the guy with dark brown hair leaves the room. I walk over to the one bleeding on the couch and inspect the wound. "This wound doesn't look too deep. You should be fine." I tell the guy

    "I'm dying. I know it. I know I'm dying." he says dramatically.

    "You're not dying!" Liam says from behind me. I start tearing his pants more so the whole is bigger and I can get a better view of the wound. 

    "No I'm dying. You don't have to lie to me boss." the guy says again.

    "Hey you're not dying but you need to calm down," I yell at him grabbing his attention. "Moving around like this is only causing you to bleed more. Calm down, sit still, and you will be patched up in no time." I tell him much calmer and looking at him intently. 

    "I am going to go see if Trevor needs help finding the first aid kit," Liam says then walks out of the room. 

    "Who are you? Are you a doctor?" the guy asks me once we are alone. 

    "Ha no," I laugh. "I'm not nearly smart enough for that." 

    "Well you seem to know what you are doing right now," he says

    "I just have some experience with this kind of thing." I shrug and grab a napkin that's nearby to stop the bleeding. What's taking them so long?

    "Are you going to sell my organs on the black market?" he asks

    "No. I guess you could say I'm just clumsy." I shrug.

    "You fall into a lot of knives?" he asks

    "More than you would think. But let's keep that our little secret." I say with a smile and a wink.

    "Yeah anything for the person keeping me from dying." the guy says

    "You wouldn't have died. Eventually, you would stop bleeding." I tell him. "I'm Blake by the way." I introduce myself. 

    "I'm Wesley but friends call me Wes. And anyone keeping me from dying has earned the title of friend." he smiles at me.

    "Well, Wes it's nice to meet you." I smile. I look back at the wound that doesn't seem to be bleeding anymore. I grab some tape from the desk and use it to keep the napkin in place just in case. "I don't know what is taking them so long but I got you patched up anyway," I tell him as I stand up.

    "Am I going to be ok, doc?" he asks.

    "Again I am not a doctor. And yes you will be fine. Your leg will be sore for a few days so just be careful. It also might be a good idea to take some pain relievers." I tell him. 

    "I like you. Where did you come from?: he asks

    "I met Liam the other night in the club. And I ran into him at a cafe earlier." I explain.

    "Wait are you the girl that outdrank him?" Wes says excitedly as he leans forward in the seat.

    "No, I just kept up with him for a little while. Wait how did you know about that?" I ask

    "Some of the other guys were here and saw the whole thing. They had never seen Liam act like that with a girl. He left with you." Wes says still very excitedly.

    "Not really he just offered to walk me home. Nothing happened?" I shrug.

    "No, you don't get it. Liam never leaves with a girl. Not even to get laid. He either does that in the bathroom or in here." Wesley explains. Just then Liam walks back into the room

    "Nothing happened. He was just being nice." I say again.

    "No, you don't get it. That's a big deal for him." Wes says again. Liam clears his throat

    "We cannot find the first aid kit. I don't know if we even have one." Liam says.

    "Hey, boss. Turns out I am not going to die. Right doc?" Wes says happily. 

    "Not a doctor," I say again shaking my head.

    "Hear that Trevor! You hear that! I'm not dying!" Wesley yells out the door as he stands up and leaves the room as I laugh. 

    "Umm.. sorry about that. You weren't supposed to see that." Liam says nervously. 

    I walk across the room closer to him. "It's no problem just a little blood." I shrug.

    "That probably wasn't the kind of work emergency you thought was going to happen. I completely understand if you never talk to me again," he says seriously.

    "No problem. I don't honestly care about any of that. It's no big deal." I shrug.

    "Most girls would have turned and run out of this club and never looked back," Liam says sounding surprised.

    "Well, I am not most girls." I wink at him.

    "No, you are not. Do you still want to hang out?" he asks 

    "Sure! What do you have in mind?" I ask

    "Let's see where the night takes us," Liam says with a wink.

    Liam and I flirt as we walk back to what I guess is his house. The door barely closes before we are full-on making out. "Hey, I want to stop you right there," Liam says pulling breaking the kiss. "Before anything happens I just want you to know that I don't do relationships. Girls always think that they can change that. I am telling you right now, I do not want a relationship. I just want to have fun." he says looking serious. That's perfect because I don't do relationships. 

    "Good. I don't do relationships either. I don't do the whole touchy-feely romance stuff." I tell him.

    "So do you really want to do this?" he asks. f**k it. 

    "Let's do it." I nod with a smile. Liam grabs my hand and leads me down the hall to a bedroom. I pull off my shirt and start undoing my pants. They drop to the floor around my ankles. "So let's fuck." I smile. Liam pulls his shirt off and drops it on the floor as he walks to me. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometime later...

    Liam and I are in bed catching our breath and still giving each other little pecks. That was fun. I needed a distraction. 

    "Well, that was fun," I say as I gently pat his chest. "Thanks. See you later" I say standing up and walking to my underwear on the floor. 

    "Wait," Liam says sitting up and looking at me. "Do you want to stay and watch a movie or something?" he offers.

    "Sure. Why not?" I shrug as I clasp my bra. Liam stands up and starts putting his clothes back on too. He leads me out of the room and back to the living room. We sit on the couch as Liam flips thru the channel trying to find a movie to watch.

    Eventually, he just sighs and puts the remote down looking at me, "Blake, can I tell you something?" he asks.

    "Go for it."

    "This will sound weird but when I first met you, I thought I knew you," he says. What? "There was a girl that grew up in the same building as me around the same age. Our parents were friends and we became best friends over the years. Until her family moved. I hadn't thought about her in years. Until I saw you." he explains

    "Me?" I ask confused. What's that got to do with me?

    "You look exactly like her. Spitting image," he explains. "Do you remember the first thing I said to you?"

    "Yeah, you were really weird. You said boo." I say crossing my arms.

    "Because I thought you were someone else. We used to jump out of nowhere and scare each other. At first, I was hurt and confused that you didn't recognize me. It took me a while but I realized that you were not her. That's why I decided to walk you home." he explains.

    "What does that have to do with anything?" I ask.

    "I heard you talking to Wes earlier. He told you that I never leave the club with girls. I don't want you to get your hopes up with me." he says seriously.

    "Don't worry about it. I don't get my hopes up." I say to reassure him. I'm not most girls. I don't want a relationship with him. Just s*x. I doubt I'll ever see him again after this.

    "Good. I have to ask though. Do you know anybody by the name of Lucy Winston?" he asks leaning forward towards me some. 

    "No..." I say confused. "It's getting late. I should go though." I get off the couch and walk out the front door before he can say anything else. It was just casual s*x, why did he have to go and ruin that.