Ramsey stepped forward, grabbed a fistful of Seth's shirt in each hand, and yanked him towards him. "Give me a straight answer. Now," he growled. His demeanor had completely shifted. The anger that was radiating from his body was almost palpable. It's as if his body had shifted to this new character. His blind rage at the situation was taking over his body, and it was pretty obvious to everyone that if Seth stepped over the line Ramsey would not be happy. Eyes followed them around the room as it dawned on everyone that a fight was about to break out.
Lexi shifted her eyes around the establishment. She noticed the bouncer's general shift of attention towards their group. A few even began taking a few steps towards them. She could tell they were still deciding if something was going to go down or not. Neither of the guys was touching the women, who had mostly backed away from their enclave, which made them less threatening, but still Ramsey and Seth were both big guys. She was sure the bouncers didn't want to have to deal with unruly clients especially not ones who had been funneling money into the place all night.
"Ramsey," Lexi murmured placing her hand lightly on his bulging bicep, "people are staring at us. You need to be careful."
"I don't need to be careful here," Ramsey said never taking his eyes from Seth.
"I know, but really just back off of him. He's drunk and an idiot," she told him trying to calm him down. The last thing she wanted was trouble. She had enough drama to last her entire life time. Being kicked out of a strip club in the middle of New York City at an ungodly hour of the night was not something she wanted to add to the list.
"Don't make me ask you again," Ramsey told Seth ignoring Lexi's comments. He narrowed his eyes at Seth who had finally given his full attention to the gravity of the situation. "If Jack is missing, I have to deal with it. I can't just stand around and let you drunken frat boys continue to drink yourselves silly when something serious happened. So answer my damn questions."
"We were never in a frat," Seth managed his voice shaky as his brain tried to catch up with what was happening. Lexi could see a glimmer of laughter in his eyes, and wasn't sure she liked that look.
"Seth," she murmured softly at his ridiculous response.
"Just back off man and I'll tell you," he said shifting his eyes from Lexi back to Ramsey. With that look she saw that he had finally caught up to what was going on. Ramsey was threatening him.
She could tell that at that realization Seth appeared kind of scared of Ramsey. She would have never guessed that someone as cool and collected as Seth was scared of anyone. She was so accustomed to his flirtatious, overly-confident outwards appearance that the look of terror in his eyes really threw her off.
She knew Ramsey was a tall and really, really well built. Then again she also knew that deep down that bulk didn't characterize him. He was as a general rule very calm natured, at least around her. She wasn't sure how well Seth and Ramsey knew each other, but did Seth actually believe that Ramsey would hurt him? She had seen him become physically violent before, but never to someone that he knew. She had to admit though, he did look pretty frightening. When he wanted to look threatening, he certainly could. He had the height and mass to dissuade anyone from wanting to get in a fight with him.
His personality just never fit him being this kind of guy. She always found it strange when he played the tough guy. Even that night nearly a year ago when he had walked into Jack's apartment and threatened his life if he ever hurt Lexi or his sister, she had never thought of him as scary…as if he might actually follow through with it.
When he was with her, he always tried to be the most comforting person possible. He was cute, funny, and charming. He could string words together like a poet one minute and ramble like a nervous fool the next. She knew he wasn't this guy that he was putting on the act to be. Thus, it was too strange to see the fear reflected in Seth's eyes. Ramsey would never hurt him, right?
"Don't play games with me," Ramsey said releasing his shirt and pushing him backwards.
Seth ran his hands along the black button-up he was wearing to smooth out the wrinkles from Ramsey's aggressive behavior. "Chill out, geez."
"I'll chill out when I get a straight answer from you. You called me in a panic, made me leave everything I was doing." His eyes shot to Lexi's for a brief moment. "I want to know what is going on now, Seth."
"Wait what was that look?" he asked pointing between Lexi and Ramsey. A slow smile crept up onto his face and instantly turned into Seth's characteristic smirk. "Was something going on between you two? Is something going on between you two?"
Lexi's face instantly turned beet red. She couldn't help herself. She hadn't intended on going that far with Ramsey, not that it should matter to Seth one way or the other, but she still felt kind of silly. After all, they had been about to have sex when they were interrupted with Seth's stupid phone call. She could feel the warmth of her skin heating her face and her heart raced ahead before her at the thought of hav**g s*x with Ramsey. She knew her mind shouldn't wander there while she was standing before Seth, but she couldn't help it. And she was very thankful that the room was dark, and Seth couldn't tell how bad she was blushing. She would have certainly given herself away.
"Stop changing the subject," Ramsey said pointedly changing the subject.
"I'm not changing the subject," Seth interjected smoothly. "I just know that look. I know it so well that I could have picked it out anyway."
"What does it matter Seth?" Lexi squeaked out.
"It's just I can tell that's what has been going on. You guys were together all night when you were supposed to be here with the guys right?"
"Seth it doesn't matter, God," Lexi muttered shoving a piece of hair behind her ear. She didn't know what Seth was getting at and it was really annoying to have him badger them about their relationship. She didn't want to have this conversation at all let alone with a drunken Seth. He was one of the most vulgar people she knew, and if he got talking about sex, if he thought for one moment that they had been about to have sex, the conversation would be endless.
"Oh, but it does matter," he said contrarily.
"It really doesn't matter," Ramsey agreed with Lexi. "Just tell me what happened here," he said exasperated and ready to get the hell out of the strip club.
"But don't you know?" Seth asked his eyes shifting to Lexi's. He winked at her causing her blush to deepen.
She really had no idea what he was getting at now. What didn't Ramsey know that Seth thought he could tell him? He had to know that they had been together. He was, after all, Jack's best friend. He was the person he had been friends with the longest. And if she had to guess, he was probably the best man at his wedding. Jack had been his best man. They had a bond unlike any other. And if Jack knew that she had been with Ramsey, then Seth did too. Which brought her back to having no clue where Seth was going with all this.
"Know what? I don't have time for these games," Ramsey growled.
"She's Jack girl."
Lexi's mouth dropped open in shock at his words. Her ears were ringing and all else was blocked out. It was as if the strip club had instantly gone silent. The pain of those words shot through her like a knife through her heart. The nonchalance of the statement hit her to the core. She didn't even have words. She couldn't even correct him. She was just utterly shocked by the easy way he threw around those words.
She had worked a year to get him out of her life as much as she possibly could. He always had a place in her heart since she had loved him so obsessively for such a long time, but she had been able to extract herself from him to an extent. But Seth's easy placement of her belonging to Jack catapulted her to a different place in her life. And she had to forcefully remind herself to be angry that he had placed her with Jack. After all it was pretty f**ked up that he would say that at all about someone who was about to be married. Let alone say those kind of things to the man she had been dating who happened to also be Jack's future brother-in-law.
As the proper emotion filtered into her system, anger bubbled up from the pit of her stomach. She wanted to smack him across the face for ever uttering something that had always been such a complete and total lie. She wasn't Jack's girl. She had never been Jack's girl. Jack only cared about himself. He was happy to leave her behind while he married someone else.
"Jack is marrying my sister," Ramsey stated each word carefully. Lexi saw the same raw anger that she was certain reflected in her eyes in Ramsey's own demeanor. "Perhaps you should think about that before you speak again."
Seth's easy smile was something Lexi was extremely accustomed too. He was in his element. For some reason, even drunk, he was having fun with this. "He might be marrying her, but it's not like he's going to get rid of Lexi. I mean have you seen her?" he asked gesturing towards Lexi who was still in her sexy red dress from their night out. His eyes crawled her body hungrily, the alcohol getting rid of the last bit of inhibition that he had. Not that he had had much to begin with. "She's fire hot! And anyway, they've been together forever."
"You are talking about people I care about Seth. You should watch what you are saying," Ramsey tried to remind him. He hated the way Seth referred to Lexi as if she were just meat. He talked about her and Jack as if they were inevitable, as if she had no choice in the matter. He couldn't let that be the case. And listening to him talk about her that way was only getting him more fired up. "You are telling me that Jack is going to cheat on my sister with the woman standing before you just because they have a history?" Ramsey asked in disbelief.
"If he hasn't already," Seth said scoffing. He was so certain of his deduction of the situation; he couldn't even see the effect he was having on the both of them. Or if he did, he didn't realize the significance of what he was ensuing.
Lexi, however, saw what was coming before it happened. Ramsey couldn't let his comment stand. The same thought had crossed his mind too many times, and she knew that he couldn't stand hearing it from one more person.
Ramsey cleared the distance between them in a split second hoisting Seth up by his shirt one more time. "Do not ever imply again that Lexi is a whore or that Jack would be stupid enough to hurt either one of them. He knows what I would do to him if that day came," he snarled.
"Ramsey, put him down," Lexi cried guilt washing over her at the fact that Seth was right. Jack had already cheated on Bekah with her. They had kissed several times, and then that dreadful decision to sleep with him on his birthday. She had let those things happen. Not that she could tell anyone that fact. If he chose Bekah, then by all means let him have her. She was bound and determined not to get in the way again. "People are coming over here," she said nodding her head towards the approaching bouncer.
"Alright man sorry. It's the alcohol talking," Seth muttered running his hand through his hair when Ramsey finally put him down.
"Is there a problem here?" a bouncer asked getting in Ramsey's face.
"No," Ramsey said flashing his pearly white teeth. "In fact, we're perfect. We'll be leaving shortly."