circle game

Seated crosslegged on the roof of the Humanities building underneath a blanket of pink and orange hues, Chase sparked up his lighter and singed the end of his joint. He took a generous hit and held it for several seconds as he appreciated the quiet comfort of another day’s closing. Whenever he wasn’t particularly busy or just craved some solitude and a picturesque view, he could often be found smoking on the roof. Granted, he generally stuck to cigarettes, but he didn’t see any harm in indulging himself every once and a while. Ears picking up on the creaking of the door he’d previously come outside through, Chase stubbed the joint into the concrete of the rooftop and mumbled a string of curses to himself. “Son of a bitch. Fucking shit.” Glancing up at the other with an expression of vague annoyance, he silently wondered if his newfound company caught a whiff of the illicit substance. “I didn’t realize I was being followed,” he accused coldly, hoping his prickly demeanor would proof effective at getting rid of this person.

“Yo, can I ask your opinion on something?” Joey prefaced, barely glancing up to look at the other before immediately pulling out her iPhone and opening the Tinder app. “Ok, so I matched with this girl on Tinder and sent her a message, and I wanna know what you think.” Side stepping until she was shoulder to shoulder with her companion, Joey pulled up the message thread and recited her opening message. “Ok, so I said, ‘are you lost? i thought only losers like me sought human connection on dating apps. lol.’” Pressing the button on the side to turn off her screen, she stuck the phone in the front pocket of her jean shorts and gazed at her company. “She hasn’t answered back yet, so my questions are: Do you think she will? And if she does, what’s a date idea that doesn’t involve coffee? Tends to make me Squirtle if you catch my drift.”

It had to be a product of evolutionary instinct, the strange attraction Joey felt whenever her eyes found a feminine form wielding a weapon. Awkward and clumsy, it only made sense that her mind would make the connection of a potential mate being able to offer her protection and see that as a survival advantage. She stood slack-jawed and wide-eyed, prey-like until words finally came to her. “Yeah, small favor. Can you plunge that thing into the blood pumping, flesh sac in my chest and end my suffering? Not that, you know, they’d let you carry that thing around campus if it could do that, but…” she trailed off, filling the air with a small cough as she squatted down beside the tree. “Actually, I’m just looking for some grasshoppers to feed my tarantula.”

Country music had never been Flynn’s preference. Still, knowing Rhiannon as long as he had, it was only natural that he reluctantly learned the words to some of her favorite songs. Having opted to give his friend the rare opportunity of an unshared spotlight while he finished his whiskey, he couldn’t help but let out a dramatic groan at the fact that his generosity had been so easily overlooked. The chance at commanding a whole room’s attention was a prize that Flynn wouldn’t turn down for many things, attention being his favorite high. But his friend was calling for backup, and he wasn’t about to leave her hanging. Jumping up from the barstool, Flynn shimmied over to Rhiannon. “The best thing about being a woman, is the prerogative to have a little fun and!” he belted out to his friend, a wide grin stretching across his face. “Bet you didn’t think I’d remember all the words, did you?”

flynn: when was the last time you hooked up with someone?

“Oh?” Flynn uttered, half-hearted and flippant. Still, there was a flash of something pained in his eyes. The guilt he’d been trying to push down knotted itself in his throat, putting him into a brief emotional chokehold until he forcefully swallowed it down. He’d never wanted to hurt Dom. If anything, he’d done what he did to protect him. A murder pact? Fleeing the state to avoid the potential of getting caught? The chance that his deranged father had narrowly escaped death and was on the lookout for his equally vindictive son? Not really the sort of things Flynn had wanted to inflict on someone he’d loved. So, after the dinner from hell, and he and Rhiannon had solidified their pact, he’d slowly become distant. A feeble attempt to send a message through his actions: Stop caring about me. This relationship is going to die. Though according to Dom’s next words, the actions he’d taken hadn’t done all that much to quell the resentment. He grinned, a hiccup of a chuckle in his chest. “Fuck,” he mumbled, arching a brow as he nibbled at his lower lip. “I’m impressed. And a little turned on. Not that that, you know, helps the situation, but,” he cut off, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “Frankly, I just don’t want you to remember me as that kid who would tap your dick like it was a microphone and ask ‘is this thing on?’ before I sucked you off. I realize now that that wasn’t nearly as hilarious as I thought it was.” Another half truth. If his tongue couldn’t form an apology, maybe it could satisfy his ex in other ways. One form of intimacy as a substitute for another. “Who says I’m not big and bad? Maybe I just don’t like people telling me when I’m not allowed to find something funny anymore. I know, a wild concept for a meme aficionado like yourself, but I’m not gonna play by some unwritten rules that Nameless McBitch came up with. I’m gonna play by mine. Also, don’t people still quote Vines? Shouldn’t they be dead if we’re going by the month rule?” He shrugged. “I didn’t like most people back then, and I didn’t think anyone cared what I had to say anyway. Seemed pointless.”

Arms thrown around a person he’d befriended during a game of beer pong, the two of them trudged through the mass of bodies in search of fresh drinks. Flynn, while generally opposed to the prospect of guzzling beer, was most certainly not opposed to jumping in to heckle a game. He’d given his best disapproving college basketball coach routine whenever someone missed a shot and called each of the players a variety of madlibs style curses, ranging from taint tickler to baby gravy gargler. Somehow, he’d managed to find another person who found his childish taunts to be just as hilarious as he himself found them. Jumping a fraction as he felt a tap on his shoulder, instant relief filled his gut at the sight of the familiar face. Still, a look of faux confusion colored his features. “Autumn, right?” he asked, a wide grin forming on his mouth after he allowed for just enough time for the other to question whether he was serious. It was a callback to their first meaningful interaction. Maple had been so convinced that he wouldn’t remember them. Still, stoned and wandering around the campus like a lost dog with no clue where to go next, he’d still recognized them from passing encounters. Onyx eyes brushing down their features, Flynn furrowed his brows. “You look entirely too sober to be having fun. Should we go get drinks?” Looking down into his own half empty glass, he lifted it up to them in offering. “Or hey, do you like whiskey? You’re free to chug the rest of this. It’s kinda warm, but that just gives it a little personality.”

Pulling away from the hug, Flynn caught a glimpse of Bella’s expression and a smile of similar magnitude ignited his features. He’d always naturally felt lighter around the other, the weight of his burdens seeming to inflate and rise to the ceiling like a balloon at a child’s birthday party. There was relief to be found in the presence of someone who seemed to truly understand him or at least understand what it felt like to experience soul-crushing pain. Hopping up on the barstool beside her, he smirked at her question before glancing over at her with a neutralized expression. “My first memory? Dark. Feels like I’m in a cave. There’s frantic voices and screaming. And then… I’m propelled forward, and suddenly, there’s light. I see nurses and a doctor. I’ve successfully exited the womb,” he quipped, a smirk once again settling on his mouth. The nickname had him opening his mouth, hovering his index finger inside of it, and making a gagging noise. “Flynny,” he repeated with a scrunched up nose, solidifying his distaste to his friend. “My dick is so soft it might disintegrate and fall off.” Quirking up an eyebrow at her, he gave a half-hearted shrug. “Why are you asking me? You’re the one with a tattoo,” he teased with a wink, signaling the bartender as soon as Bella gave her approval. “We’d like four shots of Patron, please.” A charming smile ornamenting his features, Flynn glanced over at Bella. “Should I ask for salt and lime too, or do you just wanna drink them straight?” Index finger tracing the indentions in the wood, he nibbled at his lower lip at the question. “I do, yeah. I have a boyfriend now, surprisingly. Sebastian Lis, that’s my man. It’s open though, so if you ever decide the longing to see me naked is too great, I'll let you if you ask nicely.” Dark eyes flicking up to meet hers, a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Can I turn the question back around? Do you like anyone? I’m curious.”

Dark eyes gleaming with excitement at the prospect of Jackie potentially knowing a thing or two about lifting hexes, her posture wilted minutely at the other’s admittance of not being particularly good at it. She may not have a master curse lifter on her hands, but little experience was better than none. “You and me should totally try it. Two heads are better than one, right? And it’s a win for everyone. I get to be curse free, and you get a redemption arc. And I have crystals and sage. Google it, Jackie! We can do it tonight!” she insisted, beaming with a child-like enthusiasm over the idea. Plopping a couple of pieces of popcorn into her mouth, Cassie glanced over at Jackie and smirked. “First you’re telling me to make the popcorn, and now you’re telling me to press play? I think you just like telling me what to do. Kind of sexy of you, actually. I bet you’re like, an undercover dominatrix. Spank me, Madam Jackie! I’ve been a bad, bad girl,” Cassie teased, a giggle spilling past her lips as she pressed play and snuggled up to the other, resting her head on her shoulder. “This isn’t gonna be scary, is it? Probably not surprising or anything, but I’m Baby.”

Cassie’s head snapped toward the familiar voice, expression reading absurd incredulity as she sat perched atop the barstool with a strawberry daiquiri in hand. Finishing her drink in a long chug, she slammed the glass onto the bar top and teetered over to the figure that looked and sounded a lot like her ex girlfriend. Granted, she didn’t actually expect it to be her. After things ended between the two of them all those years ago, she’d found Rhiannon’s face in a multitude of other’s, each familiar stranger allowing her to briefly live in a daydream where things had not ended as grimly as they had. But the closer she found herself drawing in toward the other, the more confused she appeared. Blinking a few times in a feeble attempt to adjust her vision, she offered the other a polite smile. “Ok, so I may be drunker than I thought, but you look like, ridiculously like someone I used to know. Could be her twin, actually.” Running her hand through her hair, she forced a small laugh. “Sorry. This is probably kinda… weird.”

Blinking blankly as she blew a bubble with her gum and let it pop, Cassie glanced back down at her mindless doodles as Jessie rattled on about sports. Pink glitter gel pen tapping against the notebook paper impatiently a couple of times, she looked back up at her friend with a small frown. “Jessie, you know I love you, would die for you, kill for you, but and it’s a big but…” she paused, a small smirk appearing on her lips as she mumbled her next words. “And I cannot lie…” Expression growing serious once again, she cleared her throat. “Ok, I’m just gonna be blunt about it. You know how people made those portraits where they melted crayons and had the wax drip down the canvas? Well, I can feel my brain doing the same thing when you talk about sports. I have absolutely no idea what’s happening right now. I have no idea who Corey and Lawrence are. I’m just…lost.”

“And then you’re really gonna need that job to pay for the ambulance,” Flynn noted, onyx eyes rolling into the back of his head. Health care in America was a joke. At the dramatic display unfolding in front of him, a smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. He shook his head fondly. “What? You going into cardiac arrest right now? Fuck, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I’m shit in crisis situations. I had a friend fall and break his ankle when we were out in the woods once, and I cursed him out for putting me in that situation for like, a good ten minutes. Needless to say, I’d be a shit nurse,” he rambled, an eyebrow arching at the request. “You have something in mind? Because if not, I vote getting drunk and showing up everyone at karaoke night at that one bar.”

Frowning at the pancakes that were practically glued to the pan, Flynn let out a loud sigh. He’d crept out of the bed after Bas left to run, showered, and tried (and failed) to be a good boyfriend by surprising him with breakfast when he got back in. And now, evidence of his defeat perfumed the kitchen and decorated the pan. No way to pretend it’d never happened now. In an impulse of anger, he stabbed at the pancakes with his spatula, huffing as he slammed it down on the counter. “Fucking high maintenance assholes. Can’t be fucked to cooperate without non-stick spray.” Glancing up as the sound of Bas’ voice tapped his eardrums, Flynn flashed him a look that aged him several years. “Be my guest, dude. I made the kitchen my battle ground and then lost the fucking war.”

The apology has Seth frowning, rising from his seat, and moving to scoot another chair beside his own. He’d always hated the idea of making another person feel unwelcome. Unwanted. Unneeded. The feeling of his heart sinking into his gut when the realization hit was all too familiar to him. An uninvited party guest realizing their invitation hadn’t been lost in the mail. Mustering up his warmest grin, he returned to his seat and patted the seat he’d just fetched the other. “No need to apologize. Company is always welcome.” His expression softened a fraction as he focused his attention to the first half of his companion’s words. “And thank you. That’s very sweet of you to say.” Thankful that the attention had rerouted from himself, Seth beamed at the other. “I’m from Texas. Wimberly, if you care for specifics. Sounds kinda cheesy, but warm weather makes me think of home. Where in California are you from?”

A knowing smirk tugged at the corners of her lips as her onyx eyes flit between Bas’ features. “God. Already coked out, Sniffany? And you didn’t invite moi? Rude. You should’ve detected my presence as soon as you walked in. Or hey, just noticed me. I look pretty damn tasty tonight if I do say so myself.” Clad in a red latex two piece that hugged her curves like an additional layer of skin, she propped a hand on her hip, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and gave her friend a full 360 degree turn. “Can’t really blame gorilla man over there, but I’m also not the type to pity fuck someone. Hence why we haven’t fucked,” she teased, nudging her friend’s arm with a mischievous glint in her eye. An obvious joke. Bas was attractive, but someone had to keep his head normal sized. And then, much to Reina’s dismay, the attention shifted back to the creep and away from her. A wide grin settled on her face at the image Bas put in her head. “Fuck. Maybe I should fuck him then. Love watching myself get fucked in reflective surfaces. No one turns me on more than myself.” Her previously bemused expression flashed blank as her eyes flicked back between her friend and the creep from earlier. The man stepped forward, scoffed, and crossed his arms. “What are you, her body guard? Step aside.” And with that, he shoved Bas.

flynn: true, but then if we say it’s people then we have to identify the common denominator between all evil people. what makes a person evil? are people born evil, or do they become it over time? is there a limit to how many bad things a person can do until they themselves are considered evil? can people who were considered evil in the past become good, or is evil a fixed state? *lil wayne vc* do you love this shit? are you high right now? do you ever get nervous?

maddie: wait, how? did you just yank it out? what happened? give me the play-by-play.