Strategically Careless

Chapter 8

Blake's POV

Friday Evening......

    "Are you ready?" Katie asks as she walks into my room

    "Are you sure we have to go?" I whine

    "Come on Colby invited us. This is the first Friday night Colby's band hasn't been playing and they invited us to go out with them." Katie says with a pointed look 

    "Exactly why I don't want to go," I huff pulling the blanket over my head to hide from the world. This bed is so soft and I don't want to move.

    "Come on. We have never actually been out with him. His band is always playing so he is never really there." Katie says pulling the blanket away from me.

    "What does it matter to you? You just make out with Collin all night." I argue

    "I don't" she denies.

    "Yeah, you do. And I end up talking to a random guy at the bar."

    "You can talk to Colby at the bar," Katie smirks.

    "That's exactly what I don't want to happen," I say crossing my arms giving her the same pointed look she gave me a moment ago. 

    "Colby's band is coming too." 

    "Have you met them yet?" I ask

    "Not really. I've seen them enough to know faces but I've never talked to them." Katie says

    "Me either. I feel like it's going to be really awkward." 

    "You know where we are going right?" Katie asks eyeing me suspiciously.

    "No." I shake my head.

    "Liam's club,"

    "I'm not going," I say sitting back down on my bed. 

    "I thought you trusted him?" Katie says worriedly.

    "Yeah but I don't want to be near him right now," I shrug

    "What happened?" she asks.

    "Nothing. We f****d and I think he thinks it was more than that. He said it was the best s*x of his life." I tell her.

    "And?" she says confused. "Also you know I hate it when you call it fucking." 

    "He told me multiple times that he wants to be together but I keep saying no but then we had s*x so I don't want him to get the wrong idea. And you know I hate it when people call it making love. That's gross." I say disgusted. 

    "When?"  she asks.

    "The other day after you left us here to go to work," I say. I know she isn't going to like that.

    "Ew Blake! Why?" Katie cringes.

    "I needed a distraction. But I think he took it to mean more than a distraction." I shrug.

    "Have you talked to him since?" Katie asks.

    "I've been avoiding him." I shake my head.

    "Well you already agreed to go tonight so you're going," Katie says walking into the closet.

    "Ok just keep me away from Liam. More importantly, keep Liam away from me," I tell her.

    "I will."

    "This is going to suck," I whine as I fall back on my bed. I'm not looking forward to this.

    "Probably for you. It'll be fun for me." Katie says walking out of my small closet and throwing some clothes at me. 

    "I hate you." I glare when I see what she threw at me.

    "I hate you too," Katie says blowing a kiss then walking out of my bedroom. "Hurry up we're already late!" she calls out.

    "Lord give me strength to not slap her," I mumble to myself.

    "I heard that!" she yells at me and I roll my eyes. 

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

Colby's POV

    My band and I are at the bar of Liam's club as a DJ plays. It's nice to have a night off and be able to hang out with my friends instead of just working. It's been months if not over a year since we've had a weekend night off. It's nice. Now we're just waiting on Blake and Katie to get here. I take a sip of my beer as I wait for Blake to get here. I've really not seen her much since that weird encounter in her apartment and I don't know if she is mad at me. Katie did warm me but I just had to know she was ok. I get a text from Katie and quickly check my phone. "I have some friends who are meeting us here in a few minutes," I say to the guys when I read the text from Katie saying they're in line waiting to get in here.

    "Where are all the girls at?" Wyatt complains as he searches the room.

    "Not here yet obviously. We are kind of early." Henry answers him.

    "Then let's get our drink on!" Wyatt says turning to the bartender.

    "Who did you invite?" Henry asks.

    "My roommate, his girlfriend Katie, and Katie's roommate Blake," I answer.

    "Wait isn't Blake the girl you won't shut up about?" Henry smirks.

    "I may have mentioned her once or twice but I don't talk about her that much." I deny.

    Henry laughs, "No dude you won't shut up about her." as Katie and Blake walk up to us.

    "Who does Colby not shut up about?" Katie asks and Blake looks around the crowded club.

    "Hey, I didn't know you were here already," I say before Henry can answer. We all move away from the bar a few feet so we don't crowd it. "Henry this is Blake and Katie. Katie and Blake this is Henry, our guitarist." I introduce.

    "Oh, you're really good!" Katie says excitedly. 

    "Oh, thanks!" Henry nods. "It's nice to meet you both," Henry says politely.

    "Nice to meet you too," Blake says with a fake smile then goes back to searching around the room.

    "Looking for someone?" I ask moving closer to Blake and talking into her ear. I immediately see goosebumps go down her arm and she shivers a little bit. I like that I have that effect on her.

    "Avoiding someone," Blake says as I see her cheeks slowly turn a shade redder.

    "Good." I nod. I hope she is avoiding Liam. He got her shot.

    Wyatt walks back over with a drink in his hand. "Wyatt this is Katie and Blake. Katie and Blake this is Wyatt our drummer." I introduce.

    "I would never peg him as a drummer," Blake comments to herself.

    "What do you mean?" Wyatt asks crossing his arms.

    "The short buzz cut, bright teal hair, and a sweater vest. The hair screams drummer. The sweater vest does not" Blake smiles.

    "A man has to have style and class." Wyatt comments and they both laugh.

    "Where is Collin?" Katie asks.

    "He got out of work late. He said he will be here soon." I tell her.

    "Great!" Katie smiles.

    "I need a drink, anybody want anything?" Blake asks the group.

    "No, I'm good. Thanks." Henry says.

    "I'm good too." Katie shakes her head.

    "Ok. I'll be back." Blake shrugs. I watch as she walks back to the bar to make sure she is ok.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blake's POV

    God stupid f*****g Colby making me blush. I'm not the kind of girl that blushes all the time. I don't like it. It shows weakness and I'm not weak. But that stupid gravelly voice he talked in, god that was sexy. Blake stop, I can't think like that. I'll ruin him and that will end up hurting Katie down the road and I can't do that to her. He's too good anyway.

    I make it to the bar and order. I already know Wes is on his way over to talk to me. "Hey, long time no see...." Wes says walking up and leaning on the bar next to me. 

    "It's only been a week." I shrug.

    "Well, it felt like forever," Wes says turning leaning against the bar to look out at the crowd. "How are you?" he asks concerned.

    "I'm fine. How are you?" I ask as the bartender hands me my drink.

    Wes turns to me with the most serious expression I've ever seen him have. "I'm not the one that was shot last weekend," he says with a pointed look.

     "It's not a big deal. I was barely shot." I shrug taking a sip of my drink.

    "You were still shot." Wes sighs. "You saved my life you know that?" 

    "It's no big deal." 

    "It is a big deal. That bullet may have only gotten you in the shoulder but that would have hit me in the heart. I would have killed me." Wes says looking at me intently.

    "It's fine Wes." I shrug. He's giving me too much credit.

    "How have you been though? I wanted to go check on you in the hospital but when Liam came to join us to look for who shot you, I thought you were dead." Wes says seriously.

    "No just annoyed. My best friend and the nurse wouldn't let me leave the hospital when I woke up." I tell him.

    "Smart. They were right to make you stay." Wes nods

    "What have you been up to?" I ask. This has been way too much conversation about me.    

    "We are still trying to hunt down who shot you," Wes says.

    "Smart. If he is still out there one of you could get hurt." I nod

    "No that's not why we are still hunting him. Normally when this kind of thing happens we just prepare to see the person again and when we do that's when we strike." Wes says looking back at the crowded club.

    "Then why waste all this time hunting him?" I ask

    "Liam's orders." 

    "Why?" I ask. I need to know what Liam is up to. If it was someone after me then Liam needs to stay far away.

    "Because it wasn't just one of us that got hurt. It was you. Seeing you get hurt destroyed Liam." Wes turns to me.

    "Well I'm fine so y'all can stop." I shrug.

    "Don't tell me. Tell Liam." Wes shrugs.

    "Where is he?" I ask turning to look around too. I still want to avoid him but he doesn't need to be going and doing something stupid.

    "He isn't here tonight. He's out on business." Wes says hesitantly. "He-..."

    "Don't tell me I don't want to know." I hold up my hand stopping him.

    "Ok," Wes nods.

    "If there is business to attend to why are you here?" I ask.

    "I am watching the club to make sure everything runs smoothly." 

    "So you're a bouncer." I tease.

    "I like to think of it as manager," Wes says.

    "So why are you talking to me and not managing?" I smirk.

    "Your one of the items on the list of manager duties," Wes says.

    "I'm what?" I ask crossing my arms. There is no way I heard that right. 

    "Yeah, it must be new because last time I was the manager you weren't on the list. Also, aren't you on pain meds or something? Should you be drinking?" Wes says.

    "I don't know manager, should I?" I ask getting annoyed. Wes eyes my drink in my hand. Without thinking I chug my whole drink. "Bartender! Shots!" I say turning to the bar as Wes's face drops.

    "Pace yourself, Doc," Wes says sounding concerned but I don't care. I feel someone bump into my back a little bit. It's probably another customer coming over to get a drink.

    "No, you listen to me. I don't need to be managed. I can handle myself. Back off now." I demand taking my anger out on Wes. I know he is just following orders but Liam's not here for me to yell at.

    "Doc..." Wes sighs

    "Leave me alone." I angrily command.

    "But Blake-" Wes tries to reason and I'm not having it.

    "She said, leave dude. So leave." Henry, Colby's friend says from behind me. Wes eyes him suspiciously then looks back at me. He sighs loudly then turns and walks away. 

    "Thanks," I say to Henry. 

    "No problem. What was that all about?" Henry asks looking at Wes across the club who is walking away from us towards where the office is.

    "Nothing. Where are my shots?" I turn towards the bar. I probably shouldn't be drinking because I can already feel the alcohol affecting me. It's the stupid pain meds. 

    "Shots sound good right now," Henry says looking towards the bar.

    "I like you." I nod.

    "Oh yeah. Why's that?" Henry says raising an eyebrow.

    "I like anybody that will do shots with me." 

    "Let's do it then!" Henry smiles. Maybe this night won't be as bad as I thought.

    Henry and I throw back a round of shots. "That hits the spot! Another!" I yell over the music. The bartender starts pouring another round as I turn to Henry. "So Henry, do you only play guitar, or do you have a job?" I ask.

    "I have a job too. I do real estate." he nods.

    "That's cool! I never asked but how did the band meet?" I ask

    "Umm different ways," Henry says "I met Colby in college because we lived in the same dorm, just down the hall from me. I was playing the guitar one day and he heard so he followed the noise to my room. He asked me to teach him how to play and one day he starting singing as he played and that was that. Wyatt and I went to high school together but we never really talked back then. And Wyatt and Colby met at the gym. If you ask Colby Wyatt was making a huge noise playing the finger drums and Colby couldn't concentrate on his workout. So we all kind of knew each other until we had this idea to start a band." Henry explains.

    "That's cool!" I nod. The bartender sets the next round of shots in front of us. "Ready for round two?" We throwback around a round of shots.

    "Yeah! I would love for the band to make it big. It would be a dream come true. But for now, I like being in real estate!" Henry says as he grimaces from the alcohol burning as it goes down.

    "I always thought real estate would be pretty cool, especially if you got any expensive listings." I nod.

    "Oh yeah. I would love to be able to live in some of those places." He says.

    "Me too! I never thought I would be to afford to visit New York City much less live here." 

    "Well, you're here now. How are you liking it?" Henry asks.    

    "I love it." I smile.

    "I have never lived anywhere but here so I have no frame of reference to compare it to. What is life like where you grew up?" he asks.

    "Boring. SOOO mind-numbingly boring. " I tell him honestly.

    "How so? Other places have restaurants and clubs and bars and businesses. What is so special about here?" he asks.

    "Oh, where to begin?" I sigh leaning against the bar. "Other places have bars and clubs and restaurants but not like this. My town didn't have a McDonald's until I was 15. We don't have any bars or clubs in town. In fact, everything closes by 9 pm unless it's Saturday. Then they close at 9:30 pm." I explain.

    "Oh wow. That's sad," he says with a sad nod.

    "Oh, you haven't heard the best part. I can't tell you how many times I was late for school because cows were crossing the road."

    "The cows were crossing the road? Whose cows? Your cows?" he asks.

    "No, we couldn't afford cows. I just had to pass a few cow farms between my house and the school. And sometimes the cows cross the road. The worst was when the goats would get out though." I tell him.

    "Goats?" he laughs.

    "Yes, goats." I nod. "One time they got out and started trying to eat the bumper off of my friends car."

    "Hahhahaha" Henry laughs holding his stomach. "Stop you're going to kill me!" he laughs. 

    "So you never had to stop for cows or goats?" I ask

    "No! I was only ever late if the subway was off schedule." Henry shrugs.

    "That's so sad." 

    "So did you get detention a lot because of the cows?" 

    "Not just because of the cows. I can't tell you how many times I got detention." I tell him.    

    "Oh no, that's no fun."     

    "I didn't mind it so much. It was unsupervised detention." I say thinking back to the days at high school.

    "What is unsupervised detention? Do they lock you in a room?" he asks.

    "No. Everyone reports to the detention room at the end of the day, then someone calls role than the teacher leaves and so does everyone else. The school didn't have enough money to pay a teacher to stay late." I explain.

    "I would have been late every day then." Henry laughs.

    "I was. I don't do mornings very well." I shake my head.

    "Ready for the next round?" Henry asks eyeing the shots at are in front of us.

    "Let's do it." We do the next round of shots and this round goes down a lot smoother than before.

    "The town wasn't that bad though if you had the right friends and knew how to have fun," I explain.

    "I thought you said you didn't have any clubs or bars in town," he comments.

    "That never stopped us." I deny.

    "What did you do for fun then?" he asks.

    "I didn't exactly grow up on the right side of town. So my friends and I would do things we weren't supposed to." I explain vaguely. 

    "You seem like such a nice stereotypical southern belle. What did you do?" Henry says with a smirk.

    "That is because you don't know me very well. I'm not a southern belle. There was a creek in the woods nearby and we would go and have bonfires and drink." I tell him/

    "I have never actually been to a bonfire." Henry says

    "What? How?"

    "There aren't many places in the city you can safely start fires." he shrugs.

    "That's true. Good for round 4?" I ask. Henry nods and we do another round of shots. This is probably a bad idea. I'm already drunk but f**k it who cares. 

    "You know what Blake. I like you. I always thought that you were too good to be true." Henry says.

    "Hahaha. What do you mean? I just met you earlier." I ask feeling a little bit soberer now. I don't know what he meant by that but it definitely alarmed me.

    "Colby talks about you so much. I thought there was no way you could be this cool. But I was wong... wrong." he slurs.

    "Oh, those shots are hitting huh?" I nod

    "I'm fine. Let's do another!" he cheers.

    "Are you sure you're find... fine?" great now I'm slurring my words too.

    "Yeah. Are you fine?" he asks.

    "Yeah, let's do another!" I nod excitedly. Henry and I quickly down another round and it does down like water. "See I'm find. Fine" I shake my head concentrating on my words.

    "Me too!" Henry smiles. 

    "Hey Doc, I think you should slow down." I turn to see Wesley walking up behind me. "You have had six drinks in an hour," Wes says.

    "I told you I'm find.... fine. I'm fine." 

    "You're about to not be," Wes says grabbing my upper arm. "You drank a lot in a short amount of time and you are on pain meds from being shot last week. You are going to be really not fine really fast." Wes says sternly.    

    "You were shot last week?" Henry asks.

    "No" I deny. "Yes, but barely." I brush him off.

    "You shouldn't be drinking that much that fast," Henry says.

    "I'M FINE," I say again getting angry. 

    "Well, I am going to go find our friends," Henry says before walking away.

    "I was having fun! Why did you ruin that?" I yell at Wes.

    "I'm trying to help you." He yells back.

    "I don't need your help. I don't want your help. Leave me alone. I want to have fun. I want to be normal. Stop treating me like I'm some poor patient." I say getting angry.

    "I am not treating you like a patient. I am trying to treat you like a friend and help you when you need it. Like you helped me when I needed it. Can you at least come to sit in the office with me for a minute and keep me company?" he explains. 

    "Yes," I say grumpily crossing my arms.

    "Good. Thank you. Let's go." Wes says turning towards the office.

    "Wes?" I ask

    "Yeah?" he answers turning back to me.

    "Can you carry me? I don't think I can walk." I admit. That alcohol hit me way harder than I thought.

    "Yeah, some here." Wes laughs. He sweeps my legs out from under me and starts carrying me away. Oh, I'm going to pass out. I can feel it.

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

Colby's POV

    "Oh, Imm drunnk." Henry stumbles up to us. 

    "Lightweight." Wyatt laughs. "What did you drink?" he asks taking a sit of his beer.

    "I had like 6 shots and it all hit at once." Henry shakes his head. "Blake's a lot of fun dude. She is really cool." Henry smiles hitting my arm. "I don't know how she is still standing. She had just as much as me and she had one more before I even walked up." 

    "Blake's had 6 shots since we've been here?" I ask looking around the club for her in a panic.

    "Yeah. I had to stop." Henry nods.

    "She shouldn't be drinking that much. She is on a lot of pain meds since she got shot." I explain as I see Katie looking around for her too. 

     "She was shot?" Wyatt asks.

    "Yeah, I heard about that, when she started arguing with Wes," Henry says.

    "Yeah, she was shot last weekend. Where is she now?" I ask.

    "I don't know. I left her and she was at the bar with Wes." Henry says pointing to the crowded bar but there is no Blake there. "I'm going to check on her," I say walking towards the back office. They normally don't let people back there but since they hire us a lot we have to get backstage. 

    As expected they let me into the back, where backstage and the offices are. "ouch" I hear Blake say from behind Liam's closed office door. I swear if he hurt her- I barge in the door without even knocking to see it empty except for Blake laying facedown on the floor.

    "Oh, Blake. Get off the floor." I say bending down to help her.

    "No" she mumbles.

    "Do you need help getting up?" I offer.

    "No, I want to be on the floor. I rolled off the couch down here," she says. 

    "Why do you want to be on the floor?" I ask.

    "I love the floor. You can't fall off the floor," she mumbles. I laugh, she's not wrong. "You can fall off couches and chairs. You know who catches you when you fall off the couches?" she opens her eyes looking at me and squinting. "The floor." she lays back down closing her eyes. 

    "You're drunk" I laugh.

    "I'm not drunnk" she mumbles. "I'm in love with the floor." 

    "Mind if I join you on the floor?" I ask sitting down next to her and rubbing her back.

    "I don't own the floor. I have to share it with everyone unfortunately," she mumbles.

    "I'm going to take that as a yes I can sit with you. Where did Wes go?" I ask

    "He went to get water." 

    "Ok, that's good. How are you feeling?"

    "I'm fine. I'm just really tired." she yawns.

    "You had a lot to drink," I tell her.

    "Normally I can do more. I can't wait to be done with the stupid pain medicine." Blake grumbles.

     "You need to start being more careful. Please stop hanging out with Liam. You got hurt because of him." I pat her back as the office door opens again as Wesley walks in.

    "Colby..." Blake sighs.

    "Hey Doc, I brought you some water. Can you sit up and drink it?" Wes asks softly. I've never seen him talk that nicely to anyone. I'm not stupid, I know exactly who Liam and his men are and what they do. The bark orders more than anything. But he is asking her nicely. It's weird.

    "Yeah" Blake nods as she pushes herself up off the ground.

    Wes hands her the cup once she is sitting and Blake starts slowly sipping it as she leans against the couch behind her. "Did you fall off the couch?" Wes asks sitting on the other side of her on the ground too. 

    "No, I like the floor. I rolled all by myself," she says shaking her head.

    "Of course you did." Wes laughs.

    "I'm tired." Blake yawns again.

    "I know it's been a long day huh?" Wes asks her.

    "Long and boring." she nods.    

    "Wouldn't you rather have boring and normal over last weekend?" I ask

    "But all I did was look at numbers all day. Work was boring," she complains

    "Yeah, that sounds awful." Wes laughs.

    "It was. It made my brain all tired." she pouts closing her eyes and leaning on my shoulder. 

    "I'm sure." I laugh.

    "I like the floor," she mumbles.

    "I've heard." Wes nods.

    "Me too" I laugh. She is definitely drunk. "Where is Liam tonight? Isn't he normally here?" I ask Wes

    "He is busy tonight," Wes says coldly. "I heard that you and he got in a little argument at the hospital," Wes says.

    I glance at Blake who is now asleep leaning on my shoulder. "Yeah, I was just upset that she got hurt because of him. We worked on it though. The band and I are performing here tomorrow." I tell Wes.

    "She didn't get hurt because of him." Wes shakes his head.

    "She was shot while in his apartment with him. I know who you all are. She got hurt because of him." I nod.

    "She got hurt because of me," Wes says. "She saw the man break-in and point a gun at me. Blake pushed me out of the way and she got shot. Because of me." Wes says pointing to himself.

    "What?" I ask. 

    "Trevor and I didn't realize that we were followed but she saved my life. If she hadn't pushed me out of the way it would have hit me in the chest." Wes nods.

    "How come nobody told me this?" I wonder out loud.

    "I don't know. She hasn't said much about it at least to me anyway. Liam blames himself for it though. He was so broken after she was shot that he could barely function. Don't tell him I told you that though." Wes says seriously. 

    "I guess I better wake her up and take her home." I sigh.

    "She is fine here. Go enjoy your night. I can watch her. I have work to do in here anyway." Wes says.

    "Are you sure?" I ask.

    "Yeah, I know that band doesn't have many Friday nights off. Grab a beer on the house." Wes says.

    "Ok I'll come back and check on her in a little while," I say laying her down back on the floor where she wants to be. 

    "Have fun." Wes waves me away. Ok. I guess maybe Liam's not as bad as I thought. Blake was being a hero taking a bullet for Wes. I still don't like her with Liam though.