Realistic or Modern City Living

[Collapsed]

While Nick probably had reason to feel awkward because of Holly's words, he smirked. She was a funny kid, and he knew that Holly was just odd like this. She probably wasn't trying to be rude. She was just very honest in a way that represented the childish ways that her brain worked. It wasn't a bad thing, really. It probably wouldn't serve her well in the "real world" because the real world wasn't meant for people with disabilities in any way, shape, or form, but anyone who knew Holly would probably enjoy her eventually. Her innocence grew on even the coldest of people. Brooke was a good example of that. No matter how strongly Brooklyn would say the girl bothered her, Nick knew that the blonde cared about Holly more than she cared about most people. It was sweet, especially because that side of Brooklyn rarely came out.

As Holly spoke to Chanel and Makayla added her thoughts in, Nick busied himself with Chanel's phone. If the girls didn't have a preference, he would pick what he was craving. He already always had a big appetite, but knowing that he was going to soon be high and that he had done well financially today only meant that he was going to order all the more food. The Bus Stop Cafe sounded good. They had everything, basically, so it would be an easy way to hit all of his cravings in just one order. After adding buffalo wings, a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, Chicken Parmesan, onion rings, penne a la vodka, and a slice of chocolate layer cake to the order, he handed the phone back to Chanel so that she and Makayla could add what they wanted. "Go in on it," he said quietly with a smirk. "I don't wanna be the only one eating good."

He would have headed into Chanel's room but recalled her comment about needing to freshen up and didn't want to intrude, so he slipped his backpack over his shoulders again and waited. It seemed like the only appropriate thing to do until he was invited into a room or at least until Holly was clearly settled in. He was surprised at how quickly she disappeared, but then again, Makayla clearly knew what worked with the girl, so it wasn't too shocking.

 

[cure]

Chanel was still surprised at how well Makayla was able to manage Holly. It made since considering she was the girl's caregiver, but seeing Holly redirected so easily, especially with such a blatant lie, still brought a slight smile to her face. Chanel scrolled through the menu, getting ever greedier as she browsed through the options she was having a hard time choosing. It probably came as little surprise, but Chanel did have the tendency to be impulsive. She wasn't reckless, per se, where she would blow her entire check on makeup and clothes like a friend of hers always seemed to do. She was still young and her priorities weren't entirely straight, so it wasn't entirely uncommon if she impulsively bought something at Sephora despite not needing anything else to add to her stash. She tended to think that she would be missing out if she didn't have things that she 'really' wanted, which was odd because Chanel never grew up having to worry about not having the things she needed. But because she wasn't used to being around lacking, having things was more familiar to her. She had been good this year with it, but that made it even easier to rationalize her eyes being bigger than her stomach.

"You're a bad influence, Nick," she said with a smirk as she picked out her items that absolutely did not go together. She told herself that ordering extra wouldn't be so bad because not only had she been raking in plenty of hours, but she also could use the leftovers, which meant she wouldn't go through the groceries she just bought. Not even deep down Chanel knew perfectly well that that was bullshit, but that didn't prevent her from unashamedly picking out a shrimp cocktail, apple pie, and bolognese." As she headed into her room, she passed her phone along to Makayla. Sliding her coat off and placing it in her closet, she looked back to the others to say something only to realize there was just Makayla. "Where's Nick?" she asked before answering her question a moment later. "Oh, is he waiting? I was just going to go in the bathroom," she said. From her drawer she pulled out a simple pair of grey sweats and a tank. Even though she and Makayla weren't best friends or anything, she didn't really feel weird changing in front of her and it only took less than a minute before she was redressed. Opening her door once more, she leaned out to give Nick the clear. Chanel sat on her bed, pulling open her bedside dresser. "We can just use this unless you guys want to use papers, butttt I definitely don't have any so."​

 

[Lov32write]

Tina Sharp - Apartment 4B - Saturday, February 4, 2018

Studio Apartment 4B had been occupied for a little over a month, though few would have noticed considering how little activity there had been coming in and out of it. Tina Sharp, the apartment's newest resident had been spending the majority of her time fixing up her new apartment, online job searching and adjusting to her new college schedule at John Jay's College of Criminal Justice. Trying to find a job that worked around her class schedules was a pain in the ass. The 26 year old woman ran a hand through her purple hair in frustration and the most recent job application denial. "Are you shitting me?" She sighed heavily, then stood up. She went to the corner of her living room where there was indoor exercise equipment like a treadmill and weights. She jumped on the treadmill and began to run, working off her building annoyance and tension. Tina was in good shape, had been ever since her teenage years. College, she determined, would not change that, no matter how busy she got.

She didn't get off the treadmill till the apartment buzzer went off. God bless whomever came up with idea of online ordering and door to door delivery. Tina grabbed a towel, wiping her face and trotting to the door, swiping her wallet off the counter as she went by. She pulled out a 20 and passed it to the delivery man on the other side of the door who gave her good 'ol Chinese food in exchange. Well, american chinese, but who cared!? As the delivery man left she glanced down the hallway to the apartment next door. She'd thought she had heard some noise coming from that direction, but now it was confirmed. Some guys seemed to be moving in. She really hoped they weren't the frat boy types. It would be a bummer to break a neighbor's hand on her 2nd month in a new place. She lingered near the door, eager to catch a glimpse of her new hall-mates.

 

[EvenManiacsCC]

Henry Lovett: Apartment 4A February 4th, 2018

Henry stretched his limbs out before bending down to pick up a bag of various dance things that he had only learned to name in the couple years he had been with Carter. It wasn't nearly as heavy as his boxes, but the fatigue of carrying his dozens of lenses was finally getting to him. When you move it is always longer than expected, especially when it was three men moving. The only possible upside of being poor was the lack of things you had to move when changing living spaces. Henry let a small smile slip onto his face as he turned the corner, looking down the new apartment he would be calling his own for a long while. He almost allowed himself to relax for once, but there was way too much to be done.

Henry set down the bag with a soft clunk by the door, not really sure where his boyfriend wanted to put them. He thought it was best he didn't decide the resting place since that would most likely end in him being killed by a pointe shoe should Carter be late to class.

He heard a slight shuffle from the hall and he peaked his head out, hoping to catch a glimpse of Carter since they hadn't had much time to talk since the big move had started. "How much--" He noticed the purple hair before anything else. That definitely differentiated the women from either of his new roommates. "Oh, you must be our new neighbor. Sorry if it's been a little loud down here." He smiled, pushing up his glasses. Meeting new people was not anywhere near one of Henry's strong suits. He crossed his arms as he stepped out fully into the hall. Him peeking around the corner was probably more than a little weird.

"I'm Henry by the way." He said extending his hand, really hoping she'd shake it. A failed handshake was a shaky foundation for the start of a possible friendship.

 

[Bandit_]

Like Chanel, Makayla hadn't really noticed that Nick was a few paces behind them. It made sense, and was a nice reflection of Nick in a way, that he wasn't just going to barge into their space without the invitation, but in this case, the politeness wasn't necessary. He was doing them a big favor, so there was little that he could do that would make him seem annoying or overbearing in the moment. Even though she knew that he was paying for the food that they were ordering, Makayla was still too respectful to really order much. She was hungry and once high, she knew she would be able to eat a lot, but it just wasn't in her blood to take advantage of kindness. Even if it was a complete overreaction to the situation at hand, she knew that she would feel weird and uncomfortable accepting a handout too big in size. She ordered a cheese burger and a grilled cheese, hoping that she could discretely save the latter for Holly without seeming tacky, before placing Chanel's phone onto the bed.

Even if she had her preferences and was a seasoned smoker to an extent where she could afford to have stronger preferences, she wasn't picky. If she was smoking free weed, she didn't care what she was smoking it out of. She enjoyed the rare times that Nick would bring over one of his bongs, because the hits always felt smoother with that, but she normally just smoked out of her own bowl, or out of a joint if Nick had ones pre-rolled. Like Chanel, she didn't have papers of her own and given that they both had their own bowls, they didn't need papers really. Regardless, the moral of the story was that Makayla had no preference. "Whatever works," she said with a shrug.

Despite being a naturally quiet person to begin with, she felt somewhat odd just saying that and remaining silent otherwise. Just because she was a quieter person didn't mean that she was incapable of socializing. She was friendly and she could make conversation, but drained was an understatement of her energy levels lately. It was hard to fake it at the moment, and she didn't even bother trying to seem even remotely energized or interested in doing anything other than getting high.

​

 

[lauren.]

As Ruby sat in the corner of Starbucks, she wondered if the place was ever actually empty. Granted, she had only just moved into this neighborhood recently, but in general, it seemed like Starbucks as a whole were always busy. It didn't matter what season it was, or what time a day it was - people were always in there. With over two hundred locations in Manhattan alone, it was surprising that each one was always so bustling, but then again, New Yorkers liked their coffee. Ruby had lived in New York for her entire life, so she had little to compare it to in a personal sense, but she had traveled enough to know that the city was like no other. Other cities had awed her in ways that New York didn't (maybe because she was so used to her hometown, or maybe because they were just fascinating in different ways), but the only city that had really "intimidated" her was Hong Kong, and part of it was probably the language barrier she faced there. New York was a city of its own and every day she was reminded of how lucky she was to live there. People could complain all they wanted about the cold winters, the unreliable public transit, the sky-high prices, and the odd characters that tended to roam the streets, but when it came down to it, New York was what it was because of how great of a city it was. If no one wanted to live there, rent wouldn't be so astronomical, the subways wouldn't always be packed, and it wouldn't feel like walking through quick sand while trying to navigate Times Square at peak hours.

Today had been a relaxing day so far. She had four appointments in the morning, both of which felt productive and worthwhile on her end. While working on the weekends wasn't ideal in a lot of people's eyes, Ruby didn't mind it. She took Sundays off, but she was past the age where she needed to be out every Friday and Saturday getting wasted and creating a future hangover. She appreciated being able to spend her time productively, and she also understood that in her profession, working the weekends was kind of essential. While she did work with some children who were just toddlers, most of her patients were in school, and therefore, weekdays weren't always plausible for them to see a doctor. Offering a few weekend appointments made their lives (and their parents' lives) easier, which was the biggest plus. Outside of that, though, while being a doctor offered philanthropic benefits, having her own practice also meant that she was running her own business. The more available she was, the more money that she could make, so it was worth it on both ends.

Once her tea was finished and she decided that she was done people watching for the day, she headed back home. She didn't have any plans for the day, and that was fine by her. A childhood friend had texted her earlier in the morning stating that he was back in town for the weekend and wanted to get dinner, but she was still mulling over the idea of it. It wasn't that she was unfriendly or antisocial, but Ruby had to be in the proper mood to truly socialize. She could fake it when she wasn't, but sometimes curling up in bed with a book seemed too appealing to resist.

Returning to their apartment, she found Holly in the common area by the television. "Hey Holly," she offered with a warm smile. Things in the apartment had felt tense (on her end at least) since the incident earlier that week, but Ruby was trying not to let it bother her. She had done as much as she could have done. She had decided that she hadn't crossed any boundaries - if anything, she hadn't crossed enough... but as of now, things seemed okay, so she wasn't allowing herself to worry or feel guilty.​

 

[Collapsed]

Once Makayla followed Chanel to her bedroom, Nick figured that that was his invitation too, though he lagged behind just a little out of politeness. Girls were weird. They always smelled nice and looked pretty, but even now as a young man, Nick still struggled to understood how they worked. Maybe it was just his "interesting" experience dating Brooklyn that led him to believe that girls were impossible to understand. He loved Brooke back then and still did today, but there was no denying that their relationship was unhealthy. He accepted his role in that unhealthiness (and its ultimate demise) but he didn't think that Brooklyn would ever come to admit that she wasn't a perfect human either. Her mood was capable of changing at the drop of a hat, she could be cold and cutting for no reason, and she was demanding and unreasonable sometimes. Chanel and Makayla were a lot different than Brooklyn, but even in less extreme examples like here, girls as a whole were just sometimes hard for him to read. Typical stereotypes probably played into it as well, because he was raised to believe that girls had to be protected, but also that they were more sensitive, emotional, and unpredictable than guys. He wasn't a dumb guy, but Nick could be pretty oblivious sometimes (and being frequently high didn't help that), so he often made a conscious effort to respect people's space and boundaries.

Before he entered the bedroom, it crossed his mind that today was Saturday. He and Roman had thankfully found a third roommate, alleviating the potential of having to pay the extra rent for their empty room, after Nick heard that one of the girls he dealt to needed a place to stay. Delaney was a cool girl with a chill vibe, and Nick was sure she'd get along with he and Roman. He and Roman were going to have to be a bit neater, but Delaney wasn't crazy. He was sure that she would be an easy roommate.

To: Roman
Just a reminder, Delaney's probably moving in today. I think she said yesterday or today. I'll text her to confirm but if ur home and someone comes through it's her

To: Delaney
Hey, you moving in today? Roman and I can help you bring your shit up when you get here so lmk

"Yeah, yeah, that works," Nick agreed, taking it from Chanel. He sat down on the floor and pulled out a small bag of weed, packing it into the bowl tightly. "We might have a new girl to add to our circle," he offered lightly as he searched his bag for a lighter. "Roman and I have a girl moving into our apartment today, I think."

 

[A_Writer]

"Hi Ruby," Holly responded with a smile. She wasn't overflowing with emotion like she typically was, but that didn't necessarily have anything to do with Ruby herself. She had just finished stacking up all of her art work (and all of the tiny bits of scrap magazine paper that she probably should have thrown out) into one big pile on the floor. It was just barely neater than how it had been before Makayla had asked her to clean up, but it had felt like a major accomplishment in herself, and patting herself on the back, she decided that she deserved to relax after all of that hard work. Ruby had come in just as she was getting settled down on the couch, and that was really the only reason for why she didn't pop up to greet the girl more enthusiastically. "You can watch TV with me if you want. We can watch whatever you want! Maybe something with Zac Efron in it! Makayla and Chanel and Nick are doing math homework so you're not supposed to bother them but I can keep you company!"

Today was a typical Saturday for Holly. Things were maybe a bit more low key because of how the week had went, but in general, the weekends were usually pretty relaxed. Makayla worked at night when she could, though she was still on the newer side at her job as a cocktail waitress, so she didn't get many of the better paying weekend shifts. During the day, the two of them just hung out for the most part. During the summer there was more to do - swimming, going for walks, taking advantage of free activities that were offered. In the winter, they still sometimes went for walks, and during the Christmas season there were some fun things to explore, but it was mostly indoor stuff. Museums were usually too expensive, the movies were always too expensive, and Holly didn't have any friends to hang out with on the weekends like most kids her age did. While she was only recently becoming more aware of this (and more self-aware in general), it still wasn't something that truly bothered her. She only thought about it when something happened, in the moment, that made her feel excluded and different, and given how many times feelings like that should have happened, the times she actually realized it were rare. Her weekends were quiet, but as most people knew, it didn't take much to keep her entertained, so Holly was content.​

 

[cure]

Chanel folded her legs, getting comfortable on her bed. It was a little known secret that Chanel was an outgoing, social kind of person. She didn't like being alone for long stretches of time (or short ones for that matter). Even outside of her natural histrionics, not being around people for a certain amount of time left her feeling depleted and isolated. While she usually leaned towards things that suited her more boisterous personality like parties and group dinners with friends, she did have an appreciation for more intimate gatherings like this one. Even though it wasn't something she readily sought out time after time, a mellow and relaxing kickback like this was something she could enjoy, especially when she was beginning to feel pretty desperate for any sort of social interaction. She got her fair share of it at her job or at school, but it was hardly ever for pure enjoyment which went to show how particular Chanel could be. She didn't like feeling controlled, and despite being quite a carefree person, she wasn't always the most flexible. Interacting with customers for hours on end might have kept her from going insane, but it wasn't something that gave her the same kind of high like when she was hanging out with good people and having a good time. The ins an outs of working at a coffee shop was monotonous and tedious on a typical day, though her ease of boredom probably had something to do with that, so it was nice being able to actual enjoy her free time. The news of a new arrival only made things even more exciting.

She wiggled her eyebrows and cooed, already keen to know more about this mystery girl. "Ooh, another stoner. That sounds exciting," she said, leaning forward. Chanel loved new people. At work, it sort of ended up biting her in the rear because everyone took advantage of her enjoying training newcomers, but still Chanel enjoyed welcoming people. It could be explained by the fact that Chanel loved any excuse for a celebration and even something as mundane as someone moving into her neighbor's apartment felt like something to get excited over. Having Roman and Nick as roommates, though, seemed to provide all the more reason to get rightfully excited to be welcoming because the boys, with no disrespect to them, were rather boring, at least in the sense that their personalities were rather one note whereas Chanel's was the entire orchestra. The fact that Nick was here instead of preparing to welcome his new roommate spoke to that, and to the fact that Chanel took first impressions very seriously. "Why are you here instead of helping her out?" she asked, momentarily forgetting that Roman existed in this scenario, which really only made the situation worse. "You didn't leave the poor girl to the warm, welcoming personality of Roman, did you? You know, I remember when I first moved in and I introduced myself to him and you know what he said?" She folded her arms and paused, her face already crossed as she recounted the experience. "'Oi'," she said in an uncharacteristically deadpan tone. "Just 'Oi'. What the hell is that?" It might not have been apparent, but Chanel was heavily biased in recounting the situation. She wasn't taking into account that her personality in certain situations, and to certain cultures, was a bit extraneous. "You're setting that girl up to be oi-ed, Nick, and I'm letting you know, it's not a nice feeling."​

 

[lauren.]

The jovial energy that Holly possessed felt a bit more normal now that Ruby was used to her, but it was still such a contrast to how people acted in general that it still caught her attention. It was noteworthy in a good way, even if from a clinical perspective it wasn't as straight-forwardly good. There were so many misanthropes in the world, and given the climate of the world they currently lived in, Ruby understood why to an extent, but regardless, unconditional positivity, warmth and love was a breath of fresh air. Earlier this week Ruby had seen that Holly was in fact capable of experiencing the full spectrum of emotions. It had been alarming for a lot of reasons given the specific context of that situation, but it was oddly reassuring as well. While it was clear that Holly wasn't quite as mentally developed as someone her age should have been, she wasn't emotionally inept.

"That sounds fun," she said, responding to the girl's invitation to watch television with her. "What are you going to watch?" While Ruby didn't mind hanging out, and actually felt like she would enjoy the company for a little while, watching a children's program didn't necessarily seem like the most interesting thing to do. Admittedly, working with children meant that Ruby had to have some grasp on pop culture related to that demographic. She often watched the big movies that came out once they hit streaming services, so she was up to date on the Disney princesses, the superheroes, and all of the other colorful and cute little characters that the people behind Pixar came up with. Most of the movies were cute, so they had that going for them, but understanding what the people she worked with were into made interacting with them much easier as well.

"I was thinking about making brownies too. Maybe you could help me with that before you watch," she suggested. Although Ruby wasn't a total junk food connoisseur, there was something about baking sweets on a cold winter day that just made them taste all the more better. Ruby didn't know what to think about Holly's explanation for her sister's whereabouts. The idea that Makayla was doing homework sounded believable since Ruby had heard that she was doing an internship somewhere, but Chanel and another person assisting her sounded oddly intensive. It wasn't something she felt compelled to question though, since it wasn't that deep.

 

[A_Writer]

"I like brownies!" Holly wasn't sure what she wanted to watch, so responding to Ruby's latter comment seemed easier than figuring it on the spot. Holly's pop culture tastes were pretty predictable given her competence level. She enjoyed cartoons a lot, and as one could expect, she loved anything that had talking animals in it (especially dogs). It was worth adding, however, that she enjoyed some more age-appropriate movies as well. Over the past few weeks alone she and Makayla had watched "Forrest Gump", "Legally Blonde", "The Blind Side" and "Pitch Perfect", and she had enjoyed all of them. None of them were necessarily intense titles, and all were appropriate for someone her age, but even if she wasn't the way she was, she probably wouldn't have been the type to enjoy horror or very intense movies anyway. While PG or G rated movies were typically easier for her to follow because she didn't always comprehend the themes that were present in some of the PG-13 or R rated movies that were around, she did enjoy watching those on occasion, simply because Makayla was typically more likely to watch them with her. While Holly usually zoned out during movies or television shows anyway, and could only focus on what was on the screen and not what was around her, it didn't mean that she didn't appreciate her sister's presence while she watched. "And if you want them to taste good, I can help you. I'm really good at baking!" It wasn't necessarily a lie, so long as someone told her exactly what to do and reminded her ten times that she wasn't allowed to dip her finger into the batter to taste it.

Very abruptly, Holly had a change in her mindset. There was no real trigger for it, but her mind had suddenly jumped to a new topic. "I forgot to tell Chanel something!" she said in a near hiss, as if she had just done something horrible and was worried over it. Turning away from Ruby sharply, she hurried down the hallway and knocked on Chanel's bedroom door urgently. "Chanel! I forgot to tell you something important! Can you open up please?" she exclaimed, not letting up in the knocking while she spoke.

cure lauren. ​

 

[Bandit_]

Makayla was surprised to hear that someone was moving in with Nick and Roman. She had forgotten about the temporary vacancy in the apartment, but she was especially surprised to hear that it was a girl that was moving in. While their apartment wasn't messy or gross, it was definitely an apartment lived in by guys. She was surprised to hear that a girl wanted to move in there, and for the anonymous girl's sake, Makayla hoped that she was a stoner. Otherwise, she was probably going to have to move out of that place before even unpacking her bags. While someone her age probably should have been interested in making friends, and sometimes she did have urges for companionship, she was also in a perpetual state of exhaustion that typically left her with little interest in branching out. She considered Chanel to be a friend, but honestly, only because of their situation. If Chanel lived across the hall, it was unlikely that Makayla would have bothered with her, simply because it would have been too much work. Given that they lived together, it was much easier and more convenient to learn that they had similar interests and compatible personalities, and that worked well for her. The idea of having to get to know a stranger while getting high wasn't very enticing, but then again, if bringing this new girl around meant more free weed, Makayla was not going to object.

She laughed quietly as Chanel chided Nick lightly for leaving the girl alone with Roman. Though Makayla didn't know the guy well, she couldn't disagree that that probably wasn't going to be the warmest of welcomes for a newcomer. Nick and Roman were both quiet, keep to themselves kind of guys, but there was certainly a difference in their demeanor even considering that. Nick had a calm and relaxed sense about him, and Roman typically had a terse and tense air to him. She didn't think of Roman as being flawed in that way, or that it was a bad way -- his personality was just colder. Though she agreed, Makayla didn't chime in, simply because she hadn't had enough negative, personal experiences with Roman to really say so. "How did you guys find her?" she did add, however.

Before Makayla could even take a hit and possibly calm her nerves slightly, there was knocking outside of the door and Holly's voice matched it instantly. Closing her eyes and inhaling and then exhaling deeply, Makayla assured herself that she needed to maintain the mood she had been in all day. It wasn't a great one, but she had been exercising patience that she didn't know she had left, and she was proud of that. "Sorry," she muttered to Nick and Chanel. "You guys can start." While it probably seemed like it would have been easier to open the door and speak to Holly outside, there was a 50/50 chance that even stepping outside would draw Makayla into some situation that was going to take fifteen minutes to get out of. Holly would probably fight her for a couple of minutes about not having access to Chanel, and then would want to show her whatever she wanted to show Chanel, and then would somehow make a mess in the process or do something that Makayla would have to remedy. She wanted -- no needed -- to get high, and she needed to get high now. "I'm not playing with you, Holly. Go watch TV. When we finish, you can tell her whatever it is you need to tell her," she warned through the closed door.

 

[Collapsed]

It was characteristic of Nick to not think that anything was wrong with him not being there when his new roommate moved in. He was a quiet and independent person, and though he knew that not everyone was like him in that sense, he also didn't comprehend the need to be more than that. He wasn't Chanel in terms of friendliness. He wasn't Makayla in terms of compassionate and maternal instinct. He did his own thing, floated through life, and minded his own business. He understood why it would probably be nice to be there when the roommate moved in, but he didn't think it was necessary. After all, he already knew who Delaney was. It wasn't like they would have to share their life stories with each other, so Nick simply felt like he would be an unnecessary body in the apartment as she tried to bring her stuff in and get set up. While he knew that Chanel was right, and leaving her there to fend for herself against Roman wasn't ideal, he also knew Roman better than they did. He wasn't warm in any sense, but he wasn't a dick either. Not inherently, at least. He wasn't going to welcome Delaney with a freshly baked apple pie and offer to help her get her fitted sheet onto her mattress, but he wasn't going to tell her to fuck off either.

...Or at least Nick hoped that he wouldn't.

He wasn't really worried, and the way that he continued to roll the joint before lighting it up, all with a subtle smirk on his face, signaled that. "Roman's not a bad guy," he said, weakly defending his friend through the smirk. "That's how the Brits are. Still pissed over that L they took in the 1700s, I guess." He took a hit before passing it to Chanel. "And Delaney can hold her own. She's really chi--" He paused mid-sentence as Holly's voice rang out, along with a series of urgent knocking. He instinctively glanced towards Makayla, despite Holly requesting Chanel in her words. He wasn't surprised by the way Makayla seemed to respond to it. Even if she wasn't very transparent as a whole, she did sometimes show it when she was annoyed or stressed, and he could tell that this was one of those times. She told them to keep going without her, and Nick wasn't going to say no to that, but he was curious as to how Makayla was going to handle this if she was cool with them continuing to smoke. It wasn't like Holly was the smartest person in the world, but if she did come in, she'd surely smell what they were doing, even if they hit the actual joint. He looked to Chanel then and shrugged - there wasn't really anything that he could do to help.​

 

[Ari]

Delaney Suarez

Overview

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

"Oh, fuck," Delaney muttered, scraping her shoe against the sidewalk. Chewing gum wasn't the worst thing that one could step on in New York, but she had just bought these white Converse after wearing the same dirty and over-worn pair for at least five years. They were destined to leave their perfectly clean state at some point, but she had hoped to preserve their cleanliness for more than a few days.

No, we're keeping it positive today. Not letting the little shit get to us!

It was wishful thinking to an extent. On one hand, Delaney was a pretty positive person overall. She believed in good vibes and the power of positive thinking. At the same time, she was a ball of emotions and felt like it was detrimental to reject any of the emotions on the spectrum, good or bad. As they said, "sunshine all the time makes a desert".

Moving in with her drug dealer wasn't something that was entirely out of character for someone like Delaney. On one hand, she didn't think that drugs were bad, and she didn't think that Nick was a bad person. In fact, she found him to have all of the traits of a good person and then some. He was a gem in a city full of scumbag men, if she was being honest about it. While she was completely comfortable with the move, her parents definitely weren't going to be. Luckily for everyone, Delaney had no plans of sharing the move with them. As far as they knew, she was supposed to be in the midst of her senior year of college, still living in the dorms and being the good daughter that they supposed her to be. Unbeknownst to them, she had taken a year off and there would be no graduation ceremony or need for a big party this spring. She knew that that alone meant that she would have to tell them soon, but Delaney was more of a last-minute planner than someone who liked to have everything mapped out. Besides, it wasn't like she was eager to have her parents think of her as a disappointment.

Most parents would probably be confused and disappointed to hear that their child wasn't finishing college as quickly as they should be. A degree was a piece of paper, sure, but it represented education, societal purpose, and achievement. In her family, it meant even more though. Her parents were living in the country illegally, had no formal education past childhood, and yet they were the smartest and hardest working people that Delaney knew. They gave so much to ensure that she and her brother prospered in a country where the odds weren't necessarily in their favor (at all....) but where the odds not being in their favor didn't mean that they were destined to live in poverty, be tied up in drug violence, or be denied education like they were. All of their sacrifices meant something to Delaney - her childhood was good. She got to go to school and experience things that her parents never got to. She didn't have to start working at five or six years old to help the family stay afloat. She got to go on field trips, get a new backpack and sneakers every year at the beginning of the school year, and spend her afternoons playing baseball with the neighborhood kids. She had a bed to be tucked into every night with thick purple blankets, and air conditioning that kept their house cool even in the Texas heat. Every night she went to bed clean, warm, with a full stomach, and thinking about everything she learned in school that day, or did for fun, before falling asleep.

While her family embraced their heritage and ethnicity enough that Delaney could write a novel length op-ed on it, she rejected the idea that Mexico would have been a better place for her to grow up. The United States had an infinite amount of flaws, but it was incredibly privileged to think that people here were worse off than they were in Mexico. While Delaney absolutely considered herself to be liberal (one of the biggest reasons why getting out of Texas was one of the best moves of her life), she always gawked at how privileged some of the people who shared her beliefs could be. Of course, there were privileged and ignorant people on both sides, but conservatives often already carried that label of being out of touch with the struggles of reality. Was there anything more delusional and offensive, though, than people who claimed they cared so much about immigrants and refugees claiming that if Trump became president, that they would move to Canada? Delaney had been horrified at the number of rich celebrities who used their liberal political views in a way that made such a mockery of a global issue. You claim that you care about these refugees and immigrants who are desperately trying to escape their home countries and be accepted into safer countries, and yet you think that you should just automatically be accepted into Canada because you don't like a president who was legally elected by the rules of your democratic nation? The privilege was sickening, and Delaney couldn't even imagine the disrespect that true refugees could only feel when hearing such claims.

Her parents were immigrants, but they never claimed to be refugees. They wanted a better life for their family, but they weren't escaping war or persecution. Their lives weren't directly at risk in Mexico, but they weren't in America looking for a handout. Had her parents been able to obtain residency in America legally, then they would have. They had tried to, too, but after spending thousands on lawyers who would literally just disappear with their money, becoming legal citizens seemed like a pipe dream. There were too many obstacles in place, and so even if they would always have to live in fear of being deported and would never be able to reap the benefits of citizenship, her parents didn't care because their children were citizens. They didn't mind having to work ten times as hard as other people if it meant that their kids were going to grow up to be better than them, and that alone left Delaney constantly feeling like she had to strive to be better all of the time. There was no room to make mistakes when so much was sacrificed for you.

Would her parents disown her if they knew she was taking time off from school? Probably not. Rather, she was destined to be bombarded with questions and conversations that she wanted no part in right now. She understood the consequences of her decisions, but she also felt like she needed this year to get back on track mentally.

Since Delaney had lived in a dorm since moving to New York, when she returned to New York this fall, she found a furnished sublet in Chinatown that she lived in until the lease-holder came back and the sublet ended. Thankfully, she found Nick's place at the perfect timing, but she had no furniture. On one hand, it was nice because today, she was just unloading bins and bags of clothes and little knick-knacks out of her Uber and onto the sidewalk outside of her new building. She didn't have any furniture that required movers and all of that stress. However, she had been forced to splurge on a bed and a mattress that she had shipped to the apartment a few days ago. She had purchased them cheaply online, spending only about $400 on both combined, but even spending just that left her with essentially nothing else. A dresser, night stand, and decorative things would have to wait, but Delaney wasn't bothered by it. She was happy to jump into this next adventure, and the materialistic things didn't really matter.

It probably wasn't the most efficient system, but Delaney took at least seven or eight trips up and down the stairs before all of her belongings were sitting in the hallway outside of her new apartment. Though it may have been smarter to knock first and ask Nick and his roommate (Roman, was it?) for help, Delaney enjoyed independence and asking for help in this instance didn't even cross her mind. In fact, she had been so caught up in her own mind that she didn't even notice Nick's text until she had already knocked on the apartment door.

To: Nick
I'm good, just brought everything up but I'm here lol don't have a key yet so lemme in !

 

[A_Writer]

Holly frowned at the door, not in dissatisfaction so much as in frustration. She didn't understand why Makayla was being so abrasive. She had important news to share with Chanel! Important! "Okay," she said, nodding at the closed door, "But first I just want to tell her about the bald eagle I saw outside of the window today!" It was negating her okaying Makayla's request that she go away and tell Chanel later, but Holly wasn't doing it to be bothersome. It just felt so important that there was no way she could not tell Chanel now. It probably wasn't surprising that Holly wasn't the best at keeping secrets, but it mostly stemmed from how impulsive she was, and how quickly her mind moved. If she had something she wanted to say, it needed to be said right then. Trying to hold onto things was uncomfortable and nearly impossible for her.

Instead of waiting for any confirmation that Chanel was actually listening, since Holly knew that she probably only had seconds before the door swung open and Makayla hit her with a look that would probably be almost as scary as being hit with a hand, she launched into it. "Chanel, today I was looking out the window and a bald eagle just flew up and sat on the windowsill and it looked like his name would have been Matthew if he was a human. And..." She lost her train of thought momentarily, but there was never time for a moment of silence with Holly. "And, well, anyway, I wanted to see if you wanted to make brownies with me and Ruby because tomorrow is going to be Sunday and Sunday is God's day," she said, laughing out loud at the last part of her statement. She didn't even know what it meant, and was only repeating it from some movie she had heard it in. Interestingly, the concept of religion was very foreign to Holly. She really knew very little about it, only knowing that she had been told that God wasn't real at some point in her life and sticking with that.​

 

[Bandit_]

Holly always had to test her. Even when Makayla was already pushed past her limits, Holly just had to go that extra mile and push her a little bit farther. It was a miracle that Makayla was still alive, really. If suicide wasn't going to be the cause of death, then a heart attack would have sufficed at this point. The amount of stress that she was constantly under already as a single person of color, in her twenties, who grew up in poverty and effectively had no family or support system and no college degree was bad enough. Having to deal with all of that and then this mess of a child was something that couldn't even be put into words.

All she wanted was thirty minutes of peace, quiet, and weed. She wanted a nice high, some good food, and then to go to bed. For a few hours, or a few days, or a few weeks. It didn't really matter at this point, but she wanted at least a few moments of disassociation from reality. As always, that was too much to ask for. Makayla wasn't surprised. When you lived a life like hers that was, as cliche as it sounded, filled with so much disappointment, it was hard to be surprised or upset when things didn't go your way because that was just the norm. Still, it didn't make it any less irritating in the moment.

That was a good word for Holly's behavior lately -- irritating. It was becoming harder and harder for Makayla to roll her eyes at the stupidity that came out of her mouth on a daily basis. Yes, Makayla knew that Holly was innocent, yes, she knew that the girl only meant well and yes, she understood that Holly's concept of socially acceptable behavior was different than hers, but it was still irritating. Sometimes all she wanted to do was tell her to shut the fuck up, or slap some sense into her. As seen earlier this week, sometimes she snapped and it came to that. Most of the time, she gave Holly enough chances to collect herself before she had to collect her for her. No one could say that Makayla was impatient.

"Holly, I'm giving you three seconds to go away," she stated through the closed door.

"But I just--"

"Three..."

"But can you tell--"

"Two..."

"Okay, bye Chanel! Love you!"

Makayla closed her eyes as she heard Holly's footsteps hurry off down the hallway. She was always embarrassed by Holly's quirkiness. She typically tried not to show it because she disliked the idea of anyone else thinking that they could disrespect Holly or diminish her worth or value, but the thoughts were there. She was weird and that was okay, especially since she didn't care. She was who she was and she didn't hide that from the world. Makayla was the one who had to excuse her behavior and clean up her messes though. Plus, she was the one who was raising her. As parents were often blamed for how their kids turned out, Makayla felt some sort of responsibility for properly shaping Holly into a functioning person, and so far she felt like she was failing.

She took a deep breath before returning to the circle, extending her hand because after that, she was comfortable with demanding it be her turn to take a hit. After taking a hit, she exhaled slowly and passed it on to the next person, only then adding, "It was a fucking white pigeon," in explanation of Holly's claims of seeing a bald eagle.​

 

[cure]

Roman quite enjoyed this time of year, which might be unsurprising given his personality. He enjoyed the stillness and steadiness of the winter and the cold was soothing to him. And now that he was relocated to New York, this time of year brought around a bit of nostalgia as the somber overcast and dreary atmosphere reminded him much of home. It was strange and slightly uncomfortable for him to acknowledge this factor, though, as his relationship with back home and his family were anything but fond. Now with his father still in the hospital and him having to confront his life choices head on and more frequently, it was even harder to handle what little bit of homesickness he was experiencing. It was no secret that Roman didn't have a very emoting personality. He was terse and stoic, often time confrontational without needing to open his mouth. Given his past activities with fighting, it was rather odd that his demeanor was so poised and unwavering. For the most part, that was always who he was. He didn't develop strong attachment to things, and after moving to New York on bad terms with his family, it made transitioning to his new home all the less challenging. Despite his life being strikingly different to the point that his life in New York would probably seem far more disastrous than whatever he was dealing with at home, he did have more positives here. He was his own person and had his own friends and made his own choices, stupid as they were most of the time. Taking that into account made the discomfort in his stomach as he recounted his time back home all the more uncomfortable and frustrating.

Growing up with little to no emotional support usually guaranteed one of two outcomes. That you would be abnormally needy, trying to fill what void was created in your childhood, or you were completely withdrawn, having adapted that way out of necessity. Roman was obviously the latter. He prided himself in such as he didn't enjoy the thought of depending on someone for something, which mainly stemmed from his own arrogance. But what he didn't pride himself in was his inability to navigate his emotions healthily. Coupled with the fact that he was raised a perfectionist, the two didn't blend well together. It meant it was much more preferable and in his nature to ignore that interpersonal flaw but also much easier to developed unhealthy habits. His relationship with narcotics was complex, and perhaps in the beginning it was out of youthful recklessness and defiance. To finally be able to explore living life unabashedly and making dumb mistakes without fear of consequences was a novelty to him and years down the road, despite what he would like to claim, it became less of a choice. He wasn't to a point where his body was totally dependent on substances, but there was definitely an intimate relationship there and the longer he was able to get away with not ending up in the hospital, or worse, the easier it was to convince himself that he still had everything under control. Even if his definition of control still included him being high for days at a time, or a 'break' involving him just trying to smoke weed exclusively for a period of time. Because in his eyes, he could stop whenever he wanted to, he just didn't feel like it, and someway, somehow there always ended up being a space for it in his life. And now, where he was being presented with a lot of deep feelings and thoughts, it felt non-negotiable. Which would explain now why, despite still being relatively functional, at least enough where he could order food and veg out on the couch, he was high off a cross of molly and Sativa. Despite that being a bit much for just one in the afternoon for a normal personal, Roman wasn't new to this game and had done, and still planned to do, more extreme things.

Even still, it didn't prevent him from passively hearing the knock at the door before a minute passed for him to begin to question if he heard someone knock on the door. He had been standing at the fridge the entire time, simply staring at its contents, zoned out as he tried to remember what it was he got up to do. It was another several seconds before realizing that the knock couldn't possibly have come from the fridge door. It was the front door people knocked on. Unsurprisingly, Roman having a new roommate moving in was completely off his radar, so when he saw a girl standing on the other side of the door, he was initially confused. It only took him opening the door and see the pile of things around her for it to click. Despite it making sense in his head, his mouth sung a different tune. "Hello," he said in his typical unwelcoming tone that was hinted with a bit of confusion still. He eyed the girl for a good couple of seconds before glancing at her things and back at her. "So I guess you're the roommate. Yippee," he said in what was arguably the least exciting tone. No matter how good he was feeling, his irritable personality was never too far away and the thought of having to deal with a stranger while he was 'busy' was enough to annoy him. Even still, as Nick was recounting in the apartment over, Roman wasn't a total heartless jackass and so he leaned over to grab one of her containers without waiting to be asked. "They couldn't help you bring this stuff in?" he asked, speaking of the assistance he assumed she had in carrying all this stuff up 5 flights of stairs. Without pausing for a response, he turned back into the apartment, heading towards what would be her room.​

 

[cure]

It was interesting just how different Chanel and Nick were. Chanel's personality was no secret; it demanded attention. With just about every situation she encountered, she greeted it with fervor and a verbose chatter. Her exclamation over Nick leaving his new roommate in the hands of Roman spoke to that and Nick's response spoke to his character. But even in his defense of his friend, despite Chanel being quite passionate about Roman not being her most favorite person (mainly bc she wasn't his favorite person, or at the very least appreciate), she was almost moderately convinced his statement. The fact that the two were friends wouldn't be a shock after meeting each of them because they both had a pretty chill demeanor, but by the same token, it was strange how different they were. Of course, part of Chanel's bias towards Nick did stem from her finding him nice to look at, so even though it was surely only momentary, she was almost convinced that Nick was probably right about Roman. Never mind the fact that they were actually good friends. Listening to Makayla usher Holly away with a patience that Chanel still had yet to comprehend even after all this time living together, she wondered how people could be so calm all the way. It was something that used to bother her growing up, simply because her extroverted character couldn't comprehend it, and even now she sometimes had a hard time fathoming it, as would explain her complete ignorance as to why Roman was not her biggest fan. But there were moments, and more frequently they appeared as she got older, that she appreciated people with demeanors like Makayla and Nick's. Sometimes she wish she didn't feel like such an open book and admired the poise and control of people like them. Even with that being said, she still didn't get it. Her actually being quite intrigued by Holly's story about the eagle-turned-pigeon spoke to that clearly.

"It sounded like a fascinating story nonetheless," she offered with a coy smile as she took the joint. She knew handling Holly was tiring for Makayla, but there were times like now where their polar opposite dynamics were comical. "I bet she'd have a crazy big following if she had her own podcast or whatever. I'd tune in for sure." Passing it to Nick, she nodded towards him. "Okay, so new girl, potential recruit, possible lifelong friend. I wanna know more about her." It was very much like Chanel to be most interested in a stranger whose name she didn't even know and who wasn't even aware of her existence. But the possibility of meeting someone new, especially someone who smoked as well, was a good enough reason to excite her. "How chill is she because, no offense to you guys, we need some Leo energy in this rotation."​

 

[Collapsed]

Makayla deserved to be appointed as a saint. Her patience was fascinating, even when it was clear that it was dwindling. The fact that Nick didn't have that compassionate and maternal/paternal gene may have accentuated on it, but he couldn't comprehend how patient Makayla always was. Holly was a delight most of the time. She was quirky but funny, talkative but sweet, and overall a very innocent and sincere ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreary world. Even with that being said, she was also a lot, and Nick was rarely ever around her for extended periods of times. He couldn't fathom the amount of energy that it took to raise her, though then again, Nick supposed that if he was raising her, she wouldn't be half as energetic as she was now because she'd probably have a second-hand high for most of the day. Nevertheless, Makayla was a good, good person for how she cared for that kid, and even if no one acknowledged it, Nick was sure that he wasn't the only person who noticed it. At the very least, he knew that Brooke knew it too. As horrible as she could be morally as a person, deep down she was a lot softer and warmer than she allowed (or wanted) people to see. Nick didn't think of himself as being warm necessarily, but he liked to think of himself as being somewhat insightful. One of his few goals for the new year was to think more... to take more things in and to try to read situations outside of their obvious meanings.

"If Holly says it was a bald eagle, it's a fucking bald eagle, Makayla. Let her live," Nick said playfully, taking a long draw when Chanel passed it back to him. "Are you a Leo?" he asked Chanel, barely side-tracking, since she was the one who brought it up. Though Nick wasn't big on astrology, he knew enough about it to understand what the signs were typically described as being. "You're either that or a Gemini," he guessed, though probably more confidently than was deserved, since he wasn't that well versed in it. Turning to Makayla, he eyed her for a minute, puzzled. She was a wild card in more ways than one. "I feel like you're a Cancer or a Pisces," he guessed, though he was much more uncertain now. He had side tracked far enough that he forgot that Chanel had asked about Delaney's vibe, but now he was intrigued enough to care more about knowing their signs.​

 

[Bandit_]

As it probably was for most people, Makayla's childhood was something she only remembered in bits and pieces. She remembered how good her grandmother's biscuits tasted, how she could tell her father was in a good mood by the way he would blast Nat King Cole and give her money for the ice cream truck. She remembered playing double dutch with her neighbors and listening to her grandmother talk to her aunts and always being fascinated by their conversations. She didn't know what they were talking about half of the time, but they could get so enthralled in conversation and so animated when they spoke about certain things. One conversation in particular always stuck with her. To this day, she still has no idea what or who they were talking about, but she remembered her grandmother saying that no matter how far someone had fallen, they could always come back up... that they didn't need to die down there. Makayla didn't know if that was true. She knew that people could endure more than they thought they could, but she was convinced that humans had a breaking point. No matter how strong they were, if they reached a certain level of rock bottom, that was it. Humans were strong, and innately, the human body constantly fought for survival, but Makayla didn't think they were invincible.

Sometimes she wondered what her grandmother would have thought of her now. She hadn't lived to meet Holly, and even if the rest of her father's side of the family had turned against her for taking care of Holly after her father's incarceration, Makayla liked to think that her grandmother wouldn't have. In fact, there was a part of her who felt like she would have taken care of Holly, and Makayla could be off living her life. It was a nice fantasy situation because it was the best of both worlds -- it would have been a situation where Makayla wouldn't have felt guilty for letting the child be put into foster care, but also wouldn't have been tasked with caring for herself.

These thoughts were often followed up by thoughts about whether things would even be different if Holly had never come into her life. Was all of this really situational, or was Makayla just destined to live a bad life. Maybe she was depressed for biological reasons. Maybe she had bad luck. She could have been someone horrible in her last life, after all. It was possible that none of this was Holly's fault.

"Wrong and wronger," she answered Nick. "She's a Gemini," she said, nodding to Chanel. She didn't know that for any creepy sort of reason, though given that they had lived together for a while now, it probably wouldn't have been creepy anyway. Regardless, she knew when Chanel's birthday was because it was one day after Holly's. It made it easy to remember.

"And don't you go asking for more than you really want. If you need energy, you should be inviting Blondie over. Keep me out of that circle, but she livens things up, doesn't she?" She was referencing Cara, though given that there were three blondes on the floor, it may not have been entirely clear. Given that, she went on to clarify by saying, "Or this one's ex." She nodded towards Nick that time. "If you're looking for 'not chill', Brooklyn's your perfect candidate. Wouldn't you say so, Nick?"
​

 

[lauren.]

Ruby hadn't known Holly for all that long, but she had known her for long enough to not be taken by surprise when the girl exited the room so abruptly. ADHD had to be on her chart. While a lot of people tended to think that ADHD was something limited to childhood, that wasn't the case. There were a lot of teenagers who carried the disorder into adolescence, and because of all of the changes that went on during that time, Ruby found the symptoms to be pronounced in destructive ways. Most of the time, she felt like it was frustration that they were reacting to. Children with ADHD often struggled to form effective peer relationships and because peer relationships became all the more important during teenage years, they seemed to feel all the more displaced. Interestingly, Holly's symptoms seemed to more closely mirror what children with ADHD dealt with, rather than teenagers. Young children with ADHD tended to be intrusive in social interactions, louder than children who didn't have ADHD, and typically, more disruptive as well. Holly was all of those things, though Ruby wouldn't have been surprised if she struggled with peer relationships as well. It wasn't like she had ever seen a friend over before, and it seemed like whenever she wasn't at school, she was home or with Makayla.

"Is my baking buddy back now?" she asked when Holly reemerged from the hallway. Ruby had headed into the kitchen to ensure that she did have brownie mix (which luckily, she did), before returning towards the living room. She had a bag of mini M&M's too, which had just barely been touched since she was trying to control her guilty pleasure habits, which she was sure Holly would enjoy as an extra addition to the brownies. "What do you usually do when you're not at school?" she then asked curiously, as she motioned for Holly to follow her into the kitchen. She genuinely wasn't sure what the girl would say, but she was curious. She didn't know if Holly realized that she was as different as she was, and she didn't know if Holly's peers were raised poorly enough to ensure that she knew that she was as different as she was.

 

[A_Writer]

Holly was temporarily discouraged after being sent back to the living room, but she was happy to see Ruby again. It didn't take much to excite Holly, and though she had originally been in a mindset where something more relaxing and disengaging, like watching TV, had seemed more pleasant, she was now interested in baking with Ruby. Being rejected from being able to tell Chanel her story left her craving interaction once again, and she happily followed the girl into the kitchen.
Although Holly could talk for hours, she typically cut own rambling off on her own when something else distracted her that caused her to stop talking. Right now, she barely even paused to take a breath between sentences as she spoke in what was originally just supposed to be an answer to Ruby's question, but somehow spiraled into a mini-novel. "I usually just stay here and do stuff with Makayla. Today I was making art and sometimes me and Makayla watch fifty million movies in a row but she doesn't really like it when we watch a lot of TV but in the winter it's okay to do it because there's not a lot of other stuff to do. I used to do stuff with Cara but she's too busy now to hang out with me a lot which is okay because Makayla said everyone has stuff they have to do and you don't want to beg them to hang out with you if they don't want to. She always says that I annoy you and Chanel but I tell her that I don't because you and Chanel never say that I'm annoying, but she said that people don't have to tell you you're being annoying for you to know. She said you can just... tell, but I can't tell unless someone tells me but I think other people can tell, maybe. I wish that I could tell because then I would know when people want to be my friend and when they don't want to be my friend.

I don't really have any friends at school... but I actually do have some friends, I think. Just not the same kind that everyone else has. The girls who play on the soccer team are the popular girls and this weekend they're going to the Sugar Factory for one of the girls, Melanie's birthday. They were talking about it in our language arts class. I don't have friends like that who want me to do stuff with them. One time this boy said that I'm retarded and that's why I'm in eighth grade and that when I'm fifty the police are going to put me into a mental hospital for other people who don't have brains and I'll have to wear a jacket that keeps my arms tied up so I can't move them, and then the principal of the whole school made him write me a letter to say he was sorry but I don't think that he was sorry. Makayla said that won't happen though. She said that it's okay that I'm a little bit older than the other kids because I didn't get to have the same support that they had when I was a kid so I just have to try harder and catch up.

When my mom was pregnant with me she was my age and she wasn't good back then because she was using drugs so when I was a baby I was eating the drugs from inside her stomach where I lived and... well, that doesn't mean that I took drugs because I wasn't alive yet, but you shouldn't do that when you have a baby in you. And I also have dyslexia which doesn't mean that I'm stupid, it just means that I learn things differently and I'm not good at math. That's something that I am stupid at because I just can't do it even when I really try. And now I have to take medicine because Makayla made me go to the doctor because my guidance counselor said I should and I do not like going to this kind of doctor because it's the kind that wants to make you talk about stuff that you don't wanna talk about." She finally noticed the bag of M&M's on the counter, and that was all it took for her to stop talking. "Can I have some?" she asked, her face lighting up with a small as she laughed to herself out of simple pleasure.

 

[lauren.]

Ruby hadn't been a licensed physician for very long, but she had been exposed to clinical settings for long enough during her many years of training that she had come across a lot of interesting characters. Granted, being born and raised in New York allowed her that pleasure in itself, but working in a clinical setting ensured that she was either meeting people who were at their worst, or had some sort of quirk to them. She had spent time in the ER pulling taser prongs out the testicles of a murder suspect (how they ended up there, she still questioned), listened to a mother-to-be rave about the Harry Potter nursery she had set up for her soon-to-be-born child for three hours straight, and ate lunch with a schizophrenic twelve year old who insisted that one of his "friends" wanted to cook Ruby's kidneys in a frying pan.

Still, Holly was something else. The things that came out of her mouth could never be expected. Ruby knew that just because someone looked "normal" didn't mean that they were, but she supposed that that was still somewhat related to why Holly was such an interesting character. She didn't look so... off. Sure, the bright red hair wasn't something that you saw everyday, but tons of teenage girls dyed their hair. Holly was a pretty girl, she was always dressed nicely (albeit sometimes a bit more childishly than a typical teenager), she was clean and taken care of. At first glance, there was no reason to think that she would be any different than any other kid. 99% of the time, all it took was her opening up her mouth to prove that wrong. Ruby didn't think that was a bad thing -- she found Holly to be unique and endearing. She certainly had some challenges and Ruby had been interested in her since moving in, simply because she was certain that her diagnosis would be a complex one, and her curiosity left her wanting to know what that was.

Admittedly, Holly had never said so much at once to her, or at least she had never said so much of substance at once to her, so she was caught off guard as the girl unraveled her history in front of her, unprompted. Some of it was hard to follow. She would say one thing and then branch off into something new, or contradict one statement with another, but she shared a lot. She admitted in a sense that she was aware of how she was unaware of a lot of the social cues that other people processed innately, and how she wasn't necessarily comfortable with that. She explained that she didn't have any real friends her age and that in fact, she was likely being bullied (or had been). What intrigued Ruby the most was her confession about her history -- her mother had been a drug addict and a teen mom, and Holly had likely been born addicted to whatever the woman's drug of choice was. She was dyslexic and being medicated for something by what Ruby could only infer was a psychiatrist, based off of Holly's expression of distaste towards having to talk about her problems with the doctor. Most of what she said was heartbreaking, but it also explained a lot.

The mere reference to her mother being a teen mom and a drug addict while pregnant in itself spoke to a lot. Ruby assumed that it was meth by default, though she was aware that there were a variety of other drugs that the woman could have been on. She knew more about the effects of meth on children exposed to it before birth than other drugs, and they weren't pretty. On one hand, children who had minimal exposure sometimes showed no symptoms at all. Others showed slight ones that essentially could have appeared in any child. Children who had high exposure quite frequently showed noticeable behavioral differences, however. They were more likely to show aggressive and anxious behavior, have an attention deficit and/or hyperactivity disorder, struggle with learning, and be emotionally reactive. Some were born prematurely or with birth defects that differed in severity levels. Outside of the biological impacts of these drugs, children who were exposed to this were often born into families that were unstable in one way or another and typically, in Ruby's opinion, were neglected more often than not, if they managed to remain in the mother's care post-birth. Meth was one hell of a drug - oftentimes, having a child wasn't a strong enough motivator to break such a strong and horrid addiction, even if the mother wanted it.

There were so many questions that Ruby wanted to ask, and so many things that she wanted to say to Holly to reassure her that she was perfect the way she was. In the moment, it didn't seem appropriate; the questions for obvious reasons, and the comforting because Holly didn't actually seem triggered by what she was saying. In fact, she had said it in such a strangely mundane way, as if this was an everyday conversation about dogs she saw. "As long as your sister won't be mad, go for it," she confirmed with a smile as she moved beside Holly at the counter. "Why don't you like to talk to your doctor?" she asked, trying to maintain the same casual tone that Holly had, as if she was asking out of mere curiosity, and not clinically motivated curiosity. "Don't they just want to help you feel better?"

 

[Collapsed]

"Alright, alright, I suck," Nick said, smirking but shaking his head in defeat. "I'll pass on bringing any blondes into this circle," he added. He knew that Makayla was only joking about inviting them, but Chanel was friends with Cara, and he didn't need to risk it. Nick would rarely pass up on an opportunity to hang out with Brooklyn if it was serious, but this obviously wasn't. At the end of the day, he still had no idea where he stood with Brooklyn. He loved her. He loved her more than he had ever loved anyone before, and more than he felt like he could ever love anyone, but maybe it wasn't right. Maybe it could take weeks, or months, or years to move on, but maybe he really could move on eventually. Maybe he would feel that again. Maybe people had more than one soulmate. At the end of the day, his relationship with Brooklyn wasn't healthy, and it wasn't perfect... but then again, it was so fucking real and raw. It was inexplicably phenomenal because it was just so... so meant to be. So natural.

Just thinking about Brooklyn made Nick take a draw so deep that even he ended up coughing from the inhalation. Passing it to one of the girls, he took a few seconds to catch his breath before shaking his head (mostly at his own embarrassment for coughing). "She's really fun. She's kinda got that weird art girl vibe to her, but she's fun. She's probably your age," he explained, though he had no idea how old Chanel or Makayla were exactly, or how old Delaney was either. "She's not a hermit like Makayla, but she's not... whatever the hell you are," he teased. "She's cool, I bet you guys'll like her, and I know her from this, so I'm sure she'd be down."

"I've got a question for you guys though. How the fuck are neither of you dating anyone? I mean, I'm not recommending it by any means, but you're two hot girls in New York. Are you lesbians or something? What's the deal?" Brooklyn had him thinking, and while he genuinely wasn't trying to be creepy, he actually was curious as to why they were single. While he considered both of these girls to be friends, he didn't know much about them outside of that surface level friendship. ​

 

[cure]

Chanel pointed a finger towards Makayla, signifying the girl's correctness about their zodiac signs. "But I do have a lot of fire placement, so you're not too far off, Nick." While Chanel wasn't casting spells, making ancestor altars, or giving tarot readings, a quick look around her room would show that she had a foot in the metaphysical world. To the average person who probably only knew their sun sign, and likely didn't know what a sun sign exactly was, it would appear that Chanel was very well-informed. She could you tell about her natal chart with some ease, though she couldn't quote it detail for detail. She had crystals and small plants (that relentlessly always wound up dead) scattered about her room, a few incense when she could keep up with it. While she wasn't the most religious person and really only went to church on major holidays (if she was with her family), her background was still Christian and she had still been instilled a bias against anything regarding the metaphysical realm what with it being branded as demonic. Her relationship with it would probably always remain a little beyond face value and nothing more because she mostly did things like read astrology and buy different crystals because it was fun and kind of cute and not because she was some devout witch. Though if she were to ever mention to her grandmother that she pyrite was great for protecting against negative energies, she'd surely be baptized the following Sunday.

"Omg how am I not playing any music right now? I totally forgot," she said standing up, giving Makayla a little nudge as she passed behind her as a friendly punishment for being shady about the blondes. Because Chanel just planned on playing something off her Spotify account, there really was no reason for her to get up since she could easily do it from her phone, but the weed was discreetly having a bit of effect as she opted to do it from her laptop since she couldn't find her cellphone that was lying right beside her. "Ooh, alternative type. That's hot," Chanel said, smiling coyly from above her computer screen. She groaned internally at how slow her computer was moving even though in reality it was moving no slower than usual; she was simply being impatient. "Where is my phone," she muttered.

As she waited for her computer to turn on, she stood up from the side of her bed, deciding to busy herself with continuing to set the mood. It was probably no secret that Chanel loved hosting. Even if it was something as casual as this, and even when it was just her and Makayla smoking in her room, Chanel automatically turned to entertainer. With Chanel, every moment could be an occasion and she pretty much always tried to make it so. "Nick, toss me your lighter right quick," she said, digging through her drawer as she searched the incense containers. She quickly looked up, though, at Nick's confusion over the girls' dating status. Instead of being offended that he, like many guys did seem to think, equated an attractive single girl with lesbianism, Chanel, everso blinded with her infatuation for a guy she hardly even know, she was quite charmed, merely focusing on the fact that he referred to her (and admittedly Makayla too) as hot. It went to show how much she appreciated Nick's looks that she would be moved by his words as if she had never been considered a beauty in the past. While bright in her own regard, with the right guy, as was evident in looking at her past relationships with men, she quickly turned into a bird. "Wow, Makayla. Nick said we were hot. I guess that meteor can just come and hit Earth now because it's all downhill from here." Pulling a random container now that this conversation was more interesting, she leaned over her bed to get closer to the others. "Can we pause this conversation for a sec just to say that if God made it available the three of us would make the cutest fucking babies. Nick, you already know you're literally gorg. Your symmetry is seriously annoying and I would honestly take you home in five seconds if you were African and not a criminal. Well actually I would totally date a drug lord, like mob type teas, if he was moving the bread like it was UPS."

It was hard to imagine that unfiltered Chanel could get anymore unfiltered, but under the right influence, it was certainly possible. "So Nick if we're both single by the time I'm 30 and you choose to get into organized crime, let's do it. Spanish-Moroccan babies or bust. But, to answer your question, pretty much every guy is lame. Being cursed with the hetero plague as a woman is a nightmare because the guy either looks like you Nick but is a shithole or he's ugly but has a great personality. And not to be rude, but my guy has to be attractive; I refuse to have ugly babies. Oh, but Makayla, babe, if you're still single by the time we're 30 let's also making some cute ass Blasian looking babies. If you were up to it, I would actually take you to the courthouse right now. This could be our reception and everything. If I was gay Makayla would literally be my dream girl because I love her so much. I would drink a gay potion right now and wife her in a heartbeat. But Makayla, if Nick is still around I honestly cannot promise you that I won't step out on you with him." In a moment of skewed self-perception, Chanel finally decided to be quiet long enough to actually breathe and in that brief second she was able to reflect. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Am I, like, talking super loud right now?"​