Realistic or Modern City Living

[BurningBridges]

Brooklyn hadn't gotten home until around five-thirty this morning. It was a pretty standard thing for her on the weekends, and her body was used to it by now, but it didn't make waking up the next day any easier, especially since she was always hungover. Being hungover in itself was somewhat of a feat for Brooklyn, because she had a high alcohol tolerance and her body was used to her binge drinking. To get a hangover, she had to drink a lot of liquor, but she was typically able to accomplish that at work. Every night began with a couple of tequila shots, and she only kept going from there. Needless to say, being awake at one-thirty on a Saturday wasn't typical of her but today, she was forced into the world without her own consent.

Though she typically wasn't such a light sleeper, minutes worth of pounding on her apartment door (coupled with someone in an apartment above them dropping something glass and its shattering sound being loud enough to be startling), woke her up. Because she obviously wasn't expecting anyone, she didn't initially get up to answer the door. She assumed it was some obnoxious food delivery person for one of her roommates, or something to that extent, and that was their problem, not hers. When it didn't stop, and she realized that she wasn't going to be able to fall asleep, she forced herself out of bed. She was still wearing the same black lingerie that she had passed in last night, though as always, no matter how drunk she was, she had thankfully been able to wash her face and moisturize before bed. She didn't attempt to make herself look any more presentable than one could possibly look after rolling out of bed hungover, because whoever the fuck was at her door wasn't going to get more than three seconds of her time (and those three seconds were definitely just going to be used to tell them to get the fuck out of her vicinity).

As she approached the door, she instantly matched Nick's voice to the only part of his shouts that he heard - him telling (what she presumed to be) her to open up the door, in a less nice way. Oh, he wants to play this card?! Brooklyn had no idea what had provoked Nick into angrily storming over to her apartment, waking her up, and threatening to kill her, but if he wanted to play that game, she was cool with that. In fact, she was more than happy to engage!

Grabbing a steak knife from the kitchen, she headed to the door confidently and opened it up with the knife up and ready for whatever was there. Nick stood outside, but oddly, Roman and Cara were there as well. What the fuck? It was a random scene, not so much in terms of the people themselves because they all obviously lived right here, but because the entire situation was weird. "Who the fuck do you think you are coming over here threatening me?" she demanded, haphazardly waving the knife towards Nick with every word, who was probably too close for her to be doing that so freely. "You two should probably leave before this gets to where it's going," she added, pointing the knife then in Roman and Cara's direction, though her eyes remained fixated on Nick. "I'll have to kill any witnesses, and it'd be a shame for the two of you to go today too."​

 

[cure]

Uttering the words, "Oh, put the fucking knife down," and having that bring up old memories would have been alarming for any normal person. It wasn't nostalgic in that this had ever happened before (at least not that he was aware of), but Roman was not at all unfamiliar with the the turbulence of the two's previous relationship. Of course, he wasn't at all keen on the details of that either, and really only knew things on a surface level. But he was situationally aware enough for him to not take Brooklyn yielding a knife too seriously, evident by his exasperated sigh, but seriously enough to not feel completely comfortable with her wielding a weapon giving that she was unpredictable on a daily basis. He really only took it more seriously because of Nick's uncharacteristic mood. That unsuspecting variable was where he didn't want to play around with, because it really was a wild card, and a wild card that he had no information for its origin. He wasn't concerned on Nick's end because he was worried that Brooklyn was in any kind of danger. It was why if he knew the reason Nick was upset, he wouldn't really bother to stop him for Collin's sake. As a guy, and as a friend of Brooklyn who could get protective as well, he understood. Brooklyn could hold her own and Roman never really felt worried about her because of that, but that didn't mean he would just let anything happen to her, even if it was something she could. He knew Nick was the same way but ten fold. If Roman thought Nick was actually about to do something stupid with Brooklyn, he wouldn't be addressing her more than he was addressing Nick. "He wasn't even talking to you."

Just as immediately as he noticed the knife in her hand, he noticed what little she wearing, which oddly enough got more of a negative reaction out of him. Brooklyn wasn't a grown woman, and in that regard it wasn't a big deal. But from the perspective of her being the closest thing he had to a sister, he didn't want to see her in thin lingerie and his eyes instinctively cast themselves in the other direction. "Jesus Christ. And put some damn clothes on, you psycho." If seeing her in lingerie was enough to bother him, it was a wonder how he handled her occupation, but that was easier to handle because it was something he could ignore and choose not to think of, and it was quite literally none of his business. and he preferred to keep it that way. While he knew Brooke was a pretty good and was basically the opposite of the girl next door vibe, it wasn't something he acknowledged or something he ever wanted to be reminded of. He didn't expect her to dress in a trash bag by any means, but seeing her as is was also something he wanted to avoid. Turning his attention to Nick, if for no other reason than to not have to address Brooklyn, he said, "He's not here. Time to go."​

 

[lauren.]

Cara would have been comfortable agreeing with Roman that he was wasting his time over here. It wasn't like he had a key to her apartment, and while she non-admittedly enjoyed their banter from time to time, she was too drunk to really appreciate it for what it was right now. She wanted her warm bed, junk food, and a few hours of sleep before enjoying the rest of her Saturday. Unfortunately for her, not only did that not seem like an option in her immediate future, but she had actually been thrust into something that clearly took her longer than anyone else to actually process. It went from just being her and Roman, to Nick joining from seemingly out of nowhere, and pounding on her apartment door. Roman had ushered her out of the way, though she nearly tripped herself in the process, and though she typically would have offered Roman a glare and some sort of blame for her drunken stumble, even though he was helping her in this case, she instead focused her anger on Nick. She didn't know what he was so angry about, and didn't even process his inquiry about her brother until Brooklyn had already opened the door, wearing nothing but underwear, with a knife in her hand.

"I'm calling the police," was Cara's instinctive response, though the way that she rolled her eyes and nonchalantly shuffled around her bag for her phone was similarly consistent with Roman's reaction. Granted, she was drunk, so maybe that played into it, but she had also lived with Brooklyn and Nick together. While Roman had unarguably known them longer and better, Cara had fairly recently witnessed just how volatile their relationship was. Though she absolutely would have turned to calling the police had she witnessed anything herself, she had definitely heard the yelling and screaming , glass breaking, etc. on enough occasions to know that she hadn't really "ruined" any relationship, because even though it seemed mutual, their relationship was abusive. If anything, she probably saved one of them, she had often thought, though the knife in Brooklyn's hand reminded her that she didn't know which one of them she would have potentially been saving.


​

 

[Collapsed]

When the door opened, Nick really was at a level of anger where he was ready to just swing without looking. Luckily he didn't, obviously, because it was Brooklyn who opened it up. Maybe it was lucky for him too, because it was quite likely, just judging by the scene at hand, that his fist would have connected with that razor-sharp knife edge... and in that case, he would've been just as fucked as Brooklyn might have been. He was still screwed though, because now he had to deal with his mind insisting on killing someone all while trying to balance Brooklyn lecturing him for coming over there, threatening her, when that wasn't what he was doing. Nothing good was going to come out of this situation and because of that, he knew that he needed to get away from her as soon as he could.

He wouldn't define his relationship with Brooklyn as having been an abusive one. It was definitely an unhealthy one, but he was still positive that that unhealthiness only stemmed from them being so in love with each other. They were both very different people, and it was possible that they both had different enough perspectives on where their relationship would go, to an extent that it drove it into the ground, but Nick was sure that they both loved each other. He loved Brooklyn then, and still did. She was his first love, and though he doubted that he would ever love anyone again in the way he had her, even if he did one day end up with someone else, he was certain that she would always be his soulmate. Maybe they weren't meant for each other in this lifespan, or in this version or reality, but he was sure that their souls were made to be together somewhere, somehow. With that much passion and love came other strong feelings though, and given that they both could drink a lot and occasionally did other drugs, it seemed inevitable that sometimes things would get out of hand. Nick was passive about a lot of things but if pushed, he could push back just as hard, and in the same means of doing so as was done to him. He hated the idea of him and Brooklyn physically fighting, and they were never fights in terms of brawling, but had she hit him before, and did he occasionally hit back? Yes. This wasn't going to be one of those times though.

"Just get done fucking him?" he asked Brooklyn, referencing her attire, which would have turned him on in any other situation. "I'm crucified for sleeping with her, but you've been sleeping with him all along," he exclaimed with a borderline maniacal chuckle as he thought about the irony of it. "Now get the fuck out of the way," he said, jumping suddenly to a more serious tone as he met Brooklyn's gaze. He had half a mind to push her out of the way, but he wasn't crazy enough even now to think that she wouldn't actually stab him with that if he did touch her.
​

 

[Bandit_]

Makayla nodded at Chanel's fair point about Collin being too quiet to be that poorly endowed. It was true - it was always the obnoxious and boastful guys that ended up being laughable in some major way (typically physically), as they were often overcompensating for their minimal amount of physical manhood. Collin was quiet and minded his business, stayed in his lane. Even if he wasn't all that great down there, it wouldn't have been as big of a deal, because it wasn't like he acted like he had anything special anyway. She also agreed that it would only be very weird if it was continuous bad sex. The initial idea of the two of them having a thing was weird in itself to Makayla, mostly because Collin didn't seem like Brooklyn's type at all. However, good sex was good sex, and if he was a rebound who was offering her good sex, who could blame her for continuing to use him for that? It wasn't like he had any major flaws that could make any of them judge her for going there, and as Chanel referenced, he would probably be a great rebound in terms of regaining a sense of control.

While Makayla could tell that Nick was angry in an out-of-character way, she didn't expect him to storm out as if someone had just killed his mother. Pissed off wasn't even the word, and especially given that they were all high, Makayla had to really think about whether he was as angry as he had seemed. Her perception on things was often jumbled when she was high, so maybe she was the one actually being dramatic in terms of her interpretation of how he was acting. When she heard their front door slam a few seconds after he had left the bedroom, she knew she wasn't crazy, and looked over to Chanel with a bewildered expression, as if they hadn't just instigated the situation.

"There's no way that he just reacted to something as dumb as that without this shit being laced," she said, taking the joint and putting it out. There was still weed left in it, but she was convinced that something was off for Nick, of all people, to go from 0 to 100. He was the one who had slept with someone else first, after all. Maybe Makayla was just ill-experienced in terms of love and relationships, but it seemed like an overreaction to her. "I'm about to shower and get this shit out of my system," she said, standing up. Her legs felt like rubber and she didn't want to lose her high but she was actually strongly considering that something was off with the weed and she wanted to nip this bad trip off sooner than later if that was the case. "And if he does beat that kid to death, we've gotta have an alibi, so we should figure that out." If she felt "close" with Nick, maybe she should have ran out after him to talk some sense into him, but she didn't feel that close with him, and she also just wasn't the type of person who enjoyed getting involved in things that didn't involve her. She had enough shit to deal with in her own life. ​

 

[cure]

Similar to Makayla, her lack of self awareness left her bewildered. Though even if she didn't egg things on unintentionally, it was still very out of character of Nick and she had no idea his emotional bandwidth extended past being anything but chill. She was certain he only had one mode but clearly she was wrong about that. Normally, she would have been a little frightened because while she liked surprises, men surprising her by being, well, men-ish, was not something she enjoyed. But, she was high and her confused and now slightly nervous energy translated into her laughing. "What the fuck," she chuckled, her eyes widening briefly as if to stress how weird that just was. "Did I miss something?"

It didn't click that the party was basically over until Makayla announced she was leaving. Chanel's mouth dropped and she gasped, completely taken aback at this completely reasonable change in pace after Nick's sudden outburst. "What? Nooooo. I just pulled up the music." She pouted. So much for getting a break from everything. Sure, she was able to smoke a bit but it wasn't the same doing it alone, especially not when you wanted to not be alone. "I can't believe Nick of all people killed the vibe. Could you imagine him going to jail for that and not drug trafficking? I would lose my mind. And then be really sad because I'll never have another hot dealer that literally lives next door. Maybe we should go into business together."

 

[BurningBridges]

Brooklyn was just as confused as the rest of them as to why Nick was acting this way, but in a different way. She had seen him angry, though maybe not this angry, but she also couldn't understand why he was being so delusional. She didn't know why he was seriously standing here screaming about her sleeping with Collin, as if they were still dating, or as if he didn't remember why they were broken up to begin with. Granted, she was just as confused as to how he had found out, and who had told him, but that wasn't the least of her concerns. If anything, she was glad he knew. He was a psychopath, but being reminded that he wanted her and was jealous over anyone else having her was hot in a way that it shouldn't have been in this situation. "Get a fucking grip," she demanding, pressing the tip of the knife against his chest. She turned it slightly so that the fabric of his shirt became wrapped around it.

Was she going to stab him? Probably not. Maybe. As scary as it sounded, it could easily go either way, especially with an audience, and especially with Cara being a part of that audience. She needed to prove a point here to Nick, but a little bit to the blonde whore too. She may have ruined their relationship, but she hadn't actually won anything. Brooklyn loved Nick. Cara didn't. And yet she still slept with him, painting herself as a homewrecker, with no prize to show off at the end of the day. "I wish I just got done fucking him. I'd be in a better mood than you ever left me in. But no, I didn't, and I doubt he's here." She had literally just gotten out of bed, so she genuinely didn't know where Collin was. For his own sake, she hoped that he was on the other side of town, though. "So take your fucking fragile male ego, and your psychotic and delusional mind, and get the fuck out of my doorway, and while you're at it, my life too. You're a fucking loser with nothing going for you in life, and nothing ever will and I'm over it."

 

[lauren.]

Oddly, as the situation seemed to escalate, Cara became less and less concerned by it. The alcohol was the only thing that could be truly blamed at that point, because any normal person (knowing the situation or not) would have been at least remotely concerned with Brooklyn pressed the big knife in her hand against Nick's chest. She put enough pressure on it to entangle his shirt around its tip, and one could only imagine that a fraction more of force would pierce his skin. It was a tense situation, and yet even after finding her phone, Cara didn't call the police like she initially stated. She did think it was warranted, but mostly only because she didn't want to deal with this and that seemed like the best way to make it not her problem anymore. Out with the trash, in with the peace, sounded like the corresponding motto to her.

She didn't really comprehend that Nick was trying to kill her brother, because that was the only thing that she would actually care about. While she and Collin weren't best friends, anyone with a sense of self would feel some sort of way about someone threatening their sibling, and Cara was no exception. Even if she did remotely grasp the idea that Nick was threatening Collin by now, she didn't think it would actually get to that point. Nick couldn't be so stupid. If anything, the situation would end positively and Nick would take his aggression out on Brooklyn, who would proceed to stab him, and they'd both possibly end up dead or wounded. Oh well.

As she thought to herself, she laughed out loud. What was the perfect way to get rid of this scene in her doorway and her vicinity in general? There was only one answer that seemed foolproof and logical.

Heading across the hall, she knocked on Chanel, Makayla and Ruby's apartment door. Who was the last person that anyone would want to deal with right now, and whose mere presence would hopefully send everyone running? A dog obsessed, bright haired 16 year old with no concept of when to shut up or go away.


​

 

[BurningBridges]

"I mean, I wouldn't worry too much," Collin said, trying to reassure Delaney that Cara wasn't right. That wasn't something he would ever willingly admit, but he also wasn't going to say that he would never swap places with her and live with Nick and Roman. He truly didn't think that either of them were evil, but as Roman just proved, they weren't friendly either. And it wasn't even that they weren't friendly -- they were unfriendly. Collin wasn't particularly sensitive in the sense that he was offended by Roman telling him to get out, but it obviously wasn't something that reflected a nice person. Nick seemed chiller than Roman and had never been outwardly rude as Roman consistently was, so maybe "they" wasn't fair, but long story short, Collin didn't even know Delaney, and he already knew that she didn't belong in this apartment. Who was he to say that though? Again, he didn't know anything about her.

"I bet it'll be fine," he insisted, shaking his head as if he was pushing the worried thoughts out of his own mind too. "Nick is chill, and you'll get used to Roman." Smiling, he added, "And if not, there's a couch across the hall you can always crash on." Was that weird? Who wanted to sleep on a stranger's couch? He forced himself to push the "you're a fucking idiot" thoughts, and took a few steps towards her bedroom door. "Guess we should get the rest of your stuff, right?" It was pretty clear that Roman was no longer going to help, and it definitely seemed preferable to carry stuff inside over possibly saying more idiotic things.

As they neared the apartment door, the commotion outside came into earshot, but Collin obviously had no idea what he was walking out to. It wasn't like they lived on a floor with the most normal people to begin with so they shouting didn't sound incredibly alarming. When they stepped outside to see Brooklyn standing in only underwear with a knife pressed against Nick's chest, those thoughts were immediately gone. He looked towards Cara, somehow assuming that she was responsible for whatever was going on there. "Is everything... uh... cool out here?" He had no idea that he needed to be concerned for himself, and was ironically actually concerned for Nick (and Delaney).​

 

[Collapsed]

Every second that his fist wasn't meeting Collin's face seemed to make Nick angrier. Seeing Brooklyn made him angrier. Hearing her tell him that she wanted nothing to do with made him angrier. He was going to burst. He was ready to break something. Punch the wall. Break a window. Kill someone. Kill someone.

All it took was the mere sound of Collin's voice for Nick to lose it. It was something that he would never be proud of, and it was something that didn't reflect who he truly was, but he was human, and if getting the knife his shirt was entangled in off of him meant doing it, that was what it took -- he reached out with both hands and shoved Brooklyn backwards. It wasn't a violent shove, or one that was meant to hurt her. It was just a push, but one that was strong enough to put some distance between them without the potential of being stabbed. His shirt ended up torn, but he didn't even notice as he spun around to and took a few steps towards Collin.

There were lots of colorful words that he wanted to say to the boy, but there was nothing that was important enough to say to put off what he really wanted to do. It felt like time was moving in slow motion for him, and it was almost like he couldn't hear or see anything around him in those few seconds. His fist connected with the side of Collin's head within seconds of him entering the hallway. His adrenaline was pumping, pumping, pumping, and yet he was shocked as Collin hit the floor, knocked out cold, that he didn't feel immediately better. It was obviously a bizarre thing to think, but this was the epitome of impulsivity, and clearly he wasn't thinking clearly to begin with. "Don't ever fucking disrespect me again!" he yelled at Collin's lifeless body. Whatever else was happening around him was literally blocked out in the state that he was in. His blood was rushing through his body at speeds that felt physically impossible, and it was almost scary to imagine how he would have reacted if he wasn't high.

 

[BurningBridges]

Luck really wasn't on Collin's side today. Of all the minutes of the day that he had to casually and stupidly stroll out into the hallway, it had to be right now. Nick was on a warpath looking for him, and here he came, walking out and essentially asking to be killed. It was sad how ignorantly calm he seemed in the seconds leading up to the knockout punch, and it only instilled how absolutely maniacal Nick was being right now. Collin had clearly done nothing wrong, and Nick was clearly a crazy, possessive, lunatic.

It was possibly just as bad that Brooklyn was barely bothered by Nick shoving her, even though it sent her stumbling backwards a few feet before she was able to catch herself. She had a knife pressed to his chest, so maybe in the grand scheme of things, the push would seem warranted, but men also weren't supposed to shove women. Plus, in Brooklyn's defense, the knife was only pressed to Nick's chest because he had stormed over to her apartment acting crazy and violent. She hadn't come to him with the knife-- it was merely self defense at this point. She was surprised with it initially, but not as surprised as someone would have been had they never been physically touched (in a bad way) by that person. Besides, it was only a split second before Nick had done something that seemed even worse, and before anyone could react, Collin hit the floor like a ton of bricks.

Even if Brooklyn didn't have any true feelings for Collin, her heart dropped at the sound of his lifeless body crashing to the floor. Knocked unconscious from the punch, there was no instinct reaction to break his fall with his arms, so he fell flat onto the floor in a way where he seemed dead just as much as he seemed alive. The fact that Collin was so innocent, especially in their hookups that had caused all of this, made Brooklyn feel even worse, and that said something given that she very, very, very rarely felt guilty about anything. "Get that piece of shit out of here!" she hissed at Roman in a tone that was vicious enough to suggest that this was somehow Roman's fault too, though she didn't actually believe that. She was just flustered, angry, and truly ready to kill Nick for how bizarre he was acting. Dropping the knife, she shoved past the others to where Collin lay on the floor. She wasn't a doctor, and she wasn't even a human who possessed typical empathy skills, so she really had no idea what to do. At the very least, he wasn't bleeding, so that seemed like somewhat of a good sign? "Isn't your friend a doctor?" she said, her head snapping towards Cara as she blindly pressed two fingers against Collin's neck to feel for a pulse, though she really didn't know what she was doing. "Go get her!"​

 

[Bandit_]

"He better not be stupid enough to go after a white kid with money," Makayla agreed, shaking her head. Being a drug dealer and tossing yourself into problems seemed bad enough in itself, and Makayla hated the idea of giving anyone power, but the Forresters had it. More than your typical white folks, and that said something in itself. It was gross to think about, but it was the way that society worked, and in their society, kids like Collin and Cara were essentially untouchable. They were touchable, of course, but touchable in the sense where if you did touch them, you were fucked. If Cara punched Makayla, the cops wouldn't even believe it happened, whereas if Makayla punched Cara, she'd probably be looking at attempted murder charges or something as heinous as that.

"And he better not have been stupid enough to take all that food with him," she added... and that was clearly the remnants of the high speaking. It was really strange that Nick had managed to get so worked up while high, especially because this was pretty decent quality. Makayla wasn't even fully tense, and typically the mention of anything that could even remotely involve the police had her feeling as sober as could be. "Save me half of whatever he ordered. We're eating his shit too after whatever the fuck that was." Nick had paid for the entire meal and the weed, so it wasn't fair to act like he owed them anything more, but that was extreme enough that it felt deserved.

With that, Makayla headed down the hall to shower. She knew that she probably needed to check up on Holly, but her mind was too fuzzy right now after the weed and that strange outburst, and she needed to literally cleanse herself before she could do anything. Plus, there was that part of her that felt paranoid about being high and smelling of weed in the off chance that the cops did get involved. Given her history, it wasn't even paranoia though -- it was simply protecting herself.​

 

[lauren.]

This was too much for Cara. Wayyyyyyy too much. It would have been too much for her if she was sober, but being drunk on top of that made it ten times worse. Everything already felt like it was moving in slower motion than usual, and she couldn't follow what was happening very well, so when things suddenly went bad very quickly, she was more than overwhelmed. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she repeated, only taking one quick glance in Collin's direction before turning back towards Ruby's door and increasing the intensity of her knocking. Had she been sober, the police would have been called the second that Brooklyn had brought out the knife, but now she didn't think that she could do any of that. She wasn't even thinking, and she wasn't even really processing that Ruby could help Collin. Her desire for knocking was to have somewhere to escape to, since her own apartment had initially been blocked, and now the hallway towards the stairs was. It wasn't going to win her Sister of the Year award, but she was really only thinking about herself right now.

One of the good things about how quickly Holly spoke and changed mental paths was that sometimes after she said something inappropriate or odd, she followed it up with something that was easier to respond to, and therefore, Ruby could skip over that earlier weird comment. She often wanted to explore where those weird comments came from, and why Holly couldn't filter herself to keep those thoughts in her head, but sometimes it was easier to just let it go. Now was one of those times, as it didn't seem necessary to educate her on the inappropriateness of comparing an amputee to a chicken nugget.

She laughed as Holly said goodbye to the brownies before Ruby slid them into the oven, again noting how it was an odd thing for someone her age to do, but not feeling the need to comment on it in the moment. Holly had told her a lot today, and it explained enough for the moment. At the end of the day, even if Ruby did want to know more, the girl was happy, and that was all that really mattered. "And now we just --" Holly had disappeared to the door before Ruby could even finish her sentence, and though she took a few steps to follow her, the girl had returned to the kitchen just as soon as she had left, making some comment about how someone had mistaken her for Nick. She had a bag of food in hand, which Ruby quickly realized was food that Nick must have ordered.

"That's silly, isn't it?" she responded to Holly with a curious smile. "Do you want to go let him know that his food is here?" Ruby didn't know Nick, or else she would have done it herself.

"There's nothing that I would like to do more than that!" Holly declared, though if she really thought about it, there were definitely things that she would rather do. She would rather pet a dog, visit the zoo, eat Skittles, open up a present, tell Chanel her eagle story... Regardless, she was happy to have an "important" job to do. Just as soon as she was about to leave the kitchen to bring it down the hall though, Nick came storming out, yelling "He's fucking dead!" angrily. Holly's expression immediately turned to one of confusion and fear, and she turned to Ruby for consolation, though she didn't necessarily know what to say.

Ruby had noticed the outburst too, because, well... who could have missed a stranger screaming in their apartment about something like that? She had instinctively stepped towards Holly at the sound of it, and passed her once he was out the door to go to the door herself and lock both locks... just in case. "That was weird, wasn't it?" she asked Holly, cracking a small smile in hopes of easing a little bit of the worry on Holly's face. She didn't know anything about Nick, nonetheless what he was shouting about, but he had just been with Makayla and or Chanel, presumably, so she was sure they would have come out if there was something to worry about. "Do you want to bring that to your sister? Maybe she can hold onto it for Nick until he's feeling better," she suggested, pointing to the bag of food in Holly's hand. Since Makayla didn't seem to appreciate her input, she could also hopefully explain to Holly whatever that outburst was, too.

Holly stood frozen for a moment, staring at the door that Nick had disappeared behind because she was truly startled by his shout. Men were scary to begin with, and when any of them showed even a hint of anger, it shook her. It wasn't irrational for her, because growing up, it had become a form of self-preservation to equate male anger to violence. Sadly, her natural instinct wasn't wrong in this case either, though luckily she wasn't able to see what was going on on the other side of the door.

She eventually nodded to Ruby's request, and headed down the hall, clutching the bags of food in her arms. "Nick is going to kill someone and I have his food," she said, standing in the doorway of Chanel's room. Makayla wasn't there, which was nothing short of alarming, given that that was where Holly had seen her just a little while ago. Again, male anger meant aggression, which meant violence, which meant people she loved being hurt. "It smells nice in here," she first said, her mind unable to stay on track as the smell of the incenses hit her. Her regained control as she added, "Did he do something bad to Makayla?"

Though she was a little bit perturbed by Nick's departure as well, Ruby attempted to busy herself with cleaning her cooking utensils after Holly had headed down the hallway. She didn't have much time to do that before there was a banging on the door and instantly, her heart dropped again. She assumed it was Nick, and there was no way that she was letting him back in here. She didn't care if he was friends with her roommates - she wasn't comfortable with someone in such a stage of rage being present in an apartment with herself, or a child. She panicked - she didn't know what to do, and she hated that that was beginning to feel like her reaction to anything that went wrong. She was supposed to be competent... more than competent! And yet in the face of any problem, any real problem, she froze.​

 

[cure]

Despite Roman inquiring, as soon as Nick revealed that he was upset because Brooklyn was apparently sleeping with Collin, he was no longer interested in being a part of the conversation and was quite interested in returning to his place to mind his own business. Roman had never been in a long term relationship, so he couldn't really empathize from there, not that his empathy skills were well versed on their own, but he was a guy and could objectively see why Nick would be upset, especially since he still obviously harnessed feelings from Brooke. So could Roman see where Nick was coming from? Sure. Did he still think Nick was doing a little too much? Definitely, but again, he didn't have any real reason to be concerned, so he easily stepped back from the other two, rolling his eyes as this seemed to be just another domestic affair. He didn't expect the news to hit Nick that hard, but it didn't seem like that big of a deal until he put his hands on Brooklyn. It was quite strange, at least by Roman's standards, how protective of Brooklyn he had become. It obviously wasn't in a way where he was overbearing, or where it was immediately present, because if they were out and a guy was hitting on her, he wouldn't feel the need to insert himself just because. If anything, it was something he forgot and didn't even realize which was why he was surprised in moments like now where he had an innate emotional reaction. For someone as terse and calculating as he was, and as someone who intellectualized everything, it took a lot to have him jump logic and move straight to emotions, especially such an intense one. Given his after dark activities, which never left him feeling like the best person, he did like controlling his emotions and despite not having any problem with becoming visibly annoyed with people, he never liked being angry, especially when it felt like something that wasn't his choosing. Surprisingly, Roman actually didn't enjoy feeling like a shitty person, which getting enraged and violent made him feel like; he didn't like feeling out of control over himself. Luckily though, Nick's behavior took Roman by surprise enough that his reaction was delayed, and by the time he was able to process it, Nick was already across the hall and Collin was on the floor.

Roman was the last person who would be phased by witnessing physical altercation for obvious reasons, but it was never a pretty sight seeing someone knocked out cold, especially when they were effectively sucker punched. It was one thing when you were expecting it, or if there was actually a brawl before someone getting knocked out, but this all happened in a matter of seconds, and only just a minute ago it was quiet in the hall with just him and Cara in it. It was hard to stun Roman, but even this was a lot for him to process because he couldn't immediately tell if Collin was okay or not simply due to how quickly and violently he fell. Roman might not have been a fan of Collin for no reason other than him deciding not to be, and he might have been a complete and utter asshole to him a mere two minutes ago, but that didn't mean he enjoyed seeing him laid out on the floor like that. Roman still wasn't pressed that Nick was upset over Collin and Brooklyn sleeping together and Nick therefore wanting to come up to Collin, but seeing how things played out, on top of this happening just seconds after he pushed Brooklyn, made Roman finally question his friend. Nevertheless, it wasn't a sudden morally-charged change in allegiance that made him lunge the couple of feet between him and Nick. It was due to him to still seething from what had happened just before he had hit Collin, and if Nick was doing all this in such a short span of time, even Roman had to question what the guy might do next. So once he closed the gap between them, he grabbed Nick by the shoulder, yanking him back. "What the fuck is your problem?"

He now stood in front of his friend with Collin and Brooklyn to his back. He had no idea who this doctor friend of Cara's Brooklyn was talking about, but he hoped they were nearby. He briefly glanced down at Collin, his nose turning at the sight of seeing him lifeless and still. For a passing second he did feel bad for him, though even if he didn't, he wasn't heartless enough or enough of a blind loyalist to take his chances with Nick, because at this rate, it would have been more surprising if Nick didn't go for him again as soon as the guy came to, which was hopefully soon because while it had only been a matter of seconds of him being out, seeing him that still made it feel like an eternity. And while Roman might have been pissed to no ends with Nick right now, he still cared for him enough to want to end things right here for his friend's benefit. Would he have intervened if he knew before hand what Nick was going on about? No. Would he have stood by the wayside and let the guy commit murder? No. If he was aware beforehand, he wouldn't let Nick get himself into stupid shit levels of stupidity, but Nick had gotten to that point and he needed to be checked. Though one could argue that when, instead of just maintaining his place in front of Brooklyn and Collin, he lunged forward and shoved him back, that it was less out of protection for his friend and more in retaliation. It was only because Nick was his friend that Roman didn't punch him square across his jaw, though the tingling down his arms made him want to dare to make an exception. "Put your hands on her again and I'll have you on your ass, bitch." He shoved Nick back once more. "You wanna put your hands on somebody so bad, put 'em on someone who'll punch you the fuck back." Perhaps deescalating the situation by offering a fairer battle wasn't the wisest move, but Roman erring on the side of self-serving was not something new.​

 

[cure]

To say Chanel was mildly disappointed at the turn of events was certainly an understated. She wasn't in the mood to be bored or alone, but this week seemed to be consistent at least, so she wasn't the least bit surprised, or as moved as she normally would have been. Though that could have been the weed talking too. She solemnly moved her laptop from her laptop onto her bed, a pout present on her face. The prospect of food didn't brighten her outlook quite a bit though. As she got up, she considered holding the food and just waiting for Makayla to get done, but even Chanel had her moments of introspection and she didn't want to seem too clingy. Another good thing was that she had something to smoke later, and she wouldn't feel as weird reaching out to Makayla about finishing what they started later on. She certainly wasn't expecting to see Holly standing in her doorway when she turned away, but her grin was telling in that it was a welcome surprise. And she came bearing gifts! Her smile did fade some at Holly's strange statement, though it returned with an amused smile. "Did you hear him?" It wasn't that surprising that she did though. "Just ignore him. Boys are dramatic but he's not going to hurt anyone. Plus, this is our food," she said taking the food off of Holly's person and relocating it to her dresser.

Holly's next strange comment, this time an odd question, did make Chanel pause and wonder if something was actually wrong with Holly. Her being this concerned was quite unlike her. It didn't seem to be anything dire, but Chanel figured it was still best to try and keep the mood light. "Of course not, silly goose. Your sister's hopping in the shower really quickly." She opened one of the containers, the fragrant contents hitting her nose making it impossible to resist a smile. She looked at Holly excitedly, "You wanna eat with--" But before she could finish, there was a pound out front that even took her by surprise and she was unable to keep up her front. She wasn't completely lying to Holly because she didn't know what was going on outside, but the outburst on top of the knocking outside did cause her to pause. "Hmm, I wonder if the guy forgot to drop something off," she said, hoping Holly wasn't able to pick up on the shortsighted fib Chanel came up with on the spot. Still, she didn't want to alarm the girl and distracting her seemed her best option. "Hey, why don't you pick some music out for us," she said, nodding to her laptop. "I'll be right back, okay?"

When she entered the kitchen, she certainly didn't enjoy seeing Ruby standing frozen as the knocking continued. Chanel's brows burrowed and she felt a ping in her stomach, though she ignored it and told herself that it was the weed making her paranoid. "What's up?" Chanel said, her tone not indicating that she was actually inquiring about Ruby's present state, but instead wondering why she was just standing there. But that was just Chanel trying to feel like the situation was in control, or better yet that there was no situation. She figured it was Nick come to back to stomp and vent, even if that seemed out of character, but it didn't seem to far fetched considering his outbust was a reach on its own. That didn't stop her from checking the peephole, especially after hearing some commotion going on outside. She was oddly relieved, if not confused to see Cara standing outside, but she opened the door with some reluctance. "Hey, what's--" The first thing she saw was Roman pushing Nick, and a beat later she noticed someone on the ground just behind Roman and Brooklyn was hovering over them. She could feel her reaction building then, but once she noticed that it wasn't a stranger and was in fact Collin lying there limp on the ground, she felt her heart begin beating in overdrive. "Oh, my god! What the hell did you do?!" If she wasn't completely freaking out, she would have shouted for Ruby to come, but her innate reaction was to run to Collin. She noticed Brooklyn's fingers to his neck, which only made her assume the worst. She was at a lost for words and when she opened her mouth, the only sound she heard was that of Roman's threatening tone just a few feet away. "Stop fucking fighting and call 9-1-1!"​

 

[Collapsed]

Nick was fired up, and though his actions weren't justified at all, his current state was, at the very least in a biological sense. His fight or flight mode had been activated and obviously, his body was choosing to fight. He felt like he could punch holes straight through the wall, kick down a door, snap someone in half... it was that mixture of sheer rage (that came from a place of passion and not just defense or anger) and adrenaline that made him pretty dangerous at the moment. More so than usual, at least, for sure. One more punch to Collin and he likely could kill the kid, not because he was so skilled as to know just how to kill someone, but because blunt force trauma to the head was typically pretty serious to begin with. It wasn't good that he wanted Collin to stand up now, not because he cared if the kid was actually alive or well enough to do so, but because he wanted to give him that finishing blow. He wanted him dead.

He put his fucking hands on my girl!

It was a complete 180 compared to how Nick typically acted, but maybe someone who knew him well wouldn't have been so surprised by all of this. Then again, no one really knew Nick that well because he wasn't that open. He wasn't the type of person who talked about his problems or feelings. He had clearly never recovered or had closure with the whole Brooklyn ordeal, and truthfully, he felt on some level that they were just going to end up together. It was obviously irrational to believe that she wasn't going to sleep with anyone else in the meantime, but he still felt like she was his girl at the core of it, and the fact that she had downgraded to Collin somehow felt like even more of an insult. Downgrade wasn't even the word though. It would be the word that Nick would use, but at the same time, one of the reasons for why he was really so enraged was because Collin represented one of the things that he was never able to provide to Brooklyn - money and stability. She had always gotten on him about not having any real world skills, and about how what he was doing was illegal. And though it annoyed him, because he worked hard and made enough money to live, he understood it. Brooklyn wanted someone who would be able to provide for a family and give her a real future, and Nick couldn't guarantee that. Collin could. People like Collin could give her all of that and more, and the idea that he was truly losing the love of his life to someone that he simply could not compare with made him want to kill someone or himself - whatever came first.

"Why don't you fuck off for a minute and mind your business for once? Maybe get a life of your own?" he shot back at Roman, rolling up his sleeves because if he had been able to push Brooklyn, he absolutely could go at it with Roman as well. Unlike how he was with Collin, he was going to be a gentleman and let Roman get the first swing in here. He told himself that that would justify him killing him with his rebuttal swing, because it was only self-defense. "If you wanna swing, fucking swing. I'll lay you out like him." If he wasn't already so deep in this, he would have seen how crazy all of this was, but he was literally in survival mode at this point. Or maybe not survival mode. More like kill mode. Either way, biology had taken over, he didn't care about anyone else around them, and with the way that his adrenaline was pumping, he was ready to take on even his best friend.​

 

[BurningBridges]

Brooklyn always believed it to be true that you can tell how dangerous a person is by the way they hold their anger inside of themselves quietly. Nick was a good example of that. Brooklyn obviously knew that he wasn't as quiet and relaxed as he seemed. She understood that he had emotions and wasn't that easy going and uncaring. However, he hadn't seemed destroyed over their breakup. The fact that he was the one who had caused the complete end to what they had made it easier to believe that, because no matter what anyone said, Brooklyn was certain that people didn't cheat on other people by accident or out of impulse. Even if the physical act of cheating was done out of an impulsive choice, the thought had to have been present prior to that. At least in Nick's case, Brooklyn was certain that he had been mulling over the idea for some time. She didn't believe that it was a drunk mistake, and therefore, it was easier to believe that things had fallen apart, he had been upset that he had gotten caught and that he had lost her, but that they were both moving on. She was the one who had to deal with the fallout of having trust issues, reputation damages, etc. He did not.

Right now, it was clear that Nick certainly wasn't as "over" their breakup as she had assumed he was, but it wasn't a realization that was comforting. At the end of the day, Brooklyn didn't care even slightly how mad Nick was that she had moved on, because that was none of his business. What would have been something of a show of his true character would have been if he had shown any repentance over doing what he did himself. If he had admitted that he had destroyed their relationship and whatever they could have been, because of himself, his own actions, and no one else. Cara was a whore, but she didn't ruin their relationship. Nick did -- and for him to think that Brooklyn shouldn't try to move on made her want to pick that knife back up and stab him. It only made it clear as day that Nick didn't care about her or his happiness. He wanted to have her, regardless of what pain he had caused her, or else no one else could have her either. He didn't want her to be happy if it meant that it wasn't with him, and while there were so many words to describe how disgusting that was, it could be summed up in her mind as being a symbol of just how little he truly cared about her.

Even if he didn't care about her, the same couldn't truly be said for how she felt about him. Right now she hated him, but she didn't want to see him in jail, even if he deserved it, and even if it was obviously a better alternative than her stabbing him. She couldn't deal with how immature he was being, and she was grouping Roman into that category unfairly too right now, just because everything that was happening was too much, and them fighting was only making it worse. "Isn't your roommate a doctor? Get her," she demanded of Chanel, who had run over just seconds after Brooklyn had confirmed that Collin wasn't dead. She wanted to shake him in homes of "waking" him up, but with Chanel yelling about calling the police and the two idiots yelling at each other beside her, she found herself on her feet, forcing herself in between the two boys. She faced Roman, knowing that he was the one with more sense at the moment. "I'm not having him go to jail over this. I don't care what you have to do, but you have to get him out of here." She didn't know why she was protecting Nick when he was essentially dead to her at this point, but she felt compelled to.

She stood between the boys for just long enough to utter those words before hurrying back to where Collin lay. She knelt beside him and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him gently. "Hey, wake up," she said to him, slapping his cheek a few times afterwards. She didn't know what she was supposed to do in this situation, but if he at least opened his eyes, she knew she'd feel a lot better.​

 

[lauren.]

It was hard to tell whether Cara would have responded differently to this scenario had she not been drunk. It would have been a lot to take in sober, but to take in while intoxicated, when it had happened in a matter of seconds with no time to react, drunk or sober, was too much for her. It felt like she had been pounding on the door of Ruby's apartment for ten minutes before the door opened (though it obviously hadn't been that long), and though she wasn't fond of Chanel recently, she was happy enough that someone opened the door. She didn't even answer Chanel though, which was probably fine in this situation, given that Chanel had run past her anyway, once she realized what was going on. Chanel's exclamation, asking Nick what he had done, made Cara nearly run into the apartment that wasn't even hers, nor was she invited into. Chanel's reaction made it sound really bad (and honestly, it was), and Cara just couldn't handle this right now. It was all too much, and it was probably selfish and reflected her inability to deal with reality, but it was what it was.

She walked past Ruby who remained frozen a few feet to the side of the doorway, mumbling "I can't--" as she made her way into the apartment. She was planning on going to Ruby's room, which she only knew of because she knew where the extra room in Chanel's apartment had been before Ruby moved in, and not because she had ever actually spent any one on one time with Ruby there. She hadn't been invited in, and wasn't close enough with Ruby to soberly do so, but she headed into the bedroom like it was her own and sat down on the floor, kicking off her shoes and tossing her jacket to the floor beside her. She didn't know what to do. She probably should have called her dad, or as she had originally claimed, the police, but she was too overwhelmed. She didn't want any involvement in this at all because it was getting serious now, and Cara didn't like serious. She didn't like responsibilities or dealing with the hard truth. It just wasn't something that she was programmed to handle and all that she could do was sit on the floor, pull her knees to her chest and rest her head against her hands on top of them. Part of her felt like if she pressed her eyes shut long enough, maybe she could turn off this reality and wake up to all of this just being a dream.​

 

[cure]

Roman wasn't going to hit Nick--unprompted. If that was what was necessary to put his ass in check, then so be it, and from the looks and sound of it, that seemed to be the case. Still, Roman wasn't so quick to jump to action, and Brooklyn did happen to step in before he did make any executive decision. Roman frowned in her direction, confused by her reaction. It wasn't to say he wanted Nick to wind up behind bars tonight, but the mediator role was certainly not one where he would ever place her. Even if it was just a short sentence, it was enough to make him step back and realize that a fight would be pointless on his end anyway. He was really in no position to fight. Not from a moral standpoint or anything like that. Despite the past minute being quite a sobering experience, he was still high and therefore most certainly compromised in the realm of any sort of physical fight. His eyes followed her as she went back to check on Collin. Just the same as her, Roman was no mediator. Ironically enough, he wouldn't consider himself a fighter either. He quite liked to avoid conflict despite his tendency to be an instigator at times. Stuff like this, where it was quite obviously serious, was where he liked to remove himself from the situation. Once emotions were involved, it was understandably harder to be reasonable, especially for someone who was more contained and regimented in his expression. Once emotions took hold, that suppression wanted to overcompensate and relinquishing it back to the tiny box it was kept was more challenging.

He gritted his teeth together, twisting his jaw as he turned back to Nick. He let out as controlled of an exhale as he could muster. Roman rolled his palm down his face. "You both are really fucking annoying." Taking a couple of paces forward and closing the gap between him and Nick. "Look, he's down. You're done. You're both shit, so it's not even worth it. We're leaving. If you need to throw some more punches, we're taking it outside where we won't be interrupted."

 

[Ari]

Delaney Suarez

Overview

Name:	Delaney Suarez
Age:	22
Birthday:	June 1st
Sexual Orientation:	Heterosexual
Hometown:	Dallas, Texas

What. In. The. Fucking. World. Was. Happening.

It was impossible to explain just how horrified Delaney was with what was going on around her. Roman's attitude had been enough of a turn off to have her considering that she had made a really big mistake by moving in with someone she only knew as being her drug dealer, but this... this was a completely different level, and she was certain that she had to move out (if what she had done so far even counting as moving in). This was bizarre on every possible level, including, and most importantly, the level of danger. Maybe it sounded stupid in itself considering that living with a drug dealer probably presented dangers of its own, but Nick never seemed dangerous. He was always stoned (or at least he was chill enough to always seem stoned, even when he wasn't).

Ironically, Collin had just finished confirming that Nick was chill when they entered the hallway, and before Delaney could even process what was happening out there with Collin's sister, Roman, Nick, and a girl who was wearing nothing more than underwear and a bra, Nick sucker punched Collin in the head. The boy hit the ground with a loud thud that made Delaney's stomach churn just as steeply as her heart rate shot up. Not only had she not thought Nick was capable of doing something so vile for no reason, but to do it to Collin, the one person who seemed remotely decent here in the five minutes she had been here made it all the more worse. She didn't know whether she should scream, cry, call the police, or literally just abandon her things and make a run for it. The look on Nick's face and the way that he was shouting made her unsure of what he was capable of, and what he was going to do next.

Admittedly, Delaney wasn't ignorant or stupid. She could tell just by looking at Nick that he had the capability to knock someone out if he needed to, and she was sure that drug dealers were ready for conflict simply due to the nature of their occupation. However, this didn't lie in the plane of anything that she remotely considered to be related to that.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," she repeated, joining Brooklyn and Chanel at Collin's side. By that point, she was already sure that she was leaving this place the second that he came to, but this was obviously more important in the immediate sense of things. Chanel had encouraged someone to call the police, and while Delaney did think that was a good idea, it wasn't something that she wanted to do personally for a few reasons that didn't even seem important right now. "Should I get his sister? Does he have a pulse or something?!" She looked around - Collin's sister was now gone, but Delaney wanted an excuse to escape this madness.​

 

[lauren.]

Even though it felt like she was standing there for hours, frozen in place, only a few seconds passed between Chanel's dramatic exit and Ruby snapping herself out of her state of shock and admittedly--fear. This was why she could never be an ED doctor. Being thrust into emergency situations wasn't her forte. A lot of people believed that if you were a doctor or a nurse or some sort of health care provider, that that side of you would automatically take over in a moment of crisis when your skills were needed. Maybe they weren't wrong, but it definitely took Ruby a few seconds to turn that on. She didn't like emergencies where she couldn't analyze what was going on and instead, had to act immediately. There was so much pressure, and although she was licensed and had experience caring for patients in critical situations, she didn't specialize in anything related to critical care situations. Psychiatric cases often were emergencies and there was a lot of pressure, but it wasn't immediate, high-stakes pressure where one wrong move could result in a death a second later. At least not in the out-patient care that she provided.

Nonetheless, by that point Ruby could tell that someone was hurt even if she wasn't seeing it with her own eyes, and she had to do something. She couldn't even respond to the oddness of Cara walking in in a clear daze as she pulled her feet (which suddenly felt like they were attached to blocks of cement), out the door and into the hallway. While she was attuned to Nick's presence, as it had been what had left her startled to begin with back in the apartment, once she saw Collin lying motionless on the floor, all of her attention turned to him.

Maybe it was because she had known him since she was a child (and since he was just a baby, really), but it made her adrenaline shoot up even higher than it was already at. There was no blood which seemed good, even though Ruby knew that it didn't actually mean that. While there were already three other girls surrounding Collin, Ruby found a place beside them and placed her fingers against the carotid artery opposite the one that Brooklyn was feeling. There was a pulse, and a glance at his chest showed that he was breathing. That was a relief. "What happened? Was he hit in the head? Did he faint?" Fainting obviously seemed like the least likely occurrence given the context of the situation, but she didn't want to believe that someone that Makayla and Chanel had been hanging around could be so vile as to knock someone unconscious. Even if Nick's punch didn't do damage, falling back against the floor easily could and Ruby's mind was racing with all of the things that could be happening internally that were far more severe than a superficial wound. "How long has he been out?!"

 

[BurningBridges]

Collin had no idea what had just happened to him. One minute he was walking outside of Nick and Roman's apartment with this new girl, and the next, he was on the floor with a headache that hurt so badly he couldn't even put words to the extent of it. Even opening his eyes felt like a massive knife was being shoved through his face, and the pain was bad enough that he didn't even try to process why he was on the floor in the first few seconds that he was coming through. He had definitely been out for less than a minute, but the pain had already set in horribly and as he pushed his hands behind him to pull himself to a sitting position, he was 99% sure that he was going to throw up or start crying, or maybe both. Thankfully he was too fazed to do either because as he quickly realized, he wasn't alone on the floor. Ruby, Brooklyn, Chanel, and Delaney, whose name he couldn't even recall in the moment, were kneeling beside him. Having no idea why he was on the floor made them being beside him seem all the more stranger, and the pain made it impossible to even attempt to piece things together. He didn't even know where the pain was coming from, because his entire head felt like it was about to blow up.

As he sat himself up, he noticed hands on his skin, which he shrugged off in a confused daze. "I'm not--" he mumbled, though he had no idea what he was saying, why he was saying it, or again, why he was on the ground with these people around him. He was unable to process his immediate surroundings, so he didn't even notice that Nick and Roman were close to getting into it just a few feet away. Everything seemed foggy and loud and painful, and he still felt like there was a chance that he was going to throw up, so that was literally all that he could think about.

He must've passed out and hit his head, he thought as he tried to verbalize something more clearly, but mumbled something incomprehensible instead. Either that, or he was shot in the head. The pain made that seem like a viable option, and after he struggled to slide himself backwards so that he was sitting against the wall for support, he patted a hand against his head, expecting to see them coated in blood when he pulled them back in front of his face. "My head is on fire," he eventually mumbled, his eyes pressed closed as he pulled his legs towards his chest and rested his head on them. He had genuinely never been in any sort of pain that even compared to this, and it was just his luck that it would happen with a group of attractive girls there to watch his demise.


​

 

[Collapsed]

Nick was clearly not himself, and Brooklyn coming over was essentially blacked out on his end. He was in fighting mode, and there was really no telling what, if anything, was going to snap him out of it. Roman's response surely wasn't enough, as Nick scoffed at Roman's attempt to deescalate things. "Yeah, that's exactly what I thought," he laughed, attributing Roman claiming that he was done with him with him actually being too scared to swing. Obviously, a normal Nick wouldn't want to fight his best friend ever, but this also obviously wasn't a normal Nick. The mere fact that he had pushed Brooklyn, nonetheless pushed her in front of people, would remind him of that from the moment he actually had the time to process what had happened. Roman didn't deserve this side of him, but no one here deserved it either. Collin definitely didn't deserve to be knocked out cold. Brooklyn didn't deserve to be treated like a whore for moving on when he was the one who destroyed her trust.

Right now, Nick couldn't see that though. He couldn't see anything other than the red that was still fogging his vision metaphorically (and somehow literally as well). "I'm done because I say I'm done," he shot back, not taking notice to how pathetically petty he probably sounded. "Hope he gets used to you fucking men for money every night," Nick called out to Brooklyn as he headed down the hallway and down the stairs. Whether Roman was coming or not meant nothing to him in that moment, though he was likely going to end up killing someone in a bar fight (or being killed) in the next hour if he headed out of the building alone, given his current mood.
​

 

[A_Writer]

It only took one prompt for Holly to happily sit down in front of Chanel's laptop. She was still concerned over Nick's bold exit from the apartment, and she didn't like not knowing where Makayla was for a fact, but she also liked playing with things. Since Makayla didn't have a laptop, Holly only used computers at school, so the idea of being able to play with one for a recreational purpose sounded enticing. She typed Justin Bieber into the streaming service's search bar and turned on some of his music before finding herself on the Internet, and searching "puppies wearing clothes". Needless to say, she was laughing out loud to herself the second that the images started to load on the screen. There were puppies in pajamas, puppies in tutus, puppies in fancy dresses, and hats, and Halloween costumes. It seemed like the possibilities were endless, and Holly was at peak-amusement level as she scrolled through them.

"That's not a puppy!" she gasped, her expression radically switching over to one of offense as she looked at a picture of a ferret wearing a sweatshirt. For some reason, she felt personally betrayed by the man who she believed controlled the Internet by tricking her and including a picture of such an ugly thing among such cuteness. "You're gross and I do not like you," she said to the screen as she closed out the Internet window and shut Chanel's laptop screen. There probably was no need to justify why it was so easy for her to be amused and offended over such little things - it was just who Holly was, and there really was no more concrete answer to it than that.

While she wasn't suddenly worried about Nick's anger again, she did remember that Makayla was apparently in the shower as she stood up and headed out of Chanel's room. The bathroom was her next stop, and though she heard the water running behind the door, it didn't stop her from trying to open it, even after she initially realized that the door was lock. She jiggled it a few more times, hoping that it would magically unlock, as she used her other hand to knock on the door. "Makayla, can you please let me in? I need to tell you something."​

 

[lauren.]

Thank god!

Ruby couldn't have been more relieved when Collin came through. She had only been kneeling beside him for a few seconds but it had felt like eons. Head injuries were always scary, even when there was no blood. The head held such power, and though she wasn't a neurologist or a doctor who specialized in trauma, her psychiatry training had taught her more than enough about that, despite how underfunded the field was. Head injuries could cause lifelong damage... seizures, paralysis, cognitive and psychological changes among tons and tons of other things. Just because Collin was talking didn't mean that he was okay, but it did mean that he had a better chance of being okay, though she still wasn't sure just how long he had been unconscious for.

"Yeah, yeah," she said, reassuring Collin as she pressed a hand to his shoulder once he had sat up. She could tell that he was confused and in pain, both of which were understandable given the circumstances, but she also didn't want him to do any further damage by trying to get up too quickly. At the very least, with a glance over her shoulder, she saw that Nick was leaving. That meant that Collin wasn't going to try to retaliate, though Ruby doubted that he even recalled what happened, and besides that, doubted that it was even true to his character to retaliate. "Just relax for a few minutes, okay?" she said, rubbing his shoulder as he rested his head on his knees. "Did anyone call the police? Or see what happened?" she said, looking back to the girls. "I think I should bring him to the hospital. Will one of you come with me?" she continued. There was a hospital just a five minute walk away, and given that Collin was conscious, Ruby felt like either walking or taking a cab would take a lot less time than calling an ambulance, so long as he was able to walk after a few minutes of recovery. "And maybe Cara should come."​