Support me on pat_reon.com/kapur69 (Delete "_") and read for 15 chapter ahead or more.
Disclaimer, i own nothing but my own idea.
------
3rd POV
Marshall stared at the three men in front of him, the self-proclaimed owners of the bar, with a look that could practically prosecute them on the spot. His jaw tightened. His shoulders squared. If looks could file charges, Dennis, Mac, and Charlie would already be in handcuffs.
Marshall wasn't just some random guy making noise. He was a future lawyer. A damn good one, if you asked him. He understood the law in this country. And what these idiots were doing? It wasn't just irresponsible.
It was illegal.
Selling alcohol to minors could cost them that much.
Fines exceeding ten thousand dollars. Suspension, or worse, revocation of their liquor license. Jail time. Up to a year, maybe more if it was repeated.
And if something happened to one of those kids because of alcohol?
That would escalate fast. It could turn into a felony.
Marshall exhaled slowly, keeping his voice low and controlled.
"Let me get this straight," he said, pointing directly at Dennis. His tone was deep, calm, but dangerous. "You're selling to underaged kids because… you were deceived?"
Dennis, Mac, and Charlie nodded immediately, maybe too fast and raising their hands defensively.
"Yeah, dude!" Mac blurted out.
"I can't believe we were being deceived!" Charlie added, scandalized as if they were the victims here.
Dennis jumped in quickly. "Yeah! Yeah! Oh my God! They even had fake IDs!"
"Yeah! Fake ID is really cool," Mac chimed in, glancing at Dennis for support. "Honestly, they look old too, right?"
Charlie nodded aggressively. "Goddammit! I'm pissed off too, you know!"
Ted, who had been quietly observing this entire circus, chuckled and patted Marshall's shoulder casually.
"You know my friend here?" Ted said, grinning slightly. "He's a lawyer. A good one, even." He didn't tell them that Marshall did not have a license.
Marshall shot Ted a flat, deadpan look and played along with him.
"The best, Ted. The best."
Then his gaze returned to the trio, sharp and unwavering.
"Yeah, the best," Ted continued, now openly playing with them. He knew exactly who these guys were. The so-called brotherhood of Philly. The losers of Philly.
Ted could confirm one thing: they weren't evil.
They were just… profoundly stupid.
"You do realize," Ted added lightly, "you three could go to jail, right?"
The trio visibly stiffened. Fear flickered across their faces but only for a second.
"That's not a lawyer's job," Mac protested quickly.
Charlie slapped Mac's shoulder. "Yeah! That's not a lawyer's job! Your job is to defend us!"
Dennis, fully committed to the stupidity, nodded along. "Yeah, we can pay you."
"Dude!"
"We don't have money, dude!"
Mac and Charlie shouted at Dennis, glaring at him as he attempted to defend himself again. But before he could, Marshall cut through the chaos.
"So you're admitting," Marshall said evenly, "that you sold drinks to underage kids?"
Sascha suddenly slammed both hands onto the table.
"What are you doing, Ted?!" she snapped, her teeth clenched. "We should report this!"
"No!"
"Please don't!"
"You're Sascha, right?!" Charlie suddenly said desperately. "I can have a date with you if you don't report us to the police!"
Both Dennis and Mac turned to stare at Charlie in complete disbelief.
Sascha ignored them entirely. Her eyes were locked on Ted, who still looked far too entertained by all of this.
Ted sighed dramatically. "I guess you're right," he said, pretending to be helpless, as if this decision weighed heavily on him.
The trio went pale.
"...Free drinks?" Dennis offered weakly, glancing at his friends.
Mac and Charlie exchanged looks before sighing.
"Free drinks then."
Ted tilted his head slightly.
"I know you guys mix the drinks with water," he said calmly, eyeing the three of them.
Their mouths dropped open and glanced at each other.
"I can't believe you guys are doing that!" Barney suddenly exploded, his voice booming across the bar. "This is outrageous! Serving drinks to Minor?! You're worse than animals!"
Lily and Robin stared at him, surprised by the moral outrage in his tone. For a brief second, they thought Barney might actually have standards when it came to minors.
Then he continued. "This sucks! There's not a single beautiful grown-up woman in here!"
Lily and Robin both sighed heavily after hearing that. Barney was still Barney after all.
Barney turned dramatically to Ted. "Ted! Let's just go now!"
"There's no other bar open, Barney," Ted said calmly.
Barney groaned in frustration and turned back to the guilty trio. "Really? No women here?"
Mac suddenly looked like he had just discovered fire. He turned slowly toward Dennis.
"...We have his sister."
Charlie, who had been faithfully supporting every bad idea Mac produced, immediately lit up. "Dennis has a sister!"
Dennis stiffened. "I have a sister… but I don't know where she is," he said reluctantly. But since they were already deep in a hole, he might as well drag her into it too.
"…But I can call her."
Without waiting for approval, Dennis pulled out his phone and started dialing.
Meanwhile, Kevin and Dana had already settled themselves onto bar stools and were calmly sipping their beers, as if the entire moral disaster unfolding around them had absolutely nothing to do with them. Sascha stared at them in disbelief. She couldn't believe how quickly they had abandoned any sense of justice for cheap alcohol.
"Beer?" Mac offered, forcing a smile that looked more like a hostage negotiation than hospitality.
"It's on the house," Charlie added, wearing the same painfully stretched grin.
Marshall shot Ted another look of pure disapproval. But Ted casually patted Marshall's shoulder, trying to calm him down.
"This is the last time they're doing this, buddy," Ted said in a relaxed tone. "Sascha will keep an eye on them."
He leaned in slightly and added, "They're a bunch of cowards and losers after all."
"Hey!"
"We have feelings too, you know!"
Marshall exhaled heavily before turning to Sascha, who was still grinding her teeth at the trio.
"Can you actually do that?" Marshall asked her seriously.
"Don't worry," Sascha said coldly. "They can pray this is the last thing they ever do."
Charlie and Mac swallowed hard.
"Alright, my sister is on the way," Dennis announced, trying to look confident. A small, uneasy smile appeared on his face. "So… what drinks do you want now? It's on the house, right guys?"
Mac and Charlie nodded rapidly and rushed behind the bar, looking more like fugitives than bartenders.
Marshall, Lily, and Robin took seats at the bar, with Ted and Sascha following. Barney joined them immediately.
"Honestly, dude, are you guys that desperate?" Ted asked, casually wrapping an arm around Sascha as she sat beside him.
"No, no," Mac said quickly, pouring beer for everyone while deliberately avoiding eye contact. "Althought they are minors, but they look older to us."
Suddenly, Marshall slammed his hand onto the counter.
"Are you kidding me?!" he snapped. "Were you eyeing those kids too?!"
Lily and Robin immediately pulled out their phones, ready to call the police.
"No! We're just broke, man!" Charlie whined desperately. He smacked Mac's arm hard to shut him up and continued pouring beer. "That's totally creepy! We never do that!"
Barney, meanwhile, leaned toward Dennis.
"So… your sister's hot, right?"
Why was he so desperate? Because Ted had basically told him he wasn't getting laid tonight and Barney had taken that as a challenge.
"Ye-yeah! My sister's super hot!" Dennis said, swallowing nervously.
"Yeah, his sister's super hot," Mac added with a light chuckle earning a murderous glare from Dennis.
"Yep, I really wanna bang his sister, you know. One time that happened—"
Charlie, who was handing beers to Marshall and Ted, tried to join the conversation only to receive a hard smack to the head from Dennis.
"Ted, this is so wrong," Marshall said firmly, now joined by Lily and Robin in their serious expressions. "We can't just stay silent because of free beer. These guys are crooked. The only difference between them and some giant corporation cutting down forests and dumping waste illegally is that they're broke."
"Hey! Man, that's a horrible thing to say!"
"Hey! Again, we have feelings, you know!"
"Dude, that sucks!"
Marshall ignored them completely. His eyes remained fixed on Ted.
He was getting married soon. He had principles. Watching these three serve alcohol to minors wasn't just annoying, it violated everything Marshall believed in.
Even though he drank beer in his high school too, but opened a bar to the minor? That's really something else.
"I can see they're not having evil thoughts beyond being greedy, Marshall," Ted said after taking a slow sip of his beer. "I know they're broke and stupid and desperate to have sex, but I don't think they'll cross that line. They're pussies too."
Mac immediately tried to protest, but Dennis and Charlie quickly clamped their hands over his mouth.
"…But they're not that evil," Ted continued, now staring sharply at the three of them. His tone shifted, no longer playful. "This is the last time. Mark my words."
Dennis and Charlie nodded rapidly. Mac could only follow along, struggling to pry their hands off his mouth.
"Fine," Marshall muttered, finally taking a long drink of his beer. Then he paused.
His expression darkened.
"Damn it! You guys are assholes! This beer is watered down!"
The trio panicked instantly and scrambled to fix it, pulling out bottles of gin and bourbon for the six of them as peace offerings.
Ted laughed lightly. Sascha, however, snorted in irritation, still glaring at Dennis, Mac, and Charlie like she might slap all three of them at once.
"Dennis! What happened?!"
Deandra, Dennis's little sister burst through the door in a rush. She scanned the room quickly.
Barney's eyes immediately locked onto her.
She wasn't terrible-looking at all. And Barney, desperate to win his ridiculous challenge against Ted, straightened instantly.
"Hello, gorgeous," Barney said smoothly, bourbon in hand, flashing his signature smile.
"Is this your brother's bar? You know we could have a very long conversation about what your brother and his friends are doing, right?" he added with a smirk. "I am a lawyer by the way."
Deandra knew exactly what her brother and his friends were up to. Of course she did. But right now? She was going to pretend she had no idea.
"What are you talking about? What did they do?" she asked innocently, turning toward Dennis and the others.
Dennis shot her a sharp glare and subtly signaled for her to pull him away with a tilt of his head.
Deandra ignored him and looked at Barney with an innocent and angry face, like she had nothing to do with all of this.
"I was just on a date, and he called me into this mess? Oh my God, Dennis! What did you do?!" she snapped, marching toward him as the other two hovered nervously behind the bar.
Barney stood there watching the scene unfold, mouth slightly open before letting out a long, defeated groan.
Robin, who had been quiet beside Lily this entire time, glanced toward Ted, who was calmly enjoying his bourbon.
When their eyes met, Robin subtly gestured toward the exit.
Ted leaned in and whispered something to Sascha. Sascha, pretending to be Ted's girlfriend, which she clearly wasn't, gave him permission with a nod.
But not before throwing a pointed glare at Robin.
As Ted stepped away, Barney shuffled over to Sascha, still groaning and occasionally glancing at Deandra.
"I guess Ted was right," Barney muttered. "I'm not getting laid tonight."
"Have you considered a stripper?" Sascha replied flatly, already turning away from him.
Barney groaned even louder.