Angela leaned down, looking at the Jukebox with her big doe-ish brown eyes, long lashes fluttering as she attempted to make her selection. She wore those tight jeans Jared liked, and she knew people looked at her, so she lingered just a little longer. Finally, fingers pressed down on her first selection.
She rose, checking her reflection in her beer bottle. She drank for the hell of it; Jared never seemed to mention that she didn't get drunk. He just thought it was hot she could drink all his homeboys under the table. In fact, she was looking forward to seeing them tonight. She'd dressed extra pretty, too. She liked to make his friends jealous of him; she knew he didn't have a lot in life growing up, so she enjoyed making him envied. A blue corset, the aforementioned jeans, and some black heels completed her ensemble.
She smiled and tipped the bottle back, drinking the last of the beer within the glass, and ignored the disgusting foam at the bottom as she tossed it behind her into a trash can. She sat down on a stool by the pool table and waited for it to open up. Joan Jett's "Cherry Bomb" began to play through the surround sound of the bar, and she couldn't help but grin to herself.
April had been flabbergasted when Angela Arun invited him out to hang with her and her friends, but he was also delighted. Although he hadn't really heard from her since she graduated, it wasn't to say they couldn't fall back on friendly terms for a night out. It had been his freshman year, her sophomore one, when they had met. She had sat just in sight of him in English class and captivated him. Her attitude, her words, her appearance; the latter of which being what made him muster his courage and ask her to be his model for the portrait project of an Art class final. While he worked, she had talked, and eventually gotten him to talking, too. There was no getting bored of her, and he must have interested her as well. Or at least entertained her with his dumb freshman questions and naivete. That tended to be his hook for most people. Including Ritz.
So here he was, dressed in something a little less casual than sweat pants: jeans that still had the knees, one of his shirts that actually fit his form, the non-gym-shoe sneakers, and a hair tie holding back the brushed mess of long blonde hair. Having his hair back like that showed off the ear stud, which he stared at for a long time in the mirror before decisively leaving in. It, in combination with his clothes and neatened hair, made him look grown up for once.
He hadn't been to bars, really... ever... so he was slightly nervous upon entering Hole in the Wall. All the necessary cards, keys and cash were tucked in his front pocket, the one closer to the crotch so hopefully people would think twice before grabbing at it. He was glad when he caught sight of Angela, and grinned as he came up next to her. "I'm thinking you picked out the music," he said. "It's very you. You're looking..." He gave her a once over. "Out on the town. You're not going to get me in trouble tonight, I hope."
'People' may have been looking at her, but that wasn't the important part. What was important was that Jared was looking at her, leaning back against the wall with a pool stick and working on his second beer of the evening. They hadn't been there long, but he'd made short work of the first. That was the warm-up, necessary to be out of the way fast. Now, he had a head-start on his buddies, and he was looking forward to a wild night as he stared at that ass of hers in those tight jeans. There was a reason he liked those pants on her, and the fact of the matter was that he liked them better off of her. He smirked, leaving no doubt as to what was on his mind, and only glanced away from her for an instant when the person he was about to smash in pool made his shot. Scratch.
"Nice shot, dipshit," he remarked, circling the table in the same way that a shark circles a little liferaft in the middle of the sea, and he finally leaned into the kill, knocked two balls into the pockets and just opted to leave the 8 ball in his opponent's path during his second shot. Anything to make things difficult.
When Angela returned to her stool, he had to walk over and slip an arm around her shoulders, it was nearly a requirement. He should have known she would play that song, though. It was her favorite, and it suited her. "My Cherry Bomb needs another drink," he noticed, reaching into a pocket for a few bills and leaning over to drop a kiss on her shoulder. He was just touchy like that. "Grab me another while you're up there, baby?"
Ah, but she wasn't alone. He glanced to the boy who'd been talking to her when he walked up, and he grinned. He knew April in passing, though not well. "Hey, Blondie. Haven't seen you around here before."
"Yep yep!" she said, smiling happilly as she felt the warmth of his kiss on her shoulder. There was something about Jared that just... every time she looked at him. She couldn't explain it. It was just that thing he did. She literally skipped to the bar, in an amazingly good mood now that her favouritest song in the whole wide world was on, and acquired a few more drinks. She even snuck one back for April.
"Here Ape," she said proudly, holding out to him the most frou-frou looking drink ever, complete with a tiny sword and umbrella. "It's a Mai Tai." She grinned broadly, and then extended her other hand to him with his -real- drink, an Amaretto and Coke.
She couldn't wipe the smile off her face as he stared blankly at the fairy drink she'd handed him. She did it -every- time. Every time. She wrapped herself around Jared after his shot was up and bit his shoulder playfully, like a cat might. She was feeling super perky at the moment.
"I predict you're going to be too shitfaced to play pool with me soon, dear," she chastised. Angela had a habit of taking his money in pool. A bad habit. His friends thought it was great.
April nodded at Jared's greeting. "That's 'cause I've never been here." He remembered Jared. Jared had kind of scared him freshman year, although once high school lost its terror, most of the people did, too.
It figured that Angela would give him the fairy drink. He hadn't told her flat out that he was gay, although she had to know by association. But the drink turned out to be a joke on her boyfriend, and something else got pushed April's way. He sniffed it, sipped it, mulled the taste. Dammit. He knew nothing about alcohol. "This had better not get me drunk," he warned Angela. Another sip. "Not just because I have to drive home, but also because I've never actually BEEN drunk. I don't think anyone here wants to find out that me drunk equals dancing on tables. Or something." A drunk April might say anything, he didn't know what. Could be embarrassing stuff from his childhood; could be the fact that he was sleeping with Maurizio Parise. Which would equal Parise family meltdown, if they found out. Yes, a drunk April would be a bad thing.
"So is it just us? Or is anyone else coming?" Angela had invited him and Jared didn't seem to mind April being around, but he'd hate to be a third wheel.
((XD April's like the little brother you drag around b/c he's cute and doesn't know any better. ))
He stared blankly at the fairy drink for about 15 seconds before he shrugged and slugged the thing down. Really, he didn't care what it was, so long as it was alcohol, and he dared anyone to call him girly over the frou frou drink she'd handed him. He took her beer afterwards, though. Served her right for giving him that thing.
"I won't be shitfaced enough to lose if you keep giving me those pansy drinks," he reminded her, rolling his eyes some. He wouldn't mind having the opportunity to beat her, but he really preferred to just be so drunk that he didn't mind losing the money to her.
He twisted around after his shot to steal a kiss from her, took his second shot, then looked at April. Frankly, the idea of the little blond dancing on a table was downright frightening. "If he's going to drink, we should get him something good. None of the girly drinks." A thought occurred to him, and he grinned evilly.
"Hey, babe, how about a jagerbomb? One for each of us, on me," he told her, winking and handing her the cash. He wanted to see April take that. "Hurry up and finish that drink, kid. You're not gonna wanna miss this next one."
"Aw, c'mon Ape," she said, tugging on Jared as he stuffed a 20 down her pants. Jagerbombs? Okay, Jared was officially going to see April drunk or be a shit for the rest of the night, she could see it now. Once that boy put his mind to something...
"Listen, you don't have to drink if you don't want to, but I promise I won't let anything happen to you. And I'll drive you home. Ask Jared, I drink like a fish and it takes way more than this bar's got to get me wasted." She smiled innocently, snuck a kiss off of her boyfriend, and ruffled April's hair as she headed to the bar yet again.
When she got there, she pulled out her own money and got another beer for herself since her imp of a boyfriend had stolen hers. Speaking of other people... She let her shots sit for a minute and sent Hailee a text message:
Hole in the Wall. Come drink. Jared has cute friends.
She snapped her phone shut and took the armload back to the boys. "Well, Ape, I just messaged my cousin Hailee. I don't know if you've met her, but her brother, Alex, goes to school at Ramsa. Dark, brooding, but not in a creepy sort of way."
She grinned and drank her Jagerbomb while handing his out at arm's length. "CHEERS!" she said into the bottom of her cup.
Hailee had been beating the sand out of a punching bag when her phone had jangled, signaling a new text. She grinned at the ringtone she had set to 'text' as she picked the slim pink-and-purple thing up and flipped the top, glitter in the plastic case flashing as the light changed. Honestly, it wasn't exactly a surprise that people were shocked by how violent this girl could become. Not with a phone like that.
Huh, what did Angela want?
Hole in the Wall. Come drink. Jared has cute friends.
She looked at the message for a few moments, considering, and then grinned and decided why not? Not like she had anything better to do tonight. She abandoned the punching bag and went over to her room at the guildhouse - where, luckily, she still had a few things other then the strictly practical clothing that she usually wore. After all, though it was better to use that while on the job... well, it really wasn't any fun.
She quickly showered, dried her hair and pulled it back into the usual ponytail rather then bother doing anything more elaborate to it and then slipped into another pair of jeans that fit her perfectly and had embroidered flowers stitched up the leg and this awesome little black top that she'd been wanting to wear.
All in all, it didn't take her above 20 minutes to get to the Hole in the Wall, and when she did she glanced around, spotting Angela fairly quickly. She smiled and walked over. "So then, who are the victems for tonight?"
April looked again into his booze-masquerading-as-Coke drink, and took another sip. For all that Angela acted like a bad girl without a care in the world, she was also the world's best big sister. If she said she'd keep him out of trouble, he not only believed her, he trusted her. His mother would kill him if she found out that he had consumed any sort of alcohol while not under her supervision, but April was already feeling that sort of recklessness that came from doing things he wasn't supposed to. Sooner or later, all good boys eventually did something dumb.
He wanted to ask Jared what a jagerbomb was, but didn't so as not to appear stupid. In hindsight he probably should have, of Jared's smirk was anything to go by. "How about I finish this, then see where that gets me?" he said, indicating the Amaretto in his hand. He nodded at Angela's description of Alex Vida-Arun. Yeah, April knew the guy. Definitely dark and brooding, not in the creepy way; more the cute, gangly, want-to-take-him-out-for-a-coffee-just-to-make-him-smile kinda way. Except April didn't say that. He hung out by the pool table and watched Angela and Jared interact while they waited for Hailee. He liked watching Angela and Jared. They teased and pushed each other around, meaning it but not, treating each other like independent people but still managing to be a team. They made each other happy being who they were. How could he not be made happy just being around them?
Hailee made her entrance about twenty minutes after Angela announced that she'd texted her. At her inquiry as to who the victims were, April waved the hand not holding his drink, which was already nearly half gone. Bad April. "That would be me, I think," he said, smiling at her. "Hi. April Lancaster, you probably don't know me. Your brother goes to my high school."
"She's right. I hate to admit it, but I'm usually buzzed as hell before she's even tipsy," he told the kid. Of course, the way he was pounding down his third beer, after the frou frou drink, that really shouldn't have been surprising. This was a man who didn't waste time. That beer was going to be long gone before he finished this game of pool with his buddy, he'd decided, and then he'd make April keep pace with him on that Jagerbomb, then molest Angela some before getting another.
It was a beautiful plan.
Unfortunately, that game of pool took a little longer than he expected, since his buddy Andy wanted to start blocking his shots up with stripes. He was starting to have trouble getting a clear shot with his solids, and it was requiring a little more concentration than he liked. It caused him to slow down just long enough for April to sip his wimpy soda drink while he finished off that beer, but by the time he got rid of his solids and knocked the 8 ball in, he was ready for that jagerbomb. "Pay up, asshole. That's going to getting Angela good and hammered for some fun tonight," he told Andy, finishing all but the very last swallow from the bottle as he collected his winnings. Then, it was on to the Jagerbomb as Hailee walked in.
"Ape! You haven't finished that thing yet? Throw it back, man, now!" he told the kid, only calling him 'Ape' because he thought it sounded funny. "You're going to pace yourself with me tonight, starting with the jagerbomb. Finish that bitch and let's go!"
He forced the glass of red bull into April's hand, picked up his own, and dropped a shotglass of jager into each of the energy drinks. "Now, CHUG IT!"
He wasn't taking 'no' for an answer.
Angela wrapped an arm around her cousin affectionately, and then pressed the beer she had in her hand to the back of her cousin's neck, giggling at the squeal she made.* She watched Ape and Jared interact and looked sideways at Hailee as she sipped her beer.
"Fifty bucks says I can have them so drunk they're holding hands and brushing eachother's hair by the end of the night," she whispered softly. Angela often took advantage of the fact that she couldn't get even the slightest bit intoxicated.
She giggled at April, though. If he did start to drink too much, she'd put her foot down, that was certain. She wasn't going to rush him to the ER because he'd gotten alcohol poisoning. Explaining that to his mother would... be frightening. And Angela wasn't one to openly fear things.
She moved away from Hailee to grope on Jared briefly, kissing at his neck in a comical way before stealing five dollars he'd set on the table and going back to the bar to get Hailee a drink.
April was beginning to think he'd seriously underestimated Jared. Jared wasn't just insistant; he was overwhelming. His personality boiled over like it couldn't be contained in one person and had to find others to spend its energy. April was trying to keep at least some of his parentally-influenced wits about him, but with Jared around, it just wasn't going to happen. He threw back the rest of the Amaretto as instructed, taking the already legendary jagerbomb that was offered, and watched Jared chug his own 'bomb before following suit. What could it hurt, right?
Two seconds later and April was gasping at the taste. "Dear... god... jesusFUCK," he managed. He blinked his eyes and focused on the glass. He kept trying to swallow the taste out of his mouth, but it just wasn't working. Shit. "What in hell did you just GIVE me?"
Angela wasn't going to be able to get Jared to hold hands with a guy and brush anyone's hair, no matter how drunk he was, but she was welcome to try. Fortunately, she wouldn't have to worry about rushing April to the ER because of Jared, though. Making April keep pace with him meant that April would be completely annihilated when Jared's mind started to wander. He'd forget after a few drinks that he'd been trying to make April pace him, and April could go dance on tables or whatever he wanted. For the moment though, Jared was rather thrilled with the boy's reaction, even if he was a little distracted by Angela kissing on his neck. Yeah, so she was out to get that five from him, but it was worth it as far as he was concerned.
He reached around fast to grab a handful of ass before she could slip off with his money, and then he was back to handling April. Yeah, the jagerbomb needed to have something to chase it, and that was why Jared had ensured that April finished the A&C first. Just to be an ass.
"THAT is the kind of reaction I like to hear, little man. That was a Jagerbomb. Jager and redbull, and it should be chased with coke, but we're not diluting you're first experience with it," he explained, having been a 'good guy' and sacrificed himself on the altar of bad-aftertastes. "Let's get another."
He walked April over to the bar, sat him down, and ordered another round. He was really starting to feel pretty tipsy, which was a nice feeling. One he wanted to pursue.
April WAS done for. Against Jared, he hadn't stood a chance. "Thanks so much for giving me THE worst aftertaste I've ever had," he replied sarcastically. If Jared had known April better, he would have understood that that was saying something. April and Ritz stayed up late sometimes. Really late. Late enough that sometimes April merely swallowed and rolled over, instead of doing the right thing and washing his mouth out thoroughly before he fell alseep and let it go all nasty. That was a bad aftertaste. This Jagerbomb, though. Much worse.
He allowed himself to be walked to the bar, throwing a look at Angela over his shoulder in case she might try to warn him about letting Jared have his way. Actually, something should have already told April that letting Jared have his way was a bad idea for someone as alcohol-virginal as himself. But, like all the good sense he'd had before walking in the door, it was gone. He would drink whatever Jared put in front of him.
He'd ordered another round of jagerbombs, oblivious of April's thoughts and fully taking advantage of the boy drinking anything set in front of him. If April had opted to share that comparison of an aftertaste with Jared, the man would have probably scowled and punched the kid square in the face for breaking his brain. He didn't want ANY details about April's sex life.
"You're welcome. Now, drink," he told the boy, grabbing his own. This would probably end up being the point where he forgot what his goal was after the alcohol hit him, and April would officially not need anymore. That last jagerbomb had him well on his way to being nicely toasted. Almost time to make Angela dance with him or something.
Angela frowned as Jared and Ape began to consume mass quantities of alcohol. "Ah shit," she said to herself. "I'm going to be holding that kid's hair back later, I know it." She'd seen Tanya try to keep up with her once when they were drinking, and that was, well... All she had to know. Jared was a professional alcoholic, so she didn't so much worry about him.
She sipped on a Smirnoff Arctic Berry and mulled with Hailee for a minute, before standing to go break Ape and Jared up. "Alright you two," she said with a laugh, stumbling to them. "Jared, sweetheart, give him a chance to absorb his alcohol. Want to play pool in the meantime?"
Angela only asked him to play pool when he'd had three times as much to drink as everyone else. He was good; he could beat her completely shitfaced. She liked to have an advantage.
"We can beeee-eeet," she offered. What would she bet, though?
If Jared kept trying so hard to get April drunk, he would probably get more details about April's sex life than anyone would want to know. Only time and alcohol consumption would tell.
April gave the now familar Drink-of-Tastebud-Death, as he mentally dubbed it, an ominous look that said he knew its tricks, and wouldn't be fooled a second time. So as long as he and the drink were clear on that, he had no qualms consuming it. Even if what followed was another round of yucky faces and frantic swallowing that didn't help. "Water," he asked of the barman, and gulped down what was handed to him. The last of his intelligence was telling him to drink water, something about dehydration being bad. Also to make an attempt to get the taste out of his mouth. It didn't work. Dammit. He got another glass of H2O and worked on it slowly, hoping it would work better than the first.
"So now that I'm..." He shook his head, clearing out some encroaching fuzziness. "Now that I'm fully disgusted, what else is there to do?" He ought to be given a little credit; two Jagerbombs and an Amaretto, and he was still standing. Of course, it'd be a completely different story in an hour. Already the world was getting more entertaining without any sensible reason.
Hailee had grinned at April when he'd mentioned that he was likely the victem, looking him slowly up and down. "Reeeeeally?" she drawled in an interested way when April (as he introduced himself) mentioned that he went to school with Alex.
Well then, this could just get interesting.
It was then that Jared moved in and proceeded to begin practically pouring large amounts of alcohol down April's throat, and so Hailee decided to ignore them for a moment. She squealed good naturedly when Angela pressed the drink to the back of her neck and then flipped her hair at her cousin with a laugh, accepting the drink that she was handed.
"Hmm, I wouldn't bet against you," Hailee murmured back, "though I might just help." Whaaaat? It would be fun! She winked and then laughed.
She watched as Jared and April both had another. "Really, though, they might not need our help."
The look on his face was nothing short of lecherous as Angela approached them, and he noticed that little stumble of hers. He didn't know that it was staged just for the benefit of the mortals in the bar, since he was one of them. He assumed that she was getting drunk as well, and was actually interested in what had her asking for a game of pool. She was drunk, and she liked to wait until he was having issues concentrating. He wasn't having that problem yet, right?
Well, if the fact that he'd completely forgotten about his goal to pour alcohol down April's throat didn't make the answer to that question obvious, nothing would. He was ALL interested in Angela. "Babe, I'll take that game, but you have to name your wager, first. Better be something good I'm winning."
Egotistical bastard.
It was just as well for April that Jared had lost interest in him. Any more alcohol down first-timer April's throat and Angela really might end up explaining alcohol poisoning to an angry Peggy Lancaster. April wasn't going to be telling his mother about this any time soon, nuh-uh. He didn't have a death wish.
Since Jared was thoroughly absorbed in betting against his girlfriend, April found his way back to Hailee, the only other familiar face in the room. Better to be with her than at the bar, where people always seemed to think you were waiting to be picked up. April didn't need to be picked up, thank you very much. He dropped onto a chair and watched Angela lead Jared around. "That was the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted," he said, still trying to swallow it out of his mouth. The water hadn't helped much. He kept drinking it anyway.
Angela didn't rightly know what to bet, because Jared was always guttering anything she said, and he always had enough money to foot her shopping when she ran out, not that she asked. She held on to her poolstick thoughtfully.
"I dunno. What do you want?" she asked innocently. She didn't.. really have anything to bet with Jared. There were things she wondered, but nothing that wouldn't end up in a fight, and right now she was having too good a time to worry about that (like how a mechanic made so much money?).
She tried to keep Hailee and April in her line of sight, but finally gave up as everyone began moving around with the usual hubabub of the bar scene. Ape was as good as safe with Hailee, though. She was positive of that.
Apparently they were splitting off into smaller groups, which was fine by her. She was decent at pool, but didn't really want to play right then, so she was more then content to just sit back, relax, and drink like a fish with the knowledge that none of it would really affect her. The contrast she presented to April was... well, amusing.
She laughed a little at his comment. "Really?" She was acting far too interested, but he might be past the point of noticing. "Tell me Ape, you know how my brother's been doing as of late?" Ah, Angela's nickname had caught and stuck. Her cousin was certainly right about something, though. The boy was safe with her. She finally took pity on him as she watched him drink more and more and more water, and offered him a breath mint she had in her purse. "This'll help more, darling."
The fact that she'd wondered, but hadn't ever figured out, how a mechanic made as much money as he did hadn't really entered his mind since he started drinking, but he'd marveled at the fact that she hadn't yet asked in the past. He'd taken to assuming she really didn't think she wanted to know, which meant she had an idea, and he hadn't ever bothered to tell her. He wasn't a fan of offering information if it wasn't 'need-to-know'. Besides, he didn't plan to steal and dismantle cars for the rest of his life.
The rest of his life didn't matter to him right then, though. What mattered was the rest of the night, and that included what he'd win if he played her in pool. He may not have volunteered information, but he liked getting it. Yes, he was a hypocrite that way, but he hadn't ever denied it, so anyone who said anything could stuff it. There were things about Angela that he still wanted to know, and he didn't have that 'leave well enough alone' attitude that she did.
"How 'bout, when I win, I get an honest answer about one of your little secrets," he said with an evil little smirk, wrapping her up in his arms to keep her from escaping. "An', IF I lose, which I don't, you can ask me something."
He didn't think he'd lose.
"That's fine," Angela said. He was drunk. She would be fine. Still, it seemed like a weird bet to take. She shook it off, and leaned down for her first shot. He was going to make her break, eh? Well, she'd just hit it really hard and pray she cleared enough of her balls in the pockets to try and run the table on him for the rest of the game.
She smiled a little. "Ready?" she asked. One of his friends lifted the rack off of the table and leaned back. When these two played pool, people watched, because they both tended to make trick shots and other various hard-to-accomplish things.
Angela's luck, however, had run out tonight. She sank three of her balls, declaring her as solids. However, the 8 ball slowly.. slowly... rolled its way into the far corner pocket. She followed it down the table, making frantic arm motions to try and get it to stop.
She looked up at Jared. Shake it off, Angie. Shake it off, she told herself. She leaned lazily on her pool stick and smiled. "Guess I hit it harder than I thought," she offered.
What would he possibly want to know? She had told him everything, anyways.
He may have been drunk, but he assumed she was as well, and he was a damn good pool player. Unfortunately, this particular game didn't even require any skill on his part. He watched her shot with a slight smirk, not really expecting what he ended up with, and then broke into an actual laugh as he watched her flail at the 8 ball.
"Great shot, babe. Couldn't have won it better myself," he told her with that obnoxious grin of his in place. That was the easiest game he'd ever played. "Next time, I'll break."
It was somehow fitting that this game was the one he actually asked for something he really wanted as the wager, though he wasn't going to ask her right there in front of everyone. "I'll ask my question when we don't have such an audience."
Next time. Right. Angela leaned her poolstick against the pool table and straightened out, smiling brightly to him. She felt a pit in her stomach. He obviously was working an angle here. Unless he was going to propose. Her eyes widened, and she reached out for him, giving him a little kiss on the neck. No, he wouldn't propose. That would be way, way too soon. And.. organized.
"Why don't you ask me now?" she asked, using her playful voice. "Or is it dirty?" she hissed, poking him in the side with a giggle. On the inside, she was kind of nervous, but she wouldn't let any of them know it. She had a guilty conscience, she supposed.
When wasn't Jared working an angle? And organized? She'd be amazed at just how organized he could be when it involved something dangerous, such as work.
Or his side job.
He wasn't likely to propose anytime soon, but mostly because he assumed she'd turn him down. Other than that, it really just...hadn't occurred to him to. "I don't think you want me to ask now," he told her straight up, shrugging before he grinned.
"How about another game. Maybe I'll get really lucky and win something else off of you."
The sad part, truly sad on so many levels, was that Angela wouldn't have ever thought of saying no. She loved Jared more than anything, even if he did act like a fuckhead sometimes - like right now. Angela didn't like being strung along, although most of it really was her overreacting because she had the niggling feeling in the back of her head something was going to go horribly wrong.
"No. Ask me now. Or we can go outside?" she offered, jerking a thumb back to the door. She needed to know this one small thing. She hoped it was something stupid, like a silly intimate detail or an embarassing childhood question. She didn't do more than hope - she prayed that it wasn't anything serious. Or anything she couldn't tell.
She wasn't going to just let this drop, was she? Apparently not, given how she was insisting that he ask right then, even after he'd said he'd wait until later and offered another game. Great. He really needed another drink first, since he was doubting she was going to want to hear this, but he had to know. That was why he wasn't willing to just be a perv like usual and ask her something VERY personal instead. He had to know.
"Fine," he agreed, and he turned somewhat unsteadily towards the door. He'd had too much to drink, but wasn't quite ready to pass out.
He waited until she was standing with him out in the parking lot, where he could lean against his car instead of pretending he had amazing balance right then, and finally dropped the bomb. "Where do you go at night? Those nights you're so secretive about, and you don't bother coming in until morning, what do you do all night?"
She told Hailee and Ape she'd be right back, and followed Jared outside, where she pulled a cigarette out from behind her ear and lit it. She didn't make smoking a habit, but right now she would. When he leaned against his car and started talking, she felt a rush of cold wash over her entire body, and she couldn't help but look away, exhaling sharply as smoke twined through the air.
She blinked a few times, stomach dropped like it was on a rollercoaster and had just gone straight down. When she looked back at him, she tried to smile, but this was all serious. Jared wasn't playing. There was no humour in his eyes; none.
She didn't even know what to say, so she thought of the first thing that came to mind. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
His blank response to her 'joke' wasn't a welcoming one, and she sighed a little.
"It's just crap I have to take care of. Sometimes I stay at my mom's; you know that."
Would he buy it?
Her joke didn't get her very far, considering he recognized the stalling attempt, and he'd been trying to get this information out of her for too long to let it work. He wanted to know, or he wouldn't have asked for it in the bet. Her roundabout answer wasn't going to satisfy, either, but it was a start.
"I know you sometimes stay at your mom's. I told you I don't give a shit if you don't want to come to my place some nights. What I'm asking is what that 'crap you have to take care of' is," he clarified, all seriousness despite his drunkenness. She'd said she'd tell him, and he wasn't letting his concentration waver on this one.
She couldn't really lie to him, because Angela wasn't a liar, so she wasn't good at it. She'd made it a point not to, though if she even knew some of the shit he'd done, she might repay the favours in kind. But right now, she was in love, and on the verge of a small panic, despite all of her Arun training to control her emotions. She was still young, and still volitile.
"I can't tell you," she said softly. "You could have asked me anything else, but I... promised that I'd never tell, and I can't go back on my word." She had promised she wouldn't tell - to herself. He couldn't conceive of this world beyond him, or them, or this town. Where creatures stalked the nights and killed mercilessly, some of them even changing others, creating a strange wake of living dead in their path. When you look at it like that, there is nothing romantic or erotic about vampires. Nothing.
She sighed a little, knowing that the feeling she had picked up on in the air was a current - a current of her damn life about to just get flushed down the tube. She started to get angry - now she was upset and angry. Bad combination for an Arun.
"What?" he demanded, his voice raising slightly. "You promised who? What the hell is going on that you have to keep it so secret? Why can't you just tell me?"
Of course he didn't understand. How could he, when he had no idea that he was dating a witch, or that vampires existed? If someone would have told him they were a vampire or a shapeshifter, he'd have laughed and walked away. He had no idea, and so he wasn't really at fault for demanding such difficult answers. He would have still asked if he knew the sort of thing it was, but that wasn't important to this conversation.
"Are you seeing someone else, or what?" he asked her suddenly. Women didn't sneak around at night and promise not to tell their boyfriend unless it was serious, and he couldn't comprehend the sort of serious this was.
"WHAT?!" she shrieked, unable to curb her surprise. Seeing someone else? That was absurd. "That's fucking insane. Of course I'm not seeing anyone else. What the hell, Jared. You've known me long enough by now to know there are two things I'm not: a liar, and a cheater. For you to even suggest that is just..." she trailed off.
"Wow." She punched the side of a car, hard, leaving a massive dent in the rear quarter panel of it. She couldn't help it - that pissed her off something awful. "You know, for the only fucking person in the world who seems to get me? You just don't get it at all."
She didn't leave, though. She didn't... she couldn't. It was like watching an accident. She had to see it through, to the very bitter end.
It was a good thing he was as drunk as he currently happened to be, or he might have noticed exactly how hard she'd hit some random person's car. Since it wasn't his though, he glossed right over it and remained focused on their argument. He really should have stopped and stared at the size of that dent, but he wasn't thinking well enough for it.
"Well, what the fuck do you EXPECT, Angela? You vanish at night, don't ever explain where you're going, you've never answered me when I ask, and now you're telling me you promised someone you wouldn't tell me! What would you think if I pulled that shit?" he demanded, standing up and refusing to lean on the car anymore. Considering he hadn't seen how hard she hit the car, her display of anger didn't really do much other than drag him along with her into that mood.
"If you're not seeing someone else, that's great, really. The last thing I want to hear is that I suck bad enough that you wanted some other asshole and didn't want to tell me or something, but you can't just say that's not it and leave it! If that's not what's going on, then what the fuck is?"
He thought he was being pretty reasonable. A little loud, but pretty reasonable. He was ready to believe that she wasn't cheating or lying in an instant, but he wanted to know what was going on if that wasn't the case. That's all.
"I. CAN'T. TELL. YOU." she screamed, matching his volume and raising him a few decibles. FUCK, her hand hurt. She popped a broken finger back into place in the shadows where she stood before stepping into the illumination of a shitty parking lot light, and advanced on Jared about four steps before stopping.
"Speaking of shit we always wonder, why is it that there's been more than one occasion where I'll call your work when you tell me you'll be there late, and they say that you left hours ago? I wasn't going to bring it up, but fuck it, why not?" she shouted, not even caring in the slightest that her elevated voice might attract attention. Let them come; Angela would do to someone's face what she'd done to that car.
Her fear had bled into anger, and a lot of it suddenly came rushing out. Angela had been letting this go for as long as he must've been letting her outings go. Jared would have done well to choose his next words carefully, because Angela fully intended to hit his car, next.
"What if I say I can't tell you?" he snapped, turning her own shit right back at her. What she didn't understand was that he was far more willing to tell her his shit than she was willing to tell him hers. "Why don't you bring up my paycheck while you're at it? Fuck, I know you've been wondering about THAT for awhile, haven't you?"
He knew she had because he'd seen her hesitate when he paid for shit or gave her something expensive, but she'd never asked, and he'd never told her. He could tell her, but she'd probably hate him for it. At this point, he'd risk it. He didn't think her little secret could be any worse.
"How about this one? I'll tell you what you wanna know if you tell ME where you go those nights and what you do? Answer for an answer," he told her, and that was about as good as it was going to get unless she REALLY pissed him off. Then, he might blurt his little 'secret' at her just to piss her off and let her know what a horrible person he was. He didn't feel bad about it, but Angela was one of those good people that seemed to care about everyone.
"Your paycheck? What? What the fuck?" she asked. Well, that hadn't been the exact thing she'd been wondering about; more like, where the fuck had HE been running off to, but now that he mentioned it, yeah, she did realize that it had bothered her before.
"No, Jared, you aren't going to turn this around on me. The difference in this instance is I have never lied to you about where I was going to be; you seem to make it a second profession." She took another step, bringing her directly under the light. Angela was damn intimidating when she was like this, but Jared had never and would never be intimidated by her. She was Angela. She was tough, but she was still small.
"No deal," she said firmly.
"There's no damn difference! What? You think I'm lying? Babe, I haven't lied to you yet. I told you I was working, and I was," he told her, his voice actually dropping as she got closer and he got more angry. More...vindictive. She wasn't going to play fair? He shouldn't tell her anything if that was how she wanted to be, but what difference did it make? Did he really think everything would be alright now that he had this out in the open if he just let it all go? Hell no! It had to be worked out right then and there, or he didn't think either of them would let it go. They'd just stay mad.
"One of us ought to be fair though, so I'll do it. You've never asked me about any of this until now, and I won't avoid the answer like you've been doing. You wanna know what I was doing? Fine, I'll tell you!" And here was where he glared and hesitated ever so slightly, even in his anger. He couldn't see this going over well, but he he was anyway.
"I was working, stealing cars or pieces off of cars so they could be dismantled and either sold or put into other cars. THAT is why I wasn't at the shop those times you called, and THAT is why I make the money I do," he told her sharply, leaning in close to her. "Now, are you STILL going to tell me you don't trust me to hear what you're doing, when I just told you something that could get my ass thrown into jail for a LONG fucking time?"
BAM!
The sound of glass shattering as Angela swung past him and into the passenger side window of his car was a horrifying thing. She couldn't even verbally react to what he'd just said, she was so angry. Her head was swimming. She really disliked how he was pausing for emphasis, like he was trying to deliberately pour salt into the wound of the situation.
It was honestly all she could do to avoid hitting him. Angela knew damn good and well if she'd hit him in the face as hard as she'd hit his window, she would have put him in the hospital for a long time. Jared would never know the small courtesy she had just done him.
She withdrew her hand from the window, pieces of glass still embedded in her knuckles. Jared hadn't ever seen her get that angry, but the fact that she wasn't in a severe amount of pain seemed to speak volumes. Of course, when Angela was focused she didn't seem to feel pain, or so she'd lead him to believe after all this time. Still, a window?
Blood was running down her arm now as she tried to hold her hand at an angle to avoid looking like she'd just gutted someone. Lacerations from glass, Arun or no, were big messes. She just stared at him, and realized that she'd let this situation get way, way out of her control. Her skin felt static and warm - she suddenly became afraid that the truth she was hiding was going to come out whether she wanted to just tell him or not.
She took a step back, playing on the shock of the situation to look horrified at her actions. Just.. go. Please, just go, she thought to herself, though it was unclear as to whether she was thinking about him or about herself.
"HOLY FUCKING HELL, ANGELA!!" he roared, staring at the window of his car after she'd busted it. She was insane! How the hell had she just smashed his window up like that with just her FIST? Angela wasn't the smallest woman he'd met, but she wasn't big, either. She wasn't insanely buff, she wasn't taking any sort of karate courses as far as he knew, and she wasn't on drugs or anything. That he knew of. She'd just put her FIST through his WINDOW, and was still standing there, though.
That was when he looked at her, and saw the blood on her hand and arm. "Oh, shit. Holy shit," he said absently, his anger bleeding out even as her own blood dripped to the pavement. He glanced back at the car, though it wasn't to look at the window, but to try to remember if he had a relatively clean towel in there anymore. He'd cleaned the car out the day before, and he didn't think he'd left anything in there that he could use. His coat wouldn't do anything to stop the bleeding, so he cursed some more as he tore his leather jacket off and followed it by his t-shirt.
"God fucking damn it!" he muttered some more, reaching for her elbow without even thinking about the argument they were having. He was still angry, but that was in the back of his head. The fact that he loved her, no matter what secrets she was hiding, showed through in how her injury had caused him to completely put aside everything else. He needed to try wiping some of the blood away so he could pick out any pieces of glass that were embedded in her skin, and then wrap it up. She was going to need a hospital visit, he'd guarantee it. "Please, Angela, stay still."
She stood there, numbly as Jared panicked, and it wasn't until he took her hand and brought it into the light that she realized that the bleeding was all but stopped. Lucky her for being Arun. She jerked her hand back, petrified he'd see she was healing out, and took a few steps back from him. There was way, way too much shit going on at the moment, and she was fast slipping her control and concentration. The scent of blood, even though it was only her own, stung her nostrils, creating a stir in her energy and causing her to wretch for a moment.
"I can take care of it," she said harshly, holding her hand behind her back as the blood dried in spiderwebs across her flesh. Thank god that was all that had currently healed - Angela did not want to pick out embedded glass tonight. "Can we just deal with this tomorrow?" she asked, suddenly not sure why she had been so mad. She was more concerned with other things. Like getting out of public and being left alone before she unleashed the fucking fury.
So much for being drunk. If there was a way to sober a guy up, it was having his girlfriend put her fist through his car window, then start bleeding everywhere. And now she was refusing help. Brilliant. Perfect. A-FUCKING-MAZING.
"Don't be insane! You're bleeding everywhere, and now you're fucking puking! I know you're fucking pissed at me, but at least let me get the glass out of your damn knuckles!" he told her, just as sharply as before, but this time it was because he was worried, and she had GLASS STICKING OUT OF HER HAND. Naturally, he hadn't noticed she was healing or that her bleeding had slowed. The light out there sucked, and so did his observation skills when he wasn't looking for it. He'd gotten closer as well, completely oblivious of any inner turmoil the blood might be causing her. Why would he think that getting close to her right then might inspire her to tear into him, literally?
Exactly. Nothing.
"NO, Jared!" she shouted, pushing him off with her good hand. She shoved him a little harder than she'd wanted, but fuck, she was trying to protect him. "You've done enough for tonight, and so have I. I'm going to my mom's, okay? We can talk about this tomorrow." She said tomorrow very slowly, like she was trying to get a point across.
She was afraid to touch him, to kiss him, to say anything else. She was about to just... she didn't even know. Part of her wanted to run inside and grab Hailee, but she doubted the girl had ever experienced anything quite like this. Right now, Angela needed her mom, as pathetic as it was. She needed someone to ground her out before she hurt anyone, or herself.
She took a few steps back, and she didn't think he could see it (because she never would have allowed herself to if she thought for an instant he could), but she was crying a little. There was way, way too much going on for her to wrap her head around, plus the pushing of energy on her made a compressing sensation in her chest that just ached. Sort of like heartbreak.
"I will call you tomorrow morning," she said/pleaded, before turning and hurrying like mad to her own car.
Okay, so maybe he wasn't as sobered up by all of this as he thought he'd been. When she pushed him, it felt a hell of a lot harder than it should have, which was why he was attributing it to drunkenness. He had to be off-balance or something. There was no way that Angela, with her size and build, could push him like that.
Really, what did it matter how hard she pushed him, though? The fact of the matter was that she'd done it, and refused his help. Had he fucked everything up THAT badly that she wouldn't even let him pick the glass out of her hand for her before she attempted driving? Or hell, drive her over there? He could have kept his mouth shut long enough to drive her home, if that was what she wanted, but she refused him. She was going to run to her mom's, her parents were probably going to tell her they'd told her so and that he was a bad choice anyway, and she'd call the next day to tell him to fuck off. It wouldn't have been the first time it happened, but he hadn't thought that would be how it'd end with her.
He let her go. Maybe he shouldn't have, but he didn't see how chasing after her or begging or anything else like they do in the movies was going to help his case. He could have tried, but he didn't. He let her go, trusting she'd call him the next day to break it off. That was how it worked. He didn't even bother going back into the bar after that, and instead kicked his front driver's tire as hard as he could as he cursed some more, and he whipped open his car door. Surprisingly, he didn't just sit down, but instead reached in to swipe any glass off of his seat, ignoring the pain where a piece or two got into his skin until he'd sat down. Then, he plucked the glass out, held his shirt in that hand to keep from making MORE mess of his car, and drove home.
He didn't care if he'd drank way too much. If he didn't make it home, then he'd just have to deal with it.