The Turner was a loud bar with a lot of multicolored lights bouncing off the different colored bottles and mirrors that decorated the walls. It was like living in what muggles referred to as a "disco ball." Lyla grabbed Charlie's hand and pulled him along behind her to the bar.
"Hi-aye Jack!" she shouted to the thin, lanky male bartender wearing dark lines around his eyes. She hoisted herself onto the bar and leaned over to kiss him on both cheeks. "This is my friend Charlie!" she said, putting her hand on his bicep and rubbing her thumb against his skin "He's only in town for a little bit so I had to bring him here!"
"Sorigh Lollie!" Jack nodded, shaking Charlie's hand "Yew gunta mayk som byewtifoll baybees tugeffa?" he winked at Charlie who looked befuddled
"Stuff it ya queen!" Lyla shrieked and threw a napkin at him. Jack stuck his tongue out at her and she mimicked him. He disappeared behind the bar going to make them each a couple of drinks.
"What'd he say?!" Charlie asked, bending down to Lyla's ear
"Oh nothing" she replied, pursing her lips and rolling her eyes "He's a joker"
"A joker about what though?" Charlie asked concernedly
Lyla sighed and turned to face him, "Jack asked if we were going to make beautiful babies together"
Charlie thought about how, five years ago, he would've blushed at a comment like that. After having grown into the strong, confident person he was today and living as a friend to Lyla while they were in school, not having heard from her in the years since their graduation, then, reunited with her again today he knew in his heart that he loves her as much as he did the day he met her on the Hogwarts Express, despite the distance she had put between them over the years.
"Probably" he said, his tone even, as he stared into her eyes. She furrowed her brow and twitched, her face turning away from his. At that moment Jack returned with two short glasses of deep blue liquid with a dense mist resting on top of it.
Lyla picked hers up quickly and gulped it down, avoiding eye contact with Charlie. He was smirking down into his drink, thinking about how the tables had so neatly turned between them.
"Ha" Lyla gasped as she set the glass back down on the table "Well we both know I'm not the mothering type." She hopped off the chair and over to the dance floor. There were always at least twenty people in The Turner, most of them ragamuffins from the day or week before who had no where to go and no desire to be anywhere else or, simply, didn't know what time it was to leave.
As Lyla twirled around the dancefloor with another female, Charlie finished his drink slowly, and solemnly his eyes moving between her and the glass in his hands. By the time he had finished he had gained back his resolve, forcefully put the glass down on the bar and moved toward Lyla on the dancefloor. He roughly grabbed her arm, the solid, uneven callouses on the heel of his hands scraping against her smooth, tan skin. He flung her arm around his neck and rested his hands on her strong hip bones, just above the top of her jeans.
Lyla rolled her neck backward, loosening her hair from the lace fabric of her bralette and flexed her strong arms, moving her body closer to Charlie's as they danced together, her breasts and stomach now resting against his chest and abdomen. Charlie tried to make his legs move with hers as the rhythm of her hips travelled through his fingertips, the friction making his hands hot against her skin.
Jack made his way to the dancefloor with a tray of two shots in two rows of two and held it out to Lyla and Charlie. Lyla grabbed the first, rose colored shot glass off the tray, her sensual embrace with Charlie now broken.
"Oooh! It bubbles!" Lyla said with a giggle after putting the now empty glass back on the tray. "Try it Charlie!"
He drank the shot rather reluctantly but was persuaded by her delightful effervescence. They then took a clear shot with miniscule purple spheres in it that dissolved when they hit the tongue. Lyla squealed and threw her arm around Jack's shoulders and nuzzled her face drunkenly in his stubbled cheek. Charlie smiled glumly and gestured that he was going to the restroom, leaving the two of them together.
In the black rimmed mirror Charlie stared at his own blue eyes, frustrated and wounded. When the door opened he dropped his eyes to the sink and pretended to have been washing his hands. As the door closed behind the new occupant of the bathroom the music from outside was blocked out once more. Out of the corner of his eye Charlie saw Jack standing against the door, inspecting his dark, blue nails so he made a quick move to the dryer but Jack cut in front of him again.
"Cawm dayn mate" Jack said when he saw the flare in Charlie's eye "Ahy mean yor mahy type an all but Ahy appen to be awayes dat you got ayes fer somone else." Charlie's eyes narrowed but then he looked down at his feet, embarrassed. "Leesen," Jack put his arm on Charlie's shoulder and Charlie looked back up at him. "Lollies mahy gerl...an Ahy wirries abat er, Ahy really, really do. She's so cut aff frum da werld and keeps erself in such a tite box. But Ahy can tell...Ahy can tell she don wanta ahnee more. An Ahy can tell that she feels sumthin fer you. Nahw, Ahy dunnoe if it's ahny kienda feelin o consequence but dat gerl is mahy soulmate an I can tell wen her soul is areachin out fer anotter." Charlie swallow hard. "Wut do ya need fram er?" Jack asked urgently "You wan er to luv ya? You wan er to sleep wit ya?"
Charlie was quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time as Jack stared at him. "I - I want to hear the truth from her. I haven't heard her tell the truth in almost ten years. Not even to simple questions like, 'Are you okay?' I - I just want her to tell me the truth"
Jack smiled knowingly and dabbed his right eye with a blue velvet handkerchief, "Ahy kno wut you mean. Leeve it to me" Then he opened the door and entered back into the club.
