Underneath by V. J. Albert (best e reader for academics TXT) 📖

not look back at someone he can't stand, period.

"Lance, I've just been in the loo, but we can go back to the hotel now." Luca doesn't really take a heed of Henry's presence anymore. He just wants him to finally disappear, so he can live on his life like nothing happened.

"Great, waited for long enough to go to bed already."

Henry clears his throat and at this Luca pays attention to him again, turning around to look at him.

"It was really nice to meet you twice tonight. I think this is where our path separates. I wish you a very pleasant night." Henry sounds on edge for the first time tonight. He didn't even sound that aggressively when he did insult him earlier this afternoon. Maybe Henry Shaw the womaniser just realised that Luca Goldberg is in fact the opposite of straight, one hundred percent gay and just maybe Henry Shaw was homophobic. At least that would fit into Luca's image of the pop star.

Without giving Luca the chance to say a word, Henry Shaw leaves the two boys behind and disappears into the crowd of dancing figures, most probably walking straight back to the VIP area, to all the girls awaiting him.

In fact, Henry does but his mind isn't there anymore. Actually, his mind is just running about the fact that Luca Goldberg is in fact gay.

Seven

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luca wakes up the next morning, more confused than ever, with a bestial headache. He isn't really sure where he is right now but looking around the room, lets him guess that he's in a hotel room – most probably in Manchester. Alexis and him planned on staying in a hotel after they went clubbing nevertheless. He even planned on taking someone back to his room last night.

With a banging head, he remembers everything that happened last night: The huge disaster at the Meet & Greet, the things he’s said, the concert itself, clubbing with Al and finally meeting Henry Shaw again in the lavatory of the club they’ve went to. There is also a small memory of some other guy he met while clubbing somewhere back in his head. Logan, Landon, no Luca is quite sure his name was Lance. Actually, it doesn't really matter to him anyway because he'll never see him again.

Then he remembers what happened after Henry had left. Luca and Lance standing all alone in the hall in front of the restrooms. He remembers how Alexis stumbled out of the ladies’ room and had to hold onto her best friend for dear life, so she wouldn't tip over and fall head first down to the ground because she was bloody wasted. Alexis has been drunk like hell last night and she hasn’t been in a while. She didn’t really have a high tolerance for alcohol anymore and last night she was probably drinking twice as much as Luca did. He thinks his amount of alcohol the other night was already crazy enough for one person alone.

Let's be real though, he had agreed to a deal with the infamous Henry Luca-Goldberg-hates-him-so-much Shaw just because he was basically unable to make important decisions anymore. It was not possible for Luca to have done that in a sober kind of condition, really. No way.

Alexis wasn't just drunk last night, though. She's been totally hammered and Luca knows because she let them all know and maybe remember that moment for a very long time.

 

***Flashback***

 

Luca and Lance have just agreed to leave to the hotel and help Alexis come along, as much as you can help a completely drunk person walk anywhere. Before they could even try and get Alexis between the two of them to steady her while walking, she starts shivering for a moment and then clears out her bowels onto Lance's feet.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry." Now it's time for Luca to feel embarrassed and he thinks he deserves it very well after all the shit he actually pulled that night. It somehow was like justice of some vis major.

"Yeah, it's alright", Lance assures Luca. Both of them look down at Alexis, who has let herself slide to the ground on the wall behind her. She looks miserable and Luca thinks it'll be the worst time to take a fuck back to the hotel and have his fun while his best friend might get another shiver attack in the room next to him. He would probably not witness anything if something’s happened. He thinks it's not really safe for Al to be on her own tonight.

Luca gets ripped out of his thoughts when Lance speaks again.

"Luca. Ya know I'd love to come back to the hotel with ya but I think you should take care of this one." He points with his finger towards Luca's best friend and shows a pitying smile.

"I think you're right." That's all Luca says. He kind of has no words left right now. It was fucked up justice, wasn't it? Luca has fucked up the Meet & Greet for Chels, so Al has fucked up his night's fuck. Well, Luca thinks he's even with that mysterious judicial system now. "I should help Alexis back to the hotel and then take care of her till she sobers up."

"I'm going to help you, get her to the car", Lance says and Luca doesn't understand which car he means. Luca's car is back at the arena, they left it there because they knew that they wouldn't be able to drive anywhere anymore after partying hard anyway. They had already planned to use a cab to get back to the hotel (with or without a night's fuck).

Lance is already about to walk towards Alexis to help her to get up from the ground when Luca still doesn't understand what car Lance has been talking about. He for sure won't get into a car that Lance probably will be driving himself (if he's talking about his own car) because Luca doesn't want to die yet. Luca thinks 21 is far too young to die and anyway he would never ever get into a car with a drunk person behind the wheel. No exceptions made.

Luca isn't drunk enough not to recognise what he's doing. Well, if someone asked he was totally rat-arsed when he agreed to the stupid challenge thing with Henry Shaw but no one needs to know, right?

"What car?" Luca chirps and feels like a complete idiot.

"I've called a taxi when you went to the restroom more than five minutes ago. Thought you'd be back much earlier but I guess the taxi driver just waits and waits out there."

Luca laughs. Of course, Lance wouldn't be that irresponsible. At least he didn't seem like someone that would drink and drive. Apparently Luca has been right about him.

"Well, either he's still out there waiting for us or someone else stole our cab. Everything's possible." Now Luca feels like it's safe to go and help Alexis up the ground, so he walks towards her and puts his arms around her shoulder.

"If that happened we still can call a new one. When it should end up being the busiest day for taxis in Manchester's history, well, then I still can call my flat mate."

"Interesting."

Lance shrugs and smiles sheepishly at him. He glares at Luca for mere seconds before he comes to help him steady Alexis, who gets up completely clumsy, lanky limbs going all over the place, unsure what to do with her legs. She looks a lot like a new-born calf that doesn't know how to get up and walk just yet.

"WhearesDeeeeean?" Alexis lulls incomprehensible.

"Is she always as drunk as that?" Lance looks at Luca, quite the confusion in his eyes visible.

"No, I just think Dean and her still haven't sorted things out. Ya know Al isn't the best in just speaking her mind, letting Dean know she wants to be more than friends. She's totally racking her head about this and it's quit ridiculous if you ask me." Luca loves her though, even if she's annoying him about Dean for almost a year now, just because she can't collect her courage and make a first step.

"You sound like she really means a lot to you though", Lance says and Luca smiles because of course that dork does. She's been his best friend since the first day of sixth grade. They've been together through thick and thin, have always been there for each other no matter what.

"Yes, I love her. Well, not like that, though. She's my best friend for about 5 years already. We kind of know everything about each other." Luca looks at Lance but he just nods and helps Luca to get Alexis up from the floor. They should leave and get to the cab as soon as they can. The taxi Lance called might be gone by now though but still, Al should get to the hotel room and lie down and sleep.

 

***End of Flashback***

 

Luca also remembers how they had to call a new taxi and had to wait a couple of minutes for a new one to arrive, the journey to the hotel and how Lance had even helped Luca to bring Alexis to her room. After they had laid her down on the bed, she immediately had passed out. Lance said his goodbye but not before he asked Luca for his number and of course Luca gave him his number, typing in numbers with clouded view. He had gotten very tired but it had been 4 am in the morning, so it wasn't really surprising.

After Lance had left, Luca had fallen onto the bed besides Alexis and immediately fell into a deep sleep, happy that he didn't have to wake up anytime soon.

Now Luca is awake and still feels tired. He didn’t get more than six hours of sleep but it didn’t matter because Luca and Alexis had to go back to London soon. The drive home would take over four and a half hours. It’ll be late afternoon when they arrive back home.

Luca looks around and gets back his orientation. Yes, hotel room. He lets his gaze wander and sees Alexis still sleeping in the bed next to him. They haven’t slept in one bed together in ages, not that he really remembers anything of it. It didn’t matter anyway.

Luca gets up and washes his face in the bathroom. Then he shakes Alexis awake and eventually they get dressed, pack their things together and leave Manchester in the direction of London.

 

The next day Luca had to get up early in the morning because he had agreed to an early shift.

Stupid, Alisha, he thinks to himself. Actually it's her shift because Luca never does the morning shifts but she had called in sick yesterday. Like fuck she is!

Luca doesn't like getting up at such an ungodly time. He's so used to waking up at 8 am the earliest. With a morning shift in sight he got up at 4:30 this morning. He tried not to wake Zachariah while getting ready for work. Luca knew only too well how Z’d react to getting woken up before he was ready to. If to say he was the biggest drama queen in the morning, that would be a big understatement.

Just on time he walked through the doors of the coffee shop.