I walked in silence next to Rowan. He was on his phone firing off texts to different people. I found myself trying to read his messages and quickly looked away. What are you doing? I pulled out my own phone and saw a missed call from Alex and a message.

I suppressed a smile at the thought of Alex alone at a gay club with Lucy and Madison.

The brightness from my phone started to irritate my headache and I put it back in my pocket. We were getting farther away from the club and I felt a small sense of guilt for leaving the others.

My high had worn off but I was still drunk, and the buildings and shapes in front of me were looking blurred. I shook my head and focused on the grey, cracked sidewalk. There were dark spots scattered everywhere from all the gum people had lazily spat out— because walking to the trash can five feet ahead would take too much time out of their day.

My head gave a painful throb and I realized it'd gotten a lot worse since I'd been hit. I raised my hand to feel the area but Rowan's hand stopped mine. I looked over, surprised. His eyebrows were drawn closely in concern and his eyes were scanning my face. I felt my cheeks get hotter and was suddenly grateful for the lack of light in the area.

"Evan, you don't look too good." Ouch. I shook my head.

That's not what he meant, dumbass.

My knees suddenly gave out for a split second but I caught myself before I could fall at the same time as Rowan who moved quickly and grabbed my forearms, pulling me up. "Hey, you need water." He quickly touched my forehead with the back of his hand, "don't worry, we're almost there."

"I'm good." I responded, blinking quickly to clear my vision. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and guided me through a nearby alleyway to a dark door. There was music beating from the other side, but it was faint. Rowan opened the door and nudged me inside. Had it been anyone else leading me through a dark alleyway to a mysterious door, I would've maybe been more apprehensive. But for some reason, I trusted him.

I took a step inside, but it was all dark. The only thing giving me any sense of direction was Rowan's hand on my shoulder but it suddenly disappeared.

"Stay here," I heard him walk across the space and click something. A bright yellow light lit up and I winced as my eyes adjusted to the light. We were in a small room, there was a sink and fridge ahead of me near where Rowan was standing. Everything looked worn-down, raggedy. There was a dark green couch on the side closer to me towards the center of the room. In front of it was a low table with half full glasses of drinks and beer bottles, an empty bottle of vodka, a deck of cards and... a white powdery substance in a small pile next to a rolled up bill.

I quickly looked away and pretended as if I hadn't seen it. Rowan made it to me and walked me to the couch.

"Here, sit, let me get you some water." I nodded and sat down as he went to the fridge and searched it.

"So, where are we?" Is this where he lives?

"Nemesis." He said, pulling out a water bottle from the fridge and turning back to me.

"Nemesis?" It sounded familiar but I didn't know why. For the first time of the night, Rowan grinned at me, lifting an eyebrow. I felt heat rush to my face again.

"Don't you have a fake ID or do you know someone who works at the Max?" I blinked at him, taken aback.

"Wha— I don't know what you're—" there was a strange glint in his eye, "my friend tricked me into going there but yes, I have a fake ID." His smile grew wider as he cracked open the bottle of water and poured it into a glass. "What's that got to do with this place though?" I asked, flustered. I wanted to change the topic.

"Nothing." I stared at him blankly, does this conversation make no sense or am I just drunk? "Nemesis is my cousin's bar. This is the employee break room." I tried to nod but my head throbbed. Of course he doesn't live here you dumbass.

"Oh." He sat on the table to face me and held the glass of water with two small capsules forward. I looked at him skeptically and he gave me a calm smile.

"Advil." I gave a quick smile in return. After taking it and drinking the glass of water I set it on the table but Rowan picked it up and refilled it, handing it back to me. "You need to drink a lot more." I took it from him and sipped it slowly, looking away. He got up and went back to the sink, opening a cupboard below it and grabbing some unidentifiable things out before taking another bottle of water from the fridge.

I finished my glass and put it back on the table before he picked it back up and refilled it. I waved my hand and leaned back against the couch,

"I'm good, I promise. I'm just drunk." He set the glass down on the table and started opening something in a plastic package that he'd taken from the cupboard and a bottle of something else. I closed my eyes and listened to the beating of music from the other side of the wall.

"Evan," Rowan said quietly. I opened my eyes, he was leaning over me slightly with a gauze bandage wetted with what smelled like rubbing alcohol. My eyes met his and I imagined what it'd be like to pull him down towards me, what it'd be like to feel his lips against mine. Wake the fuck up Evan. I shook my head again. I needed to sober up.

"Sorry, what?" I tried pushing the intrusive thoughts out of my mind. There was a look in his eyes that told me that he could tell what I was thinking, but I blinked and it was gone.

"I need you to sit up straight and lean your head back." I looked away from his gaze before my mind would get carried away again.

"Mhmm," I did as he said. He leaned over me and started lightly dabbing my face with the gauze pad. His free hand gently grabbed my jaw and turned my head slightly to the side. I watched his face as he concentrated on wiping away the blood from my face. His free hand slowly wandered from my jaw to my upper neck grazing lightly against my skin where it stayed. Chills traveled down my spine and I forced myself to focus on something else. Is he doing this on purpose? I studied his face but he seemed focused on cleaning up the blood.

He reached the cut and dabbed the gauze pad over it quickly. It burned and I bit my lip to stop myself from making any noise. I could feel my eyes tearing up and blinked quickly to avoid him seeing.

"Sorry," Rowan said quietly. Shit.

"No need." I responded quickly, hating myself for being so transparent. I looked for a change of subject. "So how'd you know I was at the Max?" I saw a hint of a smile appearing on Rowan's face at my words.

"Well," he started, putting the bloody gauze pad to the side and pouring water on a new one. His hands had left my face and I released a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. "You only get randomly attacked by angry drunk white men in this area if you're black or gay. And you're not black." I opened my mouth and scrambled to find a response.

"I... Well yeah— but I'm not gay either."

"Maybe they assumed."

"Okay, so say they thought I was gay and that's why they attacked me, why would you automatically assume I was at the Max?"

"Well you were, weren't you?"

"I— yeah but why'd you think I was?" He smiled and shrugged.

"Lucky guess." I shut my mouth as he moved back to clean the area again. His other hand moved to my temple and I thought of something to say to distract myself as heat rushed to my face.

"Hang on," I started, "how did he know who you were?" Rowan's expression didn't change.

"Did he?" He responded. I frowned slightly.

"Yeah, he said something about not wanting trouble with you."

"Huh. Didn't hear that." He was lying. But his smile was gone and his eyes appeared a bit darker, so I dropped the subject and stayed quiet while he finished up.

My phone buzzed on the couch next to me and I ignored it. It's probably just Alex. Rowan put a bandaid over the cut and backed away, taking the gauze and bandage wrappers to the trash. I readjusted so I was slumped against the couch and picked up my phone. I had ten missed calls from Alex and a dozen messages from Lucy and Madison. Fuck.

I sent a message in the group chat that I was at Nemesis for water and would be back soon. Alex texted back immediately that they were on their way. Shit.

Rowan plopped down on the other side of the couch and rested his legs on the table in front of us. His shoes were close to the pile of cocaine and I glanced at it before looking away quickly.

"That's not mine." His voice interrupted the silence. I glanced at him— he was staring at me with an unreadable expression. His head was resting on his arm tilted sideways.

"I— uh," I cleared my throat, "no I didn't think it was." He smiled a bit.

"Sure you did, but it's alright. Cocaine is overrated." I nodded slowly. That means he's tried it. "You should have more water." I looked at the glass in front of me and gave a small laugh,

"What I should have is some more alcohol— this is my graduation night if you've forgotten." He took his legs off the table and leaned forward with a grin, his forearms resting on his knees.

"I haven't. If you finish the bottle of water first I'll grab us drinks." I raised my eyebrows at him and smiled,

"And what's to stop me from just getting myself a drink first?" He shrugged.

"Me."

I stared at him blankly for a minute before smirking back and grabbing the bottle of water, taking a few sips. I picked up my phone.

"Shit." I said it out loud this time.

"What's up?" Rowan asked, moving a bit closer to me on the couch.

"Uh, I kinda ditched my friends at the club and they're on their way here now, they're a few minutes out..." He shrugged again.

"They can come back here if they want." I nodded and my eyes involuntarily flickered to the cocaine again wondering if they'd think I'd had any. Rowan seemed to read my thoughts again and got up, grabbing a ziplock out of a drawer near the sink. He carefully brushed it into the bag and zipped it back up, putting it in one of the other drawers. "Haven't made too much progress on the water I see. I'd hate to have to drink without you." He said as he walked back. I felt myself smiling again and lifted the bottle to my lips,

"Well I can't chug it if you're watching me," he gave me another grin,

"Why not?" I peered at him with my head tilted back,

"I'm self-conscious." He snorted and sat back down.

"Would you like me to turn around then?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.

"No. That's even more weird,"I replied. He laughed and I shook my head. "Whatever." I quickly chugged the bottle and put it back on the table and raised my hands, "done. You owe me a drink." He smirked. He inched closer to me and I thought I saw his head slowly nearing mine.

"That was... hot." He ended on a whisper.

I gaped up at him and heat rose to my face faster than it ever had. I knew he was joking with me, waiting to see my reaction, but I didn't know how to respond to that.

"Wh-" the door from the bar burst open loudly and I jumped, causing my phone to slide off my lap to the ground. Six guys staggered in, talking loudly with each other, each holding a drink. I recognized three of them from Rowan's graduating class— they'd been on the basketball team with him. One's name was Ben- he'd been the most rude in high school, some would classify him as a bully, but he'd never picked on me. I couldn't remember the names of the other two but they were so familiar. Erik Packer who I'd stood next to at the ceremony earlier was also there— from the looks of it he was shit-faced. The other two guys I didn't recognize. I looked at Rowan, he seemed unfazed.

"What's up guys?" He asked calmly but I thought I saw a flash of irritation cross his face. I looked again and decided that I'd imagined it.

"Dude!" "Where've you been we're celebrating Erik being done with high school we need to party!"

Rowan looked at me. I thought I saw his eyes look me over but I credited that to my drunken self, again. The corners of his lips lifted up in a smile.

"Let's party."