The Trench

Chapter 4 - Southern Comfort

"Surprise!" Mae yells as she walks past me into my apartment. I turn around; silent for a moment trying to decipher what just happened.

"How did you get here so fast?" I ask as I slowly closed the door and turned to face her.

"I knew it, you're a stalker." I say with sarcasm, shrugging and crossing my arms.

Mae turns around and looks at me with a smile plastered on her face, ignoring my comment.

"My brother lives next door, how convenient. This. Is. So. Exciting!" She practically squeals as she gives me a side hug. This girl is completely different than the girl I met two weeks ago, I'm glad she's out of her shell but it's a lot of personality to take on at once.

Oddly enough I haven't met many of my other neighbors; just the elderly lady across the hall from me who always brings over cookies. I wonder which one he lives in.

"I was at their place helping them decorate, they just moved a few weeks ago. So I'll have to stop by my house to change on the way there." She glances down at her attire, which is plain grey shorts and a tattered black t-shirt with a cat on it, and she was barefoot...

"Are you sure? That cat shirt is pretty stylish. Although I would definitely put some shoes on."

Mae rolls her eyes at me and I laugh as I look her up and down.

"You know, we look to be about the same size. You could just borrow some of my clothes and we can both get ready here."

Her eyes lit up like I just gave her a fucking puppy.

-

Two hours pass and we're finally dressed and ready. Mae picked out a yellow cotton sundress and nude heels from my closet, which I forgot I even had. I have to admit, the color goes good with her pale skin and black hair. I dressed in a black lace sleeveless top, a colorful Aztec printed short skirt, and black strap up heels.

Mae pleaded for 30 minutes trying to convince me to let her do my make-up, in the end I gave in. I don't look half bad, I've never worn a smokey eye or red lipstick before but it matches my skirt. I have to admit, I look kinda hot.

We both head out the door, I turn around to lock it and start heading for the stairs, wobbling a bit at the alien feeling of heels when Mae calls me back.

"Hey, let's stop by my brothers to see if they want to come." I can't help but notice the grin she's wearing has a mischievous look about it. Before I can question her she turns around and walks to their door.

Fucking Professor Michael's door.

Well this should be interesting.

I slowly walk to his door and step inside, Mae is standing in the living room talking to a guy that's about our age. I stand there for a second before she turns to look at me and ushers me over towards them.

"Riley! This is Kane, my brother."

I stick out my hand at the same time he starts to yawn and uses his hand to cover his mouth, keeping the other one crossed across his waist. It looked pretty fake, so I'm assuming he just didn't want to make contact. I put my hand down to my side. Looking him up and down he only looks a little like Mae, he has the same pale skin, same deep brown to black hair, and they share the same mouth shape. He's also the same height as her, however he has brown eyes instead of blue and his nose and face shape is completely different. His eyelashes were magnified by black rimmed glasses; he would be kind of cute if it weren't for his off-putting attitude.

Funny, that's what mom used to say about me. I think and scoff slightly.

"Kane don't be rude." Mae scolds him and he rolls his eyes and issues an uninterested hello towards me and I fake a smile before he turns around and leaves the room. I sighed in relief, thinking maybe he was just visiting that day or being a good neighbor and helping them move in, maybe he doesn't live here after all...

"Our sister graces us with her presence once again."

Thought too soon...

I turn around to see where the voice was coming from. Professor Michaels is leaning against the door frame that leads towards the kitchen, hands in his pockets and eyes glued to mine.

Sweet baby Jesus...

He was wearing black sweatpants with white string that hung low on his hips...and nothing else. His chest and stomach are as cut as his arms, with that chiseled V at the bottom of his abdomen. Now I can see all of his tattoos, which go all the way up his arms to complete two sleeves. His body was hard for me not to stare at, and he knew this judging by the way he was smirking at me.

"Riley, this is my older brother Austin. Or as you know him, Professor Michaels." She says this awkwardly as she shifts her weight between her feet several times.

"It's nice to formally meet you, Riley." He put an emphasis on 'formally' and slowly looked me up and down, his head cocked to the side and a smile slowly creeping on his face.

"Mmhmm, okay." Mae squints her eyes and looks between the two of us as I touch my thumb with the tips of my other fingers. I do this when I get nervous, it's a small tick.

"Anyways, we were coming over to see if you two wanna come to the club with us tonight?" Mae looks at him hopefully as he ponders over the idea; he shoots a quick glance back at me then back at his sister before answering.

"Sure, I could use a decorating break, considering we didn't need to decorate anyways." He shrugs and smiles as Mae flips him off. "Give me a few minutes to change, and I'll recruit Kane to be my plus one."

"No you won't!" Kane yells from his bedroom, Austin shrugs as Mae and I fall into a fit of giggles at his protest.

-

We get to the club a little while later. Austin guilt tripped Kane into coming and being our designated driver for the night, against his will. On the outside the two story brick building doesn't look like much, there are bars on the windows and the sidewalk is cracked. I begin wondering what kind of neighborhood this is in; I'm still not used to city life.

As the bouncer checks our I.D.'s and ushers us in, I can't help but gasp as I take in my surroundings. To our right is the bar and the sitting area. The bar is brick like the rest of the building with a dark brown wood top and matching swivel stools, directly in front the seating area has some wooden tables of a matching color and a few leather sofas and chairs. To the left is a stage with a DJ yelling something into the mic that I can't quite hear over the music. Surrounding his booth are bright, multicolored lights bouncing off the dance floor in the middle in front of the doorway.

Mae turns around and excitedly points towards the bar and we follow her, it's a bit quieter over here without all of the speakers. She leans in towards one of the bartender and orders something that I can't hear, as I stand beside her I lean on the bar waiting my turn to order. My arm rests on something wet and sticky. I snarl my nose and I quickly pull my arm back and my elbow connects with someone behind me.

I turn around and Austin is standing directly behind me, looking down at me with that smile on his face. "What's your poison?" He looks me in the eyes and subtly nibbles his bottom lip.

For god's sake...

I blush at his proximity to me and tug at the bottom of my skirt, hoping the lighting is too low for him to notice my cheeks getting red. I've never been one to be openly shy around guys so I'm not sure what's happening to me. Socially awkward, yes, but never shy.

"I'll take a Southern Comfort and a Dr. Pepper." He raises an eyebrow at me and chuckles before turning to the bartender and ordering two glasses. The bartender mixes the drinks and slides them over to us as Austin lays a few bills on the counter.

"I could have bought my own drink, but thank you. I appreciate it." I smile up at him as I take a drink, the cherry flavoring of the soda mixes well with the whiskey which is why it's my drink of choice. I could drink an endless amount of these in one night if they make them right, and this bar definitely makes them right.

"My pleasure." He looked at me and winked, then took my wrist in his hand making me hold my glass in the air and clinked his glass against mine before taking a drink.