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Who: EVERYONE
When: Monday, February 22nd
Where: Castle Ford, Lake Luzerne, NY
What: Cinna throws a birthday party for Bernadine and Abby. CHAOS ENSUES.
Rating: Let's just say probably NSFW
Cinna tried hard to keep secrets, she really did. But somehow, through someone, her super secret surprise birthday party for Abernathy had become known, and people from all corners were asking questions about it-- when was it, where was it, what should they bring, if they could bring a friend... before she knew it, word of a giant bender she was organizing over holiday had gotten out, and everyone in the school seemed to think they were invited. She was pretty sure some of them didn't even realize this was specifically for Abby's birthday.
She gave up on her awesome idea of a small, cozy bash and informed her best friend (actually Bernadine, as she had still not figured this out) with a rather sheepish face that she was maybe possibly accidentally hosting a giant party... at Abby's house. On her birthday. And that everyone was coming. Everyone.
Somehow, Bernadine convinced Abernathy that this wouldn't be such a disaster. They could get Bill out of the house with a quick call to Aunt Veruca and some convoluted excuse get him down to NOLA for the week. Mardi Gras not withstanding, Bill trusted his grown kids with their house. Big mistake.
Abby sat her sister down before Cinna arrived to hash out last minute plans. "So here's the thing. I can't be me at this fucking party." She groaned again as if to say how did I let you talk me into this again? "If Stas is coming... He's coming?"
Bernadine nodded. He'd texted her earlier that he wouldn't miss it for the world and damn her if her stomach didn't tumble just a bit. She wished, for a moment, that he wasn't being so sweet and wonderful and that faking dating him wasn't the most fun and interesting thing she'd done since changing places with her sister.
"I can't be dating him. And he's already in on the know. So he's just going to have to continue pretending and I'll do my best to be quiet and weird."
"Thanks," Bernadine replied ruefully, but she softened considerably at the smirk on Abby's face.
Neither of them could quite grasp how much they'd each changed in the few months since their ruse began. Abby finished tidying up their room and making space for anyone who might want to crash at Castle Ford. Bernadine hid anything that might be breakable and made sure to idiot proof their house.
Timmy lounged in his pajama bottoms, enjoying his sisters being so productive. "You know we're having people over," Abby pointed out.
Tim shrugged, because he'd put pants on so long as Adelaide was coming. Otherwise he was going to hole up in his room with some serious headphones and wait until the pot got passed around to come out.
As usual, Cinna was the first to arrive. Newly licensed to Apparate, she showed up on the doorstep with an armful of giant bags full of snacks and drinks and thrust it all upon the person to open the door-- she didn't stop long enough to see who it was before vanishing again, and reappearing moments later with ANOTHER armful of supplies. She felt slightly bad about accidentally volunteering Abby's family's home as a party venue, so she was going to make up for it by ensuring that aside from the location, nothing else would have to be provided.
"Ohmygod you guys, I think I left my house with more lemonade than this. Do you think there's like, lemonade floating about in nothingness right now just waiting to bean someone in the head on their way to work? Fuck, can I get in trouble for that?" She started ripping open bags in a mild panic. All the food was there, but she was definitely short some of the drinks. She turned to Bernadine. "Maybe I left it at my house?" Then she turned to Abernathy, and looked between the twins. "Man," she said with a foolish little grin. "You guys. If it weren't for your awful shirts Abby, I don't think I could tell you apart!"
She shook her head. "I'm going to just run by my kitchen again-- I'm like a billion percent sure I left stuff behind." She poked at the general array of snacks left on the bench. "I totally brought Cheez-its to keep Braden happy and out of the way, and I definitely had pink vodka too. I am such a ditz!" She checked over everything again, and disapparated with a little noise of disgust, muttering about how she was certain she'd picked everything up and this is why she should have just organized the party at her place so that everything was already there and she couldn't possibly forget it in her mad panic to get there early.
Shortly after Cinna left the second time, Shy arrived having driven from Burnham City all by himself, with not a crash or a speeding ticket to show for it. This was most definitely being pointed out to Abernathy with smugface intact. That is, after she explained to him again what it was that was happening with this party. She sounded a little stressed when she mentioned it the first time; something about her 'completely insane best friend' who was under the impression that she was her sister and that her sister was her... He couldn't quite make sense of it, even thinking about it the entire drive up.
Abernathy turned to Bernadine as soon as Cinna quite literally popped out. "We have to change. Right now."
Bernadine laughed, glad that Cinna had mistaken them for each other and then even more amused because she was wearing a skirt, which meant that Abernathy would be wearing her clothes for the rest of the night.
"It'll never work," Timmy called from the living room couch as the girls ran into their room to switch clothing.
"It really only needs to work on Cinna," Bernadine called back. That and Addy and Stas and Timmy had to keep up their part of the bargain. Oh god, and so did Abby's boyfriend. Bernadine made one last suggestion; Abby needed to spell her hair to grow out some and make the streak of violent purple disappear. Luckily Cinna had been too distracted to notice that they were wearing the same haircut and the only difference was the color of Abby's signature streak.
"It'll be fine," Abby reassured her, grabbing her wand and performing the proposed tweaks. She slipped out to the living room in time to see Shylock opening the door. She rushed up to him and tossed her arms around him happily, not even thinking how weird it might be to hug her when she looked like Bernadine.
He was taken aback at first, before realizing that it was in fact Abernathy jumping on him at that point. She'd changed her hair in the few days since he'd last seen her and... "Are you wearing a skirt?" He squeezed her waist tightly and pulled her close, bending down to press a very appreciative kiss to her lips. "I like."
Cinna showed up again, this time with the missing bag of drinks. She almost ran into the back of Shy barging through the door, squealing loudly when she saw who she thought to be Bernadine kissing the stranger. "Bernadiiiiine! You have a boyfriend!"
Abby feigned a blush, a very good blush and leaned sweetly into Shylock's embrace. "I do," she replied in that tone of voice Bernadine liked to use when she was pretending not to be so terribly aware of the situation.
Shy side-eyed her a bit, trying not to be too obvious about it. It finally dawned on him that this was what Abby was freaking out over on the phone-- she had to pretend to be Bernadine for this thing, which meant he had to pretend she was Bernadine too. That was slightly awkward. He released his hold on her so that she wasn't pulled so tightly up against him, and smiled awkwardly. "You must be Cinna."
"I am!" Cinna responded happily. "And you are... apart from taking this heavy-ass bag off me?" She gave him a cheeky grin and shoved the bag of drinks at him.
"Shy," he managed, before having to completely let go of Abby to take the bag before it crashed to the floor and spilled everywhere.
"Thank yoooou! So like, me and Abby can probably introduce you guys to everyone but c'mon, you're totally just going to sit on the couch and make out all night aren't you?" She teased. "You won't even know the rest of us are here! Abby? ABBY? When is your boyfriend getting here?" She barrelled on past them towards the kitchen again.
Abby grinned at Shylock as soon as Cinna was gone and properly distracted. "You're doing great," she assured him and snuck in a particularly lascivious kiss.
Bernadine on the other hand was fighting the furious blush that was trying to sneak onto her cheeks. "Not here yet," she replied, half calling out and half speaking quieter as Cinna approached her. "You know Timmy," she said, gesturing to her layabout brother who was thoroughly enjoying his visit home. His campus had been closed for the day and he could drive up early in the morning to make his classes tomorrow. There was no way he was missing the hilarity of Abby pretending to be Bernadine who was pretending to be Abby.
"Course she knows me," he said, getting up and hugging Cinna. Though, admittedly, most of the times Cinna had been over he'd been tromping around in the woods behind their house and shooting things. He couldn't say that they'd ever spent a good deal of quality time together.
"Everyone knows me," Cinna said with a grin, hugging him back and not letting go. "I'm just amazing! And okay, I guess you are too," she teased. "I've got Bernadiney's boyfriend bringing in the drinks! I did leave them behind! I was so freaking out about not forgetting shit that THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED." She bounced up and down, laughing. "Go put some pants on, Timmy. Everyone will be here soon!"
As if on cue, Adelaide apparated onto the front lawn. She didn't know for certain what time everyone else was getting there, but she had told Bernadine she would try and show up early in case B needed her to distract Cinna if things started getting a bit difficult. She could ask the loudmouth for... hair advice or something. She was very wary of such a scheme-- obviously Bernadine could pull off being brash, abrasive Abernathy, but she didn't know as much that Abernathy could be Bernadine, even for short periods of time.
She pushed on through the front door, battling down a smirk as she saw Abernathy wearing one of Bernadine's skirts. "You actually look nice," she said, trying not to laugh.
Abby frowned at Addy. Their tenuous peace could break over the course of the night. "Thank you," she replied with so much forced sweetness that she almost gagged on it. At the very least, her sister wasn't quite as sweet as this anymore. She leaned her head on Shylock's arm and leaned casually against the wall. "You're looking lovely as ever."
Bernadine tried not to listen in on this exchange. Forcing it a little hard, Abby. "Hey, Cin, what do you say we get this fucking party started early!" Drinking, that was always a good distraction.
In the meantime, Timmy bolted to his room at the sound of Adelaide's voice to put on a pair of decent jeans and maybe try and arrange his man-beard into a more pleasing shape.
"Not into drinking, Timmy?" Cinna yelled after him as he ditched her to run into his room. Then she laughed and high-fived 'Abernathy'. "Yeah, let's get this show on the road! Also, maybe hide some food under the sink or something just in case Braden shows up early. Gotta make sure there's snackies for all!"
Adelaide froze in the hallway at the sound of Cinna talking about Tim. She didn't think he'd be here, though it was vacation and she probably should have expected he would be. This could get awkward. She didn't know for certain if Luka was going to show (after all, it was supposed to be a party for Abernathy) and not having mentioned either boy to the other... she winced to herself. Maybe it would be fine? Maybe Luka wouldn't come, and maybe she and Tim wouldn't get too silly drunk, and maybe Carly wouldn't start up a hundred billion rumours just to be a bitch... oh god, she was fucked.
Cinna poked her head out of the kitchen to beam down the hallway at Shy and 'Bernadine'. "Do you guys want shots?"
"Oh..." Shy looked a little puzzled, and smiled down at Abby. "I dunno. Do you drink, Bernadine?" This was potentially a very entertaining level of weird.
"Not often," Abernathy replied.
"But it's our birthday!" Bernadine goaded gleefully. How many times had Abernathy done this to her? This was possibly the best/worst idea they'd ever had and she was going to milk every minute of it.
A knock sounded at the door and Bernadine rushed off, leaving Abernathy to wrestle her way out of shots with Cinna. She opened the door to find Anastas with a nicely wrapped gift in his hand. He was wearing one of his smoking jackets, but this one was less ostentatious than the red velvet. She stepped out quickly and closed the door behind her. She wanted to kiss him on the cheek, but that seemed off so she settled instead for a pleasant hug. "So, Abby's pretending to me and I'm pretending to be her. Please don't stab her in the face while she's being me."
"Will she promise to do the same?" he asked lightly and eased into the hug far more than he thought was polite. He pulled away gently. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Bernadine laughed. Abernathy hadn't so much promised that she wouldn't kill Stas, but she'd try her best. Then she touched his arm. It was a strange thing, but she could feel past that little brush of her fingers over the fabric of his jacket and find the tail end of a vision regarding the evening. What she saw wasn't pretty, but it also wasn't outright discovery. Their secret would be safe, even if they all returned after break still hungover and not talking to any of their friends. She smiled at the very end of the vision and blinked up at Stas. "It'll be fine," she promised. She ushered him inside and before she moved to join the others taped a sign to the door that said "Come on in."
Over the next twenty minutes or so, students and friends began arriving from all over, Apparating from their homes or Portkeying in groups to get to the isolated little house hosting the biggest event since New Years. Most read the sign on the door and barged their way through.
Some, like Riley, stood outside and smoked despite the cold, simply because no fucking sign was going to tell him what to do. Until he was unable to feel his feet, at any rate-- but then he would come on in because he wanted to, not because some fascist handwritten sign suggested it.
Braden didn't even notice the sign. He went in and made a beeline for the kitchen, simply because that's where the food was bound to be. He pushed past a group of people chatting animatedly by the kitchen door and ducked Cinna's instruction that he should maybe socialize some before hoarding the food, setting up camp by the counter with the fritos.
Cinna just rolled her eyes, mouthed 'what a fucking snackass' at 'Abby', and took a bag full of shot glasses and tucked a bottle of booze under each arm. She wiggled through the growing crowd to start loading bottles onto a table in the living room, and poured a line of shots once she had done to hand out to everyone in reach. "To the birthday girls!"
Luka arrived without a present for the birthday girls, because he was really only here for Addy anyway. It took him some time wading through the bodies to find her and loop his arm over her shoulder. Her eye looked quite a bit better, at the very least he could stop feeling guilty about that one.
When: Monday, February 22nd
Where: Castle Ford, Lake Luzerne, NY
What: Cinna throws a birthday party for Bernadine and Abby. CHAOS ENSUES.
Rating: Let's just say probably NSFW
Cinna tried hard to keep secrets, she really did. But somehow, through someone, her super secret surprise birthday party for Abernathy had become known, and people from all corners were asking questions about it-- when was it, where was it, what should they bring, if they could bring a friend... before she knew it, word of a giant bender she was organizing over holiday had gotten out, and everyone in the school seemed to think they were invited. She was pretty sure some of them didn't even realize this was specifically for Abby's birthday.
She gave up on her awesome idea of a small, cozy bash and informed her best friend (actually Bernadine, as she had still not figured this out) with a rather sheepish face that she was maybe possibly accidentally hosting a giant party... at Abby's house. On her birthday. And that everyone was coming. Everyone.
Somehow, Bernadine convinced Abernathy that this wouldn't be such a disaster. They could get Bill out of the house with a quick call to Aunt Veruca and some convoluted excuse get him down to NOLA for the week. Mardi Gras not withstanding, Bill trusted his grown kids with their house. Big mistake.
Abby sat her sister down before Cinna arrived to hash out last minute plans. "So here's the thing. I can't be me at this fucking party." She groaned again as if to say how did I let you talk me into this again? "If Stas is coming... He's coming?"
Bernadine nodded. He'd texted her earlier that he wouldn't miss it for the world and damn her if her stomach didn't tumble just a bit. She wished, for a moment, that he wasn't being so sweet and wonderful and that faking dating him wasn't the most fun and interesting thing she'd done since changing places with her sister.
"I can't be dating him. And he's already in on the know. So he's just going to have to continue pretending and I'll do my best to be quiet and weird."
"Thanks," Bernadine replied ruefully, but she softened considerably at the smirk on Abby's face.
Neither of them could quite grasp how much they'd each changed in the few months since their ruse began. Abby finished tidying up their room and making space for anyone who might want to crash at Castle Ford. Bernadine hid anything that might be breakable and made sure to idiot proof their house.
Timmy lounged in his pajama bottoms, enjoying his sisters being so productive. "You know we're having people over," Abby pointed out.
Tim shrugged, because he'd put pants on so long as Adelaide was coming. Otherwise he was going to hole up in his room with some serious headphones and wait until the pot got passed around to come out.
As usual, Cinna was the first to arrive. Newly licensed to Apparate, she showed up on the doorstep with an armful of giant bags full of snacks and drinks and thrust it all upon the person to open the door-- she didn't stop long enough to see who it was before vanishing again, and reappearing moments later with ANOTHER armful of supplies. She felt slightly bad about accidentally volunteering Abby's family's home as a party venue, so she was going to make up for it by ensuring that aside from the location, nothing else would have to be provided.
"Ohmygod you guys, I think I left my house with more lemonade than this. Do you think there's like, lemonade floating about in nothingness right now just waiting to bean someone in the head on their way to work? Fuck, can I get in trouble for that?" She started ripping open bags in a mild panic. All the food was there, but she was definitely short some of the drinks. She turned to Bernadine. "Maybe I left it at my house?" Then she turned to Abernathy, and looked between the twins. "Man," she said with a foolish little grin. "You guys. If it weren't for your awful shirts Abby, I don't think I could tell you apart!"
She shook her head. "I'm going to just run by my kitchen again-- I'm like a billion percent sure I left stuff behind." She poked at the general array of snacks left on the bench. "I totally brought Cheez-its to keep Braden happy and out of the way, and I definitely had pink vodka too. I am such a ditz!" She checked over everything again, and disapparated with a little noise of disgust, muttering about how she was certain she'd picked everything up and this is why she should have just organized the party at her place so that everything was already there and she couldn't possibly forget it in her mad panic to get there early.
Shortly after Cinna left the second time, Shy arrived having driven from Burnham City all by himself, with not a crash or a speeding ticket to show for it. This was most definitely being pointed out to Abernathy with smugface intact. That is, after she explained to him again what it was that was happening with this party. She sounded a little stressed when she mentioned it the first time; something about her 'completely insane best friend' who was under the impression that she was her sister and that her sister was her... He couldn't quite make sense of it, even thinking about it the entire drive up.
Abernathy turned to Bernadine as soon as Cinna quite literally popped out. "We have to change. Right now."
Bernadine laughed, glad that Cinna had mistaken them for each other and then even more amused because she was wearing a skirt, which meant that Abernathy would be wearing her clothes for the rest of the night.
"It'll never work," Timmy called from the living room couch as the girls ran into their room to switch clothing.
"It really only needs to work on Cinna," Bernadine called back. That and Addy and Stas and Timmy had to keep up their part of the bargain. Oh god, and so did Abby's boyfriend. Bernadine made one last suggestion; Abby needed to spell her hair to grow out some and make the streak of violent purple disappear. Luckily Cinna had been too distracted to notice that they were wearing the same haircut and the only difference was the color of Abby's signature streak.
"It'll be fine," Abby reassured her, grabbing her wand and performing the proposed tweaks. She slipped out to the living room in time to see Shylock opening the door. She rushed up to him and tossed her arms around him happily, not even thinking how weird it might be to hug her when she looked like Bernadine.
He was taken aback at first, before realizing that it was in fact Abernathy jumping on him at that point. She'd changed her hair in the few days since he'd last seen her and... "Are you wearing a skirt?" He squeezed her waist tightly and pulled her close, bending down to press a very appreciative kiss to her lips. "I like."
Cinna showed up again, this time with the missing bag of drinks. She almost ran into the back of Shy barging through the door, squealing loudly when she saw who she thought to be Bernadine kissing the stranger. "Bernadiiiiine! You have a boyfriend!"
Abby feigned a blush, a very good blush and leaned sweetly into Shylock's embrace. "I do," she replied in that tone of voice Bernadine liked to use when she was pretending not to be so terribly aware of the situation.
Shy side-eyed her a bit, trying not to be too obvious about it. It finally dawned on him that this was what Abby was freaking out over on the phone-- she had to pretend to be Bernadine for this thing, which meant he had to pretend she was Bernadine too. That was slightly awkward. He released his hold on her so that she wasn't pulled so tightly up against him, and smiled awkwardly. "You must be Cinna."
"I am!" Cinna responded happily. "And you are... apart from taking this heavy-ass bag off me?" She gave him a cheeky grin and shoved the bag of drinks at him.
"Shy," he managed, before having to completely let go of Abby to take the bag before it crashed to the floor and spilled everywhere.
"Thank yoooou! So like, me and Abby can probably introduce you guys to everyone but c'mon, you're totally just going to sit on the couch and make out all night aren't you?" She teased. "You won't even know the rest of us are here! Abby? ABBY? When is your boyfriend getting here?" She barrelled on past them towards the kitchen again.
Abby grinned at Shylock as soon as Cinna was gone and properly distracted. "You're doing great," she assured him and snuck in a particularly lascivious kiss.
Bernadine on the other hand was fighting the furious blush that was trying to sneak onto her cheeks. "Not here yet," she replied, half calling out and half speaking quieter as Cinna approached her. "You know Timmy," she said, gesturing to her layabout brother who was thoroughly enjoying his visit home. His campus had been closed for the day and he could drive up early in the morning to make his classes tomorrow. There was no way he was missing the hilarity of Abby pretending to be Bernadine who was pretending to be Abby.
"Course she knows me," he said, getting up and hugging Cinna. Though, admittedly, most of the times Cinna had been over he'd been tromping around in the woods behind their house and shooting things. He couldn't say that they'd ever spent a good deal of quality time together.
"Everyone knows me," Cinna said with a grin, hugging him back and not letting go. "I'm just amazing! And okay, I guess you are too," she teased. "I've got Bernadiney's boyfriend bringing in the drinks! I did leave them behind! I was so freaking out about not forgetting shit that THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED." She bounced up and down, laughing. "Go put some pants on, Timmy. Everyone will be here soon!"
As if on cue, Adelaide apparated onto the front lawn. She didn't know for certain what time everyone else was getting there, but she had told Bernadine she would try and show up early in case B needed her to distract Cinna if things started getting a bit difficult. She could ask the loudmouth for... hair advice or something. She was very wary of such a scheme-- obviously Bernadine could pull off being brash, abrasive Abernathy, but she didn't know as much that Abernathy could be Bernadine, even for short periods of time.
She pushed on through the front door, battling down a smirk as she saw Abernathy wearing one of Bernadine's skirts. "You actually look nice," she said, trying not to laugh.
Abby frowned at Addy. Their tenuous peace could break over the course of the night. "Thank you," she replied with so much forced sweetness that she almost gagged on it. At the very least, her sister wasn't quite as sweet as this anymore. She leaned her head on Shylock's arm and leaned casually against the wall. "You're looking lovely as ever."
Bernadine tried not to listen in on this exchange. Forcing it a little hard, Abby. "Hey, Cin, what do you say we get this fucking party started early!" Drinking, that was always a good distraction.
In the meantime, Timmy bolted to his room at the sound of Adelaide's voice to put on a pair of decent jeans and maybe try and arrange his man-beard into a more pleasing shape.
"Not into drinking, Timmy?" Cinna yelled after him as he ditched her to run into his room. Then she laughed and high-fived 'Abernathy'. "Yeah, let's get this show on the road! Also, maybe hide some food under the sink or something just in case Braden shows up early. Gotta make sure there's snackies for all!"
Adelaide froze in the hallway at the sound of Cinna talking about Tim. She didn't think he'd be here, though it was vacation and she probably should have expected he would be. This could get awkward. She didn't know for certain if Luka was going to show (after all, it was supposed to be a party for Abernathy) and not having mentioned either boy to the other... she winced to herself. Maybe it would be fine? Maybe Luka wouldn't come, and maybe she and Tim wouldn't get too silly drunk, and maybe Carly wouldn't start up a hundred billion rumours just to be a bitch... oh god, she was fucked.
Cinna poked her head out of the kitchen to beam down the hallway at Shy and 'Bernadine'. "Do you guys want shots?"
"Oh..." Shy looked a little puzzled, and smiled down at Abby. "I dunno. Do you drink, Bernadine?" This was potentially a very entertaining level of weird.
"Not often," Abernathy replied.
"But it's our birthday!" Bernadine goaded gleefully. How many times had Abernathy done this to her? This was possibly the best/worst idea they'd ever had and she was going to milk every minute of it.
A knock sounded at the door and Bernadine rushed off, leaving Abernathy to wrestle her way out of shots with Cinna. She opened the door to find Anastas with a nicely wrapped gift in his hand. He was wearing one of his smoking jackets, but this one was less ostentatious than the red velvet. She stepped out quickly and closed the door behind her. She wanted to kiss him on the cheek, but that seemed off so she settled instead for a pleasant hug. "So, Abby's pretending to me and I'm pretending to be her. Please don't stab her in the face while she's being me."
"Will she promise to do the same?" he asked lightly and eased into the hug far more than he thought was polite. He pulled away gently. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Bernadine laughed. Abernathy hadn't so much promised that she wouldn't kill Stas, but she'd try her best. Then she touched his arm. It was a strange thing, but she could feel past that little brush of her fingers over the fabric of his jacket and find the tail end of a vision regarding the evening. What she saw wasn't pretty, but it also wasn't outright discovery. Their secret would be safe, even if they all returned after break still hungover and not talking to any of their friends. She smiled at the very end of the vision and blinked up at Stas. "It'll be fine," she promised. She ushered him inside and before she moved to join the others taped a sign to the door that said "Come on in."
Over the next twenty minutes or so, students and friends began arriving from all over, Apparating from their homes or Portkeying in groups to get to the isolated little house hosting the biggest event since New Years. Most read the sign on the door and barged their way through.
Some, like Riley, stood outside and smoked despite the cold, simply because no fucking sign was going to tell him what to do. Until he was unable to feel his feet, at any rate-- but then he would come on in because he wanted to, not because some fascist handwritten sign suggested it.
Braden didn't even notice the sign. He went in and made a beeline for the kitchen, simply because that's where the food was bound to be. He pushed past a group of people chatting animatedly by the kitchen door and ducked Cinna's instruction that he should maybe socialize some before hoarding the food, setting up camp by the counter with the fritos.
Cinna just rolled her eyes, mouthed 'what a fucking snackass' at 'Abby', and took a bag full of shot glasses and tucked a bottle of booze under each arm. She wiggled through the growing crowd to start loading bottles onto a table in the living room, and poured a line of shots once she had done to hand out to everyone in reach. "To the birthday girls!"
Luka arrived without a present for the birthday girls, because he was really only here for Addy anyway. It took him some time wading through the bodies to find her and loop his arm over her shoulder. Her eye looked quite a bit better, at the very least he could stop feeling guilty about that one.
"Three things," Riley pointed out. "They're gone. Their boyfriends are gone. Their bedroom door is shut. I suck at Arithmancy but even I can add that up."
"They're not going to all be in there together, idiot." Cinna said, rolling her eyes. She couldn't imagine Abby being cool with an audience despite her adventures in multiple partners, and from what she heard of Bernadine she didn't think she would be off screwing her boyfriend in the middle of a party. She looked around and couldn't see Tim either. "We've lost all of them!" She exclaimed. "No, seriously!"
Addy chose to ignore the issue at hand now that Detective Cinna was on the case. She leaned back on the heels of her hands and watched Luka's fingers toying with her shirt. Her lip curled into half a grin. "What, you wanna wear it?"
Luka removed his fingers immediately, entirely too self-conscious. "Not my color," he replied rather sassily.
From within the room Abernathy groaned. "Does that mean we should disentangle and pretend to be good little Bernadine and her weirdo boyfriend Shylock?"
"Weirdo my ass," Shy shot back. "You're the one asking your boyfriend to call you by your sister's name," he pointed out. "So, you know, let's keep the name-calling to a minimum. Weirdo." He pushed her up off the bed. "Well. You should probably go face your adoring fans."
"Not my adoring fans, love," she reminds him but rolls out of their warm cocoon of bed, replaces the clothing tossed aside and straightens herself out. "Coming with or warming my bed?"
He wiggled comfortably. Then figured he'd get an earful of it if she ventured out and someone got a glimpse in to see him part-naked in her bed. He pushed himself up with a loud sigh, and pulled his shirts back on. "Comiiiing."
Abby feigned a very good blush and rolled her eyes. "Perverts," she tried, as if anyone would believe she was being strictly PG, as if any of these people actually cared what 'Bernadine' was getting up to. "Where's Abby?" she asked, feeling strange and out of place and wondering if that was how Bernadine felt every day.
Cinna's teasing grin turned to a look of mild concern. "We uh... don't... know, exactly. We thought maybe she was in there." But clearly she wasn't. The concern soon turned to a smirk, however. "Shy. Your shirt is on backwards."
Riley burst out laughing quite properly then, and pushed his way back through the crowd to get moving towards the back door. Time for a smoke.
And there they sat on the edge of it, the potential for a second kiss looming quietly in the pleasant chill and dark of the backyard. Bernadine couldn't move any closer and Anastas couldn't break his gaze, sweeping over her face again and again as if he could trick himself out of leaning closer. Just an inch, only that much between them before their lips touched and this complication went from merely confusing to properly problematic.
Riley grinned an enormous, evil grin, having found himself an opportunity to ruin somebody's private time. "I FOUND THE OTHER ONE," he bellowed for the rest of the party to hear, and loped over to them to plop himself right between them on the picnic table. "Got a light?" He asked Stas.
Bernadine watched from the other side as the tension in her body drained away. There was only so long they could strain to stay apart before they crashed together. Riley had only prolonged the separation for a few hours. "Real class act, dick cheese," she said to him pointedly if only because that's what Abby would say in this highly awkward situation.
Cinna appeared at the back door suspiciously, entirely expecting Riley to have been calling wolf. Her face brightened up when she saw that 'Abby' was indeed out there on the picnic table. She waved at her and Stas. "Guys! We missed you! Come back inside." She pouted at them both. "I can't believe you'd rather freeze your asses off rather than hang with us!"
Addy snorted. "Really. She can't believe people might not want to spend time with her." She rolled her eyes and poked Luka back. "It so is your color. Every color is your color. Bitch."
Luka shrugged at the whole thing. "Want to blow this party?" he asked. He was suddenly very uncomfortable and he didn't feel much like hanging out at the birthday party of people he didn't like or know.
Bernadine looked to Stas who reached around Riley rather obviously for her hand and let himself be led slowly back to the house. "So much for privacy," she said sarcastically and loud enough for Cinna to hear.
Back inside as the others started congregating around the drinks table and in a smaller version of the spin the bottle circle, Addy shrugged back at Luka. "Not up to another round of Making Out With Everyone You Know?" She was kind of surprised he lasted as long as he did at this party, honestly, given who it was for. She shrugged again and started getting to her feet. "We can go if you want, but I gotta say goodbye to Tim and Bernadine first." Well. Pretend Bernadine.
Luka nodded before he frowned. Just how well did she know Tim Ford? What was that whole thing about earlier? He tried to push it down among all the other conflicting emotions riding around in his head. "Yeah sure," he said and ushered her off. He didn't want to witness another horribly strained conversation between Addy and any of the Fords. "Did you have a coat with you? I'll go searching."
"Red and soft as puppy," she described her coat with a little grin before venturing back into the crowd to find Tim. She spotted Abernathy-pretending-to-be-Bernadine on the sidelines with Shy, looking a little peeved at being forced out of her room and stopped by to wish her a happy birthday-- something she wouldn't have bothered to do at all if she didn't have to pretend that she was Bernadine for the day, but she promised her friend she would keep up the ruse.
A quick circle of the party didn't reveal Tim anywhere, so she started wandering through the rest of the house.
"I like to look my best," she replied. The conversation rolled on from there and he found himself enchanted by her. She was smart, pretty, charming. That was probably an understatement, given that charms was her major.
Carly didn't intend to actually end up enjoying Tim Ford's company, but there it was. He was a perfect gentleman and so genuinely interested in conversing that she found herself less interested in scoring on Shabby's brother and more interested in actually connecting to him. How is this my night? she wondered, but without as much annoyance as she would have forty-five minutes prior. Of course, that lack of annoyance was terribly short lived.
Addy was starting to think that Tim had vanished off the face of the planet by the time she'd gone through the rest of the house. The only place left was the garage, and she really hoped he was in there because she didn't want to leave without talking to him first. She had to say or do something to make things right between them, didn't want to have that strange awkwardness tinting their friendship.
She pushed open the garage door hopefully. The first thing that struck her was how warm it was in there. The second, was that Tim wasn't alone. Carly was there with him, and she was making that awful flirtatious giggling sound she made around guys, stroking his arm, batting her eyelashes at him.
Addy could feel her heart sink into her stomach. She swallowed hard, muttered "my bad," and backed out again.
"Hey," she called back softly, offering him a really awkward half-smile. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. We can talk later, you know. I just. Going now. Wanted to say bye." See you one last time before that maneating whore demolishes you.
He nodded slowly because he didn't have a better response, couldn't seem to find any words. His throat felt itchy, sore, like he'd said everything he wanted to say already. He knew that wasn't even remotely possible. "Okay," he said, glad that something managed to sound out of him. He opened his arms to hug her and then regretted it, but he wasn't going to take it back, no matter how much it hurt.
She hesitated for a moment, then pressed against him for a very short, awkward hug unlike any they'd shared before. Something had definitely changed. She pulled away quickly and tried not to let her distress show on her face. "See you."
She turned away and almost bolted to the front door to find Luka and get out of there.
Luka saw the tail end of the hug, though clearly neither Addy or Tim had seen him. His face twisted into something ugly and he stalked after the older boy, Addy's fluffy red jacket crunched in his fist. He pushed his way into the garage and didn't bother to acknowledge that Carly was in the room. "What in the fuck are doing with my girlfriend?"
Tim turned to see this little rage faced ponce and shook his head. He couldn't say why, but he didn't bother wasting time popping Luka Nikitin in the face. "None of your business, jack ass."
Luka bowled backwards with the force of that punch. This beardy douche had some muscle. He laughed, needing to work off all of his anxiety and adrenaline. Wasn't this a perfect opportunity? He cocked his elbow back, aimed, and landed a decent shot to Tim's chin.
It wasn't long before Carly was storming back into the house. "Someone needs to come break this up before they break something else. Or maybe each other."
Off to the other side of the drinks table, Shell snorted with delight. She would have to remember that one and use it later. "What's going on, Carly?" She asked in a sickly-sweet tone, her complete inability to mind her own business informing her curiosity.
Carly flicked her eyes over Cinna as if to say 'no fucking contest.' Then she set her hand on her hip to stop it from shaking. Guys fighting sounded a lot more attractive when they weren't swinging their arms wildly around and possibly hitting you. "Abby's brother is fighting with Luka. Over Adelaide." The subtext of all the girls they could fight over, her? Really? was unspoken, but entirely understood.
Abby made a move to go break them up and realized that she wasn't Abby this evening. Ordinarily she'd throw herself in with Timmy's lot and get a few good ones in on Luka, but even the simple act of breaking them up was out of character for Bernadine. She looked importantly at her sister who had only just breezed back inside with Anastas, both of whom looked terribly guilty and smitten. Jesus. This was the worst idea.
Bernadine realized what she was meant to be doing and rushed away, fear of the situation be damned. She'd made a few good shows of fighting on campus. All she had to do as convince her brother to back off and she was sure someone else could grab Luka.
It didn't take long for the garage to get terribly crowded. Luka's lip was bleeding. Tim already had a bruise on his chin and his shirt was ripped. They were tussling against the work bench, punching hard enough that Bernadine felt her stomach turn. She moved to pull Timmy back and managed to get a fist in her face. Whose she couldn't tell, but it stunned her, hurt enough that she stumbled backwards in shock.
Addy was starting to wonder if she was in a parallel universe where she could never find anyone she was looking for, after leaving Tim and being unable to find Luka. When she circled back around to the party to see if he had rejoined, they were all gone too. Aliens?
It soon became clear that everyone had not been abducted by aliens, and they were instead participating in or egging on a fight. In the garage. She'd been wrong when she thought things couldn't possibly get any worse. She joined the fray, trying to see what the main event was on tiptoes and then by shoving into the crowd itself, that feeling of dread growing stronger and heavier the closer she got. When she could finally see what was going on (and was that Bernadine nursing a punched face?!) she wanted to tear her hair out. "What the fuck?!"
Luka looked at her guiltily, perfectly cowed into silence.
Timmy shrugged and rather than deal with any of this he stalked out the other door, straight out of the garage and out to fresh air where he could think again.
Stas was tending to Bernadine's face, using a bit of healing he knew with his wandless skills. It was much less to impress and much more to care for the girl who was slowly stealing his heart. He steered her away from the crowd and toward her bedroom. At least he could get her some privacy and better tend to her face without onlookers.