An Eye for an Eye **LT**

Chapter 6

Louis' POV-

I hadn't heard from Cecilia all day, but I didn't want to text her first, just in case Jacob was around and saw our conversation. Sure I'm not the best guy in the world, but I always respect a guy and his relationship. Or, I guess, I just didn't want him hurting Cecilia if he saw our communications...

I could admit, I liked her, but like I said said, she only deserved the best, and I definitely had my flaws and had made decisions I wasn't proud of. Certainly, I am not any sort of guy this girl deserved. But I definitely was a better man than Jacob, if we were to compare.

Pretty much the whole day had gone on without hearing anything from her at all, so I went to a bar other than the one I worked at, to try and get my mind off everything. Not just Cecilia and Jacob, but also my overloaded work schedule. Only a couple other times had I been to this particular bar before. Most of the bars I went to were for either for a party, or to hang out with some of my co-workers, however, I mainly liked to drink at my own home. This wasn't the safest place in the city to drink, for sure.

I walked through the single glass door of the tiny bar, which almost seemed tucked away in the alley, and walked straight toward the counter. Sliding in the stool, I locked my feet onto the foot rail. Up on the television, commercials were playing, and a dim, green light glowed from the ceiling. Loud music was flooding out of the back room, and the sounds of clanging dishes and glasses filled my ear coming both from the kitchen as well as the bar top.

Multiple people were here as well-mostly locals from this part of the city. Half of them had dark hoods pulled up over their heads, hiding their faces in a shadow for presumably dark reasons. This was the bad part of town. Pretty much anything you could think of goes down here, it's that bad. The worst part of is, a lot of the people seem to get away with it.

The bartender, who was probably in his mid 50's and bald-walked over to me from behind the counter and gestured to the menu that was written in chalk on the wall behind him.

"What do you want?" he asked in a gruff voice, looking me up and down.

I dug my pack of cigarettes from my back pocket and slid out one of the sticks, sliding it between my teeth. "Moscow Mule"

He narrowed his eyes at me before turning around without saying a word. 

I retrieved my lighter from my front pocket and held it to the tip of my cigarette before flicking the button to trigger a flame. I sucked in, drawing in the smoke and replacing the lighter to my pocket. Feeling eyes on me, I looked out of the corner of my eye to see multiple gazes. I wasn't the only one smoking inside, so I wasn't quite sure why they were looking at me so hard. Perhaps because I obviously did not belong here.

Ignoring them, I took another drag from my cigarette as the bartender slid my drink down to me. In my nose, the spices wafted even before the first sip.

Bringing the cocktail to my lips, I drew in a small sip. It wasn't as good as the Moscow Mules I made myself, but it was still good. The warn, burning sensation of the alcohol mixed with lime and spices running down my throat brought a tiny smile to my lips.

From across the bar top, a bunch of middle aged men burst into laughter, catching me off guard and making me jump a little. I felt a little embarrassed at my reaction and placed my cigarette back between my teeth, gently biting down on it.

The smoke swirled between the crack in my lips-twisting up toward the ceiling like two magnets. As the vapor faded, I turned my face down to my drink, running my fingers along the cold condensation droplets on the glass. 

Cecilia. Even her name was so attractively unique that I wanted to say it over and over, even if it was just in my head. No one I had ever met had had that name. In fact the only two places I'd ever heard that name were in songs: Oh, Cecilia and Cecilia and the satellite.