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Twenty-One: Bachelor Party

Twenty-One: Bachelor Party

After ending the call with Beau, Wren stared blankly at the reflection of his own pale face in his darkened phone screen for a moment, mind a whirlwind of emotions. He was nervous about clubbing, certainly, and a little confused. Why had Beau asked him? Surely, Beau had plenty of friends he could ask to come with him, friends who probably knew what they were doing a lot better than Wren did.

Also, "mortal enemy"? It was hard to imagine Beau not getting along with anyone, let alone having such a poor relationship with them that he considered them an enemy. Beau was the type of person everyone liked. He was so naturally bubbly and kind that it was hard to view him in a negative light.

"Who was that?" Vincent asked from the side and Wren jolted, having been so lost in his thoughts that he forgot Vincent was still there.

"Beau," Wren answered easily, "he wants to go clubbing with me." After speaking, Wren frowned at himself.

Why did he tell him that? It was none of his business. Wren just blurted all that out point blank, but he didn't feel weird about it. It felt oddly natural to tell Vincent anything he wanted to know, which was odd, because he and Wren were still virtually strangers.

Vincent scowled, and Wren abruptly remembered that there was, in fact, someone who didn't like Beau, although Wren really couldn't fathom why Vincent felt that way. He hadn't seemed to like Beau from the get-go when they met at the grocery store.

"...Do you want to go clubbing with him?" Vincent asked eventually, analyzing Wren's face for a hint of discomfort, as if he was fully prepared to call Beau back and cancel for him. Wren pursed his lips and shrugged.

"Well...actually, it sounds like a terrible time. But Beau seems like he needs someone right now, so I suppose I'm going to go anyway," Wren muttered eventually, conflicted, and scrubbed a hand through his hair.

Vincent sighed, leaning back against the brick wall and crossing his arms over his chest. The blue lights popping on in the parking lot nearby illuminated half his face, which was worked into a scowl. He seemed a bit disgruntled, like he was unhappy with the situation, but Wren was drawing a blank as to why.

"Anyway...thanks for the cookies," Wren said, holding up the bag awkwardly. "I talked to my parents, and they've agreed to the meeting next week."

Vincent perked up a bit, eyebrows unfurrowing. "Good. That's good. We should probably meet up sometime before then, to get our stories straight."

Wren nodded and scratched his cheek. Thankfully, he was saved from having to come up with something else to say by Beau running up to him from the sidewalk, a large shopping bag hanging from his arm. His hair was a haphazard mess, and there was thick eyeliner ringing his eyes, making him look much more intense than usual. Apparently, when Beau said five minutes, he really meant five minutes.

Beau put the brakes on when he was close to Wren, but he didn't do it quite fast enough and ended up slamming into Wren's side. Since Beau was so much shorter and lighter than Wren, the push didn't move him much, and he remained solidly in place as Beau linked arms with him, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a puppy excited to play fetch.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," he burst out immediately, a little breathless from his sprint over. "Are you ready for this? We're going to have so much fun!"

There was a small scoff on the side, reminding Wren that Vincent was still there and alerting Beau to his presence. Beau's eyebrows immediately shot toward his hairline, and he threw a sideways glance at Wren that immediately made Wren blush. Late night rendezvous with your fake-boyfriend? His eyes seemed to say teasingly. Wren cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Nice to see you again," Beau said first. "Mind if I steal Wren for a bit? I'll return him in the same condition I found him, promise." He held out his pinky jokingly, and a delighted smile curved his lips when Vincent's eyes narrowed on him, a hint of white teeth showing as his lip curled.

...Wren was still a bit lost.

Vincent seemed to be biting his tongue on a response, swallowing it down after glancing at Wren. "Fine. I'll call you later and we can set up a time to talk some more."

Wren nodded, and Vincent pushed off the wall, giving one last hard glance at Beau before disappearing down the street. Beau watched him go with glinting eyes before turning back to Wren.

"What a hottie," he said with a dreamy sigh. "You're so lucky, Wren. Was his hair tussled like that when he got here or did you two make out?"

Wren blushed straight down to his toes, turning abruptly to go back inside. Beau's laughter followed him, and he caught up quickly, latching back onto Wren's arm.

"Just kidding. Anyway, I got some stuff for us to accessorize with before we go out. I didn't have time to do any clothes shopping, sadly, so we'll have to make do with whatever you already have, although I'm ninety percent sure your wardrobe entirely consists of t-shirts, jeans, sweatpants, and maybe like two dress shirts."

Wren blinked at him and didn't answer, because Beau was one hundred percent right with that assumption. But what was wrong with that? Was there a dress code at the club?

Beau blew a raspberry with his lips as they got onto the elevator, exasperated. "You're supposed to be sexy at the club, bestie. Everyone dresses a little slutty. I doubt you own anything that even shows your ankles."

Not true. Wren had running shorts. Although somehow, he doubted that anyone was wearing running shorts to a club, so he kept his mouth shut.

"And besides, this is your bachelor party. It's your chance to let loose before Vincent locks you down. We have to make you so stunning that every jaw in that club drops the second you walk in, got it?"

"I thought we were going because of your mortal enemy," Wren pointed out helpfully, and Beau immediately scowled, eyes glinting with angry fire. Wren was now even more curious about this person that could make Beau so upset.

"That too. But mostly it's for you to go out and have some reckless, naughty fun. But not too naughty. As hot as he is, I don't want Vinny to disembowel me. I'll keep the alphas off you as best I can, but we're definitely going to dance until we drop and probably get covered in glitter."

Wren wasn't really the dancing type. He was coordinated enough to probably dance fairly well, but the idea of trying to dance in close quarters with hundreds of sweaty strangers wasn't very appealing. Still, he supposed Beau had a point. How many more chances was Wren going to have to go out and do something like this?

They entered Wren's apartment a few moments later and Beau plopped the shopping bag he'd brought down on the coffee table, starting to take out piles and piles of jewelry, accessories, and makeup. Beau patted one of the couch cushions invitingly, but the crazy glint in his eyes was a little unnerving.

"Sit and let me work my magic. Oh, and remind me to take pictures when we're done. We'll need something to send to Vinny to make him lose his goddamn mind."

Wren swallowed hard and sat. He didn't want to rain on Beau's parade, but there was a ball in of nerves in his gut that said the night wouldn't go quite as Beau planned. He pushed it down and closed his eyes as Beau came at him with an eyeliner pencil.

Well. Here's to new experiences.