I try to hold it together whilst watching the absolute shit show unfold in front of me, I think I may be having my very first panic attack.
My sweet, kind, beautiful friend Jax is dating the female equivalent of well, an asshole and I just don't even know how to act.
I'm much too sober for this so my first act needs to be to skull a few shots to dull my senses, because I realise he is going to want to introduce us at some point and that is going to be as much fun as having my wisdom teeth out when I was sixteen.

Painful and annoying. Funny, because those are two words I would use to describe Ren. Those and a few other expletives that immediately spring to mind.

Damn it. Why. Why does she have to be one of those girls. We all know them. The ones who pretend to be all cool with their man being friends with girls until
they aren't. And then bam. Guy has to choose. And I have had this very situation way too many times to know that when it comes down to it, not many will choose the friend over the vagina. It's just how it is on the scope of importance for guys.

I have lost many a mate to the call of the vagina over the years. It's like a siren. Once they are hooked, once they hear it calling; they are doomed. And so is your friendship.

Well, at least until they come out the other side.

I snap out of my mind tumble in time to see the bartender looking my way with a perplexed expression. He follows my line of sight and notices me watching the scene before me. Pouring out a tray of tequila shots, he slides it down the bar and then comes to stand in front of me, sliding the tray over to me and handing me a shot.

"Let me take a stab in the dark here." He says, tipping his shot glass to mine and then throwing it back in unison with me.

"That's your mate over there and you didn't know he was with Ren? Am I correct?" He says, sucking on a wedge of lemon and handing me one too. I stuck the lemon into my mouth and wince at the bitterness. It's somewhat ironic as that's exactly how my emotional state is at this present moment.

Bitter with a side of bitch.

"You got it." I say with a nod, reaching for another shot.

He just laughs in response, slapping his hand on the bar before reaching for another shot.

"Damn! I'm good. Well, you better kiss your friend goodbye because there is no way in hell Ren is letting him stay friends with you." He says, waving his finger up and down in front of me in some sort of explanation of his point.

"What does that mean?" I ask, mimicking his gesture and pouring myself a glass of ice water from the jug at the bar. I need to not be a complete drunk mess when this showdown occurs. Liquid courage is one thing. Drunk and over confident is another.

"It means, you are gorgeous and she is jealous and your friendship is done." He says matter of factly and then slides the remaining drinks on the tray towards me before giving me a forlorn look and heading off to serve another patron.

I tip back another shot and then drag my phone out of my purse and send Candice a quick SOS text. Hopefully she isn't too deep into whatever it is she is up to, or he isn't too deep into her, and will come and help me slay the dragon.

I sit watching Jax and Ren for a few minutes and try to let this all sink in. I have so many thoughts running through my almost- drunk mind, a few I don't quite understand. He was so excited for me to meet her tonight and I hate to disappoint him. But it's more than that. The thought occurs to me that I'm maybe feeling a bit too much about this and I have no idea why. Maybe it's the doomed after glow of my crap almost relationship with Bayne. Or maybe it's the thought of losing my blooming friendship with Jax.

Whatever it is. It sucks.

As I'm about to slam down the last of the shots, I feel an arm slide around my shoulders and get a whiff of a very familiar sweet fragrance.

"I hope your life is in imminent danger because it was getting very hot and heavy back there and I could really have used the release." She says, taking the shot from my fingers, placing the tiny cup in her mouth and tossing her head back.

As I roll my eyes at her and begin to explain the drama regarding Jax and his girl, I notice Ren stalking towards us from the corner of my eye. When she sets her eyes on the blonde bombshell sitting next to me, her eyes shrink to slits and a scowl forms on her face.

I glance behind her, hoping to see Jax following but receive no such reprieve. He has disappeared with the band somewhere.
Looks like I'm about to have my third run in with her for the night.

Lucky me.

As Candice animatedly chats to the bartender who we now know is called Ian, I think about letting her know who we are about to be attacked by but I quickly decide it will be more interesting if I don't.

Devils advocate and all that. Besides, Candice can hold her own and then some.

Ian raises his eyebrows in quick succession giving me the heads up and I spin back to face the dance floor just as Ren completes her crossing and stops to stand in front of us.

"So I see you have stopped blowing the boss long enough to chat up your next unsuspecting victim who should be working the bar, not setting himself up for whatever STI you are carrying." Ren wastes no time spitting her venom at Candice and Ian, giving us the most obvious and over the top up and down all the while wearing the dirtiest of scowls.

If the remark hurt Candice, you wouldn't know. Her face is eerily calm and she wears the most placid of smiles. She looks over Ren, from her biker-chic boots, her tight dark jeans, all the way up to her slicked back blonde ponytail. She stands to make her point, unfolding her lean legs from the bar stool to meet Ren head on.

She licks her lips and smiles, looking back to her captive audience, Ian and I, before turning to Ren and leaning in close.

"Listen closely sweetheart, because I will only say this once. There is a reason girls like you work the bar and why girls like me, drink at the bar for free courtesy of your boss. And it's not what you think. It's because you are obviously as useless and uptight in the bedroom as you are at this job. If you were any good, you wouldn't be serving the drinks honey. You would be served them. Like me. Now be a good lass, run along and pour me a drink so I can tell your boss what a good little dog you are." She says sweetly and she hands Ren a dollar for good measure.

If it was possible for a person to combust from pure anger, I'm sure Ren would be the first. She is visibly shaking and her mouth opens and shuts like a fish as we stand there starting at each other.

Before she even gets a chance of rebuttal, a hand slinks around her waist and the familiar jovial face of Jax appears at her side.

"Babe! You beat me to it, I was just about to introduce you to my friends, this is Ellis and Candice. They came to meet us here tonight."
He says innocently, completely missing the venom dripping between the two girls standing opposite him.

"And how exactly do you know them?" She whisper strains, pointing her shaky finger between Candice and I and staring at Jax who now wears a confused and somewhat worried expression.

"Did I not tell you? Ellis is my running buddy and we train together sometimes, due to the girls being in the squad." He says, smiling like a proud big brother.

I audibly swallow and Candice wears the smuggest of smiles. This is not going to go over well at all.

"The cheer team?" She blurts out, like it's a dirty word, poking her finger at us again, earning a wink and a nod from Candice and a quiet chuckle from Ian who is still listening in behind us.

"Uh huh." Jax nods, a little more hesitant this time but still smiling. God he has no clue she is about to implode.

"Fuck no!" She yells at him and lets out a shrill sound that she meant to be some kind of evil laugh but came out as more of a cackle.

"Absofuckinglutely not!" She says, stalking around us and away from the bar, a stunned Jax shooting us a worried look before he follows her.

"Well she is lovely." Candice jokes as she sits back at the bar and we just shake our heads in disbelief.

"I can't believe he is with her. She is such a...."

"A bitch?" I finish for her and she nods.

"Such a witch!" She says and we both crack up hysterically.

"That she is. And that was fucking gold ladies. Now, I believe shots are in order." Ian says and we both nod in agreement.

***********

We don't see Jax or Ren again during our stay at the bar and I can only assume they went home and argued about how he couldnt be friends with the evil cheerleaders anymore.

I lose Candice to Dom once the bar begins to get more packed and I decide to call it a night when they start to get it on in the VIP.

I order an Uber and head out the front to wait when I see on the map that it should be here soon.

I bid Ian farewell and he nods me good luck with my Ren and Jax issue but still doesn't agree to poison her drink as we suggested.

As I wait out front for my ride, I hear the door to the club open and close and turn to see a familiar sleek ponytail swinging its way towards me.

"I suppose you thought that was funny tonight, setting me up like that." She slings the words at me, poison in her tone.

"What part of that did you think was fun Ren? When you abused me for no reason? Or belittled us in front of your boyfriend?" I say, not bothering to contain my contempt.

"That's right. MY boyfriend. You will not have anything else to do with him." She says, grabbing my arm and pulling me to face her.

"We will see what MY FRIEND thinks of that." I say, pulling my arm away from her and hoping my ride turns up soon.

"Stay away from him you slut." She snarls at me.

And I snap. Dropping my bag, I'm about to reach for her but a hard body jumps in my way and pushes her out of my face.

"She is not a slut. How dare you say something so fucking nasty when you don't even know her Ren." He says, shielding me from her glare.

"What, and you do?" She spits, laughing in his face.

"Yeah. I do. And so does Jax. And if you don't trust my opinion, you should at least trust his." He says slowly, turning to face me this time.

"Fuck you Bayne. You probably just want to fuck her. And you, stay away from Jax." Ren stares between the two of us before turning and making her way back into the club.

"Where did you come from?" I ask, slightly bewildered but also relieved. He saved me from getting in a fight. That would have gone a long way to ruining my friendship with Jax.

Though I would love to give that Ren a good slap. One day.

"Jax came home upset and explained what happened. I wanted to make sure you weren't getting yourself into trouble." He says with a small smug smile.

"Me? Never." I say. And then add a quick, "Thank you."

"Anytime." He says, kicking the ground in front of him, not able to look at me.

"This doesn't change things." I almost whisper and he nods in response.

He heard me.

"I know." He replies, looking at me this time.

The eye contact sends a shiver down my spine.

Just as things turn awkward, a car pulls up and stops in between us.

"Ellis?" She says with a smile as I nod, thankful for the interruption.

"I'm sorry for the delay, things got a little crazy." She laughs and I nod and smile in response.

"They sure did." I say, turning towards Bayne as I open the door to get in.

"Get home safe." He says and goes to turn to walk away.

My brain begins to work in over time. My head and my body working against each other.

Before I can think about it I blurt out;

"Want a ride?"

He stops and turns, seemingly thinking it over before offering a shy smile and hopping in next to me in the back seat.

"Thanks." He says, sliding his hand across the seat so that it touches my leg ever so slightly as we take off for the dorm.

"Anytime." I say, trying not to want him to touch me but wishing like fuck that he would. Just that one small point of contact and I have all of the feels.

What is wrong with me.

Pic above is Ren.

I'm sorry it took so long to update! So much going on!

What do you think of Ren?
What should Jax do?

If you haven't seen on my profile, I'm part of a collaborative work started by vayavaitsis
13 different authors, one story line, one amazing ride! It's called Twisted Thrills, have a read and let me know what you think!

Ali xxx