Chapter 5
Awkward
I watched the band play it's last set while serving drinks across the bar. Jagger came in and whispered something to Jason who left afterwards. When he came up to me he asked me, "How're the drinks coming?" Even with all the heavy metal music blasting, Jagger's voice wasn't hard to miss when he was close enough. With his shoulder length white hair with blood-red tips, and different colored eyes; one blue, the other green, he was the kind of guy whose presence demanded notice.
"Quick. We have a full house tonight and the orders were piling up for a while, but now everyone seems to be enjoying the entertainment." Then I told him about Alexander being back and asked him if he knew about it. He was quiet for a while, as if he was choosing his words carefully. I didn't really know anyone else who I can talk to about it. So with Jagger and Alexander being frienemies, I would entertain his thoughts on the subject.
"Raven, is everything okay with you and Alexander? Now that he's back, I mean."
"I really don't think anything will be okay between us for a long time. Why? What do you know?" I asked suspiciously. Jagger couldn't possibly know about our meeting. Was he hiding something? It wouldn't be the first time.
I watched as he turned to look around at the customers of his establishment. A smile grew on his face when he noticed something and I would have loved to wring his neck for avoiding my questions. "He's here," he said before facing me again. "Let's treat him to a drink, shall we?" Jagger started to walkout from behind the bar and made a beeline to where ever Alexander must have been. That little snake was starting to make my blood boil. It's a good thing that the clubsters were coming in for drinks or I would have ducked out to let Jason take over.
"Two Blood Shots!" I heard someone shout.
I asked, "Virgin or Non?" Virgin for humans and 'Non- was for… well, non-humans, vampires.
"Non." They answered. I noticed it was a familiar female's voice, so I looked up to see who the vampire was.
Scarlett. She moved in with Sebastian and stopped talking to me when Onyx left. "What flavor?"
"One O.P. and one B.P." That was O positive and B positive. It was another way to differentiate between humans and would ask for a fruity flavor, since the vampire clients requested blood types.
"Give me two minutes," I told her. She just sat there on the bar stool while Sebastian came up and wrapped his arms around her. Through my peripheral vision, I saw Jagger walk up to the bar with Alexander from the right, and Luke with his band coming in from the left. This was all moving way too fast and I wasn't ready to do any introducing and explaining with the heavy air coming. I'm just a bartender. No familiarities, no small talk, no running into the bathroom to throw up and hide. You can do this Raven.
"Well, well, well. Raven, look who's back in town!" Jagger, you heartless little snake. I thought.
Without emotion, or looking up, I casually spoke like I would for any customer. "I see. What can you get you guys?" I asked as I passed Scarlett her drinks. She passed over a twenty, without so much as a 'thank you'.
Jagger continued to taunt a reaction out of me when he said, "let's treat Alexander, here, to the new special." I looked up in time to see Alexander staring at me, and stupid Sebastian give him a slap on his back for encouragement.
"Hey," I said to him. Hey? Who the hell says 'hey' at this point? I just saw him and had a total meltdown and the best I could do is 'hey'?
Alexander decided to play along for my sake I guess, though the amusement was highly evident on his face. "I didn't know you were working here, Raven," he commented.
"Why would you not have come to avoid me?" Harsh. I couldn't help it. Luke was coming and I was getting nervous. I saw everyone look like there was something interesting going on with their nails or the floor as they avoided being nosey. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that. Just having a bad night-"
And it just got worse. Luke was here.