Realistic or Modern City Living

[cure]

"Hm?" Roman was in the middle of drinking with Cara announced she had a question. He would have much preferred her ask about where he realistically saw their future going than this. Brooklyn was his best friend and Chanel was hers. He also wasn't Chanel's biggest reason, and really for no good reason, but it seemed like he and Brooklyn felt similar towards Chanel, and as far as he knew, Chanel hadn't done anything to Brooklyn, so he assumed his reasons were about the same as her: "Chanel's just kind of annoying, you know? And Holly's not ever going to take her seriously, but what else would you expect Brooklyn to say after all of these texts?" Where he and Brooklyn tended to verge onto different paths was in their ability to ignore and go on about their day. Brooklyn was good for taking the bait. He was actually surprised Holly wasn't already blocked, so he figured there had to be a good reason. "The fact that Holly isn't already blocked shows just how much she likes her, if you ask me."

He extended his arm around her back so he could pull her closer and give her a kiss. "Do you want me to tell her to stop being mean to your friends for you? How do you befriend the most saccharine people on the planet anyway?" ​

 

[lauren.]

It was hard to take Roman seriously when he was being sweet and cute. Cara knew that it had less to do with him than it did with her. Forgetting about him making out with an ugly troll in front of her for a moment, one could consider that he was doing everything right. He was softening and taking on the role that she wanted him to take on, and yet for some reason, she still wasn’t always sure how to respond to it. As emotional and dramatic as she could be about superficial and frivolous things, it was like there was a road block preventing her from reaching those levels when it came to the things that really mattered. It wasn’t like she was robotic or cold, but she felt like she was overthinking all of this more than he was. Either that, or he was just good at hiding it.

Spending time with Roman was easy and relaxing, and that was something that had surprised Cara in itself. She could just lay in bed with him watching a movie and be content. His stupid jokes were actually funny now, and every time she looked at him she could pick out a new thing she liked about him. So why was she over complicating things in her head? Why was it that she would naturally reach for Roman’s hand when her brain was on autopilot mode, but she second she actually thought about doing it, she started to question herself?

She and Roman were past the point where they needed to be drunk to feel at ease in each other’s presence, but a little bit of alcohol didn’t hurt when it came to her issue at hand. She smiled through a sip of her drink before shaking her head. She used her free hand to squeeze his cheeks together, chuckling at how cute he was, before leaning in to kiss him. “No, it’s fine,” she answered with a sigh. “But if you do want to be helpful, you should try to convince her to move in with you and Nick.” She would have continued that thought, but another issue came to mind. Her eyes widened as her body felt a micro-dose of exhilaration. “Oh my god, don’t repeat this, but get this—“ she began. Good gossip was exciting, and she hadn’t had anyone to talk to about this since finding it out. Roman didn’t seem like the type to care about the kind of drama that excited Cara, but she was going to tell him nonetheless. “So at Chanel’s party, she slept with some guy because obviously it’s her birthday and she’s trying to have fun, right? But it turns out that same guy was Ruby’s boyfriend and he had been telling Ruby he didn’t even want to sleep with her because he was waiting until marriage or something, and then in the next breath he turns around and cheats on her with her roommate! Can you imagine? And I’m sure he thought he would get away with it, but now I have to ruin his life since I know Chanel won’t.” She looked to Roman then, wanting to see a reaction as animated as her own, though doubting she would get it. She knew better than to go spreading around her friends’ secrets, but this didn’t count as breaking any sort of girl code in her mind, because it was just Roman.​

 

[A_Writer]

Holly was already in the process of typing “baby goats jumping on a trampoline” into the search bar of the YouTube app before she had even finished asking Ruby what her preference was. She had to scroll for a few seconds once the results populated, as she had already watched many of the top videos related to this, and wanted something that would be new for herself, too. She was already laughing just looking at the thumbnail pictures of all of the choices they had, so when she spotted a video that looked cute, she clicked on it eagerly.

“You’re really going to like this!” she informed Ruby as she impatiently waited for the advertisement to play before the video would start. Tapping on the video nonstop did nothing other than continue to pause and start the ad again, but she kept at it as if it would somehow speed up the process. “Goats are really nice people. They don’t bite or trample you,” she added, as if explaining the prequel to the video. Just as the video started however, a notification that she had received a text message popped up, and with her impulsive nature, she had clicked on it before even realizing that it would redirect her from her YouTube video. It was a text message from Brooklyn, which normally would have been the highlight of her day, but it had come at the perfect time to throw Holly off.

She clicked on the button to send an audio message to the group chat without even reading Brooklyn’s message. It was one of her favorite features but she typically forgot it existed and spent a minute trying to type out five words instead.

To: Brooklyn, Cara, Chanel
Hi Brooklyn, I can’t talk right now because I’m busy so please don’t text me again while I’m busy because I’m showing Ruby a really funny video about goats on a trampoline. They’re baby goats, actually, and they don’t have knees but they can still jump, I promise! Isn’t that funny? Maybe they do have knees, but not the same kind as us. But that’s why please don’t text me again right now but I’ll call you when I’m done so we can talk, okay? Okay, bye, I love you!

She sent the audio recording happily before looking back to Ruby. “That was just Brooklyn texting me but we can watch the video now because I told her I can’t talk right now,” she explained as she navigated back to the video, although Ruby had been sitting right there as she recorded her message anyway.​

 

[cure]

Roman was one of those kids who could recite pi to some obscene decimal place, but even he wouldn't have been able to count the number of times he got lost during Cara's story. He was already nervous when it started with 'at Chanel's party' since that wound was still fresh. Roman didn't have anything to be guilty about, but he still instantly thought in the back of his mind: 'What did I do?' While Cara feeling nervous around him wasn't the vibe he got, if he did get a whiff of that being the case, he would have had a momentary panic mode just the same as now. Cara actually seemed so chill that it made him even more nervous about fucking things up. He didn't want to freak her out or make her change her mind, and he already felt he was still in the orange-reddish zone with her and Chanel's party is what him in there in the first place. Then the thing this week about the Mexican food. He really, really, really couldn't afford anymore fuck ups, and by this point, he only knew he fucked up if he got caught doing something he didn't know was chargeable. His racing mind try to beat her to calling him out certainly played a role in him missing the core of her story. As soon as he caught something about Chanel sleeping with a guy, he started thinking about any guys from that night. After some thought, he did remember the guy who got a little too bold that night. "Chanel slept with him?" he uttered aloud just as Cara was announcing that (not) this guy would have his life ruined by her.

There was a brief moment of silence as she looked at him for a response given that she had ended her story, and he looked back at her, thinking there must be more because she just dropped a huge bomb on him without actually saying what the heck happened. "He did something to Chanel too?" Did Roman literally just say Chanel was annoying? Yes, but for similar reasons Holly was annoying. And just like Holly, or anyone else on the floor, you just didn't mess with Chanel. And she was Cara's good friend, and this guy had already bothered Cara that night. Chanel couldn't have been that much of an idiot to entertain that loser. During her birthday party? "Why are you just now telling me this? Me and Nick would have beat his ass. Was this after he bothered you?"

Roman checked his phone then, ignoring Nick's invite simply because it didn't register in his mind that there was an invite on the table to begin with.

To: Nick
there was some creep who was bothering cara at the party last weekend and apparently he hurt chanel. i'm not letting that slide. need you to come with

It was then that Roman stood from the bar chair he'd been tending and looked towards Cara. "Where is this guy? You knew each other, right? Does he live around here?" Why the hell would Cara pick now to say this?! And she thought she was going to be Batman and unleash her vigilante justice? "And you're not doing anything because if he touches you again, I'm going to—." Roman could feel him getting ahead of himself. He sat back down and cupped Cara's face. "You couldn't have been that mad at me that you couldn't tell me that. I would have done something, Cara."​

 

[lauren.]

Although his different than Cara expected it to be, she would take it. It was better than him shrugging or claiming that Chanel probably deserved it for sleeping with a guy she had just met. Because Cara was already hoping for a reaction that was in the same ballpark as the one that Roman gave her, she didn’t think his words fully through. She didn’t recognize that they were talking about two different people, and though it was partially because she wanted Roman to agree with her so she wasn’t in a place to consider the details, she had honestly also basically forgotten about the Logan interaction. He was so unimportant to her that his dead body could have still been lying in the grass and she would have only been perturbed at the idea that it would probably attract disgusting vermin into her space.

“Well, I only found out this week about it!” Cara defended herself. If she knew he had been dating Ruby and trying to sleep with Chanel that night, he would have found himself barred from her property, his phone tossed in the ocean, and hitchhiking back to New York City. “He literally showed up Chanel’s apartment to fuck around with Ruby or whatever, and he’s either a sick creep and knew Chanel also lived there and wanted to play mind games, or he’s a complete idiot and had no idea that they were roommates. Honestly, I bet that he knew they were roommates and only started to date Ruby to get close to Chanel, because Chanel is so out of his league, you know? Like, he used Ruby because she was more accessible to get his free pass into taking advantage of Chanel! On her birthday, of all days!“ They were on different pages about what “hurt” meant, but hey, if Roman wanted to beat him up, Cara wasn’t going to say no. She was dramatic, after all, and this seemed like a better alternative than having him added to the Clinton Body Count.

Again, she wasn’t focused on the semantics, so Roman asking her if he hurt her “again” went over her head as a red flag that they weren’t on the same page. “I literally don’t even know how he knows me but apparently he does and—can you imagine, he literally had the audacity to ask Chanel if I would work for him? He owns a restaurant apparently, but I’m sure that’s just a lie and he’s like a busboy there or something. Pathological liar vibes. Chanel knows where it is though. Do you think we should show up and kill him?” The more Cara thought about it, especially with Roman’s response being close to what she wanted, Cara became more convinced that Elijah was some creepy stalker/serial killer. Maybe not truly convinced deep down, but she wanted to be, because that was more fun. ​

 

[electric]

Not having been ghosted was a win in itself in Elijah's book when it came to this girl, so he smiled when he noticed that she responded. Admittedly, being ghosted wasn't something that happened often to him, but maybe that in itself spoke to how he was feeling about Chanel. He was a confident guy, sometimes to a fault, and he definitely did not mind chasing a girl, but it simply wasn't something that he had to do often. A challenge was refreshing, especially when the prize for winning looked like that. His attraction for Chanel at this point was obviously 99% sheer lust, but he couldn't be faulted for that when he barely knew her. He clearly didn't think of her attractive in a one-off one night stand sort of way, though, if that counted for anything.

Her response initially had him slightly confused. He didn't know whether she was testing him to see if he'd actually take her to what was basically a fast food restaurant on their first date, or if she was still trying to pretend that she was ~humble~ and ~not UES rich~, or if she was going to act like they were just friends and by going to some lame spot like that, it signified that she wasn't into him. Either way, he knew that he wasn't bringing her there, and he eventually decided that if there was a hidden message from any of those possibilities in existence, she was going to have to be more obvious.

To: Chanel
Nah, deal was I pick the place, you pick the time!

To: Chanel
And clearly for good reason

He decided that he would save the teasing about how that wasn't a very Instagram Influencer choice of hers for later, as he headed out of his office with his phone in his pocket. He was planning on leaving shortly, so he decided that he'd put his last few minutes here for the day to good use. He could hear that it was picking up in the bar, and with them being down on bartending staff in general lately, he was sure that his help was needed.

 

[Collapsed]

“Bet.” Nick expected that Brooklyn would choose where they would eat anyway, so he had no reason to argue with her demand when it was made. On one hand, he was easily the more passive one in their relationship, but at the same time, he also had taste buds that enjoyed basically every type of food, so that worked in his favor here as well. Plus, it was usually better when Brooklyn chose the spot because then when the server wasn’t great or the food underwhelming, she couldn’t blame him for it.

When Roman texted him back, Nick expected it to be relayed to the joining them for food proposal. He was thrown off by the text’s actual content, partially because it was random in terms of their connersatuon, and also because it was just random in general. Who would hurt Cara at her own house, and Chanel at her own party? Who would hurt either of them in general? Why was Roman just finding this out and more importantly, why did he care? Nick clearly knew that Roman wasn’t a bad guy and he was completely confident with the idea that Roman would defend a girl if he saw a guy being a dick, but this was something that had apparently already happened. Since when did Roman care about either of those girls enough to want to seek overdue justice?

As confused as he was, who would he be to sit there and be like “nah man, chill”. That wasn’t Nick’s energy to begin with, and he supposed that if Roman felt like this was enough of a personal attack that they needed to do something, then Nick definitely should have felt that way too. He was closer to Chanel than Roman was, and (as far as he knew), closer to Cara as well... or at least he had been. Nick was the type of person who could easily get hyped up if someone could convince him that he had been disrespected, and even though this wasn’t about him at all, it was how he was interpreting it. He assumed that Roman was framing it that way, as well — that some punk ass bitch thought he could disrespect the girls that he and Roman lived with, as if the two of them were bitches who wouldn’t pull up. The male ego was a fragile, fragile thing, and it was about to be the cause of someone getting their ass kicked.

To: Roman
Fr? Send me the location I’ll come through now

He figured that Roman was on his way over there now, or maybe even already with the dude who they were going to beat to a pulp. That was the only reason why he felt compelled to say something to Brooklyn, as if he didn’t think it was urgent, he wouldn’t have explained it to her at all, and would have just slipped out silently later that night to take care of business. “That was Roman. So, uh, apparently some dude fucked up Makayla. I think Holly must’ve told him or something, so we’re gonna go beat the shit out of him.” He probably could have explained it more delicately than that, but Nick wasn’t great at lying. Even swapping Chanel and Cara’s names out for Makayla’s came out sounding barely authentic, but he figured that Brooklyn wouldn’t be on board with him defending Cara’s honor, of all people, and it wasn’t like she cared for Chanel much either. She and Makayla weren’t besties or anything, but Nick knew that even if “like” was too strong of a word, Brooklyn at least pitied Makayla to an extent.​

 

[BurningBridges]

Brooklyn liked to believe that she was difficult to faze. She didn’t want to be someone whose skin could be gotten under so easily, especially since she liked to prey upon those people herself, but she was probably worse than anyone she knew when it came to that. It was the stupidest things too, that seemed to irk her, but if you knew how to push her buttons, it wasn’t hard to get a reaction out of her. Holly was quite possibly the most skilled at doing that, only ahead of Roman because her skill was so well perfected that it was apparently something she could do without even having to do it intentionally.

Brooklyn knew that she shouldn’t have clicked to hear what the audio message Holly sent was about because it was going to be stupid and annoying one way or another, but she did it anyway. It pissed her off in a way that spoke to her own irritability more than anything else, because obviously Holly didn’t act this way to piss her off. It just happened. She had to bite her tongue to keep herself from going on a rant about how fucking stupid this kid was to think that Brooklyn was trying to talk to her! To act like she was the one bothering Holly, and intruding on her peace! OF ALL PEOPLE!!!

She inhaled deeply, reminding herself of how good of a person she was as she resisted the urge to block Holly. As annoying as she was, the possibility of Holly doing something stupidly dangerous enough that resulted in her needing help wasn’t low enough where Brooklyn wouldn’t secretly worry if she did cut off contact. The last thing she needed was to have any more undeserved guilt on her conscience. When Nick mentioned something about Roman, she was momentarily puzzled, wondering if she had been so enthralled in her own text conversation that she had missed Roman calling Nick when he was standing right beside her. She didn’t linger on that though because what he said next was more perplexing. It was alarming first, because even if she wasn’t extremely close to Makayla, she kind of liked her, at least enough where the idea of her being attacked by some guy was concerning. She was also confused though, because clearly Holly was her normal self, and she had mentioned something about Ruby too, hadn’t she? Then again, maybe Holly was with Ruby because Makayla was in the hospital or something? “Ask him what happened,” she insisted. “Holly literally sounds completely fine,” she added, though Holly not reacting to something in a socially appropriate manner wouldn’t be shocking to anyone. “Is she actually hurt, and whose the guy who did that? That guy she had an issue with on our floor? Are you going to stop home first?” If Brooklyn didn’t care for Makayla, she would have pushed Nick towards letting her fend for himself. She wouldn’t have wanted him risking his safety for someone she didn’t think they needed to care about. A guy picking on someone like Makayla, small in stature and also already dealing with a lot in life, seemed worse than it would have been had the victim been someone else. She didn’t want Nick shooting someone, but maybe stopping home and then at least going to a confrontation prepared to defend himself would be the best option here.​

 

[cure]

Chanel was slightly disappointed that Elijah refused Shakeshack, though she was certainly the only one who felt that way. She probably didn't need a burger anyway, but she was really craving one. After a couple of minutes, she texted Elijah back.

To: Elijah
mmm 6? 7?

To: Elijah
what are you doing now? i'm free to hang rn if you are

She was distracted from thinking about how she was still in her gym clothes thanks to the influx of texts she was getting.

To: Cara
lol! i'm not worried about her. are you home?

To: Brooklyn, Cara, honey bun
hi holly bear!!! cara is my bff so i'm gonna say she's my fave ! pls show us the goats video when you're not busy. miss you and see you when i get back home!!

To: Brooklyn, Cara, honey bun
very cute dog it kind of looks like a bear!

Chanel actually did have a good laugh at the picture of...whatever that thing was that was obviously not a dog. Holly would be brilliant on Twitter, she thought to herself. But she would also probably get herself removed from Makayla's custody in the process. Deciding she was bored of whatever was going on here with the girls, she decided to excuse herself and take the fifteen minute walk back to the apartment. Even though she hadn't heard back from Eli by the time she decided to go home, she still figured he would say yes. It wasn't because she was that arrogant and that she was so irresistible that anybody in their right mind would drop everything they were doing to hang out with her. She was just manifesting! She had no real reason to think he wouldn't be able to hang out sooner rather than later.

To: Cara
you better be home!!! i'm showering at your place and want to wear some of ur clothes plsss

To: Cara
pls be home so i don't have to text brooklyn

Nothing was wrong with Chanel's bathroom, but she just enjoyed a change in routine from time to time, and going to Cara's always felt like a sleepover. She wasn't sure if she should mention Elijah to Cara or not. Part of her was still unsure about all of this, but if it was just as friends then that was fine, right?​

 

[cure]

Roman made a mental note to himself that there was a slight chance he was dating a sociopath and he would need to check back on that later. Cara was behaving quite...unchaotically? She seemed more upset that the guy was a loser who had the audacity to ruin Chanel's party or even think he had a chance than whatever he did. Was he missing something? Was this...girl code? Or whatever it was called? "We," he began, "Aren't doing anything. Nick and I will handle it. If he asks, you came to my place looking for him so you could tell him about this, I answered the door, you gave me the backstory, and then I texted him. Which means I should probably head out."

Roman looked at his phone, reading the text Nick sent him. "Speaking of." He turned his phone towards Cara so she could read it herself. "Where am I heading?" He downed the rest of his drink, wiping away any residue. "If he wasn't an asshole, I'd tell you to take him up on the offer so you can make more of those." The guy definitely didn't seem like the type to own a restaurant. Or own any kind of business. He definitely gave bitch boy Collin vibes, but stranger things had happened. ​

 

[lauren.]

"Let me ask Chanel what it's called," Cara answered. She still had no idea what restaurant this guy apparently owned, but she doubted that it would be anything incredibly impressive. Granted, had Elijah just been some guy Chanel slept with, and not some cheating pig, Cara may have assumed differently, but his image was now tainted in her mind, so anything associated with him would automatically be unattractive. She wasn't satisfied with Roman's comment about how she wouldn't be going with him and Nick to take care of this, but she didn't respond to that immediately. First, Chanel wouldn't let her handle Elijah, and now Roman was going to pull the same card?! Ridiculous! Besides, Roman's story that she wanted her to roll with wasn't going to work. Cara wasn't scared of Brooklyn, but even she was aware enough to know that if word got around that Cara was running to Nick with her problems, in search of someone to protect her and save the day, that the response wouldn't be good. In this case, Cara wouldn't blame her, at least, because there was no way to make that look good, especially after Nick had nearly killed her own brother. It would suggest that she still had some sort of feelings for him, or at least a need for him, and she didn't. That was why she was bringing this up to Roman -- she had that role fulfilled without Nick. Considering that Elijah looked like he could take on Nick and Roman pretty easily, she wasn't going to object to Nick joining Roman, though.

To: Chanel
I'm uptown

To: Chanel
Holly has a key though if no one else is home!! It's in the Judith Leiber dog clutch somewhere in her closet

To: Chanel
Alsoooooo, I'm still considering this job thing so what's the name of the restaurant! I want to look it up

It was only then that Cara realized that she had a few other texts waiting for her, though she only was concerned by one of them. The number wasn't saved in her phone but the reason for that was explained in the message itself. It was Alex, an old flame of hers. They hadn't dated or seen each other in years, so him reaching out was surprising to say the least, and Cara wasn't sure how she felt about it at all. Her initial reaction was pleasant surprise, but not in a way where she was beaming with joy or anything, and in fact, the feeling was fleeting. It didn't turn into annoyance necessarily, but there was a hint of that mixed with a hint of confusion present. If a random guy from high school texted her, Cara might have humored them with dinner and drinks if they had been a decent person, but Alex hadn't been. He hadn't been evil in reality, but he had been the only person in the history of her life who had ever dumped her. The fact that she had actually really liked him at the time, made it all the more worse, and to her, the heartbreak was overshadowed by the embarrassment that she felt towards it. It was more self-imposed embarrassment than it was truly being shamed by their peers, but as someone who felt like she had so many options and was so desired, it was embarrassing to be told, for the first time, that someone basically felt they could do better than her. It correlated with the time that she wasn't going off to all of the Ivy Leagues that everyone else was on their way to, so it hit her self-esteem in that sense too, and perhaps it played a role in why she was still kind of ashamed about the less conventional path she had taken.

She stared at her screen for a few seconds because she truly had no idea how to respond to this. She was tempted to screenshot it and send it to her friends to get their take, but she knew that she didn't actually want to hear anyone else's opinions on the matter. They would either tell her that she should totally go out with him and invalidate her longstanding grudge against him, or would tell her that she shouldn't even answer him since what he did to her was unforgivable, and then make her feel like a desperate idiot if she did choose to respond to him. She probably was going to respond to him, but she had too much on her mind right now, so she clicked out of the conversation and looked back to Roman, trying to return to her previous headspace. "You don't need to do anything crazy. Just like, mess him up a little bit and tell him to choose one or the other because he's not good looking enough to be playing both of them like that, you know?"

Just then, Chanel texted her back with the name of Elijah’s restaurant. “Ooh perfect!” she exclaimed, as she slid her phone towards Roman with the restaurant’s address pulled up on the maps app. “This is it. It’s not far from where we live.”​

 

[lauren.]

Ruby wasn’t completely clear on what Holly’s relationship was like. She understood that it was pretty one-sided in terms of affection, but she didn’t think that Makayla would allow Holly to continue to interact with Brooklyn if she was as unkind as she seemed. Ruby’s interpretation of her was that she was bitter and aggressive. She seemed to be a troublemaker, the kind of person who went out of their way to ruin other people’s moods. She probably had some underlying issues that she refused to address and was projecting her own insecurities and anger on the world, but as adults, that wasn’t really an excuse. It didn’t make you any less of an asshole. Ruby tried to stay in her lane, especially since it was a fine line when it came to Holly. She was always just trying to help, but sometimes Makayla took it as her criticizing Makayla’s parenting skills, and she didn’t want to come across that way. Holly didn’t seem to mind Brooklyn’s rude comments, and Makayla apparently didn’t either, so it was what it was. Had Ruby seen the text that Brooklyn had just sent, she would have tried to keep Holly from responding to it with the voice note that she did, but Holly didn’t even seem to read it herself.

Holly jumped back into the goat video which was just as cute as Holly described it to be. It was cuter to watch how the girl reacted to the video though, as it never got old to see how joyful something so simple could make Holly. The video was short, but Holly was quick to click on another one the second that it ended. She didn’t give Ruby a chance to respond to Makayla calling out to them, before she began to speak.

“This one is called ‘Crazy Baby Goat Backflips Off Other Goats’!” Holly exclaimed as the video started up, with her laughter following shortly behind. “I wish we could get a goat,” she said, looking to Ruby. “If you ever get me a goat, maybe for my birthday or Christmas, I’m going to name him Pinecone.” Thankfully Chanel’s texts came just as that video finished, so Holly didn’t need to also chide her for disturbing her baby animal viewing party. “Oh, my friend Chanel texted me!” she exclaimed, acting as if Ruby didn’t know Chanel for some reason. She pulled up the chat and took a long pause to read the messages. “Chanel said that Cara is her BFF, but that’s okay because I can still be her BFF too, right?” she asked in a rhetorical manner, because she had already reassured herself that the answer was ‘yes’. “And that means that I’m definitely Brooklyn’s BFF because if Chanel isn’t her BFF then there’s no one else left because Cara and Brooklyn don’t like each other, and Makayla doesn’t have friends, and you’re too old to be that,” she reasoned aloud.

“Too old?!” Ruby exclaimed in faux offensive, before letting out a chuckle. “I’m not that much older than your sister ! I think instead of saying that I’m old, we should just agree that you, and Chanel, and Cara are babies,” she teased, squeezing Holly’s side to tickle her as she stood up. “Let’s see what Makayla says about that, I think she was calling for us.” As she headed towards the door, motioning for Holly to follow, she added, “And why do you say that Cara and Brooklyn don’t like each other?”​

 

[A_Writer]

“Cara wrecked Brooklyn’s home,” Holly informed Ruby. It was her interpretation of Brooklyn frequently calling Cara a home wrecker in her presence. Since Holly didn’t really get it, it was the nicest of the words Brooklyn would use to describe Cara, so it was the only one Holly allowed to stick in her mind. Even if Brooklyn was her best best friend, she still didn’t feel comfortable with her being mean to Cara, who was also her best friend. “Because one time Cara spilled nail polish all over Brooklyn’s blankets on her bed,” she added confidently. “And it wrecked Brooklyn’s home.” The real version of that story involves Holly actually being the one to sneak into Brooklyn’s room one day when she was staying with Cara while Brooklyn was at work. It was definitely an accident! Or at least it was when she spilled the red one. She poured out a bottle of white nail polish on top of it, because in her mind, she figured that would somehow cancel it out. Holly was distraught over it, but Cara insisting that it was okay, that it was “karma”, and that she would tell Brooklyn it was her if she got upset when she came home allowed Holly to sleep soundly from that night on. She didn’t like lying, but with things like this, all it took was time for her to basically forget the truth.

“Makayla, me and Ruby want to help Brooklyn and Cara be friends!” Holly announced as they entered the kitchen. It wasn’t something that they had verbally agreed on, but Holly was certain that Ruby was thinking the same thing as her, about how Brooklyn and Cara could be best friends if gave have it a try! They already both had blonde hair, and blue eyes, and a mutual BFF. It couldn’t be that hard to get them to like each other so that they could all be friends together!!! ​

 

[electric]

You know damn well that Elijah was nearly stating straight at his iPhone screen for the few minutes it took for Chanel to get back to him. Even as it rested on the shelf under the bar top as he prepared drinks for customers, he tapped it every few seconds just to see if she was typing yet. He wasn’t overthinking it that much, but part of him worried that she would take what he said the wrong way. Her response was fine though, as he mostly expected, though the comment about hanging out now threw him off a bit. It went without thinking that he would say yes, but he couldn’t leave the bar yet with this kind of crowd. Not only would it be bad for business, but he also knew his team would be pissed at him for doing so, and with them already being short staffed, he didn’t want to overwork his remaining crew anymore than necessary.

To: Chanel
I’m at work, come through! We can have some drinks before we go out

The original plan involved him going home after work to get ready (and hype himself up), but this could work too. They could have a few drinks until the evening crew came in to relieve him, and then they could head out. He didn’t live that far, and he assumed that she would be okay with them stopping back at his place for a few minutes so he could change. He didn’t look like he was working a construction job in what he was wearing now anyway, but if he was taking an Upper East Side girl out, he needed to do a little better than this.

 

[cure]

Roman dropped his brow as if to say 'Are you serious' in response to Cara's proposal. "I'll be sure to let him know that," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. He plugged the location into his phone, afterwards sending the location to Nick. "She's seven minutes away," he said in reference to the Uber he just called. "I should be back within an hour." Pushing his phone into his pocket, he cupped Cara's chin between his hand and tilted her up for a kiss. "Unless you want me to go home."

“No, no,” Cara answered, smiling once she pulled away from Roman’s kiss. “I want you to come back and tell me allllllllll about it.” She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain this to Chanel when she inevitably found out about it, but she also wasn’t really thinking that far ahead. Besides, even if it went without saying that she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about this, it wasn’t like she was spreading it around. She had only told Roman... who had told Nick... who would probably tell Brooklyn. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the smartest move ever, but she was doing the right thing! She was a good person! She was helping Chanel, right? Right? “Maybe I should come with you,” she proposed a few seconds later. “Like, just to make sure everything goes okay.”

While Roman had no intentions of changing his composition, even despite him sometimes wishing he wasn't so terse and cold-seeming, there was one aspect of him that he didn't like people seeing, and that was him angry. While it appeared as though he was always annoyed at something, all those annoyances never accumulated into outright anger. Maybe, just as everyone had their breaking point, it'd lead to being snippy and bitter, maybe there was a short outburst, but full blown out rage? He didn't like experiencing that part of him for many different reasons, but what made it worse for him was when others saw him like that. Even if he raised his voice at Cara, he had a tendency to feel dramatic and gross, not necessarily because of feeling bad for her, but because it felt so outside of him. Anytime he externalized, even if it was in the smallest, normalest, most mundane of ways, he felt weird about it. Even when he did have a really, really, really good reason to be legitimately furious, he didn't enjoy it, and he didn't like being seen like that. It was part of the reason why during last weekend's party, he didn't want Cara focusing on his hand. Sure, it was literally nothing compared to everything else he'd endured, but he wanted to distance himself from that altercation quite rapidly too.

Even now, despite knowing Cara crying on the way back into the main house after they left Logan on the lawn wasn't due to him, there was a slithering voice in his mind that felt that way. And now he was playing that back in his mind and analyzing it because he was, once again, unsure if he was lying to himself to make him feel better. "No, no," he said, resisting a chuckle. He would loved to have known what her 'making sure things went okay' entailed, but he digressed. "If you get caught in the crossfire, I'm actually going to kill him this time. Plus, it would just complicate things if you were there, right?"

Even Roman’s reference to “this time” went right over Cara’s head. They both probably had a few signals that their stories weren’t aligning, but Cara wasn’t the most perceptive person as it was, and on top of that, she was getting her way, so she wasn’t going to go out of her way to find a reason to negate that. “Maybe,” she agreed, though not without adding, “But I am a good alibi. You mess him up a little bit and then if he tries to get you in trouble, I’m there to tell them that he almost stabbed you with a butcher knife, and you were defending yourself.” Cara did know that having her there would probably be more trouble than it was worth, and that was fine because truthfully, she didn’t feel like having to go out right now. Thankfully, Roman was willing to do it, and was the one insisting that she not come, but at least she got points for trying to be involved. Plus, if Cara was nothing else in life, she was a good alibi. She lived the sort of life where the very scenario she described could easily happen, even if there were a bunch of other witnesses testifying against their claim. She looked the part of what society already painted to be the innocent victim, and she had the money to pay the good lawyers to ensure that was what went down on paper, even if it wasn’t what happened in reality. Cara wasn’t thinking it would get to that point anyway, as she doubted Elijah was a little bitch who would do that, but then again, who could say. Either way, Roman would be fine. Hopefully just by his own physical defenses, but if not, he could pull from Cara’s resources after the fact.

Roman couldn't help but chuckle. "You'll be our secret weapon. Hopefully we won't have to use it," he said. He knew the Uber was close, so he decided to stand outside the remainder of the time. Before he headed out though, he decided he would nonchalantly ask Cara question that definitely hadn't been stirring in the back of his mind. "Really quick. Did I scare you last weekend?" His question was vague, probably because he'd been spinning in the details of the encounter so much so that he didn't realize that he forgot this was reality, and Cara couldn't read his mind. He considered this, but decided to leave the question at that because he didn't want to elaborate if he didn't have to. Plus, would he really need to? It was probably a giant elephant in the room. Maybe not an elephant, but definitely an animal of some sort of size.

Logan meant so little to Cara that when Roman asked if he had scared her, the incident involving Logan didn’t even come to mind. She assumed that he was talking about making out with that girl, and that by “scared”, he assumed she was scared of having competition or something. It rubbed her the wrong way, but she wanted to be less hasty in jumping down Roman’s throat about things he said or did. He seemed to mean well, and he was about to do her a favor, so... she would be less catty than she normally would have been. “Not even a little bit,” she answered with a chuckle, as she swirled the liquid in her glass gently.

"You were definitely crying though."

“It’s not everyday that someone shows up to your house uninvited and makes out with an ugly troll in your pool. If we’re looking for an emotion it was more ‘disgust’ than fear.”

Roman's eyes dashed to the side, almost instinctively, as he thought what the hell she was talking about. Well, he knew what she was talking about, but...? He definitely wasn't trying to bring that up again. He didn't want to have to explicitly bring up the other thing either, but if he had to pick, one was an obvious choice. "I'm talking about when that guy was bothering you. You started crying after I hit him." Now he felt like even more of an asshole. Was she still on that? He really wished she would just let it go, but now that she had him thinking about that, he was thinking about the night as a whole. Since he could look at things more objectively since he was sober and it was some time ago, he regretted bringing last weekend up to start with. Because he did make her cry for different reasons, and that was really not what his ego was trying to get into. "But maybe it was because of that other thing..."

Chanel’s party had been fun enough that it was mostly a blur, though there were a few standout moments that she remembered more clearly. She didn’t remember crying though... at least not in this order. She thought she had gotten upset after seeing Roman with that girl. Had she cried after Logan bothered her too? If so, she assumed that it was still because of the making out thing. “Oh, did I?” she asked, tilting her head to the side as she tried to search through her memory for clarity. “I was probably just overwhelmed with everything. I doubt it had anything to do with you,” she decided.

He could accept that! He took the drink from her hand and grinned slightly. "Did you notice that this time I asked for an invitation though? And I promise I won't make out with the Uber driver. Well," he said after a second. "I promise I'll try." Just then his phone started going off. He answered, assuring the person on the other line that he was coming outside now. "Text me if you want me to grab food," he said to Cara as he returned her drink and headed outside.​

 

[Collapsed]

It didn't take Nick very long to get to the location that Roman directed him to, since he was already downtown. He had parted with Brooklyn shortly after receiving the text, and he was grateful that she hadn't insisted on coming with them. He didn't want her to see him enraged. He was currently feeling pretty calm actually, but that was only because he hadn't laid eyes on this scumbag yet, and he also didn't have the full story on what this guy had apparently done to Chanel and Cara. He would have been instantly engulfed in anger had the victim in question been Brooklyn, because she was a part of him, but he still liked Chanel and Cara enough to feel like there was a connection worth defending there. Plus, it was always nice to have someone to use as a justifiable punching bag. Nick was calm 99% of the time, so one had to imagine that he had some anger pent up and ready to unleash if the right button was pushed. He assumed that Roman's will to defend their honor stemmed from something similar, since he wasn't really close to either of them either.

Nick felt like it took Roman an eon to get there, and eventually he decided to head into the bar on his own, just to scope the place out. There was a decent amount of people there, though no one jumped out at him as the type who'd be able to cause any trouble against himself and Roman. He didn't know that the person they were looking for worked at this place, nonetheless owned it, so he took a seat at the bar and addressed one of the guys behind it, when he approached with a menu. "Just a shot of Jack for now, thanks," he requested, shaking his head at the menu.
​

 

[A_Writer]

"Oh, I want to use this one!" Holly plucked a bottle of pink nail polish off the table and held it closer to her eyes. "It's called 'lovie dovie'. That's perfect for me!" she exclaimed with laugher. Holly loved activities that involved being pampered. Cara took her to the spa sometimes, and the level of excitement that came with that probably made the experience pleasurable for herself only. It was all so fun and cool and nice, that she couldn't take a minute to not express her excitement over it. She would laugh about how the massage tickled the whole time, and then talk Cara's ear off about how nice the room smelled, and then spend an hour going back and forth between colors for her mani/pedi, only to eventually decide that she would take a different shade of pink for every single finger and toe. Even if they weren't at a real spa now, and she was just sitting at the kitchen table as Ruby finished painting Makayla's nails, she was still over-enthused enough for it to seem comparable.

Allowing Makayla to go first was really testing her patience though, and by the time that Ruby was on the second coat on the second hand, it was evident that Holly was getting restless. She stood behind Ruby, gently pulling the girl's hair behind her shoulders. "Ruby, you want me to braid your hair for you? I know how to do it now, and I could do it really good for you! Your hair is really soft, so that's really good. That means you're being healthy and I bet that's because Chanel is a good influence on you in this household! Chanel is one of my best friends and she loves being healthy, and she loves eating anything green. Like apples, lettuce, grass, green grapes, um... limes, salads, spinach, green tomatoes, just anything like that, and I bet she rubbed off on you with her good habits! But also it's also healthy to eat chicken nuggets, and toast, and even if you eat Fun Dip you're still healthy, so maybe I rubbed off on you too and that made your hair soft!" She abruptly stopped petting Ruby's head, only to go over to Makayla and do the same to her--a clear sign that her train of thought had shifted to her sister, now. "I was thinking, Makayla, that me and you could go to the dog park today before it gets dark and the dogs go home, because I know they've been missing me!" As one would imagine, dog parks were literally one of Holly's favorite places on Earth. It was rare that Makayla actually let her go inside of the dog run area because they didn't have a dog, and she didn't want Holly being overbearing on strangers or doing something to get bitten, but she had done it enough times that she had an attachment to it now.​

 

[electric]

When Chanel texted him that she was down to come by but needed to run home quick, he saw it as his opportunity to do the same. He told the others on shift that he was stepping outside to take a call with a vendor, and literally ran home. He only lived a few blocks away, but he jumped into the shower for no more than three minutes, before jumping out, changing into clean clothes, checking himself out in the mirror for a bit longer than he needed to, and then raced back to the restaurant. He was met with a glare from Harlow when he returned, a signal that things hadn't slowed down since he left, but he pretended he didn't notice it as he slipped back into the mix of fulfilling drink requests. He had just finished wiping down the bar in an area where a few people had just left, when another customer sat down. Elijah reached to offer him their menu, but the man already knew what he wanted. That worked for Elijah; the quicker he started drinking, the quicker Elijah made money. He poured a shot of Jack Daniels and placed it before the guy. Although he had probably crossed paths with Nick at some point during Chanel's party, he didn't recognize him in the slightest. "You want to start a tab?" he asked, before his attention was momentarily drawn away by a repeat customer who was heading out. He waved goodbye, before looking back to the man in front of him.

"Nah, I'm going to pay in cash." One of the hurdles to not having a line of credit was this. Nick was a regular at most of the bars that he frequented, so he would typically just pay in cash at the end of the night, but most of the places that he didn't frequent regularly asked for a card up front when drinking at the bar. It made life easier to not have to worry about pulling out a wad of cash and counting bills between every drink, but he had no choice but to pay as he went. He took his shot with ease before placing the empty glass back onto the counter. "And I'll take another when you get a chance." He turned his head back, scouring the crowd for a face that looked like it screamed douche bag. Unfortunately, a lot of the guys here seemed to have that written across their face. He figured that if this dude had the nerve to fuck around with Chanel and Cara, two beautiful girls who were out of basically everyone's league, then he'd have enough of an ego that he would stand out. He would be a loud little bitch who would probably go down with one punch.

To: Roman
What's this guy look like? What's his name?

Elijah poured another shot for Nick, and then rang up the two shots at the register. He brought the check back to Nick, and was glad he did, because the way that this guy was looking around made him think that he was trying to dine and dash or something. "Looking for someone?" he asked casually.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to be meeting a friend here," Nick answered, looking back to Elijah before glancing down at the check and tossing some money onto the counter to cover it, plus another one, and a tip. "Let me get one more."

Elijah figured that the guy was probably meeting a girl for the first time with how quick he was downing these shots, but he didn't seem too problematic so far, so Elijah would continue to pour for him. "Nice, nice. Have you been here before?" ​

 

[BurningBridges]

Brooklyn had never texted Chanel before, but she did have her number. For reasons that seemed unnecessary, they had been in more than one group chat together. Only now was it coming in handy, as Brooklyn pulled up the girl’s contact to send her a message.

To: Chanel
I’ll take Holly if Makayla is in the hospital. I know you can’t handle her.

Brooklyn didn’t actually know that, but Chanel just annoyed her, so she didn’t hesitate to take even the slightest of digs at her if the opportunity arose. Chanel hadnt done anything specific to make Brooklyn feel this way. It was more so just her personality that Brooklyn found to be annoying, similar to how Holly was annoying. Unlike Holly though, when Chanel made her little snide comments disguised by a chirpy little tone of voice, Brooklyn knew that they were actually meant to be snarky. Brooklyn could dish the insults and remarks freely, but even if she wouldn’t admit to it, she wasn’t great at taking them in return. Plus, Brooklyn definitely possessed a little bit of that ugliness where seeing other people (at least those she already found to be annoying) receiving or experiencing things that she couldn’t, made her dislike them further. Jealousy wasn’t the right word because she wasn’t jealous of Chanel, but she just didn’t like how she was all chipper and happy when Brooklyn didn’t have reasons to feel that way too.

She only texted Chanel because she truly assumed that Makayla was hurt. If Roman felt it to be serious enough that they needed to step in, she could only assume that a significant amount of physical damage had been done. Even with Holly having just referenced Ruby’s name in her annoying as fuck voice message, Ruby wasn’t someone who would ever be on Brooklyn’s radar. She was obviously the most likely person to step up and take care of Holly if Makayla was out of commission, as she had done so before in the past, but Brooklyn didn’t even consider her to be a part of this circle enough for her to come to mind. She was meek and harmless, and because Brooklyn didn’t live with her, she didn’t know much about her outside of what Holly would say from time to time.

Although she was still hungry, Brooklyn opted to return home once Nick left her. She could have stopped somewhere along the way to pick up something to eat, but the thought of Nick and Roman potentially getting themselves into trouble made her too nervous. She doubted she would be able to stomach anything until it was resolved and they were home safely and fully in tact.​

 

[Bandit_]

Why did Ruby have to be so perfect? Makayla wasn’t thinking about in a lustful or even lovestruck sort of way—it felt like more of an objective observation than a biased compliment. She was so patient, so kind, so calm. Makayla’s energy was lowkey too, but she didn’t think that she gave out the calming and nurturing energy that Ruby could bring to a room. She had a way of lessening Makayla’s tension and stress just by being around. Part of that was definitely practical and related to how wonderful Ruby was with Holly. Makayla wasn’t used to people going out of their way to help her, especially in the way that Ruby did it, where there really didn’t seem to be any strings attached. She just helped to help. Makayla wasn’t always receptive to it, and maybe Ruby’s delivery didn’t align with her intentions in the beginning, but by now, Makayla was overtly aware of how lucky she was to have crossed paths with Ruby.

It hadn’t taken long for the guilt about how she had reacted to start to bother her, and it didn’t help that Ruby was so gentle and kind. It made Makayla feel like her reaction had been all the more unnecessarily harsh. It made it harder for her to feel justified in even being upset over it in the first place, which bothered her too though, because she did feel like she had some ground to stand on with her response. A little rough, yeah, but also, who was Ruby to throw an official relationship onto the table out of nowhere, when she was pretending to date some random guy?!

Ugh. This was why it was easier not to get intertwined with people at all. At the same time, it was hard to think that when it was impossible to deny how much easier Ruby had made her life in just a manner of months. Holly bouncing around them only reminded Makayla of that. Maybe Ruby was wrong for the Elijah thing, but how many people would be eager to get involved with someone who had the baggage that Makayla had?

“Not today,” she said to Holly, raising her hands carefully to examine her nails once Ruby had finished. She smiled in pleasure, before turning to look towards Holly. Maybe she would take Holly for a walk later, but she didn’t have the energy to awkwardly socialize with dog owners as Holly chased around their dogs. “Maybe tomorrow, though.” She wanted to relax today, and they had already been out and about this morning, so she didn’t feel neglectful for wanting to relax now. She would do Ruby’s nails for her once her own dried, which would probably correspond with Ruby being done with Holly’s. “Have a glass of wine with me,” she suggested to Ruby as she used the palms of her hands to clasp the bottle of wine in the fridge and pull it out, careful not to mess up her nails. “I don’t know if I’m just chronically tired or still hungover from last weekend, but that party did make me feel old as hell,” she admitted with a chuckle. “I know half of those kids didn’t even wake up with a headache and drank five times as much as we did.”​

 

[Collapsed]

“Nah, I don’t think so.” It was possible that Nick had been here before, but at some point, bars like these would just start to blur together. The name didn’t matter when it was just one of the many places that Brooklyn wanted to try, despite knowing that they were basic and would scam him with a cocktail priced at double its worth. While making small talk wasn’t something that Nick really wanted to do right now, he would let it slide since this bartender was attentive. Plus, he’d feel less bad about potentially making a scene in this place later on if he was friendly now. It would hopefully work in his favor in suggesting that the violence that would erupt shortly was probably warranted. “What’s the crowd usually like here?”

“We get a pretty good mix here. Mostly young people, been trying to keep the college kids out though,” he said with a chuckle as he prepared a third shot for this guy. He wouldn’t admit that he was trying to attract a wealthier clientele because to be honest, Nick didn’t look like that type. He tipped well, though. People like him were the ideal clientele because they were more low maintenance than the Instagram models and internet influencers, and yet they still didn’t hesitate to order something more than a single beer. Thinking of his goals for the future, he would have to bring Cara up when he saw Chanel today. Maybe it was pushing his luck, but the dollar signs in the back of his mind made it seem like a risk worth taking. “Appreciate you giving us a shot, though. My name’s Elijah. I own the place, so if you need anything, just flag me down,” he said to the man before heading a few feet away to tend to a new group who had sat down a couple seats down.

Nick nodded. He reached for the shot in front of him and pulled it closer, but didn’t down it immediately. He didn’t want to have to flag Elijah down that quickly for another, and if Roman was going to be a while, Nick figured he should pace himself.​

 

[cure]

Roman turned his chin down, checking his phone once again before confirming with a second glance at the storefront's name that this was the right place. He only glanced around for Nick for a second before spotting him already at the bar. He approached Nick just as Elijah left him alone, reading the text Nick had just sent too. He probably should have confirmed that with Cara now that he was thinking about it. It didn't matter. Roman might have been wasted when he last saw the guy, but he would remember the idiot's face with a quickness. Still, he shot Cara a quick text to confirm.

"Enjoying yourself?" Roman took a seat to Nick's left. He was facing Nick directly, his elbow just atop the bar counter and his body pivoted towards the rest of the restaurant as if he were about to be on his way out. "Apparently he owns the place. Cara thinks he's just a waiter though, so it's up to us to decide which arrogant asshole to believe." Of course Roman believed Cara. She was his arrogant asshole after all. But still, she wasn't the most reliable source when it came to unembellished objectivity. Roman looked over his shoulder to scan the restaurant. It wasn't an incredibly large place, and none of the staff fit the bill. "How long have you been here? I'm wondering if this is all the staff."

Roman turned to his phone again, texting Cara once more to find out this guy's name. "It'd be our luck if he's not working today." It was then that Roman realized that Nick was alone. He obviously knew that upon walking inside that Nick wasn't with anyone else, but it was only at that moment that it clicked that that meant Brooklyn wasn't around. "Where's my best friend, Sexagon?"​

 

[cure]

Roman arrived just after Elijah left Nick’s vicinity. He was still ready to hold his ground over the whole sexagon mystery, but he didn’t want to get sidetracked. He wanted to get aggressive and get into that headspace instead. Since he hadn’t witnessed whatever happened happen, and since it hadn’t happened to him or Brooklyn, it was going to take a little more mental hyping up to get there. Nick was sure once he laid eyes on the punk ass bitch who tried it, he’d get to where he needed to be, though. “You think it would have been a good idea to bring Brooklyn here so I could defend Cara’s honor? And you two think I’m the dumb one?” he said, before tossing back the shot in front of him. He raised the empty glass to Roman. “Wanna take one before we beat the shit out of this guy?” he asked, before jumping back to the sentence before. “Oh, and if Brooklyn asks, we were here to fuck up someone who fucked up Makayla, not Cara and Chanel. Only way she’s not gonna call the both of us backstabbing traitors.”

Roman raised his hand slightly to signal he was good on having a drink. He snorted at the fact that Brooklyn bought that they were here for Makayla. Maybe it wasn't the strangest thing, but still. Roman would always find his way on Brooklyn's bad side at some point during the week, and so this didn't classify as a huge betrayal. Especially not in comparison to the fact that he was actually dating Cara. Roman shrugged. "You're the one that has to sleep with her, not me."

Chanel was making good time. She had already showered at the gym before, but a quick rinse after her outdoor yoga class was definitely warranted. She pulled on something simple before remoisturizing her braids and adding a little color to her lips and cheeks. Perhaps it was all the bustling about she was doing today that had her in such a good mood as she made her way to the restaurant, but she was really enjoying the breeze on her toes. By the time she remembered that she should text Elijah to let him know she was on the way, she was already outside the door. It looked to be pretty busy, but she figured it wouldn't take long to spot him once she was inside. What caught her eye when she came inside just as another person was leaving was shocking to say the least. She couldn't help but offer some combination between a scoff and a laugh as she made her way over to her neighbors.

"Well, color me shocked," she sang mockingly as she wrapped and arm around either of their shoulder. "What are you two troublemakers doing in such an uppity bar?"

Well, this worked out perfectly, Roman thought to himself. Chanel could point the bastard out herself. "We're here for you."

Chanel really couldn't help but laugh this time. "For me?" She looked towards Nick. "Has he always been so cryptic? You can just say you're on a bro date. I won't judge."

“Nah for real, we got you,” Nick nodded to Chanel in a sternly affirmative way. She was clearly using humor as some sort of defense mechanism, so he could only feel bad that she was embarrassed about this whole thing. It was nothing for her to feel bad about in Nick’s opinion, at least. There were lots of dickhead guys out here who were too big of bitches to actually fight someone their own size, and tried to flex their masculinity on girls instead. “But just for the record, if Brooklyn asks, you gotta day we were here to defend Makayla’s honor instead of yours and blondie’s,” he added quickly, his eyes flickering to Roman as if to seek confirmation that Roman was actually going to be compliant to that plan more so than he cared to ensure Chanel was. The likelihood of Roman talking to Brooke was just more likely, so he had to prioritize accordingly.

"For Makayla," Roman emphasized. "I got it." Now that Chanel was here, it would make their life all the easier. "Just point him out and we'll handle the rest."

"Can you two speak English, please? Whose honor is being defended and why?"

Why was Chanel being stupid? Roman's face was visibly showing that he was becoming annoyed. Clearly they already knew what was going on, so there was no need for her to play coy. "Cara told me what happened last weekend with that guy. I don't really like you, but no one's going to walk around treating you like that. What's this guy's name?" Just then he got a text from Cara answering his question. He read the text aloud, looking to Chanel afterwards to confirm. "Elijah?"

Chanel dropped her arms from around them. She literally could have walked into oncoming traffic by this point. Her mouth curved and turned as she tried to figure out what to say, but she couldn't even sputter. "She told you about him?"

Why did Chanel seem so confused? And now annoyed? Roman hadn’t stated their purpose in an unclear or offensive manner. He was pretty straight forward with it, which seemed like the easiest route to take in it. “So when Brooklyn asked, it actually went that Holly told us about how Makayla got jumped at your party, not that some stupid motherfucker jumped you at your par—“

Hold up, did Roman just say Elijah? He had missed the comment about the person they were looking for being the bar owner, but he did catch the Elijah part of this. Wasn’t that the same dude he had just spoken to? It only resonated with him because the name was biblical enough that it reminded Nick of the dude with the arc. How he managed to mixup the names Noah and Elijah was a case study in itself, though. “Hold up, Elijah? Elijah?” He looked between Chanel and Roman before pointing to the guy tending to the other end of the bar. He got to his feet, ready to rumble. “That’s the guy over there?” he asked Chanel.

Chanel looked over to where Nick was pointing and nodded her head despite being completely confused. She was still trying to process the fact that it seemed like Roman was texting Cara right now. That Nick had just said something about being jumped? And that the person who did it was supposedly Elijah? "Um...Yeah? I'm here to talk to him."

"You don't need to be anywhere near him."

"You both need to stay out of my business."

Roman didn't have time for this. He looked around towards where Nick was pointing, absent-mindedly talking to Chanel still. "Just tell him to talk to you outside so we can handle the rest." Roman wasn't planning on getting the guy right inside the restaurant, and it completely went over his head that that's the mindset Nick was in.

"'Handle the rest?'" Chanel echoed as Roman continued to look around for Elijah. Her mind was spinning with the multitude of things she was trying to process right now. She was sure that if she kept standing around here, she was going to cause a scene. "Nothing happened. Now leave, both of you. I'm not keeping your ass out of jail a second time," she said, spinning on her heel and heading towards Elijah.​

 

[A_Writer]

Holly was sitting at the table, but her bounciness suggested that might be a fleeting state of being for her. If it wasn’t for her hands being sprawled out on the table, ready for Ruby to paint her nails even though the bottle hadn’t even been opened yet, she probably would have already been up. “You said that alcohol is bad and that it can kill you and that it makes people be bad.” She wasn’t trying to be argumentative, not consciously at least, but she didn’t like how Makayla had suggested something that she couldn’t take part in too. That wasn’t fair.

“It’s bad for kids to drink it. Adults are allowed to drink it, but even then it’s not smart to drink too much.”

“It wasn’t bad when I drank it.”

“Yeah, well getting your ass handed to you most definitely will be if you ever try a stunt like that again.” God help this child if she really thought bringing that incident up with the loser down the hall was going to work in her favor tonight... or ever, for that matter.

“Ruby, did you hear that?” Holly’s head immediately spun to face Ruby. “Isn’t Makayla supposed to be nice to me?”

“This is me being nice to you, Holly, and this doesn’t have anything to do with Ruby, so don’t try it. Now stop while you’re ahead and close your mouth.”

“I don’t think you know what ‘nice’ means then. Maybe one day Brooklyn will give you a lesson but actually, she’ll probably be too busy hanging out with me.”

“Child... please. I know you don’t want to start with me tonight.”

“We allllllll need to be nice to each other today!” Ruby said, trying to be gentle in inserting herself into this. She had to be careful with boundaries, but beyond that, she was more used to Holly and Makayla’s back and forths by now to know that they didn’t always require an intervention. Sometimes Holly needed to be told to calm down if only to preserve Makayla’s sanity, and even if Makayla didn’t always use the same words that Ruby would have to do so, it worked for them. “But I will agree with your sister that you should never, ever, ever be drinking alcohol, Holly. It doesn’t taste good and since you’re taking medication everyday, it could make you very, very sick if you mix that with alcohol. I know you wouldn’t want to have to go to the hospital, right?”

“I was born in a hospital, and I lived there for a long time. Did you know that, Ruby? And when I was born, my mom said I was shorter than a beer bottle!” Holly laughed at how silly that must have been. “And if I was shorter than a beer bottle, then you were probably shorter than a ketchup packet, Makayla!” That was even funnier, and her giggles made that apparent. Holly’s near obsession with commenting on Makayla’s small frame was ironic given that Makayla probably had at least an inch on her, but Holly didn’t really see things relative to herself. She didn’t think of herself as being short — just that other people were tall, like Brooklyn, or really, really tall like Chanel, or Nick, or Cara, or Roman. Roman, Romeo, Romeo and Juliet... “Can you text Roman on your phone to ask him if he’s ever seen Gnomeo and Juliet? And if he says no, you can tell him that we can watch it tonight with Brooklyn because he probably won’t understand what happens if he watches it by himself but I can explain it to him.”​

 

[Collapsed]

Nick had been slapped in the face enough times just doing it to Brooklyn to know better than to grab Chanel by the arm as she turned away, but that wasn’t to say he wasn’t tempted to do it. It wouldn’t have been meant in an aggressive way, but more of a protective one. It was just like: Why are you about to run over to a dude who hurt you? What are you thinking?! He didn’t have a lot of ground to stand on with that take, but at his core, Nick’s intentions were always in the right place. His way of justifying some of his actions were sometimes iffy... but he meant well overall. He considered Chanel to be a friend, but a smart one. He had smoked with her enough times that he for whatever reason, he saw her as being insightful though. Maybe he didn’t have any sober experiences with her to really validate that, but his initial thought wasn’t what it might have been for someone like Cara, where he would have pushed forward still under the mindset that ‘she clearly doesn’t know better’. Chanel was bright, he thought, so what was the deal with this?

He was just a set behind Chanel as she headed towards Elijah. She wanted to talk to him? Fine, they’d talk to him as a group. “You don’t seriously expect us to just leave after Cara told Roman that he fucked you and Cara over this weekend, do you?” he asked Chanel as they walked. “I know you’re your own person and all of that,” he said, trying to be rational and pulling from things Brooklyn had said amid their own arguments, “But the second someone lays a hand on someone I consider to be a friend, it becomes my issue too.” ​