treacherous (calum hood)

drunk

"Evie! Get a new Jack from under the bar!" Her coworker yelled to her. Most of her money was made here, but in between her shifts at the bar was when she would occasionally uber. She was going to have to stop driving people around soon. Once her coworker, Milly, left for Colorado in a week, she would be picking up a lot more shifts at the bar leaving her no time to drive. Evie enjoyed her time at the bar on most occasions. There were times when the patrons would get too rowdy or a drink would spill on her shirt, but most nights were tolerable. She got to know the regulars well, and they knew her which caused the tip jar to overflow on the nights she worked. She knew how to work the scene, too. When she needed to make a little more than average, her top would be a little lower cut or tighter or her shorts would be a little shorter. She didn't like the way she was an object for the drunk men's eyes to feast on, but she had to make ends meet somehow. She lived with her dad and little sister. Little described her sister, Elsie, quite well being that she was eighteen years younger than her. Evie had become the mother figure for the young girl after their mother was in a car wreck months after Elsie was born. Elsie was in the car at the time, but her car seat allowed her to get away from it without a scratch. At eighteen, Evie never imagined she'd be up all night with a screaming baby. She never knew she'd have to forgo college to stay at home. She never thought she'd be working two jobs to ensure her family could stay in the house she'd grown up in, where she wanted her sister to have the same experiences she did, but that's where her life took her.
It was a Saturday night at the bar which meant she had been home with her sister while her dad worked during the day. Earlier Evie was watching her four-year-old sister chose to eat her cupcake by putting it everywhere on her face but her mouth, but now she was watching customers who would probably do the same thing if they were given a cupcake. She smiled at the thought of her sister as she grabbed the bottle her coworker was asking for. The night was just getting started meaning that Evie would be here for at least four more hours. They weren't as busy as she expected, but the seats at the bar were continuously being filled along with some booths around the edges. The patrons would come to order at the bar before finding a seat or heading to the small dance floor.
It was nearly midnight when a black-haired man walked up to the empty stool at the end of the bar. She had seen him in there before but had never spoken to or served him. She pushed the cleaning rag into her back pocket before heading to the man.
"What can I get ya?"
"Drunk." Came the one worded answer from him before he continued. "So drunk that I'll be that way when I wake up." Her mind went back to the man she had encountered earlier today. He was having a bad day much like the man sat at the bar. "Whisky. Neat." He said to clear her out of her thoughts. She nodded her head before grabbing the glass under the bartop and fixing the drink.
As the night winded down, and the bar slowly emptied out, the raven-haired man stayed. He had ordered a few more drinks from Evie and a couple from her coworker. He was deep into his alcohol consumption, but he wasn't rowdy like most patrons would be at this point. He just seemed sad. Evie made her way to the mysterious man as her coworker spoke with the people on the other end of the bar.
"Do you want something else?" She asked him while he sat with his head leaned back. She almost thought he was asleep until she heard his response.
"Wish I was sober," He groaned out. Evie was confused. The guy wanted to be drunk when he was sober, but sober when he was drunk. Dude had some issues. She knew that there was no instant cure she could give him to sober up, so she sat a glass of water down in front of him.
"Can't make you sober, but this water can help." He sent her a grateful smile as he grabbed the glass. She stopped by his spot a few more times throughout her shift to give him a refill on the water. It was an hour before closing when she saw him talking on the phone. It was a short conversation, presumably about someone coming to pick him up, at least she hoped so. He was definitely too far gone to drive away himself. He ended up being the last one there that night and rested with his head against the bar as Evie worked on cleaning the bar area while her coworker tackled the bathrooms. The door squeaked open, and Evie prepared to let them know that they were closed. She said nothing when her eyes were met with the same figure that had been in her backseat hours earlier. He didn't notice her, instead his eyes met the slumped over figure against the bar.
"Cal, mate, lets go." The man, now known as Cal, slowly sat up to look towards his friend. Ashton's eyes were no longer looking at Calum since they had turned towards the woman behind the bar. A playful smile came to his lips.
"Hey! It's my five-star driver!" He followed his words with a giggle. Evie hadn't expected him to speak to her, and she definitely didn't expect his tall figure to giggle like a schoolgirl, but he did. Calum's face was scrunched up in confusion at his friends words as he slowly stood up, mumbling incoherent words before grabbing onto Ashton for support.
"Glad to see someone coming to pick him up. He's a bit off his rocker," Evie said, choosing not to respond to Ashton's words. Ashton nodded his head.
"Thanks for not throwing him out. He can be hard to handle sometimes. See you around," and with that, he was out the door. Once they were outside was when he decided to speak to his friend for the first time in over a day.
"What do you think you're doing? First, you leave me to work alone, and now, you're shitfaced in a bar! What gives?" Ashton had situated himself in the driver's seat after helping Cal crawl in the passenger side. Calum's hand met his forehead as his eyes scrunched at the loud voice of his friend.
"Fuck. I'm sick of this shit. I can't keep bein' at Leo's beck and call."
"Yeah, it sucks, but we got into this mess. Just a little while longer. We'll find someone to get out of it!"
"Bullshit! We've tried before! He ain't letting us out now." Calum huffed out a sigh, "Whatever. Just let me get drunk when I feel like it."
"I can't do that, Cal. Not when we have another job in the morning. Our asses are on the line if we don't do it. I don't want to hear shit about a hangover later." The conversation ended when they pulled up in the parking lot of the apartment complex. It was a rundown building with more problems than it should've had, but it was home, and it was cheap. The situation wasn't permanent. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long before they would be leaving the town and never looking back. Until then, they were working for a psychopathic person while living in a shitty apartment. This definitely wasn't what they had in mind for themselves at 24 and 26, but it was what they had.