Chapter Text
Drew shut the engine off out the front of a retro-looking club, fluorescent lights illuminated the parking lot.
"This is it," Drew announced, Danny leaned over Drew's lap to take a better look at the outside of the building through his window. A massive led sign with the word CLUB spelled broadly across the front of it flickered rapidly. Drew felt his body heat in response to Danny's warm body leaning over his lap, he squeezed Danny's sides to force him to let up. Danny yelped and jumped back, hitting his head on the rearview mirror.
"Jesus Christ," Danny groaned, rubbing the back of his head with his palm. Drew bit back a laugh that threatened to escape his throat. "Seriously dude?"
"Sorry," Drew laughed, Danny rolled his eyes, still rubbing the back of his head, and reached back, grabbing a brown paper bag from the backseat. Drew double tapped his phone, revealing the time. They were almost forty-five minutes late and it was a Saturday evening, the club was sure to be packed. Danny pushed open the passenger door and slipped out, Drew followed him outside, slamming shut the black car door. He locked the car and walked with Danny inside the club.
The club was overly crowded as noisy house music blasted throughout the venue. Shiny red stools lined the bar, big neon lights cluttered the walls along with colorful photo frames. A sign reading, arcade, was positioned above a bright room. The room was crammed with pinball machines, photo booths, and arcade games. The aroma of beer and greasy meals wafted around the area.
"This place looks very, Kurtis," Danny observed, his eyes scanning the club. Drew tugged on Danny's sleeve as Kurtis made his way through the crowd of people towards the two of them,
"Aye, you made it!" Kurtis exclaimed, his voice drowning a little in the blasting music. Drew shot a dirty look at a man pushing past him, who had elbowed his side to move him out the way.
"Hey!" Danny smiled, "Happy birthday!" Drew took a hold of the paper bag in Danny's hand and passed it to Kurtis.
They both had bought a joint present that afternoon, spending much too long bickering over which gift to buy for him. They ended up deciding on Danny's idea in the end, primarily because they had to be at the club in twenty minutes and the drive there was almost an hour long. If it wasn't for that, they very likely could have spent another two hours at the mall. Kurtis smiled gratefully, taking hold of the bag and dropping his arm to his side.
"Thanks, guys," Kurtis grinned, "Come on, let's get you a drink," Kurtis lead them over to the bar and ordered three beers, one for each of them.
"Man, I know your like famous and all but this-" Drew gestured to the growing crowd of people. "This is excessive."
"I tried to book the place for tonight but it seems like it's a pretty popular spot so it was quite pricey, but I think it would feel a little empty if I had managed to succeed in booking it out," Kurtis explained, taking a sip from his beer, Drew noticed Danny tighten his grasp around his beer bottle,
"So, how many people are actually here for your birthday?" Danny asked raising his voice a little to make himself audible above the blaring music, they had all very quickly noticed that the music in the club was much too loud to ensue a proper conversation without needing to practically yell at each other.
"I'd say about a third?" Kurtis giggled, Drew caught the sarcasm immediately but his mouth rose into a smirk as he noticed that Danny certainly had not.
"A third?" Danny repeated, his jaw dropped negligibly in shock, a laugh escaped Drew's throat. Danny usually caught onto Drew and Kurtis' sarcasm and jokes so Drew wondered what it was that caused this one to slip past him.
"Dude, I'm joking." Kurtis laughed, nudging him in the side with his elbow. Danny laughed and threw a hand to his forehead defeatedly. "Only like fifteen people are here for my birthday. And speaking of, I think Jenna needs me," Kurtis said, his gaze cast just over Drew's right shoulder, focusing on Jenna waving her hand for him to come over. "I'll be back."
Drew took another sip of his beer as he watched Kurtis leave and rested his head on one of his hands, He turned to look at Danny. He felt his gaze drag up along the line of Danny's jaw, to the curve of his down-turned eyes, and finally outlining the roundness of his lips. He fantasized about taking Danny's face in his hands and kissing him senseless. Drew's mind suddenly caught up to his daydream and glanced down at his bottle. What the fuck? He felt his body heat up at the shock of his eyes seeming to have a mind of their own. He had never felt or thought of something like that before towards Danny, or any guy for that matter and there he was, fantasizing about kissing him. He felt self-disgust pulse through his veins.
"So what do you think of this place?" Drew asked, still feeling a little startled over what he had just caught himself doing. Fortunately, Danny seemed occupied with his bottle cap, flipping it back and forth between his fingertips and completely oblivious to the way Drew tried to avoid eye contact.
"I like it." Danny smiled, surveying the room with his big blue eyes, "just very busy." He ran his fingers over the indents of the cap.
Drew sighed, he knew that Danny got uncomfortable in large group gatherings, especially around people he didn't know well. He used to feel the same, but his social anxiety had been progressing. Although he was only uncomfortable with big crowds of strangers, he knew that Danny's anxiety was only getting worse. Drew rested a hand on Danny's arm, feeling Danny's forearm flex under his light grip.
"We can go home whenever you like," he offered. Danny looked up, bright neon lights reflecting in his bright eyes. Drew swallowed as Danny held the eye contact and he forced his eyes away from Danny's face, afraid to feel whatever he had felt before. He shook his head, reminding himself of the fact that he had a wife, and Danny was his best friend. He blamed the unfamiliar feeling that stirred in his stomach on the half of his beer that must have already entered his system.
"I'm fine, plus we can't, it's Kurtis' birthday," Danny sighed, dropping the bottle cap on the countertop.
"Are you sure?" Drew asked. Danny nodded but Drew didn't buy it. He seemed off, the second they had both stepped into the club, his energy had totally shifted. "Okay, but if you want to leave, let me know," Drew said. Danny smiled, his eyes thanking him. "Maybe if the dance floor clears up a bit we should head-on."
Danny raised his arm to down the rest of his drink, causing Drew's hand to slip off. "Yeah, but I'm definitely going to need a couple more drinks before that happens." Danny laughed, waving over the bartender for another beer. "Do you want another?"
"Nah, I'm good," Drew smiled, raising his half-full bottle of beer. Suddenly he felt a sharp tap on his shoulder, he swiveled around on his stool to see Kurtis standing behind him, a plastic red cup in his hand. The yellow and green party lights beamed on the back of Kurtis' head, completely darkening the view of his face.
"Hey Drew, I need you for a second," He said, leaning against the bar. Drew glanced at Danny but he seemed entirely focused on Kurtis. His eyes were narrowed and his eyebrows raised inward. Drew couldn't figure out which emotion was depicted on his face,
"What about Danny?" Drew asked, watching as Danny had taken the bottle cap in his hand once again, turning it in between his fingers.
"He can come, but we'll only be like five minutes tops," Kurtis explained, already turning to walk away, "I'll bring him back in one piece Dan, don't worry."
Drew flashed Danny a sorry look which was returned with a mocking glare. Drew followed Kurtis amongst the hundreds of people dancing to the overwhelmingly loud music until they reached a dark blue booth located in the corner of the venue. A couple of unfamiliar faces hovered around the booth, all with red cups in their hands, the only person Drew recognized was Kurtis' girlfriend, Jenna, who was chatting with a tall blonde woman on the far left of the booth.
"What did you need me for?" Drew asked. He found himself staring at a girl who was rapidly downing a large bottle of dark brown liquid, he dragged his eyes back to face Kurtis,
"I just need you to pin up the other side of this banner for me," Kurtis explained, handing one side of a banner reading out Happy Birthday! to Drew.
"Couldn't you have gotten somebody else to do this for you?" Drew questioned, furrowing his eyebrows a little at his friend.
"Yeah I guess, but you're tall enough to reach where I want to put this, plus your probably the soberest person here," Kurtis explained as he stepped up onto the shiny leather seat. Drew sighed and stood up on the seat opposite Kurtis. He quickly stuck the banner up with a strip of tape and jumped down, waving a subtle goodbye to Kurtis who already seemed to be deep in a conversation with the man next to him.
Drew navigated his way through the ocean of people and returned to his seat. He opened his mouth to speak before noticing that the stool next to him lay empty, Danny's beer smashed on the floor next to the chair. Drew felt his gut wrench, something was most certainly not right about this. He didn't know if it was the empty stool or the smashed bottle on the ground that worried him more, but the ringing in his ears told him one thing; find Danny.