From: formaldehyde	Date: December 29th, 2010 04:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Open

He wasn't going to do it. He wasn't going to do it. He wasn't going to do it, and yet he was here, at this party. One of his teammates asked him if he was going, said they'd hoped he would, but he couldn't spot them with this crowd. It was practically like the entire school was here.

He stood awkwardly in a corner, leaning on the door frame that lead to the kitchen. Sipping on a beer that some guy he didn't even know had handed him, he sighed.

Parties still sucked.

	From: nineofwands	Date: December 30th, 2010 12:56 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

After her oh-so-interesting conversation with Ginger, Amy finished her drink and on her way to throw her bottle out, ended up being roped into a rather lengthy chat with some freshman who was interested in joining the gaming club. When the freshman excused themselves to go to the bathroom, Amy grabbed a soda and returned to the couch, her eyes scanning the crowd for one of her friends, or at least something funny to happen.

Her eye fell upon Ben Redd standing awkwardly by himself, and well, she sympathized with that. Despite the fact that he was in her house and year, she didn't talk all that much to him. He didn't seem to want to be bothered most of the time, and she was fine with that. She wasn't one of those determined 'let's be friends!' types. But, well, it was a party, and they both looked pretty pathetic off by themselves, so she figured she could talk with him. And if he wasn't up to it, it wasn't a big deal.

"Hey." she said. "What's up?"

	From: formaldehyde	Date: December 30th, 2010 02:26 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

"Ah.. Hi." Ben raised his eyebrows in reaction to Amy. He hadn't seen her walk up to him. She was just kinda.. there. Though not in the same way that Amber did. If he didn't know better he'd think that terrible girl apparated everywhere. But this was obviously just a lack of paying attention.

He didn't know Amy that well, but he couldn't think of anything he significantly disliked about her, either. She was always just... around.

"Enjoying the party?" He asked with a hint of sarcasm.

	From: nineofwands	Date: December 30th, 2010 05:37 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

"Yeah, having a blast." Amy responded dryly before taking a sip of her soda. If she'd known the party would be this big... no, she would have gone anyway, because Adam would never let her hear the end of it if he wasn't able to go. In her opinion he should blame their grandmother for not letting him go unless Amy did, but she knew he'd be mad at her, too.

"So, how's your vacation been?" she asked, since clearly nothing going on in her line of vision was worth discussing. She'd expected someone to be drunk enough to start a fight or something right now, but sadly it wasn't happening.

	From: formaldehyde	Date: December 30th, 2010 07:30 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

"It's... been vacation." Ben shrugged, sighing. He took another sip of his beer. He wasn't about to go into details, but he'd spent most of it, including his birthday, in his room.

"Seventeen now," He offered, barely smiling. Though that was as close to smiling as he got, most often.

"What about you?"

	From: nineofwands	Date: December 31st, 2010 08:14 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

"Oh, happy belated birthday!" Amy said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Kinda cool to get to use magic outside of school and everything, huh?" It hadn't been a huge deal for her, but it made doing her chores at home so much easier.

"It's not always easy to restrain the urge to hex some people, but I always manage to maintain some self-control at school, I guess I can handle myself outside of it." she went on. "Anyway, my vacation's been all right. Christmas was good."

And it was mostly awesome, but her mom's new boyfriend had been a fly in the ointment. Couldn't she allow herself to stay single for five seconds? Well, at least this one didn't have any kids.

	From: formaldehyde	Date: January 4th, 2011 01:01 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

"Thanks," He shrugged like it shouldn't have been meant to be a big deal. It was just his birthday. Not important.

"I know what you mean," He eyed a drunk stumbly couple not far from them. Kept walking into doorways, tables... the girl stumbled completely over an armchair and collapsed onto the floor in a fit of giggles.

Ben took a sip of his drink and raised his eyebrows at Amy, "Some people." He laughed. He didn't often, but right now he wasn't really sure why.

	From: nineofwands	Date: January 4th, 2011 11:41 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

Amy couldn't help laughing at the drunk couple nearby as well. It was like they'd stumbled in on cue or something.

"I'd attribute that to my divination ability, but it doesn't take a seer to find idiots here, does it?" she grinned.

It was then that she realized that she'd never seen Ben laugh- or even smile before. It was actually slightly disconcerting, though he did seem less intimidating that way.

	From: formaldehyde	Date: January 7th, 2011 10:14 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

"That was a terrible joke," Ben blurted out, still barely smirking. "...Sorry." This was his first drink right? He took gulp of his beer, hoping to it would make him feel less stupid.

	From: nineofwands	Date: January 8th, 2011 06:22 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

Amy flushed, not knowing what to say. It seemed like Ben's comment was one of those knee-jerk things you said when you weren't thinking, considering he said sorry after, but she was embarrassed.

She almost told him to fuck off, but she didn't need any more social fail tonight. This was why she hid behind a computer screen. Things were much less complicated. She should have had another wine cooler.

After a long silence, she finally managed to say, "Well, that was sufficently awkward."

Yeah, that was helping the situation.

Change the subject, change the subject. she thought to herself.

"So, um... when's your next Quodpot game?"

	From: formaldehyde	Date: January 8th, 2011 11:00 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

Ben suddenly seemed really interested in the pattern of his shoes as he stood there, slightly flushed with embarrassment.

"Story of my life." He replied quietly, sighing as he looked up. It was difficult for him to talk to people. Mostly because he would act like a giant dickhead.

"It's in three weeks." Ben half-smiled, finishing off his beer. "Ah. So. Do you want to get another drink?" Preferably something alcoholic, he thought to himself.

	From: nineofwands	Date: January 10th, 2011 03:02 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

"Another drink sounds good." Amy nodded. Really good, in fact. Another wine cooler was just what she needed right now to loosen her up a little, since the first hadn't done all that much.

	From: formaldehyde	Date: January 11th, 2011 11:52 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: Ben/Amy

"Cool," Ben's response was rather quiet as he pushed himself off the door frame and took the, oh... let's say four or five steps it took to get into the kitchen.

"Anything in particular?" He glanced back at her, eyebrows slightly raised. He grabbed a beer for himself while he waited for her to respond. Beer was cool. Or manly. Or something. Nobody would make fun of him for drinking a beer. Unless he threw it up.

...Why did he care about that?

	From: nineofwands	Date: January 12th, 2011 03:42 am (UTC)		(Link)
	Ben/Amy

Amy followed Ben into the kitchen, taking a look around the room.

"I like wine coolers, but anything fruity's good." she answered. "Hard lemonade, whatever." Girly drinks and wine were pretty much the only liquor Amy would drink, anything else tasted kind of gross unless it was mixed in with something else.