I Love You More Than I'm Afraid (Our Forevers #2) by Rebel Hart (the first e reader .txt) 📕

swing out. A few seconds later, the overhead lights turned off, and the ambient lighting came on. It gave the entire place a deep purple tint, track lighting giving the bar and seating area enough light to navigate. Firefly flights swirled their way around the dance floor in a variety of colors. The Undersound in its true glory.

Too dark to see much of anything.

Rather than heading back behind the bar, Suli came over and leaned backwards on the barstool next to the one I’d taken. She propped her elbows up on the bar and looked over at me. She studied me for a second, then stuck out her hand and poked at the bags under my eyes. “You’re stressed.”

I shook my head. “No, not too bad. My parents flipped their shit this morning, but when do they not?”

“I keep telling you to just come stay with me. You’re legal now, so there’s no worries about that. You should feel lucky, you’re literally the only person younger than me that I’d tolerate like that.”

“I do feel lucky,” I said, “but no, thanks. In a way, I feel like my sisters kinda need me anyway. One of ‘em is gay for sure. I don’t know what’s gonna happen when I’m gone, so I’m sticking it out for her.”

Suli shook her head. “Superhero Arden at it again.”

I tipped my drink. “It’s a hard job, but somebody’s gotta do it.”

She leaned in like she wanted to kiss me, and though it wasn’t entirely what I wanted, it felt like a good way to shove my mind as far from Hannah as possible. We were interrupted by the front door opening, however, and Suli scowled before getting up to rush behind the bar as the trickle of people slinking into The Undersound for the night began.

I kept myself seated at the bar for the next couple of hours as the bar slowly filled with more and more people. Most of the people I recognized as regulars who came to the bar as frequently as I used to, but there were some newbies, a few of whom sized me up. There were always gatekeepers who hated seeing underage people. Typically fresh 21-year-olds who felt like they’d earned the right to party and didn’t want to be bothered by someone just a few years younger than them. They didn’t worry me much, but it would be bad if anyone figured out I was underage, so I flagged Suli down.

“Ready for another one?” she said when she came over.

“Yeah,” I answered. “But I’m gonna go to one of the booths. There are some lookers.”

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll bring it over. I think I saw Darton dip into one. Go find him.”

“Cool.”

I hopped down from the barstool and made my way down the few stairs onto the dancefloor. There weren’t many people there, but enough that I had to slip and slide my way through. Along the right side of the dancefloor were the skeezy owner’s attempt at making an extra dime, the “Caves.” They were V.I.P. rooms that were better described as hovels with Ikea furniture. They did have curtains that could be pulled to create some semblance of privacy, and they were advertised with bottle service. That said, the owner tried to charge hundreds of dollars for them, when they were basically closets. No more than four or five people could fit into one, so they weren’t good for big groups, which meant they were hardly ever rented out. For this reason, Suli and my small circle of friends usually camped out in one, in general for privacy, but specifically to keep anyone from seeing that I wasn’t 21.

One of the booths had the curtain drawn, so I pushed it aside and poked my head inside. The booth had a couple of occupants already, including Darton, Suli’s high school best friend. It was shocking that he wasn’t a wrestler or something with his broad shoulders, tree-trunk arms, and incredible body mass, but he defied the stereotype by being a techie. He reviewed all the newest gadgets so he always had the nicest stuff, one of which he was holding, his attention totally focused on the screen.

“Another new phone?” I asked.

The woman next to him, his girlfriend Polly, rolled her green eyes and shook her head of red hair. “I tried to tell him not to, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He said he had to have the new series immediately.”

I slipped into the booth and climbed up onto the back of the u-shaped couch that lined the wall inside, and scooted over until I could look down over Darton’s shoulder. “What’s so nice about this one?” I asked.

Without responding, or even acknowledging me verbally, Darton flicked a finger against the side of the screen and it flipped sideways, turning the top half into its own screen and the bottom into a different one. He was able to keep playing the game he was on via the top screen while scrolling through social media on the bottom screen.

“Ooh,” Polly said. “Okay, that is pretty cool.”

“I already ordered you a rose gold one,” Darton responded.

Polly flashed me a wide-grin and I rolled my eyes, hissing, “Brat,” at her, but she knew it was true and didn’t quip back.

Suli kept the drinks flowing for Darton, Polly, and me, and within the next hour I was carrying a delightful high. It was that “not quite tanked, but already past buzzed” place: perfect. The stress of school, my parents, and Hannah quickly drifted from my mind and made me glad I’d come at Suli’s invitation. The kickback was certainly needed.

Around eight o’clock, the conversation we were carrying was interrupted by a commotion from outside. Voices lifted as people started murmuring a bit louder, and someone not far from our booth said, “There he is! I told you. He’s easily the most beautiful man in the world!”

I smiled at the comment, knowing exactly who had arrived to cause such a stir.

Darton let