You turn to see what Trevor was going to say or do next, but he's already near the entrance of the building. You follow and watch him greet the bouncer then strut into his establishment. You give a passing nod to the large bouncer and enter Vanilla Unicorn. As you turn the corner you see a strip pole on a stage with a woman grinding on the long metal beam that connects to the ceiling. The heavy bass from the music makes your ribcage rattle inside you. You can't help but stare at the woman as she does her routine. She's mesmerising. You're trying to enjoy the pole dancer but can't help but hear a faint voice calling your name. It's difficult to hear which direction it's being shouted from as the music is too loud to hear very much over it. It's also so poorly lit inside that you squint to focus your gaze but still can't pinpoint where the voice is coming from. Then you spot a heavy upper arm reach up to catch your attention, it's waving. It's Trevor's and he's calling you over to the bar. You inhale some clammy air and approach him.
"What?" You shout to Trevor before he slides you a shot.
"Here."
"What's this for?" You ask.
"It's an apology for earlier, I got carried away." Trevor held his shot glass up to clink with yours. You picked yours up and reciprocated the gesture. You downed the amber liquid before Trevor, and slammed your glass down on the bar.
"Apology accepted." You croak from your throat tingling.
"Alright! I like a woman who can handle a drink." Trevor gulps down his glass and grunts. "Two more please barkeep!" The lady behind the bar pours another shot into both of your glasses. "As far as stuck up colleges go, which is pretty much all of them, why did you choose a shithole like LS of all the places?" Trevor asked then drank another shot. You both lean on the bar with your elbows and watch the pole dancer. Without taking your eyes of the woman on stage, you answered him.
"I didn't really have a choice, I was chosen at random. Tracey signed herself up to house foreign students and I wanted to live somewhere new for a while. I didn't know or care where I went." You replied honestly.
"Things are rough at home huh?"
"You could say that." You turn and down your second shot to try and numb any emotions that were manifesting. You request another shot, but Trevor lowers your hand. The bar maid waits for Trevor's confirmation before she decides to pour.
"Hey, slow down there missy. Michael won't be too happy if I take you back drunk as skunk now would he?"
"What do you care?" You yank your arm from Trevor's grasp. He's confused.
"I don't. Thought you might though."
"Well I don't. I want to drink." You push your glass closer to the bar maid and she glances at Trevor. He waves his hand and she proceeds to pour you another shot. You toss it down your neck and place the glass back on the bar. The bar maid finishes pouring more whiskey in Trevor's shot glass and you watch him swallow it down his thick throat. You're studying his Cut Here tattoo. You admire how original it is. He catches you staring at him and places his glass back down on the bar. Trevor wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and leans in close. You can already feel the effects of the alcohol on your system.
"Alright sweetheart, I'll show you how to fuckin' party."
After a few more shots of vodka and whiskey whilst trying to keep up with Trevor, the two of you stumble out of the door of the strip club and Trevor hails a taxi. While you wait, you're curious as to why your jean pocket is vibrating. You feel around clumsily and slide your vibrating phone and squint at the screen. When your vision stayed still the bright glass read: "Tracey Calling". You're about to answer it before Trevor pulls you into a cab. The two of you fall into the backseat and Trevor slurs something to the driver and orders him to change the radio station. Your phone has stopped vibrating in your hand and you remember you're still holding it so you glance at the screen again. "10 Missed Calls from Tracey". You decide to worry about it later and slip it back into your jean pocket.
It doesn't take very long for the cabby to bring the car to a halt outside a nightclub. You ducked your head to look out the window your heavier-than-usual head was resting on, and your brain slowly registered the letters into words that spelled out "Bahamas Mamas". This city really likes to use pink neon on their signs. After the cabbie scrambles for the money Trevor carelessly throws at him, you both exit the cab and enter the night club. It's not much different to Vanilla Unicorn except the air is less warm and there aren't women stuck to poles on a stage. Mike Posner's Cooler Than Me is playing as you stagger to the bar. You clink glasses with Trevor again and make a sour face as the strong alcohol burns your throat.
"You're a-a-strange one." Trevor sways as his brain comes up with the words slowly.
"... What?" You reply trying your hardest to look Trevor in the eye and also keeping your legs from turning fully into jelly.
"You're a-like-a... kid... but you're not... you have an old head... on young shoulders." Trevor signals the bar tender for more alcohol.
"Did-did you just call my head old?" The conversation may as well have been nonsense at this point but Trevor was trying to compliment you somehow. He nearly spills his newly poured shot on you as he raises his hand in exclamation.
"Yeah! In a good way... your mind is mature y'know?" You've lost count how many shots you and Trevor have swallowed up to this point. "Amigo! Dos beers por favour!" Trevor shouts to the bar man. The bar man ignores Trevor. You glance over and discover why, the barman is trying to chat up an attractive woman. Trevor waits for a few seconds but then reaches his long arm over the bar and steals two bottles of beer for himself and you. You gasp quietly and cover your mouth and giggle. After a few tries of completely missing the bar, Trevor clips the bottle caps off at an angle on the side of the bar and hands you yours. You take a huge swig and thank him.
The two of you lean on the bar waiting for the other to suggest you move to the dance floor. You listen and begin to recognise songs that are playing in the club and the next one that you can hear makes you very excited. Yeah by Usher begins playing and you turn to Trevor open mouthed and smile. He smiles widely back at you. You're excitement rubs off on him but he has no idea why.
"I FUCKING LOVE THIS SONG! C'MON!" You hold Trevor by the hand and he drags his toes as he's pulled to the dance floor.
When you reach a gap in the crowd you let go of his hot hand. You close your eyes and are completely and utterly in the moment dancing. You don't care if you look ridiculous you're swaying and moving to the music. Trevor can't stop staring at you. He blinks hard and raises his eyebrows after taking another glug of his beer to watch you in the dim, smoky light. His jaw is hanging slightly. As you move your body, your hair is illuminated every now and then from the strobe lights rotating and stretching around the room. Once you open your eyes and see Trevor trying his best to dance with his long flailing limbs. The sight just makes you smile.
As he's turning, you swing him around by one of his hard shoulders. Trevor looks down at you and moistens his throat with some beer. You eye up his lips and whisper in his ear to tease him.
"Follow me." Trevor hears you loud and clear and you find a quiet corner of the dance floor and push him up against the dark wall. He grunts with pleasure as he hits the wall with force. Trevor gives you a half smile and an evil stare that sends you wild. Your hands are slowly caressing his solid, muscular chest on top of his army green shirt. Your bodies are inches from each other as you drunkenly kiss his mouth. He's gentler than you expected until his tongue forced its way into your mouth. You're still kissing Trevor and feel him inhaling air in small, quick bursts as your hand hovers and touches the crotch of his jeans. The last thing you remember feeling is Trevor's grip strengthening on your behind as you stroke his hardening penis.
You're startled by an unknown, harsh buzzing sound that rudely awakens you. You're half dead when you pull open your eyes but all you can see is complete darkness. Ugh. What is that noise? You groan at the muffled music you can hear and toss and turn to try and to go back to sleep but you misjudge the length of what you thought was your bed and roll onto a sticky floor. You squint and blink your eyes to moisten them before focusing on your surroundings. Even blinking was making your head throb. You rub your eyes and try to register where you were, but you don't recognise this room. You exhale with frustration and run your fingers through your hair to try and tame the bed hair. You begin to feel a strange chill and look down at yourself to investigate why, and finally realise you're only wearing your lacy knickers. You feel around for the blanket as you're vision is still slightly blury. Thankfully the sheet still held some of your warmth and you wrapped yourself in it like it was a towel.
You hunt down the source of the loud vibrations. It was your phone on a desk next to a computer monitor. It takes you some time to focus on the screen and you read: 10 Missed Calls from Tracey, 4 Texts from Tracey. You swipe to unlock your phone and read the following text messages:
"Y/N where are you?"
"Seriously, where did you go? Jimmy said he saw you from his window. You got in a car with Trevor and Franklin?"
"My mom and dad are worried. WHERE ARE YOU?"
"This isn't funny anymore Y/N."
You glance up from your phone and try to figure out where exactly you were. You look through the pile of papers next to the keyboard to find something, anything. You see a familiar business logo and name in a header of a printed letter. Oh no. Vanilla Unicorn. I'm at the fucking strip club?! Where the fuck are my clothes?! But just as you turn to pinpoint their location the door to the room swings open and you just stand there frozen.
"Good morning!" Trevor is annoyingly loud and chipper. You watch him check his phone for the time. "Wow, or should I say afternoon." He puts his phone away and approaches you. You hold a hand up and stretched out your arm defensively to keep him away.
"Trevor, where are my clothes?" You say slowly and with a very serious tone. You weren't in the mood to be playful, not with this bad of a hangover.
"Oh. No 'thanks for letting me stay on your sofa Trevor' or 'thanks for giving me a blanket to cover my naked body Trevor'. I gave you the courtesy of partying with THE Trevor Philips and this is the thanks I get?" You weren't sure if Trevor was joking or was genuinely irritated.
"Just tell me where my clothes are Trevor." You've lost your patience. Trevor frowns his thick brow and exhales with his tongue poking the roof of his mouth. He wanted to see you squirm for a few more seconds before answering.
"Over there on that box of flyers." Trevor points lazily.
"Thanks." You rush over to the box by the back door of the office and see your clothes hanging on the side of the box as well as in messy clumps next to it. You bring the pile of clothing to the couch and were just about to remove your towel that was wrapped around you, before remembering Trevor was still present.
"Trev, do you mind?"
"Not at all cupcake. Not-at-all." Trevor says with a creepy chuckle. You stare him down so he realises you're serious and he rolls his dark coffee coloured eyes and faces his back to you. You throw your clothes on as quickly as you can and toss the blanket back onto the sofa. You slip your phone into your pocket and sit yourself on the sofa to tie your shoes.
"Ok. You can look now" Trevor turns and is about to give you another cheeky quip before you interrupt him. "By the way Trevor, can you tell me why I woke up practically naked in your strip club please?" You cannot for the life of you recall a memory from beyond the night club you visited and you don't remember removing any item of clothing.
"You don't remember?" Trevor says with a serious look.
"No." You massaged your temples of your skull for some relief.
"Are you sure?" Trevor was dragging this on as long as he could. He leaned against the desk opposite the sofa you sat on. You had to look up at him.
"YES I'M SURE! Can you just tell me please?!"
"You stripped yourself darlin'. I had nothing to do with de-clothing you." Trevor raised his palms.
"I stripped... myself?... Why?"
"You wanted to strip." Trevor verified as he crossed his arms. He seemed to be keeping in a laugh to himself about something you had no idea about.
"I know. You just said that. I'm just trying to remember why-" Bits of last night came rushing back to you. When they did, you gasped in horror at what you eventually remember. You spoke whilst exhaling. "... NOOO"
"YEEEESSS!" Trevor was delighted at your embarrassment.
"Please tell me I didn't. PLEASE" You tried hiding your face.
"I'm sorry to say sugar, well; actually I'm not sorry, that you did in fact walk down the stripper stage wearing just those lacy panties."
"In front of people?" You squeaked from behind your hands. Trevor nodded sympathetically but then couldn't stop himself from exploding from laughter. You peak through the gaps in between your fingers and speak. "Are you sure?"
"You gave my girls a run for their money let me tell you. Look, I'll show you the security footage if you like." Trevor was revelling in tormenting you and may as well have skipped to the computer to bring up the footage of last night. You lowered your hands and stood next to Trevor as the two of you watched the show from last night. You saw yourself staggering and stumbling on stage and try to swing on the pole at the end of the runway, only to fall off disgracefully hit your head on the railing below you. You reach for the back of your skull and wince from the forgotten pain from the bump. "See! Naked. Naked. Naked. Naked." Trevor points at the monitor as he presses a key on the keyboard so the footage cuts to different angles.
"Wait, that can't be me" You point at the screen. Trevor looks at you unsure what conclusion you were about to come to. "I don't have a tattoo there- OW" You poke a sore area at the top of your left breast with the tips of your fingers. You're confused as to why you felt pain and look down your top and stare at your skin in horror. You lick your thumb and try to rub at your skin but it was permanent and you winced as you touched it. You're distracted enough to not notice Trevor trying to peek down your shirt also. You drop the material of your shirt and place your palm on your eyelids.
"I forgot about that." Trevor pointed at your breast and spoke. You watched his face light up as he reminisced about the night before. "You dragged us to a tattoo place before we came back here. Begged the guy to draw something, what was it?"
"It's a black scorpion." You reply with an annoyed shrug. You then glance at Trevor's hands resting on the keyboard. You notice he has a very similar scorpion tattoo on his right hand in between his thumb and index finger. "It's the same one on your hand!" You point at Trevor's hand and he looks down at it with a frown then back at you. You sigh and pull your t-shirt down to only reveal the scorpion tattoo. Trevor was only allowed to glance at it for a couple seconds before you position the material back over to cover the tattoo. It seemed to align with Trevor's on his hand as if he was cupping your breast. "I bet you put me up to this." You say through your teeth.
"Probably, but I can't remember sugar." Trevor replies with a cheerful tone. It makes your blood boil. He stands up straight, away from the computer screen and leads you to the back door of the office.
"Where are we going now?" You ask as you shield your eyes from the blinding sunlight. You follow Trevor to his red pickup truck parked around the front of the building. Trevor replies as he gets close to his car.
"De Santa residence. I said I'd get you home, and what am I if not a man of my word? Michael will be worried sick!" Trevor said as he sat in the driver's seat and closed the door. You study his choice of vehicle. You're curious as to why there's a one eyed teddy bear wearing a thong pinned to the front grill of the truck, but decide to go with why there's no roof to the car. You climb into the car with Trevor and point with your thumb to where the roof should be.
"What if it rains?"
"Then you'll get wet." Trevor said harshly. His bluntness made you laugh. Laughing made your head hurt. You pull your seatbelt down and lock it in place and Trevor puts his keys in the ignition. Soon the two of you were arguing over which radio station to listen to whilst Trevor drove erratically through traffic.
You recognise the familiar curved driveway of Tracey's house and before the car came to a hard stop Trevor punches the horn a few times to signal your arrival. You remove yourself from the truck and watch as Tracey races out the front door. She hangs up her phone and calls back into the house confirming it is you returning. She runs from the door to hug you. You're nearly pushed backward from the amount of force Tracey hit you with. Amanda emerges and then Michael looking as furious as one another. Tracey lets go of you and walks with you back to the house. Amanda stops Tracey from taking you inside. Trevor steps out and stands in front of his truck to observe.
"Just a minute Tracey," Amanda holds her arm out. Tracey doesn't argue. You watch Amanda turn to you. "Y/N where have you been?!"
"With Trevor." Amanda glances at Trevor and he smiles proudly. She gives him a disgusted look.
"I can see that." She turns back to you expecting more of an explanation. You don't give one so Amanda continues to speak. "Look Y/N I can't control what you do in your spare time. You're not a child and I'm not your mother, but the college did assign us as your guardians whilst you're studying. If you're going to live in our home you have to tell us when you'll be out all hours of the night. You can come and go as you please just give us a heads up next time and answer your phone."
"Yes Mrs De Santa. Sorry."
"What the fuck were you doing with Trevor anyway? Jimmy said he saw you two get in a car with Franklin." Michael piped up. He began speaking directly to you but soon turned to Trevor who answered for you.
"Well, that's none of your concern Mikey boy." Trevor snapped back.
"It is my concern when it involves her! We're her guardians T. For Christ sake, she looks like she's been taking meth or some shit." Michael strains his voice. Amanda and Tracey look at Trevor for a reply. You worry and look to Trevor in horror. Trevor shakes his head at you and you sigh with relief.
"She hasn't been taking meth, calm down sugar tits."
"Then what were you doing? She doesn't look well T." You were getting annoyed how much Michael was talking to others about you in front of you, but not actually talking directly to you. You're patience was short due to your hangover.
"HEY. I can speak for myself!" You shout. Michael is surprised and looks at you waiting for your next word. "It doesn't matter where I've been or what I did. It's done. I don't have to answer to you or Mrs De Santa, sorry, Amanda. I'm sorry I didn't answer my calls, that was stupid and reckless and it won't happen again. I would like to keep living here if you'll have me; your home and family are lovely but I don't need to be checked up on."
"Clearly!" Michael replies with sarcasm. "I mean, you look fine! You can barely stand."
"I drank alcohol, that's all I did. I've seen plenty of other adults drink alcohol." You shot back.
"Well that's not all you did..." Trevor mumbles. Thankfully only you heard it. Michael doesn't know what else to say. Amanda waits for anyone else to add anything before she places her hand on your shoulder.
"Y/N what Michael's trying to say is that we were worried. We would be the ones in the shit with the college if we lost you. From now on please tell me if you decide you need to get away. Ok?" Amanda tries to defuse the situation and rubs the side of your arm then smiles at you.
"I will." You smile back.
"Let me put mine and Michael's numbers in your phone so if you can't reach me you can reach Michael." You pass your phone to Amanda and she puts the numbers into your contacts and hands your phone back to you.
"You have my number right?" Tracey finally feels it's safe to speak.
"Yes. You gave it to me yesterday in class." You smile at her.
"Oh yeah! Ok I'm going inside. Nice to see you again Uncle Trevor!" Tracey waves goodbye to Trevor and disappears inside with Amanda.
"You too Tracey." Trevor says with a genuine smile. Amanda rudely tries to ignore Trevor as she makes her way inside but he's aware of this and waves her goodbye. "BYE BYE AMANDA!" Trevor begins walking back to the driver's seat and opens the door.
"Thanks Trevor." You say as he gets into his truck.
"My pleasure Y/N." Trevor nods and starts his car. He stretches his chunky arm over the headrest of the passenger seat, and his neck over his shoulder to reverse his car out of Michael's drive and leaves. Once Trevor is out of sight, you turn back to face Michael.
"How are you not completely and utterly shit scared of him?" Michael asks bluntly.
"I dunno." You shrug whilst looking at your feet. You're giddy from spending time with Trevor but also from being so tired. You look into Michael's baby blue eyes. "How are you not shit scared of him?"
"I am." Michael replies as he lets you enter his home first. He shakes his head as he follows you in. The front door swings back and closes.