Game Theory × NH

091 | protactinium

× Horan

Friday night and Jace and I were at The Courtyard Bar.

The place was pretty busy, making the two of us huddle at the end of the bar just to have a conversation. I saw Lynn's friend, Jillian, taking orders and cleaning tables, along with her boss and other co-worker I didn't know the name of. I knew Lynn wasn't going to be working; she's probably in her room getting ready at that moment.

There must have been a special I didn't know about, ladies night, perhaps, because the amount of girls in the bar was an unusual amount than normal. Lynn's boss, Finn, was taking full advantage of it as he kept refilling women's drinks and saying it was on the house.

"Oh!" Jace said abruptly, like he just remembered something. "Did I tell you? Hazel is doing really well with her chemotherapy. She's not getting so sick anymore, though she's almost lost all her hair. But she's being pretty optimistic about it all."

"That's great," I said, offering him a small smile. "Will she be at the gallery tonight?"

"Yeah, she hasn't been to one before so she's buzzing."

I raised my beer in the air in a salute and took a sip. I've talked to Hazel a couple of times when Jace was with her, and regardless of her being this utmost, raging bitch for hurting Jace the way she did in secondary school, she was pretty cool. And I hated her for that. But she definitely didn't deserve to have cancer. No one deserves that.

Two girls came up to us then, a blonde with a nice ass and a pretty Asian with the warmest brown eyes I had ever seen. They didn't look familiar, but that didn't mean they didn't go to the same school. It was a big university. And for as much as I paid attention, they could very well be in my chemistry class for all I knew.

"Hey," the blonde purred, leaning down on the counter next to me, making sure to tug down her tight shirt to expose her chest even more than it already was. "You're Niall Horan and Jace Layton, right?"

I looked her up and down leisurely. "Maybe. Who's asking?"

"I'm Christina," she said and gestured to her friend. "And this is Gracie. We were hoping maybe you two could give us a good time."

I looked over at Jace even though I already knew what he was thinking. This wasn't going to happen. But I didn't tell the girls that, instead, I decided to string them along. I wanted to see what exactly they were asking for.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked with a lazy smile.

Gracie moved in closer to her friend, making sure to rub her body against the blonde like it would arouse us from girl-on-girl touching or something.

"We heard some rumors that you two like to have some fun," she said, her warm eyes looking directly into mine. "You get around; thought we could get in on it."

I wasn't even a little surprised that they heard rumors like that about me because a lot of them were true, but that was the first time hearing them about Jace. With Jace, they were most definitely rumors, and false ones at that. He was the most gentlemen-like out of all the lads I had ever met. There was no way he would ever go along with this. Besides, even though Jamie was a thousand miles away and not even an official couple, there was no chance he would do that to her.

"You know," I started, leaning in closer so they wouldn't miss a word I said. "If you would have come up to me two months ago, I would have. But I don't do that stuff anymore."

The blonde girl's smile wavered slightly. "What do you mean by 'anymore'?"

"I mean that I don't shag girls to get off."