Free Saving from Monkeys by Jessie L. Star Page A

back had passed. A line had been crossed.
    Unaware of the incoming rescue mission, however, he saw Rox take control of the situation herself, pushing the stranger away and saying steadily, "I said no thank you. Hands off."
    Elliot lost sight of her for a moment as a mob of people pushed forward to the bar, and by the time he'd thrust his way through, the dickhead had been put in his place and was turning away.
    "Careful with that one, mate," he grimaced, in what he clearly thought was a 'bros before hos' kind of mateship as he saw Elliot approaching. "Someone should put a 'beware of the dog' sign on her, you know?"
    "Piss off," Elliot spat, shoving past him.
    Rox looked up in apprehension as he came up beside her, clearly thinking the other guy had returned. He caught the spark of relief in her eyes as she saw it was him, but then she remembered herself and thunked her head down onto the bar.
    "You right?" He touched her elbow lightly making her swiftly lift her head and shift her arm deliberately away from his concerned contact.
    "You saw that did you? Unbelievable!" She lifted up her glass and then slammed it down on the counter in front of her with a loud bang. "The drinks here cost twice as much as they do at the uni bar, but the arseholes are exactly the same calibre, where's the fairness in that?"
    "You said arseholes," convinced that she was in no way traumatised by her recent encounter with the lowest form of Haze's clientele, Elliot leant back against the bar next to her. "Very impressive. What happened to monkey?"
    "It went militant," she said viciously. "Someone grabbed its arse."
    He laughed and then held his hand out to get the attention of the bartender. The guy recognised him and a few seconds later his beer of choice was slid along the bar to him.
    "Well , that was a typically disgusting display of entitlement," Rox remarked as he lifted the bottle to his lips. "Took me about half an hour to get my drink."
    "Maybe you should have paid in arse currency," Elliot suggested with a wicked smile. "I hear that gets you good results around here."
    She looked at him, and for a split second, he thought she was going to crack and laugh, but then the moment passed and she glared at him instead.
    "Being hit on by some creepy random is all your fault by the way," she said, sucking an ice cube into her mouth and then crunching it angrily.
    "Of course it is," he said sardonically even as he scanned the room to make sure the 'creepy random' had well and truly moved on. As he confirmed that he had, he saw a couple pressed against each other against the far wall. Considering the size of one of them, this was almost certainly Jonah and Abi. Well, that explained why Rox had been on her own.
    "It is!" She insisted, stabbing her straw into the bottom of the tumbler. "There is no way I would've come to this stupid place if it wasn't for you."
    She joined him in looking around, although her gaze was rather more pointed and he couldn't help but see what she was getting at. The long bar they were at curved around taking up most of the space at ground level, but there was a large dance-floor in the basement. You could hear the music thumping and throbbing through the bar, kind of like having a permanent headache. Everything was chrome and hard red plastic ; the kind of place where if you fell, you fell hard.
    "So why are you here then?" He asked, leaning towards her and dropping his voice in a way that, he had on good authority, was sexy as hell. "So desperate to see me again you'll go to any lengths?" It was juvenile, but there was something so entertaining in the way her jaw tightened and her cheeks darkened at his flirting.
    "What is it with the losers that come here and personal space?" She put a small, pale hand on his shoulder and pushed him back before tilting her head up to look at him and letting him see just how properly mad she was.
    "You suck, Sinclair," she said haughtily, "and the only reason I came here tonight was to tell