Page 5

Sadie was exhausted. She and Jagger had been managing the bar all day and were stuck there until closing time. It was Saturday, their busiest night of the week, and she was thankful when Bianca and Camille came in to deal with the crowd by eight. Bianca was handing out shots like glasses of water, Camille was helping Sadie behind the bar, and Jagger was walking the space with Gremlin, keeping an eye on the patrons.

The whole day was filled with tension, and Jagger and Sadie barely spoke, choosing to keep themselves busy cleaning up after customers or changing taps. It wasn't until the end of the night when Bianca decided to pull her shit again, that Sadie realized how on edge she was from it all.

"Bianca, can you bring these beers over to the gentlemen by the pool table when you head back to the floor?" Sadie asked, handing her a newly filled tray of shots. With Jagger not behind the bar, Bianca was forced to limit her interactions with him, leaving Sadie to help her throughout the night.

Bianca rolled her eyes as she replied, "Run your own beers, bitch."

"Excuse me?" Sadie's eyebrows shot up, and she turned to look at her.

"You heard me," she sneered at her. "Besides, I'm with Jagger now. I don't gotta do shit for you."

Sadie slammed the tray on the counter, coming from behind the bar to meet her. The bar was so loud that most didn't hear the commotion or see the whiskey pouring over the bartop onto the floor from the toppled glasses. Camille signaled over to Jagger and Gremlin when she sensed that things were about to get heated between the girls. It was only confirmed when Sadie snarled, "What the fuck are you talking about, Bianca?"

Bianca crossed her arms, pushing her breasts up in the tiny black dress she always wore, looking the part of the pathetic skank everyone knew her to be.

" Fuck being the operative word." She said smugly, "You didn't think I went home after you left, did you? Someone has to keep up with that man, and we all know you're too boring to do it."

Sadie tried to process the feeling of hurt that flooded her senses, flashes of their moment that morning clouding her judgment. She blamed it on that when she pulled back and punched Bianca right in the face, not caring how her hand screamed in pain afterward.

"What the FUCK?!" Bianca screamed as she clutched her hands over her face, blood pouring from her nose.

At this point, the sounds of Sleep Token could only cover so much, and several customers within hearing distance turned to survey the scene unraveling in front of them. Jagger was there instantly, having rushed ahead of Gremlin to get to Sadie.

"What's going on here?!" He roared, pushing past the last few customers to get to the girls.

Bianca turned to him and started crying, turning the waterworks on full blast, "That bitch!" She pointed at Sadie and tried to clutch the front of his jacket, but he pushed her off. "Look what she did!"

Camille tossed her short pink hair up into a messy bun in case she had to get involved herself when she saw Sadie fisting her hands at her sides. She turned towards Sadie and grabbed her attention, forcing her to look at her. "Go cool off, I'll handle this."

Sadie said nothing, just nodded at her before brushing past Jagger and Bianca, making sure to body-check her with a sharp elbow as she did.

Bianca lunged at Sadie, and Jagger grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him, not bothering to be gentle.

"Explain. Now. What did you say to her?"

Camille and Gremlin were already thinning out the crowd and distracting them from the fight. Thankfully, the girls dancing on stage had most of the bar busy. "Next rounds on the house, guys! Get them in before the last call!"

Bianca grabbed some napkins from the bar and pressed them to her nose. "I didn't do anything. I just told her we were together," she pouted through her crocodile tears.

Jagger barely resisted the urge to throttle her, but he couldn't control how his grip tightened considerably around her shoulders. "You what?" he growled, noticing her nose was off-center and feeling proud that Sadie had clearly broken it.

Bianca winced at the pain, "She's awful! I told her that now we're together, and she needs to understand I'm with you and get it through her head that I don't have to take orders from her here."

Jagger released her then, afraid he'd break her arms at this point. "Bianca. We fucked. We're not dating," he explained slowly. "And honestly, it was a goddamn chore to keep my cock hard enough to screw you last night."

Bianca's eyes widened in shock as she sputtered, "W-what?!"

Jagger raised a hand up and gestured over her head to the person behind her. "Clean her up, pay her, and get her out of here."

Gremlin, who had stayed close by in case he was needed, started getting Bianca's things from behind the bar.

"You disrespect me when you disrespect Sadie," he said calmly as he turned his attention back to Bianca, although his eyes were almost blown black with anger.

"Don't ever step foot in here again."

Sadie found herself in the walk-in freezer, unbothered by the cold temperature. She was seething as she paced back and forth, the thoughts in her head taunting her.

I can't believe it! she thought, even though she had no fundamental right to be mad. She wasn't his, and he wasn't hers. They were good friends, that was true—best friends. But recently, things have been different. How he talked to her and how his eyes took her in when she came in for her shifts now. And she hadn't been all that innocent in that regard because she was purposefully wearing more revealing outfits at the bar.

She was trying to catch his attention, secretly hoping to see if he had any interest in her as more than a friend. Camille offered to cut up her Serpent Pit t-shirts they were supposed to wear at work, and Sadie was grateful, loving how it complimented her and made her feel edgy, a far cry from her pastel attire when working with her mom. She loved how she somehow fit into this world, grateful for her time there and how she could escape her 'perfect' life that lay outside the smoke-filled bar.

She hadn't known how much he would affect her in turn. His body had changed, his arms thicker from working out at the gym in town. She felt different around him as if she were crawling out of her skin. It was lightyears away from the comfortable friendship they had cultivated for years. And something had to give soon.

They couldn't go on like this.

Sadie knew she was being unreasonable, but Bianca deserved to get punched in the face for mouthing off.

Tripping over one of the boxes of Stella Artois on the floor, she felt another wave of animosity rise in her. She yelled, "I hope I broke her fucking nose!" then, unsuccessfully, tried to kick a hole in the metal wall of the back of the freezer, unaware that the freezer door had opened behind her.

"I'm pretty sure you did," Jagger said from the threshold, stepping inside to join her, the door closing softly behind him.

Sadie turned around and folded her arms across her chest.

"Good. She still here?"

Jagger shook his head, his dark locks falling over his forehead.

"I'm not apologizing to your girlfriend," Sadie seethed, and her voice was colder than the temperature around them.

"You didn't do anything wrong," Jagger said softly. "She's not - "

Sadie tried to push past him, her blood still boiling from the altercation with Bianca. "Save it, Jag."

Within seconds, she found her back pressed against one of the metal racks, gasping at the feel of ice-cold steel against her bare lower back under her crop top. Jagger had grasped her wrists in his hands when he shouted, "Goddamn it, Sadie! Just fucking listen to me for a minute."

Her back had arched of its own volition, trying to escape the burning sensation of the metal on her skin. It was causing her breasts to press hard against his chest, and she wondered if that feeling didn't burn through her twice as much.

He continued when she finally stopped struggling against him, "Bianca is nothing to me. Not a girlfriend. Honestly, not even someone I care to be in the same room with."

Sadie finally lifted her eyes to his.

"But she said -"

"I know what she said, Sweets. I just fired her. Did I sleep with her? Yes. Was it terrible? Yes. I couldn't wait to kick her out afterward," he admitted, and Sadie felt herself laugh at that. The movement of her mirth caused her chest to brush against his even more, and she let out a sudden moan at the sensation.

Jagger felt her hardened nipples through both of their shirts, the feeling spiking his arousal instantly, and her moan was his breaking point. Without thinking, he pressed his face into her neck and inhaled her scent, his fingers releasing her wrists before running along her forearms and settling on her hips. Sadie whimpered quietly and took that moment to grip his biceps, feeling their strength beneath her fingertips even through the leather of his jacket.

Feeling his hot breath against her neck, she knew in her soul that the goosebumps covering her body were from him and not from the cold.

Jagger's tongue swiped along the pulse in her throat, and she cried out, clutching at the sleeves of his jacket. Her pussy was throbbing against his jean-wrapped thigh that was now pressing between her legs to balance them both. Neither knew what the hell had come over them, but they were melting despite the frigid contents of their frozen little world. Jagger took his time kissing up the length of her neck and nibbling at her jawline before his large hand moved to grasp her throat, his silver rings biting into the flesh and tilting her face toward him. The sound she made in response shook his resolve even further, and when she stared up at him and parted her lips, he was done for. Boyfriend be damned.

"Sadie! Jag! Where are you guys?!" they vaguely heard through the door.

Jagger stepped backward, putting a good three feet between them, and stared at her flushed face. Her lips quivered as she panted, little clouds forming from the cold as the hot breath escaped her mouth.

Camille swung open the freezer door and remarked, "What the hell are you guys doing in here? Trying to freeze to death?!"

They still hadn't taken their eyes off one another, and Sadie and Jagger both had the same thought run through their minds— they were burning.

"We got everyone cleared out, and Bianca is long gone," she informed them as she held the door open wide in a gesture for them to step out, shivering a bit from the rush of cold blowing towards her. "Come on, Sadie. I'll drive you home. You had a rough night."

Sadie was the first to look away, smiling at Camille and leaving the freezer. "Thanks," she said as she passed by.

Jagger's expression was far less friendly, giving Camille a frustrated glare. Camille had been one of his closest friends since they were children, and she had lived this gang life for just as long as he had. There were a few occasions when their fathers tried to set them up, but Jagger had always known Camille had a thirst for vodka, Sour Patch Kids, and, well... women.

"What?!" Camille asked incredulously, her pink hair falling over her shoulder as she tilted her head to shake out the messy bun from before.

"Nothing," Jagger said, leaving the freezer and going up to his apartment.

Camille stood staring at the cooler momentarily before her brain caught up with the situation unfolding around her.

"Oh," she said to herself, nervously running her hand through her hair. " Oh . I get it now."