Page 53 of Take You Down

“I know,” I answer. “And if I really wanted to, I would. But tonight”—I stare into her eyes and wish that in that moment I never had to leave them—“I don’t want to.”

Scar dips her head down a bit, giving me a small smile. “Okay, I just wanted you to know. My sobriety shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a drink with your bandmates and sister on a night out here and there.”

“I know that, Scar, I do. But trust me when I’m telling you that tonight, I really just want to experience this night with you, without anything in between us.”

God, I wish I could climb inside her head and hear what she’s thinking right now as she watches me, wheels turning behind her eyes as they dart around my face, mouth opening but words not coming out.

“Okay,” she says and leans back on the couch. I wrap my arm across her shoulders, pulling her into my side and relishing the comfort she brings with her.

Our little section is in an L shape with two couches; one looking directly over the dancefloor below with the other couch perpendicular to the railing and kiddy corner with the other. Reid, Jane, and Nikolai sit on one of them; Hayden, myself, and Scar on the other. Jane chats animatedly with Hayden while Nikolai looks on and jumps in here and there to tease Jane, which I can tell by the way she shoots him the middle finger every now and then.

Looking over at Reid, I find him watching me. Or more so, me and Scar, and the way I’m holding her close to me. His stare is impossible to decipher, and I flick a brow up at him in a silent question.

Reid gives me the smallest of nods, and I take it to be his blessing. Not that I need approval from him or give a damn what he thinks about who I choose to spend my time with right now with how our relationship is at the moment, but I’ll take it.

Alex comes back with a tray full of drinks, Nikolai and Jane greeting her with a cheer as they both reach forward and start handing out the shots. Hayden tries to pass two down to me and Scar, but I give him the slightest shake of my head and he pulls them back. He doesn’t question why I’m turning down a shot for maybe the first time in my life or try to draw attention to it, and I love him for it.

As the group grabs limes from a small bowl, I lean forward and grab my Red Bull, pass Scar her club soda, and stand, pulling her with me.

“We’re going down to dance,” I announce, stepping around the low table, careful not to bump into it and spill the remaining drinks.

“Wait! We haven’t taken our shots yet,” Jane yells over the music, holding a small glass in one hand, lime wedge in the other.

Scar shifts next to me, and I wonder if she’s been in an environment like this since she’s stopped drinking. Has she had to turn down a round shots with friends?

“You can have ours,” I tell her, then direct my attention to my friends. “And you three, keep an eye on her. She needs the night to let loose, but ideally not by barfing all over the car on the way back to the hotel.”

“You got it, Dad,” Nikolai mocks, raising his shot up in salute and downing it, not even flinching as it goes down. “Little Walker is safe with me.”

Jane throws an annoyed look at Nikolai as he smirks at her. I’m not sticking around to hear these two start to go at each other, so I quickly turn and grab Scar around her waist, guiding her over to the stairs and down onto the dancefloor.

I feel people watching as we descend and enter into the swirls of bodies, jumping and grinding into each other, all controlled by the DJ playing from a sleek, elevated platform in the middle of the floor.

The ground is dark, only illuminated by white strobes lights with the perimeter encased in a dark blue neon border.

Tucking Scar close to my body as we weave through, getting deeper into the throng of the crowd, I feel her tense. Putting my lips close to her ear, I ask, “You okay?”

She nods her head, twisting her neck and standing on her tiptoes to speak closely to me. “Just trying to get used to it.”

“To what?”

“The stares.”

I pull back and scan the area, noticing some people eyeing us either unabashedly, or trying to be more discreet and averting their attention when I make eye contact. It’s something that I’ve grown accustomed to over the years.

But for Scar, this is all new to her. She’s been delivering a great performance on tour and people are noticing. I overheard Vik and Arun talking about it last week, how much her streams have risen over the past month and a half. The demand of her doing more solo interviews, instead of always being paired up with Boone for them. Her social media accounts, which I know Scar doesn’t bother to check or update, have been growing steadily. It makes me proud of her, to see people starting to recognize the talent I saw that very first sound check I watched of hers.

But with all of that success and love come the stares. And clearly, she is uneasy with her newfound attention.

“Do you want to go back upstairs?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “No.” Turning her body toward mine so we’re chest to chest, she says, “Make me forget them,” as she starts dipping and swaying with the music. My attention zeroes in on her hips, watching them glide smoothly back and forth with the beat, the song familiar to her and her body sinking into its rhythm.

I fall into her sphere, moving along with her like I’ve been meant to do it my entire life. The bass rings through my ears, keeping us steady and grounded.

With each moment, the people around us fade away little by little, until Scar becomes the only thing I see. The strobe lights flash across her, causing her to look as if she’s moving in slow motion, delicate neck extended and dark bangs clinging to her forehead with sweat.

Scar’s arms extend above her head, moving along to the beat before they find themselves wrapping around my neck, her drink splashing on my shoulder and running down my exposed arm, but I couldn’t care less. She pulls herself close, and I chug the last of my drink before crumpling the can and tossing it out toward an empty spot on the perimeter of the floor, doing the same with her drink right after. A dick move, but at the moment, I couldn’t care less. I need to have both of my hands on her body now.

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