Chapter 24

James led her through the crowds towards the kitchen, where the imaginary bar was located. Many bottles of alcoholic drinks were already half empty, which made most of the guests drunk. Various glasses stood on the kitchen cabinet, and a little further on the other part there were juices and carbonated drinks.

'What exactly do you want?' Foster was leaning on the table, looking at the girl from head to toe.

He looked at her with a deep gaze, slowly sliding it over her body. The eyes were incredibly dark blue, and when Melanie caught his gaze on her, she was wildly embarrassed, seeing both a smirk and a raised eyebrow on the guy's face.

'Make me some kind of cocktail,' Stevenson smiled as she watched the young man's actions.

The blond man took a bottle of vodka from the table, then poured a little into a glass, he did the same with chocolate liqueur, completely stirring the dense mixture. James put down his glass to get a cold Coca-Cola from the fridge.

'Get ready to try the most crazy cocktail in the world!' The guy added a little more Coca-Cola, and then handed the alcoholic drink to the lady, admiring him.

'Looks pretty,' the girl twirled the glass in her hand, looking at the beautifully colored liquid. 'what is it called?'

'Piranha.'

'Why is it so?' The blonde took a sip and smiled contentedly, tasting sweetness on her tongue.

She obviously liked the drink very much...

Foster grinned, shaking his head playfully.

'You'll find out later, baby.'

There was a little trick to this cocktail.

The snag was not at all in the interesting name, but in its action.

This is one of those deceptive cocktails that, while having a harmless taste, actually 'bite' like a carnivorous, predatory piranha fish.

'Shall we dance?' James stepped closer to the young lady, pulling her towards him by the waist.

He took the glass from her hands, placing it on the table so that it would not interfere with them.

'But this music is completely inappropriate for such a dance,' Melanie objected to some loud, incendiary song that was now coming from the speakers.

'Turn off any irritants in your head,' the guy whispered, bringing his finger to her lips to make her stop talking. 'and dance with me.'

He returned his hand to her waist, slowly closing his eyes and plunging into his quiet, peaceful dance rhythm.

The woman's arms wrapped around his neck, to which the young man smiled contentedly.

They circled in the kitchen, dancing an unimaginable dance. A calm melody played in his head, completely discarding the incendiary beat that sounded throughout the house.

'James,' a male voice interrupted the ideal idyll among young people, frightening with its unexpectedness.

The boy leaned against the doorframe, folding his arms across his chest.

'Ouch, what about Hailey, Foster?' The brown-haired man grinned, approaching the couple with an imposing step.

'Nathan,' the blond man smiled with his eyes closed, already thinking about who had entered the kitchen.

Slowly opening his eyelids, the young man fixed his gaze on the man he hated and competed with from an early age, which, however, has happened to this day.

Nathan Evans is a family friend who is respected by James Foster's father. A guy who runs drugs and has connections all over the UK in every dark corner of it.

He seems to be a very friendly and cheerful guy, which quickly wins others over to him. Only when a person looks at him and notices his serious look, which appears in a matter of seconds, and then again hides behind the mask of an eternal smile, will he realize that this guy is fraught with many thoughts and ideas that he will never tell others.

Foster freed the girl from his close presence, approaching the table with alcohol to take a sip of strong cognac from such a gift, which now pleased with its appearance.

'Go dance, Melanie,' James growled, startling the blonde.

He threw off the mask of a benevolent guy, changing noticeably in the eyes of those around him, or rather those who did not know him at all. The jaw was tense with anger, dropping a bright smile from her face. Blue cloudy eyes changed abruptly in a second, surprising with their blackness.

'I said get out of here, Stevenson,' Foster barked, grabbing her glass from the table before forcibly thrusting it into her hands.

He shoved her lightly towards the exit from the kitchen, wishing Melanie would get out of here as soon as possible.

'Oh, Melanie, don't pay attention to his bad manners,' the young man said playfully. 'He doesn't know how to behave with girls at all, unlike me.'

Evans grinned at Foster while flirting with a wink at the blonde who was already standing beside him.

'Nathan,' the boy growled, trying to shut him up.

'James,' the brown-haired man smiled, pronouncing his name with the same intonation, but in addition to this, theatrically raising and lowering his eyebrows down, which was his trick.

Foster rolled his eyes, realizing that getting something out of this guy was something utterly impossible.

'I think you really need to unwind a little, Melanie,' Nathan took the girl's hand in his large palms, looking at the young lady as if he was about to propose to her. 'Let's not piss off this sweet boy, shall we?'

The blond raised his eyebrows at what he heard, slightly shaking his head in disbelief.

'See you soon, Melanie. I'll keep you a fine company,' Evans kissed the outside of his palm, after which he elegantly held out his hands, like a gentleman letting a lady pass in front of him.

The girl smiled, nodding her head in agreement. With one last look at Jay, she left the kitchen, heading into the noisy living room so as not to disturb the guys.

'I really appreciate your acting, because you're gay. It's probably hard to behave like this with girls.'

Foster began to approach Nathan closer, trying to hurt him with words as deeply as possible, which in fact was their kind of rivalry.

In thoughts, it was only, as much as possible to lower the old acquaintance.

'I only had an affair with one guy,' Evans admitted, becoming serious for a moment, but then immediately smirked. 'and you know very well with whom.'

'Men's hands on your body are much better than women's, hm?'

The blond man stopped a few inches away from the brown-haired man, having clear eye contact. They looked at each other with smirks on their faces, thinking up the next moves in their heads, like in chess.

There was only one question. Which side will be "checkmate"?

'Want to try?' Evans challenged, raising and lowering his eyebrows with a smile on his lips.

'Wha...'

The guy quickly put his hand on James' cheek, immediately pressing his lips to his to lure him into a playful kiss.

Foster came to his senses, forcefully pushing the brown-haired man away from him.

'What the hell, Nathan?!' The blond man yelled, wiping his lips with the back of his hand to get rid of the touch marks.

Evans laughed out loud at the behavior of his acquaintance.

'I don't have any restrictions, which can't be said about you...' the guy said through laughter, again reducing the distance between them, but not getting too close.

'Don't make me gay, Nathan.'

'Who is your best friend?'

'He was,' James put a heavy emphasis on the word.

A smile began to appear on Evans' face, which he tried in every possible way to hide. His eyes sparkled with inner joy as memories flashed through his head.

'He was only like that with you, Nathan. Many years have passed, he is no longer interested in you,' Jay jabbed his finger into his chest, emphasizing his words with such a gesture. 'There are millions of girls around him who go to his bed every day.'

But only I can replace them all. I have only to appear before his eyes," the young man said affirmatively, knowing for sure that this was so.

'Oh, so you haven't met him yet? Are you afraid to fall in love again?'

'Dean is here forever, Foster,' Nathan said through gritted teeth, pointing to his heart.

James looked down from his green eyes to the hand that was pressed tightly against his chest. As much as the guy didn't like Evans, he didn't want to talk about it anymore, knowing how sick he was for the brunette. Not a sound left Foster's lips, keeping the silence around them.

'And I see someone has fallen in love with a girl called Hailey,' stepping over his emotional threshold, Nathan smiled again, raising his eyebrows up and down.

'How do you know about her?'

'Everyone knows about your little crush, Foster.'

The guy took a bottle of whiskey from the table, pouring himself into a glass, after which he added a little cola. Since the cola was cold, there was no need for ice cubes.

After gulping down a whiskey-cola, Jay set the glass down on the kitchen table with a crash, turning to face Evans.

'She is not my attraction.'

'Then invite me to join you for a festive feast. I think we should celebrate the news that I'm back in London,' the brown-haired man winked at his old friend, preparing to impress him with his last phrase. 'And that's where you will introduce me to Hailey Mackenzie.'

Before Foster could argue or say anything else, Nathan turn around, quickly leaving the kitchen to lose himself among the drunken people.

Noticing Melanie, who was sitting on the couch and talking to some girl, or rather listening to her drunken ravings with a glass of another drink in her hands, the guy went straight to her.

The blonde spotted a man approaching the sofa and a smile immediately appeared on his face when he noticed her gaze on him. Evans sat down next to Stevenson, silencing the drunk girl with interest.

'You can go back to Foster. I just warn you, hormones are far enough from him, since he already managed to get drunk during our conversation.'

'Is Foster from the 'Darkness' gang here?' Exclaimed the brunette, who had been listening attentively to their conversation, with interest.

'Yes, Ruby,' Melanie confirmed, nodding her head in agreement, ignoring everything but her familiar last name.

'I have to leave, young lady,' the boy kissed the blonde's hand as he got to his feet. 'will pester, call.'

Nathan winked at the end, heading for the exit from the house. He left the room, immediately inhaling fresh air into his lungs, which did not have the nasty smell of alcohol and cigarettes. Taking out a mobile phone from his pocket, the guy dialed a number, putting the phone to his ear. The interlocutor did not have to wait long, after three short beeps he answered.

'I did everything as you said.'

'What exactly?' A male voice sounded from the other side.

'I showed myself to James, soon I will be visiting him, where I will get acquainted with his little secret attraction.'

'Well done, Nathan. Dictate to me every step you take, you have to take Hailey Mackenzie to me, no matter what. She is his last breath, although he himself does not yet understand this, but everyone around him sees it.'

'See you, sir.'