For Marissa's 24th birthday, Coop had given her the bar for the night. Of course, he and Nathaniel were still there to stop the Get Along Gang from setting everything on fire, but they weren't like, lording over them like they could have been. It had actually worked out kind of funny considering Angela had cornered Nathaniel for a good thirty minutes talking about hunting tactics, then she'd beaten his ass so badly in pool that he'd gone to sit in a booth with Rook and hadn't gotten back up.
Marissa's phone rang and she excused herself for a few minutes. When she came back, she had a big smile on her face. Picking up her beer, she came over to the pool table where Fin and Rowen were arguing over whose shot it was next. She took the stick from Rowen's hands, leaned down and took the shot for the both of them. She sank a stripe, then scratched, and the room broke out into "AWWW" and she was pelted with popcorn and various Chex Mix bits.
"Hey, why do you look like you just found a million bucks?" Rook said, sliding alongside her and tapping her beer against Marissa's own.
"My dad just called," she said, her voice quiet but proud. "He never calls me." She couldn't stop smiling even as she took a swig of her beer, and the two of them made their way out of the fray of the pool-playing men and over to where Angela and Claire sat. Nathaniel had found Coop and the two of them were out front bullshitting with two new arrivals - Iris and her sister, from what Marissa knew, but she didn't really know them well. She supposed they came by to keep the "adults" company.
"Wow, how is he?" Rook asked. Rook was one of the only people who knew who Marissa's father was, and that was really only because of her sister. Raven sort of outed Marissa one night when she'd come over for dinner. Rook had never met a Triste before. They were sort of fascinating, but Marissa knew very little about how it worked.
"He's good. No word on when he'll come to see me, but I'm not going to hold my breath," Marissa confessed. She shrugged when Rook gave her a questioning look, and Rook nodded. "Come on, let's make some shots," Marissa said, changing the subject. She didn't want to think about it.
"HEY, WHO WANTS SHOTS?" Marissa called, cupping her hands over her mouth.
Oz's hand immediately shot up. "OH ME ME ME ME I DO I DO I DO ME ME!" he yelled. He was stretching his arm up as high as he could and twisting his hand around his back like how little kids do.
For Marissa's 24th birthday, the entire gang was coming out. Honestly, this shouldn't have sounded so lame for how awesome it was, because it was a pretty epic group of people and Rowen didn't know the half of it. To him, they were all just awesome friends who loved to party and start all kinds of trouble, but below the surface? You had shifters of all different flavors, hunters, the children of really badass hunters, witches and even a dude who could set shit on fire with his mind. Rowen didn't know it, but if he'd pay attention to more of the shit that happened when they were all drunk, he'd have it figured out by this point. He didn't, because none of it seemed realistic to believe in, though it meant that he assumed he got fantastically wasted much more often than he actually did.
Fin wasn't exactly his best friend, but they were chill enough that Rowen was trying to beat his ass at pool while the other dude fidgeted around, talking a mile a minute, singing surprisingly well for how little like a rock star he looked, and generally being a ridiculous distraction. He was seriously considering digging around to see if Coop had any duct tape in the building to tape Fin's mouth shut and his feet to the floor in a single spot. Would that disqualify him from the utterly epic win he was going to pull here? He was considering this, and building a pretty sweet drunk up when Fin either did or didn't take his shot, which was what spawned the argument over whose turn it was. As far as Rowen was concerned, the fact that Fin had heard a song he loved, flinched right before taking his shot and hit a ball or two accidentally was NOT his fault and actually counted as the other kid's turn. Fin disagreed, loudly.
Marissa sinking one of Fin's stripes didn't help the situation, as Rowen got just as loud in whining about it and Fin literally went on like a fucking crow, bouncing around the table and laughing his fucking ass off. "Come on, Marissa! How am I supposed to beat his ass if you help him?" he called after her, and at least he wasn't the only one. A few of the others parted with their snacks and yelled, as well. Huh, he hadn't been paying attention to just who was watching them play.
He sure as hell noticed that Oz was in his space when the dude's hand shot up into the air and he went into some kind of fit over the prospect of shots like a kid who'd been asked if he wanted ice cream. Rowen laughed and slung an arm around his neck, dragging him backwards and then along with him as they went for the bar. If he didn't, Oz would have been the first in line, which was exactly his point. That, and he was enough of an asshole that he liked that Oz couldn't break his hold.
"Relax! They're not gonna be gone by the time we get there!" he laughed, pulling his face back as the shorter guy swung his hand around. Getting a black eye or something would be really lame right about then. He covered up the fact that he'd almost gotten nailed by Oz by shouting towards the girls making shots. "Where's Russ? I want to see that flaming shot trick of his again!"
He still didn't get how that bastard did it.
Tiffany was a little unsure of how all this would play out. She'd only met Marissa a few times, but it had been really cool to be invited along anyways. Luckily, Marissa also had hot friends - even if they were younger than she was. Still, twenty-seven wasn't old, especially when she looked younger than a lot of them. She had taken a seat at a table with Dominic, Tristan and Violet, discussing various funny stories and the like. She couldn't really stop from glancing over at the tall brunette who was shooting pool with the skinny one. Rowen, was that his name? Yeah, she was going to have to talk to him.
"Hey, Dominic, where's Annika?" Violet asked. She ignored the part where Tristan winced and plowed right on. "Isn't she supposed to be here by now?"
"Dude, we broke up like, two weeks ago," he said, his tone a little snappish.
"Hey, I don't have a line into your life, assbutt," she retorted, sipping her AMF and giving him a snotty curl of her lip. "Sorry, though," she added, tone slightly less bitchy. One thing was certain, Tiffany noted - Violet didn't like being snapped at. She made a mental note.
"Dude, did someone give that guy 4Loko or something?" she finally asked, watching Rowen look like he was ready to ram the stick up Fin's ass. At her question, Tristan looked up through his eyebrows to see at whom she was pointing, then snorted and went back down to the Jenga game that he was setting up for them.
"No," he said. "He's just like that."
"All the time?" she asked.
"All the fucking time, I assure you," he promised. "Now, I'm not going first, because you fucks made me go get it from the store room, which, spoiler alert, is full of shit that Coop should take out into the pasture and shoot."
"WHO WANTS SHOTS?" suddenly rang out through the bar, and they all laughed as Oz nearly fell on top of himself trying to signal that he wanted more. Tiffany grinned a little as she watched Rowen wrangling him, and pushed back in her chair. Violet noticed her line of sight, then caught her eye and smirked.
"Going to go get some shots?" she teased, deliberately knocking over the Jenga tower while Tristan's back was turned and he spoke to Seth about something. The Jaguar whipped around, a loud, 'GOD DAMNIT!' erupting from him as he slammed his fist down on the table.
"I think I am. Be right ba-ack," she said, her voice sing-song. She slid from her chair and went to where Marissa was dishing out liquor, sliding up next to Oz and Rowen - on Rowen's side, of course. She glanced over at him, then smiled a little.
"Did I meet you last week at that party off of Maple that got shut down super early by the sheriff's department?" she asked. Great segue into that conversation. She knew she had met him there, but she'd been a little drunk. Luckily, Tiffany wasn't a gross walking shit-show sort of drunk... kind of like the Get Along Gang was, actually.
Dawn sat in the front of the car, looking back at Laura and Trevor as they slapped at eachother. She took her attention from them to Des, and raised her eyebrows at him briefly, as if to say, 'Are you fucking kidding me' to him. No question mark, no exclamation point - just, a flat, 'you can't be serious here' look. Because, honestly, that's what Trevor and Laura kind of evoked out of her. They were like two giant children that kicked a large amount of ass, looked well together, and fought constantly as some weird form of courtship. Thank god she and Desire had gotten their things ironed out - but that was probably just Dawn's luck, again.
"Dude, are you serious about the whole, 'they have stuff that gets shifters drunk'?" she asked, focusing on the road again. Someone had to, anyways.
"Yeah," Des said, before swatting a hand back into the back seat with a loud, 'YOU TWO KNOCK IT OFF OR I WILL TURN THIS CAR AROUND' outburst. He settled in his seat and looked over at Dawn, blowing her a mock kiss by puckering his lips and making a noise. She just responded with a blank stare.
"Yeah. You're the designated driver. It's going to take both of us to wrangle those two after the alcohol starts flowing," she said.
"Whatever, I don't plan on having that much," Laura squawked from the back, Trevor half in a headlock.
"Dude, seriously? The last time you said that you woke up in bed with a burrito," she pointed out. Laura stopped a moment to consider this, and then simply shrugged. "Yeah," Dawn said. "Exactly."
When they got there, the four of them shuffled out of the car and around to the trunk, each pulling out their respective presents. She could hear Laura talking to her brother on the phone as she plucked a small light blue wrapped box from the bag. It fit neatly into the palm of her hand, so Dawn could only guess that it was jewelry of some sort - though knowing Laura, it could easily be a weapon, too. Trevor had stuck to a gift card, having only met Marissa a few times (but not feeling proper about just showing up for free booze without some sort of consolation). She and Des had pooled their funds and gotten her something that had actually been on her list (a bomb jacket that had just come out in the Victoria's Secret catalog - the damn thing had been over 200 with fast shipping, but, whatever).
"Let's go on, then. It's kind of nippy out here," Dawn said, making a 'hurry' motion to Laura, who had been trying to get off of the phone the minute it rang. She watched as Trevor took it from her, said, "Ah s-ry L-ce, t- ph-ne -s brea-ing -p. She'll ha- -o -all -u -ack,", and then turned the phone off and handed it to her with a triumphant smile. She snatched it from him, never breaking eye contact with a deadpan facial expression and dropped it in her jacket pocket - then after a moment grinned and punched him in the arm. Hard.
Dawn snorted and linked arms with Des. "This is going to be interesting," she said. At least she wouldn't be the only 18 year old there... Summer was rumoured to be showing up.
Russell's flaming shots trick was never a disappointment. At Rowen's insistence, he'd climbed behind the bar with Marissa and Rook, grabbing a lighter that Heidi offered him and winking at her before the two girls finished pouring and backed off. He was enough of a showman that he made a big deal about adding just a little more of the 'strong stuff' to each glass, lighting the lighter in front of them all and finally getting on with it. Sadly, Rowen was almost distracted enough to miss it, between Tiffany and Oz.
The problem was that Tiffany was distracting, what with the way she stepped up beside him and brought up the party last week (of which he remembered some, and thought he might know her). He lightened his hold on Oz just enough that the other guy could move a little more, ignoring his captive in favor of the hot blonde girl. "Yeah, I remember you! Can you believe how fast that party got crazy? You know they came back like th--"
Whatever he'd been about to say (which really wasn't likely to have been a great epiphany or anything, so Tiffany wasn't missing much) was interrupted by Oz taking another swing and Rowen taking a nice shot to the side of his head. He shoved the smaller guy away, looking away from Tiffany just in time to see Russell do his ninja quick swing of the lighter over the shot glasses. The 'trick' of it was that the lighter left behind a fucking trail of fire that made little fireballs on the tops of the shot glasses, flared up a second, and then dimmed down. He'd almost missed it.
"Did you see that shit?" he asked Tiffany, and it wasn't obvious whether he was talking about the trick or Oz immediately, since he seemed to have some uncomfortable combination of pain, anger, awe and pleasure going on. "I'm going to kick Oz's ass for that, but the shots, you saw it, right?"
This was why 'adults' were required to keep them from lighting the place on fire. It was a legitimate concern whenever Russell showed up.
Nobody really knew why Trevor and Laura acted like such little kids when they were together, but the consensus among everyone else was that it was some kind of immature, violent mating dance that they somehow got some kind of satisfaction from. Trevor wouldn't go that far, since he figured it was just that she was fun, he was fun and they could both take a hit (though he'd found over time that she somehow took hits with less damage than he did). That was good, since she hit pretty hard without really meaning to.
Another thing working against them was that Dez was driving. If Trev had been driving, Laura wouldn't have been fucking with him as bad, because it was a bad idea to screw with the driver while the car was in motion. Trevor drove most everywhere because they usually took his car and nobody else drove his baby, but Dez was driving tonight. That meant that Trevor was open territory, and stuck in the backseat with Laura. Basically, they were going to fight the whole way to the party, and they were going to make out the whole way back.
Dez wasn't sure which he preferred, but Trev had no fucks to give, pa rum pum pum pum.
He also didn't have the patience to deal with Lance's bullshit, which was why he didn't mind grabbing Laura's phone away, ending the conversation with a true work of genius and turning it off. The bruise and loss of feeling in his arm was worth Laura's grin and the peace she'd have for the rest of the night, and in they went. The first thing Trevor saw was fire. This was a good start, though immediately after, he saw Tiffany McQueen (who he hadn't seen since...forever) and realized she was in very close proximity to some douchebag he'd never met before, which was a good thing followed by a not good thing. He'd have to feel the situation out to see if he needed to interject and keep her from making that mistake.
"Holy shit! Is that Tiffany?" he demanded, though not necessarily of Laura, just the air around them. "I haven't seen her in years, my brother and I knew her when we were all younger."
He shook his head, still shocked to see her here (and god, with this crew). "Colt had the biggest damn crush on that girl, it makes me want to get a picture of her and send it to him, just to let him know what he's missing," he told Laura, grinning suddenly at the memory. It was one of the few times he could talk about his brother with a smile, since he and Colt still weren't quite 'right'. Having his brother walk out on him had been a big deal.
Tiffany rocked back in surprise as the shot glasses caught on fire. "Oh, wow!" she laughed as the whole of the bar cheered. It was amazing how many people Marissa knew! The place was getting more and more crowded by the moment. She dipped to the right as Oz finally got away from Rowen after giving him a good slap (because Oz didn't really seem to punch well), and got himself free enough to drink - more.
"That was awesome, I totally saw," she said, grabbing a glass that hadn't been on fire for herself. They had literally lined the bar with them for people to take, turn, and go. The numbers were already dwindling, especially since Oz was trying to carry five.
"OZ!" Heidi screamed from behind the bar. He turned, set three of them down, then ran away with two.
"So, they came back like?" Tiffany prompted, interested in his story. "They didn't try to steal a tractor, did they? Because, there's a rumour going around about that," she added, drinking the shot and setting it on the counter with a lick of her lips. It tasted like burning and horrible. She looked back at Russell. "What was that?" she demanded.
Heidi, of course, spoke for him. "Blue Jesus," she said, grinning as she practically bumped him out of the way. Heidi loved being the center of attention.. it was a good thing she and Marissa grew up together, or they'd probably hate eachother otherwise. "Blue curacao and one-fifty-one," she said with a smirk.
"That's something," she said, shaking her head. Tiffany didn't know why, but she didn't really like Heidi. She turned her attention more to Rowen, trying to concentrate on him, but the door opening and more people coming in caught her eye. No fucking way. Trevor Browning? She had been in love with him when she was in school - before they just up and moved, anyways. And his brother, if she recalled correctly, was in love with her.
"Oh my god," she hissed.
Laura had a beer in her hand within twenty seconds of walking in, courtesy of a girl walking around with a beer bucket doling them out. She stopped when Trevor made a comment about some blonde girl at the bar (big surprise). "Ha, are you sure she wasn't in love with you?" she asked as a joke. Really, Trevor had a way with women. That was part of the reason Laura didn't fall all over herself for him - why should she be like every other girl?
When he just stood there jaw-dropped, Laura shoved him a little. Dawn and Des had already gone to put their gifts on the table, and Laura's too because she would probably lose it, so it was just she and Trevor. "Hello? Why is it such a big deal? Who cares, some girl you knew before?" she said, rolling her eyes.
Of course, Laura hadn't seen Rowen either, or she'd have reacted completely differently. As it was, she was busy greeting various people. There were a lot of them. It wasn't until the blonde started making her way over to them that Laura even noticed the situation again, mostly because she didn't care/had forgotten. "Incoming," she said with a chuckle, since Trevor had turned his back momentarily to the bar in order to greet Dominic and Tristan, who had seen them come in.
Tiffany stepped to the left with a loud, "TREVOR!" as though she'd only been on a summer vacation, practically jumping on him - but also leaving the reveal: Rowen had been walking right behind her. Evidently he'd seen Laura before she'd seen him, and had been methodically making his way through the crowd to her.
"Oh, shit!" Laura said with volume and shock, eyes wide and face contorting in surprise. She looked like she was going to run, but there was nowhere for her to go. It was obvious, too. Laura was pretty easy to read when she was relaxed.
Laura seemed to be joking when she asked him if he was sure Tiffany hadn't been in love with him, and though he grinned at her like it was a joke, he glanced back in Tiffany's direction for a second, made eye contact for just an instant, and he didn't honestly know. He hadn't ever really thought about it (it had been said a few times that he could be oblivious), but now, his expression sobered as he considered it. He had to shake it off and drop the gift card for Marissa with the other gifts, reminding himself that it had been years ago, and it was no big deal. Tiffany was talking to Asshole-of-the-Year over there, a kid who looked like he'd had his ass wiped for him all his life, and she seemed to be enjoying herself. Trevor could face it, he hardly knew her anymore.
"You're right, no big deal. Just never really expected to see her way out here. Small world, huh?" he asked, shaking his head and then taking in the fact that Laura somehow had a beer that she was half finished with, and he hadn't even touched one, yet. "What gives, where's mine?"
If Laura had a snappish response to go with it, he missed it because he'd turned around to talk to Dominic and Tristan at the bar, which served the dual purpose of scoring himself a beer. He tossed a glance back at Laura as she was telling him that there was something 'incoming', his own attention having already left Tiffany. Considering their habits of hunting together, it was a warning he never failed to take seriously, but she wasn't giving him a heads-up about an attack this time. Instead, she was letting him know that he had a pretty blonde about to throw herself on him.
Fortunately, she didn't actually jump on him, because then he'd have had to spill his beer to catch her, but she definitely threw her arms around him and shouted his name just to ensure that she had his full attention. It left him giving her a tight one-armed hug so that he didn't splash beer all down her back. "God, Tiffany, it's been ages!"
He'd never been good with situations like this, so yeah, he felt awkward enough to use some really cliche dialogue. Honestly, he didn't know what to say, even if he was happy to see her and his expression at least got that across. He flicked his eyes to Laura, like she was socially capable of helping him with it (not a fucking chance, unless he wanted to splatter Tiffany across the bar), and that was when he caught Laura's reaction to Rowen. He blinked, reassessed the guy, and still wasn't impressed. He didn't get it.
The flaming shots trick was fantastic, as he'd been expecting, but he'd seen it before. Tiffany hadn't, so her being impressed with it was almost as good as if he'd done it himself. Not quite, but almost. Maybe he'd figure out how to do it someday, because it couldn't be that hard. If Russell could do it without lighting his hair on fire or something, Rowen totally could handle it. He snatched up one of the shots that Oz had returned, downed it quickly and glanced at Tiffany as she prompted him to finish what he'd been saying, even though he'd kind of lost his train of thought.
"What? Oh, the party. The cops came back like three more times after they first tried to shut it down," he explained with a grin that exploded into laughter as she mentioned the tractor. "The tractor! That was all Dominic, I swear it. His idea, his terrible plan, and his fast-talking to keep us all out of jail. That was the last time the cops came out, actually."
There were plenty more funny and awesome stories they could share (the Get Along Gang was big on crazy, ridiculous parties), and he definitely intended to talk her up for awhile if she'd let him (he wanted her number, too), but they both glanced towards the door as more people showed up, and he was just as shocked as Tiffany was. "What the fuck?" he hissed, the sight of Laura completely taking him off-guard.
She looked good. No, she looked great. She'd grown up, and she was hot, and she had a hot, rugged kind of guy with her that stuck close enough to make it obvious that they were together without acting like his world revolved around her; Rowen hated him instantly. It was just something about him and the way he regarded the room at large, and especially the way he seemed to complement Laura, and Rowen didn't like it. That, and it was easier to focus his suddenly strong emotions on the cocky asshole that showed up with her than try to figure out what the fuck he thought of her just showing up after all this time. He'd never thought he'd see her again.
When Tiffany made her way over there (did he understand her right and she knew that lumberjack asshole?) and then threw her arms around the asshole in question's shoulders, making it obvious that she did know him. It also put Rowen right into Laura's line of sight, and her reaction was not the best. She cursed and looked like she wanted to take off, which wasn't really what he'd been hoping for. He didn't really know what he'd expected, but it wasn't that.
"Hey," he said, more because he really didn't have anything better to go with after that, and he certainly wasn't in a rush to chase her off immediately, though he wanted to be a dick about the way her Paul Bunyan boyfriend in his flannel and military jacket started paying more attention to the two of them. "It's good to see you, you look...great."
Apparently, he and Trevor were on the same page for awkward greetings. He wouldn't like hearing that.
Man, this wasn't shaping up to be Laura's night. She was sixty-eight percent sure she was about to turn around and leave, but when Rowen opened his mouth, he wasn't calling her a bitch or a whore or any of that super descriptive shit - in fact, he really didn't attack her at all. He did look Trevor up and down like he was going to try and start a fight with him, which Laura would have recommended against, more because Trevor would beat his ass, one, and two, it was Marissa's party and there would be no shenanigans. She'd kick both of their asses.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she responded, mostly because she didn't trust that he wasn't going to drop some horrible insult bomb on her. Also, Rowen was the first person Laura had ever loved more than her brothers (lol) so it was pretty significant of a thing. She pulled her phone out of her pocket instantly, turning it back on since Trevor had turned it off before. She grabbed Rowen by the arm and literally yanked him away from the party to the front porch of the bar, texting Lance to tell him to get his ass over there while she could.
"I just told Lance to come out," she informed him, mostly because Lance and Rowen had been really good friends, and because it would be hard for both of them to act like assholes to her or anyone else if they could be distracted by catching up. Of course, she forgot the fact that as much as Lance liked Trevor, he was way more likely to side with Rowen about pretty much anything regarding Laura NOT seeing Trevor.
"Dude," she breathed. "I don't even really know what to say, except how the hell do you even know any of these people?" Laura felt a little suffocated, like he was encroaching on her territory, despite Rowen actually having known a lot of them longer than she had. But, she didn't know that.
Tiffany gave Trevor a tight hug, ignoring Laura and Rowen pretty much at the moment. "How the hell have you been? I can't believe you're even here and this is happening right now," she exclaimed, linking her arm with his nearly instantly as she lead him from the bar to a table. A slim, auburn-haired girl stopped at their table for a minute, crouching down to them.
"Hey, we're talking about doing Marissa's cake and presents in the next hour or so, so make sure you guys stick around," she said with a smile. She left the two of them alone a moment later, and Tiffany watched her snatch a pool stick out of Finley's hand and take his shot for him, while another guy clapped and shouted, 'Fin, Ella shoots better than you do and she never plays pool!'
Tiffany laughed a little and looked back at Trevor. "How do we know the same people? Or do we? Was that your girlfriend you were with? I can't believe you're here," she said again, shaking her head. "Where's Colt, anyways? You know, I think he had a little crush on me when we were growing up," she added with a laugh.
Yeah, Trevor would have put Rowen on his face in the dirt before the kid could figure out what was going on, but Rowen didn't know that and he didn't need to know. He already didn't like Trevor enough, so there was no need to add to it, though he was honestly even more surprised than he'd already been by her mere presence with her aggressive 'greeting' being just her asking him what the hell he was doing there and then dragging him out to the front of the building. Sans the Brawny Man, which he was cool with.
He wasn't cool with her ignoring everything about them, the situation and their becoming reacquainted to ask him what he was doing there and how he knew these people. The only good thing she said was that she was telling Lance to come.
"Uh, okay, Laura, we can ignore the fact that we haven't seen each other in years and talk about how we have mutual friends instead," he told her, laughing just a little to try to cover up the fact that she was really making some old wound inside of him that he'd been trying to forget about sting like she'd ripped the scab off of it. "Dominic, Seth and Oz are my roommates, I've known most of these people since I moved here. That was a little after you disappeared, remember? My parents were divorcing, and since you weren't staying in Cali, I didn't stay with my bitch mom."
He didn't mention the fact that he'd worried about her after her whole family disappeared and her house went up for sale, and he didn't want to think about how much he'd missed her, been angry with her for taking off and leaving him when he needed her (after promising she'd be back), and hoped he'd see her again. Now, he was seeing her again, she was just as pretty as he'd remembered, and she seemed pissed that he was here. He didn't get it.
"Your turn, how are you friends with everyone?" he asked, just to be fair. He wasn't really sure how he'd missed her all this time if she knew the same people. It just didn't make sense.
Tiffany might have been ignoring Laura and Rowen once she got her eyes on Trevor, but he noticed the way Laura had reacted to the guy, and he definitely saw her drag him out the front door. He didn't follow, but only because she wouldn't have taken the kid outside if she wanted Trev around for the conversation (or beating, maybe) that she was going to be having with him. He'd ask her about it later. That, and he wasn't in a huge rush to just walk away from Tiffany if Laura didn't need him, however uncertain he was about how to deal with the girl.
Maybe that was why he was killing his beer so fast -- nerves. It was weird for him to be nervous around a girl, because let's face it, he had a way about him that definitely worked with women. Most of those women weren't girls he'd known as a teenager, though.
She was all kinds of questions, and most of them he probably couldn't have answered honestly, anyway, making the conversation feel more like a verbal minefield for him. He could handle it, he was sure of it, but he had to be kind of careful. "Um, I'm good, I guess. That was Laura, she's a friend of mine. A good friend," he explained, and it felt inadequate, but he wasn't sure he or Laura wanted to admit that she was his girlfriend or anything like that. He didn't really know what they were, except that they were trouble and sometimes that trouble led to ridiculous make-outs and groping. They hadn't gotten much further than that, and he honestly wasn't sure how some days, but it was the truth. Laura was....Laura. There was nothing else to it.
"She knows people here better than I do, so I guess I'm kind of her plus one, or whatever. Marissa's cool, but I've only met some of these people a few times," he admitted, though he grinned a second later. "They throw a hell of a party, though. Makes me wonder if Colt's out doing crazy shit like they all do, but I think he's too stuffy for all that. Oh, he's going to school out west, trying to be a lawyer or something like that, and he did have a huge crush on you, you're right. I used to screw with him constantly about it."
He was relaxing the more he talked to her, enough that he'd even smiled when Ella interrupted to tell them about Marissa's presents and cake (it was kind of surreal, when was the last time he'd been to a birthday party?), and he was leaning back in his seat as he mentioned Colt, actually seeming to be at ease and okay with her company.
Laura didn't laugh at his joke, but it was more because she was irritated by his mere presence. Considering her feelings on the matter and how much she'd grown up since then, it was pretty reasonable that she would behave as such, but since Rowen hadn't seen her in so long and since he was part of her "problem" (because she saw it as a problem), he certainly wouldn't see it that way.
"Well, kind of curious as to how I've been in the city for like eight years and haven't ever seen you before," she said (exaggerating on the time she'd been in the city, but whatever), folding her arms. She still kept her beer in her hand, which was a testament to her priorities, but it was almost gone now. "That's cool, though," she added, a hint of something in her voice. It could have been annoyance, or as though she were acknowledging that he was going to have jokes about this, which was obviously stressing her out.
"Sorry about your folks. Saw that coming," she commented. She took the last swig of her beer before tossing it into a trash can missing a lid that was on the other side of the railing lining the elevated patio. She leaned against it, elbows propped up. "And I was seventeen, so my disappearing was more my parents than it was me. I thought I'd be back. I guess I was wrong." She was really on the defensive given the pentameter and tone of her voice. It was almost like she was going to add an 'AND WHAT' after that, but she didn't (thankfully).
"As for how I know these people, I know Heidi and Russell because Lance went out with Heidi's roommate once upon a time. Heidi told me that Marissa and I were like carbon copies of eachother, so I hang with her every so often. I'm vaguely familiar with some of the others, mostly because the people we showed up with know them, but I couldn't tell you their names. I lead kind of a busy life," she added, no remorse in her words for having never contacted him. She didn't feel bad about leaving so that he didn't die, and she didn't feel like she had to justify it to him, but she was sure as hell going to ride that high and mighty wave while she had the chance.
"That's cool," Tiffany said, nodding as he told her Laura wasn't his girlfriend. Score one for Tiffany, or so she thought anyways. If she knew how damaged Trevor was, maybe she'd have changed her mind. "I'm surprised Colt is even going to school on the West coast - or do you just mean out west as in Colorado or New Mexico? I kind of assumed he went back to California, but it's weird to hear he went without you. I mean, growing up you guys were like, inseparable," she said with a laugh. She had no idea what had happened, so she'd feel a little bad knowing Trevor wasn't actually okay with the move - or aware of it 'til it had really been happening.
"Anyways, I met a few people randomly a while ago and they know the birthday girl. I feel a little old, but I forgot that I look like I'm twelve, so I still fit right in. Afraid I'll be like the dirty old guy that hangs around the high school - except I'm a junior and most of them are freshmen or sophomores at the school, so it's not that bad. I think I just worry too much," she said, laughing again.
"Dude, it's so wild that you're even here. And, Colt may have had a crush on me, but I always was totally in love with you," she added, grabbing a beer as the girl who'd introduced herself as Claire swung by with a tray full of them.
Alright, so maybe Tiffany would have changed her mind if she'd known how 'damaged' Trevor was, but the fact of the matter was that 100% of the girls Trevor had dated, fucked or shown any level of interest in up until this point had never realized the issues he had, and that included Laura Vida. He had problems, but none of them were obvious and he was very, very good at keeping them under wraps. Fortunately for him, he wasn't the kind of 'needy' that would latch onto people who didn't want him, which was mostly for the sake of his own pride. If he felt unwanted, he would not force the issue, even if it meant that he let other, more self-destructive hobbies take up the time that was formerly spent with that person. It was why he'd been such a drinker and so very aggressive and reckless on the hunting circuit when Laura and Lance started hanging with him. Somehow, their influence had turned those 'hobbies' into more of a social thing (both of them liked his hunting approach, even if it would have made his brother, and probably even his father, unhappy), but they'd never really put together his problems, either. Why would they?
For that reason, Tiffany would be fine hanging out with the 'damaged goods' that was Trevor. At the most, his protective streak would extend to her, which women other than Laura tended to like. Of course, he hadn't exactly intended to give her the impression that he was 'on the market', though he also hadn't thought about it much. He just didn't want to be the cause of people thinking the wrong thing, though if he'd heard them, he'd have known that what he said wouldn't have mattered much. Even Rowen had picked up on it, and he'd only seen Trevor and Laura together for a few minutes.
"No, he's out in California," he told her, confirming her assumptions, which was easy enough. It was hearing her say the bit that most people didn't bring up: that Colt had gone back without Trev, when they'd always been inseparable. He had to laugh at little at that, and though it wasn't really a happy laugh, he wasn't in the business of letting on the fact that he was bothered by it. It was, fortunately, becoming something of an old hurt by this point. He still smiled, shrugging and downing the rest of his beer. "You know, I guess it was just time for him to grow up. Sounds like he's doing fine."
That was really all he had to say on the Colton issue, because what else could he say? Eventually, he'd bring Tyler up to her, since she was someone who'd known him as a teenager and she'd be appropriately surprised to hear that he had another brother that even he didn't know about, but for the time being, he laughed with her about how 'old' she felt in this crowd sometimes, agreeing easily with her. They were definitely older than most, if not all, of the kids here. Actually, they'd have both fit in better with Coop and Nathaniel, which probably would have been bad. Trevor never needed to spend any time in a small group that included Blair and Iris. Just sayin'.
Claire wandered by with a tray full of beers that Tiffany took notice of to grab one, so Trevor certainly didn't turn the offered alcohol down. He realized that another beer was a smart move when Tiffany informed him that it was 'wild' that he was there, then that she was 'totally in love' with him when they were younger. He'd been in the process of showing that new beer who was boss when she did, which ended up with him cocking his eyebrows up and setting his drink down sooner than he'd originally intended.
"What? No way," he said, probably a little more surprised to hear her admit it than he should have been. He laughed and couldn't help being a little smug about it, but he had honestly been pretty oblivious of the idea until Laura had said it just a few minutes earlier. To have it confirmed by Tiffany herself so soon after it first entered his mind as a possibility was a surprise, and then there was the fact that she was admitting it. That probably was an indication that she was over it, which meant it wasn't a big deal, right? Had to be. "So, what you're saying is that you're into the scrawny types, huh?"
He laughed a little, obviously joking, but even he had to admit that he'd been preeeeetty 'lean' when he was in school. He'd been strong because his father raised him like a mini-Marine, but he'd been a wiry little shit until he'd hit his twenties and started to fill out. In pictures, he'd have looked a lot like Tyler did now, which had been one of the bigger hints that his youngest brother was telling the truth. Ha, wait until Tiffany met him! She'd probably wonder if she was meeting some time-warp version of Trevor, until the kid talked. Well, that was actually unfair, because Tyler (who couldn't back up what he said for shit) was picking up some behavioral cues from Trev, including some attitude and language. Trevor wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad, since he was starting to wonder if he shouldn't be making sure that Tyler could take care of himself.
Wow, so this conversation was going downhill hard and fast. It made him hope that Lance wasn't so pissed off at seeing him when the guy arrived, because if they both did this shit, he was either going to freak out or have to walk away, both of which would be a serious shame. It sucked, because he remembered them both fondly, Lance as the kind of friend he'd really needed back then, and Laura as the kind of everything he'd needed. That they'd taken off so quickly was NOT their fault, he wasn't stupid and he understood that, but it still had hurt. He thought she should have contacted him if she'd given a shit about him at all, but then he'd moved after graduation, so he could cut her slack from that point forward. Of course, he didn't know what being a Vida meant, or that she could have found him, if she'd wanted.
He sighed suddenly, closing his eyes and rubbing at the bridge of his nose for a second before he glanced back up at her. "Listen, this isn't how talking to you again was supposed to be. I don't really know why you're so pissed or whatever, but that wasn't the plan," he told her, though it wasn't exactly like he'd had much of a 'plan' to begin with. He honestly hadn't ever thought he'd see her again, though he'd be lying if he said he hadn't thought about what it'd be like before. He'd imagined them screaming at each other at his lower points, but mostly, he'd just wanted to see her and know she was okay. For some damn reason, he'd actually cared about her, which wasn't something he did much. There was so much he could say, but it all made him feel like he'd either sound way too much like a bitch for his preferences, or like a total dick.
He let the comment about his parents just flow past him, mostly because everyone had apparently seen it coming, so nobody was very surprised. Even he wasn't surprised by the time they decided to divorce, though it had been kind of rough being stuck in the middle. He also didn't really care how she knew these people, though it had felt right to ask her about it. The way she delivered it made it sound more like it was some kind of pissing contest, like they were listing who they knew to decide who belonged there more, and yeah, maybe she did lead a busy life. She'd always been involved in every damn thing she could be, so he wouldn't be surprised.
It was amazing, considering the temper he was capable of, but he didn't want to fight with her. "I'll start over. You look great, and I mean that. I'm not trying to blame you for your parents moving you, and I'm just glad that everything worked out for you. It feels good to see you again," he told her calmly, watching her face for signs of any kind of reaction, whether she opted to chill out, throw an attitude at him, or punch him. All seemed like possible reactions right about then.
Lance probably picked the exact right minute to show up. Laura was opening her mouth for another round when she heard his bike pulling in, and stopped herself short of putting in a strong ballot for Bitch of the Year. She knew why she was reacting the way she was, but Rowen was trying to be civil. Maybe she wanted a fight, and since he wasn't trying to give her one, she was trying to pick one. She assumed he'd be more raw about her just vanishing. Now that Lance was here, though, she'd have her fight for real.
Of course, when Lance pulled off his helmet, he didn't know any of this. It was only when Laura hopped over the railing of the porch and came storming up on him did he put two and two together. His sister was so fucking predictable. "You need to calm your shit," he hissed, pointing an accusing finger at her as he made an effort to dismount the Suzuki before she pushed him off of it. He could already see her hands coming up to shove him, and she had just as much ability to knock him off as he did to stay on. He didn't want to push it.
As he got off, he grabbed her hands before she had a chance to shove him back into the bike, and clamped down on them. "Hey," he said. "Hey. Hey." He kept repeating it until he had her attention. "Stop. What's the problem?"
Laura huffed, yanking back from him as soon as she'd done so. "He just... sucks," she replied cryptically.
Oh yeah, she was definitely hurting in her pride area. "Go easy on him," he said. "He's probably over worrying about us. You can't really seriously be that mad about it, unless Trevor is inside not paying any attention to you, either." He paused. "Ah, so he's inside chatting up someone. Hey, you could have taken that boat when it sailed by, but don't get all mad when you alienate everyone - OW!"
Laura started punching him and he had to stop his funny future-telling to defend himself, because she landed a few. He got her into a headlock and almost dropped her on her face when she finally stopped fighting. She uttered something angry but agreeable at him, and he let her go with a shove, sending her up a few feet.
"Rowen!" he said, walking past his sister. "What's up, man! Just ignore her, she's being bitchy because her boyfriend has friends besides us," he said, giving a loud laugh as he said it.