Chapter 16
Barty felt a little insane.
He was trying to ignore the fact that he was waiting beside the dumpsters, outside of a restaurant, on a boy he didn’t even really like. He wasn’t allowed inside according to the host, because he thought Barty was keeping the bartender away from his work. He did give the bartender a name though.
Alexander.
Barty was busy smoking his last cigarette when the back door to the restaurant opened and two boys came out. ‘Nathaniel, juggling three jobs is getting too much. I can’t pick up all of the shifts here, drive taxis and teach surfing lessons. You gotta take one of them over,’ one of the boys said. He had light blonde hair, neatly combed back in a stylish sort of way and dark eyes that looked vaguely green-grey in the dimly lit alleyway. ‘No, forget it, Austin. You can surf in the mornings, drive in the afternoons and work in the night, don’t make such a big deal out of it. I’m also swamped with work,’ the other one said. They seemed to be brothers, but they looked nothing alike. The other one had dark blue eyes and brown curls. ‘And Al? Can’t he take on another job?’ the blonde haired one, Austin, said desperately.
Barty made the connection that Al must be Alexander, the bartender/waiter. His date for tonight.
‘No, Aus, he’s still a kid. We can’t ask him to throw his life away like that. I heard he had a date tonight,’ the brown haired dude, Nathaniel, said. ‘That’s good for him. I just- we need to pay for mom’s medical bills and keep the restaurant open. It was her dream. Still is, even though she’s struggling right now,’ Austin whispered to Nathaniel, looking around to see if anyone was in the alley.
‘We can always ask Malfoy for help if push comes to shove,’ Nathaniel whispered back. That however, was a name that caught Barty’s attention. See, Barty knew a thing or two and Barty had done some… questionable things in his life, so he was all too familiar with Malfoy. Because the newly graduated ministry intern Lucius Malfoy, was the cause Barty got his smoking addiction. He may be a ministry intern now, but he was once one of the most successful drug dealers in Britain, and Barty doubted he would suddenly stop.
‘No, Nathaniel. You want to follow dad into jail on Malfoy’s account?’ Austin hissed, grabbing the arm of Nathaniel. ‘Don’t even think about it, please. We need you here without ma or pa. I need you here,’ Austin said, sighing deeply. ‘And no, I can’t work tonight. I’m so tired I feel like collapsing into a freaking dumpster. I’m sorry, but I’ll make sure to be fresh for surfing tomorrow at seven. I’ll pick up Lisa’s afternoon shift, because I don’t have to drive tomorrow and I’ll work a double. Deal?’ Austin proposed, his eyes turned up to the light. Green and grey. As if the centre of the eyes had a sudden burst of green, but the rest was void of colour.
‘Deal,’ Nathaniel said, before stuffing out a cigarette Barty didn’t realise he was smoking and walking back inside. Austin shook his head and followed.
‘Hey,’ A breathy voice came from behind Barty. Barty frowned and turned around. ‘Hey? Oh, hi!’ he said, a grin instantly on his face when he saw the bartender behind him. ‘You’re early,’ Barty said, frowning at his phone that read 10.48 PM. ‘I am. Bar wasn’t busy anymore, and my brother said I was allowed to go because I uh.. Kinda told him about our date,’ the waiter said, his ears turning pink.
Barty noticed he had small freckles on his face. Like his brother. As the two of them started walking towards some kind of dancing club, Barty asked him a series of questions. ‘What’s your name?’ he started with. He knew, of course, but Alexander didn’t know he knew. ‘Alexander, but please call me Alex,’ he answered. ‘Where are you from? And how long have you lived in France?’ Barty asked then, earning a little frown from Alex.
‘Can’t I ask you a question?’ he asked. ‘My name’s Barty. I’m from Italy, have lived in Britain since I was two, I smoke. I like green, but not nature. Love the rain, but not when I’m in it. I have enough friends to count them on one hand, too many enemies to keep track. What else do you want to know?’ Barty rattled off, looking off somewhere in the distance. ‘Oh. Uh… Maybe you ask a few questions first. But I’m from Britain, moved to France when I was around three,’ Alex said, smiling shyly.
‘How many siblings do you have?’ Barty asked casually. Alex suddenly stopped in his tracks and gave Barty a weird look. ‘What? It’s a normal question?’ Barty muttered. ‘Oh. Right. Sorry. Uh, I have two brothers,’ Alex said, smiling at Barty, though the smile looked odd.
‘And you’re sure of that? Because you don’t sound too sure,’ Barty asked, narrowing his eyes. ‘You know you can tell me anything, right? I probably won’t even see you after today,’ Barty added. ‘Yeah, yeah I know. It’s the truth, I’m just a little nervous, sorry,’ Alex said, his gaze falling on his shoes. He had left his work shoes at work, he said, though these shoes didn’t look much better than those did. ‘It’s okay. You wanted a shirt, right? Here. You can have it, I barely wear it anyway,’ Barty said, handing Alex a basic, light green shirt with some lettering on the back.
‘Oh, that’s really sweet, but you can have it back after tonight,’ Alex said bashfully, his eyes finding Barty’s. Green and blue. Like his brother’s, but fully filled with intensity and colour instead of grey around the edges. ‘No, I insist. Keep it,’ Barty said, just as they rounded a corner and Alex smiled at him. ‘Thank you, that’s really sweet,’ he said softly, but Barty scoffed. No strings, he reminded himself. ‘Only reason I let you keep it, is because I expect to not see you tomorrow morning, after the sex,’ Barty said casually. It sounded off when he said it, though he knew he used to mean it. Did he mean it now?
‘Ah, of course,’ Alex muttered. He sounded a little disappointed, but Barty shook it away. ‘We’re here, so I’m gonna change first real quick and then we’ll go in,’ Alex said, walking over towards the small alley beside the club. Barty frowned and followed him, blocking the alley. ‘You’re changing here?’ Barty asked. Alex looked at him with shocked eyes. ‘Yu-yeah? I always do it if I go dancing after work.’
‘That’s… Real problematic, man. What if someone you don’t wanna hook up with, sees it?’ Barty questioned while wiggling his eyebrows and nudging Alex to put on the shirt. He did so, but kept on giving Barty careful glances. ‘I don’t know… Never happened to me, I guess,’ he mumbled.
‘Well, think about it next time,’ Barty muttered, after he grabbed Alex’ hand and led him inside of the club. A thing Barty noticed about Alex, was that he doesn’t blush on his cheeks like most people, but the tips of his ears blush. It’s weird, but cute.
Barty’s mood instantly soured when he realised what kind of club Alex had led him to, and what kind of dancing he meant to do tonight. ‘No, no, nope. I can’t dance like this Alex. How do you even think about this as a hobby?’ Barty asked, appalled. ‘I like it? Latin dances are better than that posh ballroom shit anyways. If it’s not your taste, you can leave,’ Alex said, his demeanour changing into a defensive one, closed off and suddenly eerily similar to Regulus.
‘No! No, it’s okay. Sorry, I’m just not… used to dancing like this,’ Barty apologised as he held out his hand for Alex to grab again. Alex sighed and grabbed his hand, guiding the both of them further into the dimly lit club.
‘You want something to drink?’ Alex asked while smiling softly and motioning towards the bar. ‘Yeah sure, my treat,’ Barty said, winking at Alex who wanted to protest. Barty acted like he didn’t hear him over the music.
‘Alex, let me ask you something,’ Barty started after he ordered drinks for the both of them. He was invested in this boy’s life now, even though he would probably forget about him in a week. The bartender asked for an ID, of course, so Barty showed him a fake one he seemed to accept. ‘Yeah, sure,’ he muttered back, grabbing both of their drinks while Barty put down some cash for the bartender. ‘What’s the deal with you and your brothers? Like, I think I overheard them talking about… stuff, and it didn’t sound too great,’ Barty asked, getting wide eyes from Alex as a response.
‘Oh! Uh, well… I can’t really tell you, sorry,’ Alex said, still a little shocked. ‘Okay… What can you tell me?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow. ‘My uh… My mom’s in the hospital, so the restaurant is really struggling without her help. And my dad is… gone. So we don’t have his income anymore to keep ourselves comfortable,’ Alex said, wincing when he said it. He downed his drink and put the empty glass down on a random table.
‘Let’s not talk anymore. Except for me telling you how to dance.’ Alex smiled at him, grabbed Barty’s almost finished drink from his hands and pulled him into the dancing crowd. ‘Okay, so we’re starting simple, with salsa. Have you heard of it?’ Alex asked, grabbing both of Barty’s hands and holding them, quite a large gap between the two. Barty frowned. ‘Yeah. Wasn’t this type of dancing known for being, like, really close and sexual?’ he asked, looking around and indeed finding more people than not dancing against each other.
‘Not always. That’s actually only done in the club. But with learning the basics, you gotta start like this. So the base is one two three rest, one two three rest, and repeat,’ Alex explained, showing Barty steps. ‘For you it’s the opposite of me,’ he said, laughing when Barty looked at him weirdly. ‘What? Am I doing something wrong?’ Barty asked, earning another snicker from Alexander.
‘You need to move your hips a little. No, not like that!’ Alex laughed, moving to stand behind Barty. ‘Can I help?’ he asked, tentatively brushing his hands over Barty’s hips. ‘Yeah, obviously. If all goes well, we’ll have sex tonight. Do whatever the fuck you want, dude,’ Barty said after which Alex pinched him and he yelped. ‘What was that for?!’ Barty exclaimed.
‘Fun,’ Alex said, shrugging and moving his hands to grip Barty’s hips a little firmer. ‘So the trick with salsa is that you have to make little moves. So little steps. And your hips shouldn’t move because you’re moving your hips, but because you move your knees. So if you bend one knee at a time, your hips will follow,’ Alex explained while he moved Barty’s hips along to the rhythm and Barty started getting the steps correctly. ‘And salsa is not rushed. So make sure you dance at one two three, and then take a small rest. It’s a 4/4 count, but three step dance,’ Alex explained, his hand carefully travelling higher until they reached Barty’s shoulders.
‘Keep your shoulders relaxed. Salsa is a relaxing dance. It’s latin, not ballroom, so you don’t have a specific way to hold your partners. Especially not in clubs anyway,’ Alex said, letting go of Barty to turn around him and face him again. He pulled Barty closer and held him in the standard dancing position. ‘We could dance like this,’ he said, right before softly pushing Barty away, who then fell out of rhythm. It was impressive how easily Alex held onto the rhythm. ‘Or this,’ He said, pulling Barty closer again with his hand low on Barty’s hips.
‘Salsa is actually quite easy once you know how it works and know how to stay on beat. As long as you keep moving, you’ll never go wrong.’ Alex started talking more and more, explaining certain things and even spinning Barty around sometimes without Barty really noticing. Barty knew he should’ve paid attention, but Evan just walked into the club with James right behind him, and the crowd parted for them as if they owned the place.
He stumbled, stepped on alex’ toes and apologised before snapping out of it and turning his attention back on Alexander. ‘Sorry. I uh, was distracted,’ Barty said, shaking his head and looking the other direction. ‘It’s okay, I get it. He’s pretty, huh? Alex said, smiling in understanding while Barty sighed softly. ‘Yeah, he is. Do you know him?’ Barty asked, but Alex shook his head. ‘I uh, I kind of stole his scooter and tried to sell it, but he found out and I almost ended up in jail,’ Alex muttered softly. Barty frowned. ‘You… What? That’s crazy!’ Barty said while he was laughing.
Alex didn’t think it was worth laughing about though. He gave Barty a sour look and exhaled loudly. ‘It was stupid. I do stupid things sometimes,’ Alex said. And Barty got it. He really did, because at that moment Evan and Barty locked eyes and Barty smirked at him, before grabbing Alex’ face and kissing him, right there in front of Evan.
Alex didn’t seem to mind much, though he was really surprised. He was a good kisser, knew what he liked and easily went along with Barty, but Barty had had better kisses. Like Regulus.
He broke away from Alex right after that thought, to see what Evan thought about it. He looked back at Barty indifferently, and raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘really? How mature’, but Barty knew better now. He knew how much it must’ve hurt Evan and he kind of felt sick when he thought about it. He was so stupid. Hurting Evan wasn’t getting him anywhere, but he still did it.
And why? Why did he do it? It wasn’t worth it. He hurt himself with it too, because he just wanted Evan back. As friends or as more, whatever he could get. But Evan was clearly very done with Barty and his stupid actions, because when he looked back again, Evan had moved away and was dancing scandalously close to James. His boyfriend. The taste in his mouth became one similar to puke and he bit his lip. That should’ve been him. He should’ve been dancing with Evan.
‘I’m getting another drink,’ he said, completely talking over Alex who was saying something to Barty that he didn’t hear, nor listened to. He walked away without asking if Alexander wanted something to drink, but he ordered something for the boy anyways. ‘Holy shit, Crouch. You look exactly the same.’ Barty rolled his eyes and turned around to face Mary Macdonald.
He and Mary went way back, you know. Mary was one of Barty’s earlier fucks and the girl had somehow seen right through him from the moment they laid eyes on each other. Barty had never opened up to someone before Mary came, but she seemed to pull the words out of his mouth whether he wanted to or not, so he had given up on not telling her shit when she wanted to know shit.
She was all brown curls and mischievous brown eyes. Eyes Barty once had seen roll away in his bed while he did his thing. Was Evan jealous then? Was Evan jealous of it now? He wasn’t sure, but he needed to know.
‘What do you want?’ Barty snapped, turning back around to grab the two drinks. Mary grabbed the one for Alex and winked at him. ‘You know me so well Crouch, thank you for the drink. Now, don't get all mad. Sit down and have a talk with me,’ she said, before Barty could even grab the drink for Alex back.
‘I heard you’ve become a stalker of my new friend? It’s a real shame, he’s not even famous and you’re obsessed,’ Mary said, while Barty grumbled ‘not yet at least,’ back to her and took a sip of his drink. ‘What?’ Mary asked, confused. ‘I said, I’m not a stalker. Nor am I obsessed, by the way. He’s my best friend, it’s normal I look out for him,’ Barty said, a little louder than necessary.
‘We both know you love him Bartyboo, don’t lie to yourself. What did you do anyway to drive the two of you apart?’ Mary asked, teasing him with the nickname only Mary dared to call Barty. ‘I kissed Regulus,’ he said, taking a sharp breath. ‘Oh. That’s so stupid though, Bartyboo. Why’d you do that?’ she asked, frowning at him.
‘Because- I don’t know. I guess I didn’t think too much about it, and I was drunk, and Regulus asked me to and I- I can’t say no to him,’ Barty muttered, quickly downing his drink and looking behind Mary to look for Evan, but not finding him. ‘Hey, eyes over here, little player. Your boytoy will be fine, I’m sure. Why don’t you just try it with him? I think there’s always been secret feelings between the two of you,’ Mary said, which made Barty frown. ‘You want me to try it with Ev? But he’s dating your friend?’ Barty asked, confused.
‘No, I think you should try it with Regulus. If you and Evan are ‘made for eachother’, he’ll realise it soon enough,’ Mary said, but Barty wasn’t really listening. His eyes had found Evan and James and he felt like throwing up. Or punching something. Preferably someone with brown hair and glasses, who was absurdly close to his Evan. ‘Yeah, you’re right MacDonald. Here, get some drinks for yourself,’ he muttered, handing her a few coins without looking and walking over to Evan and James.
It was a small club, so on his way there, he bumped into Alex who frowned at him. ‘I thought you were getting drinks?’ he asked, but Barty gave him an angry look. ‘And I thought you were less annoying. I’ll be back in a few.’
But Barty was not back in a few.
Instead he ended up in an overnight cell, waiting for someone to bail him out.
Yeah, it happened to the best of people.
Or the worst, whatever you want to call it.
Oops?