Chapter 11

Here we were, Friday night again and my friends were making sure I wasn't going to spiral back to my bad habits.

Apparently my good behaviour warranted a treat so they decided to bring me to this more-pub-than-club bar. The whole gang was here again. Tyler and Van. Lexi and Blake. Daphnee and Josh. Alex and Travis. And once again, my pathetic and alone self.

So here we were sitting at a too small booth for the four couples and myself, and obviously Daphnee had decided that sitting on my lap was the right option to deal with this predicament.

Her baby daddy didn't seem to care. Daphnee had told the gang about her pregnancy so since it wasn't a secret anymore, she'd basically announced that I was the sort-of-doctor of the group and I had to watch out for baby Torres all evening long. She was actually keeping my hand on her stomach, to keep watch.

Also, she said we had to suffer together because we both weren't allowed to drink.

Taking me to a bar on a Friday night without letting me drink was definitely more of a torture than a treat.

I hated my friends.

Also...

"Guys, I think we seriously need to appreciate this moment. I'm the ninth wheel. Ninth wheel!" I told them.

"This wouldn't happen if you brought your damn boyfriend. Stop playing around with his poor feelings," Alex told me.

"I actually brought my two boyfriends," I gladly informed him, glaring at Tyler and Blake, "it's not my fault that they brought dates of their own."

"Blakina isn't listening," Tyler informed me. Sure enough, he was just staring at his wife. She was wearing a cute outfit, but I didn't look like the kind of thing that should take away all of his mental skills. But when did anything ever make sense when these two came into play?

"Lexi, look at what you did to the poor guy," Alex said.

"Hey, I think it's been established that I can't control that boy," she answered.

"On the contrary, I think the years have shown that Blake is entirely your bitch," Josh replied.

"Music to my ears," Blake said, ignoring everyone.

"We got four words ladies and gentleman!" Tyler shouted, making everyone laugh.

We kept chatting around and teasing each other. I was drinking sad mocktails with Daph.

A girl walked up to our table. Black hair, cherry lips, cute top ands short skirt but most of all, kind eyes.

"Hey, I couldn't help but notice your odd number. Mind if I join you guys?" she asked with a small smile. Clearly, it had taken a lot of courage to come up to a table full of strangers and try to strike up a conversation. I liked it.

Her eyes zeroed on Josh, assuming that he was the one not in a couple because of the way everyone was paired up. I did have his wife on my laps. Singling out Josh was a very dangerous thing to do in a bar though.

"Actually, he's the one that's single here," Josh said, pointing at me.

Wait, I was given the mic? Suddenly I wanted to be silly and reckless. I didn't want to be myself. The hell with filters, I tried not having one with my friends, I should start doing it with strangers too. "I'm not really single. The nine of us are in a polyamorous relationship. I'm actually the leader of a sex cult and these are all my sex slaves."

She snorted a little. "Ha ha, real funny."

Before I could grin and say thanks, Josh automatically said "Oh, he's not lying."

"I'm actually just sitting on his lap to hide his erection from everyone," Daphnee automatically added.

Lexi didn't miss a beat and said, "And anyway, he's more interested in men. He never touches us during our orgies, he's only ever playing with balls."

Daph kissed my cheek and said, "But at least he lets us look."

God dammit, I shouldn't have opened the doors for them. "They're all joking," I tried to tell the poor girl.

"We're really not," Travis said.

"Nik please, take us on this table right now," Josh started to beg.

And now everyone was fake throwing themselves at me, pulling at my shirt in all directions.

The poor girl took that as her cue to get the hell away from us.

When she felt at a safe enough distance, my friends let me go, grinning contently.

I glared at them. "Are you guys going to be cockblocking me for the rest of my life? Because if I can't ever date anyone, one of you better start pulling out"

"Clearly, I volunteer as tribute," Daphnee gladly informed me.

"I can't believe you eloped with her," I told Josh.

He ignored the quip and just told me, "Hey, you won't be the strangest addition to our weekend threesomes."

"Foursomes now babe," Daph reminded him, stroking her belly.

I rolled my eyes. "You two are clearly made for each other."

"Thank you," they both answered together.

"But I mean it, are you guys going to stop me from dating for the rest of my life?" I pressed.

"Just until you get your life together," Alex answered before taking a sip from his beer.

"He can date, but he can't put out until the ninth date," Vanessa added.

I choked on my saliva. "Ninth?"

Tyler grinned, obviously content with that. "You're the ninth wheel, makes sense to me."

"I need a beer," I whined, throwing my head back.

"No beer for the recovering alcoholic," Josh said happily, booping my nose.

I glared at all of them again. "I hate you guys."

"Stop whining. You're lucky we're even letting go out at all," Tyler informed me.

I guessed this was what it would feel like to have four sets of parents.

We talked and joked around more. At one point my friends wanted to get out of the booth.

Blake and Lexi disappeared to go make out in a corner. Everyone else was on the small dance floor having fun. I told them that I was going to the bathroom, but I went back to the booth.

Instead, I just sat there and looked at my friends having fun. Like the odd guy out. I didn't fit in with them, not really. That was my eternal bane. I never quite fitted in anywhere. I could have gone with them, I didn't need to distance myself, but it was like a reflex.

My eyes fell on the girl that had come up to our table earlier. She was talking with her friends at her table and then she left them, heading to the bar.

I made my way to her.

I stood beside her and she gave me a surprised "Oh," when she saw me.

I smiled. "Hi again."

She smiled back. "Hi"

"Sorry about my friends earlier, we're all kind of crazy," I told her.

She chuckled. "I figured. It's okay, you guys are funny."

"We do think so."

She narrowed her eyes a bit. "And you're really single?"

"Yep, completely alone."

"Poor boy," she answered teasingly. She caught the attention of the barman at that point and ordered her drink, before bringing her attention back to me. "Well, if you want to change that sometimes," she reached her hand behind me and grabbed my phone from my back pocket. She grabbed my hand and pressed my thumb on the home bottom before going to my contacts to add her number, "here I am."

I smiled down at her. I liked her boldness.

The barman handed her her drink. "I need to get back to my friends now," she said.

"I should probably go back to mine," I replied.

We waved at each other a little and parted ways.

I went back to the booth. Before I could even sit down, Vanessa went to grab me and drag me to the dance floor. I humoured her and danced with my friends, still somehow feeling empty.

When the bar came close to closing hours, we headed out. They all had apartments to go back to together. I was pretty sure Tyler wasn't going to go back to our dorms tonight and he would go stay at Van's. Everyone else had their own places together.

It was so easy for them to be sanctimonious on my life when theirs was so perfect. They couldn't understand how it felt, to be the odd one out all the time when their lives were this figured out.

As we were all saying our goodbyes Tyler said, "Hey, want us to share a cab back to the dorms?"

I shrugged a shoulder. "No, it's fine. I was actually thinking about just going back home tonight, not sleep in a single bed for once."

"You sure?" he pressed.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Alright..."

I waved at my friends and walked away.

As I started to make my way back to my penthouse, I fidgeted with my phone. I wanted to call the girl from the bar and tell her I didn't want to be alone. I wanted to call Chloe and beg her to lift that Tyler ban on our extracurricular activities. I wanted to have sex, with anyone really. I just didn't want to be alone. I wanted the illusion of closeness it brought me and the fake sense that someone loved me. I wanted the escape even if everything about it wasn't real. I just wanted to feel something other than the utter emptiness there always was in the middle of my chest.

But I would disappoint my friends if I did. I didn't want to have sex with someone specific, I just wanted sex. I would have taken it from anyone offering, hell even if a dude had a good enough offer I might have taken him up on it. Anything not to feel alone and unwanted.

But my friends thought I was better than this that I should want more than this. So I tucked my phone in my back pocket and quickened my pace, like I could run away from the coldness in my heart.

_________

A/N: Hey guys, sorry if this came out later than schedule. I had to spend a day at the hospital and then I had to catch up on sleep and yeah. Sorry. 

Hopefully this chapter will have been worth the wait. 

Thanks for your patience as always. I'm still behind on my schedule this week, an yes I will try to fix that within the next day. Sorry again.